[crossposted at dkos]
Stephen Hadley
Remember Bush’s State of the Union address in 2003, and the 16 words that scared America into war with Iraq?
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
Now, I’m not a document expert, but the whole Niger thing was a joke of a forgery. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the documents.
But good ole nearsighted Stephen Hadley, the raging Dick and Careless George managed to make this trash into a casus belli that America may never live down. Compared with the destruction wrought by the Iraq war, a few legal actions pale, I suppose. The lawyers have gotten involved on behalf of the United States America (v. Scooter Libby), and on behalf of the Wilsons (“Plamegate”).
Now, it seems the stakes may go even higher. Niger has decided it wants satisfaction.
SOME 30 non-governmental organisations in Niger said overnight they are going to sue the United States for nearly two billion dollars for “unfairly accusing” Niger of selling uranium to the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Oops.
Now I got zero idea how a bunch of NGOs sue the US, and of course Bush has pulled us out of just about every judicial organization in the world. So I don’t expect us to have to cough up anything. But maybe in a couple of years we can come to some sort of settlement, after the Bushies have left their mess to the adults.
In the meantime, it may be fun to see the documents dragged around again, maybe Stephen Hadley, apparently one of the principal architects of “surge,” will be further shown to be the idiot that he is.
“Our lawyers are about to file a lawsuit against the US calling for damages of about 1000 billion CFA francs ($2.42 billion dollars) for the harm suffered” by the country, Moustapha Kadi, president of the Collective of organisations in Niger defending the right to energy (CODDAE).
The lawsuit by the collective will be filed at either French or Belgian courts, Kadi added.
In January 2003, US President George W. Bush accused Saddam of having bought uranium from Niger to make weapons of mass destruction.
The Niger collective said in a statement that investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), world media and US officials, all concluded that it was a “false accusation” against Niger.
That false information was used by Bush “to invade Iraq,” said the collective’s statement, which also called for support from Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja, who back in 2003 said the US allegations were “harming Niger’s image”.
Isn’t there something very embarassing about this? It’s hard not to be ashamed of this load of trash that took over our country. We let it happen. We let them sell us a bill of goods….
And we may be letting it happen again??????
Over the line, Smokey! 