Think Progress compiled a terrific list this week on the right’s myths regarding the Plame scandal. Point by point, the list explains what conservatives say to dismiss the seriousness of the scandal and why they’re wrong. It’s a handy resource.
But even the clever folks at Think Progress couldn’t have anticipated what Roll Call’s Mort Kondracke would tell Fox News viewers a few days ago.
On the October 17 edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke falsely claimed that now-discredited reports of Iraq’s alleged effort to acquire uranium from Niger “was never one of the major arguments that the Bush administration used for going to war with Iraq.” But in fact, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (also known as the Robb-Silberman Commission) reported in March that the infamous “16 words” from President’s Bush’s January 28, 2003, State of the Union address — “The British government has learned Saddam Hussein has recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” — were a reference to the unfounded Niger claim. Versions of this claim were repeated frequently by various members of the Bush administration in the run-up to war.
In addition, Kondracke claimed that the findings reported by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who raised doubts about the Niger claim after traveling there on behalf of the CIA in February 2002, were “never accepted by anybody.” But while the CIA interpreted Wilson’s findings as confirmation of Iraq’s supposed efforts to acquire uranium from Niger, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) interpreted his findings as confirmation that the Niger claim was not credible. The CIA reversed its position in July 2003 when then-Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet agreed that the claim should not have been included in the president’s speech.
I realize conservatives aren’t fond of the Plame scandal. It’s become quite the inconvenience for them and it may lead to indictments to some of their friends. Dismissing the scandal’s seriousness is easier than dealing with reality. But there’s just no reason for this historical revisionism.
In fact, Kondracke has the whole story backwards. Joseph Wilson was telling the world why the Niger claim that appeared in the State of the Union was a lie. If the uranium claim wasn’t a “major argument” from the White House, there would have been much less urgency in destroying Wilson and outing his wife. The point was that the Niger claim was fundamental to the war sales pitch — Saddam might have nuclear weapons, so we have to invade.
Was Kondracke just not paying attention? Or does he assume Fox News viewers won’t know the difference?