Smoking Gun is Coming

Chris Ames author of the Iraq Dossier site has an article in Comment is Free section of the Guardian about the probable release of the first version or Williams version of the Iraq Dossier that has led to the death of 650,000 people in Iraq and the current civil war that exists there.

His contention is that this version has no mention of the infamous "45 minutes" claim that was apparently inserted later to "sex" up the document so that Blair could "legitimately" go to war.

Its release may be very embarrassing for many people in government and could be the final nail in Tony Blair's legacy.

How Blair has stood by Niger Claim

Do you know what the "Niger Claim" is. According to this article it is notorius and first surfaced in Britain.

You might not know it by that name but is has led to one of the biggest on-going disasters the world has seen. The "Niger Claim" refers to how Iraq was attempting to get its Uranium from Niger for Saddam's supposed nuclear programme.

Unfortunately the "claim" as reported by the Indepedent

which was picked up by President George Bush in his January 2003 State of the
Union speech three months before the invasion, was used as a key piece of
evidence to justify the war. But the alleged incriminating documents forwarded
to the UN nuclear agency were found to be a crude fake.

turned out to be a fake.

The Independent goes on to say

The fallout from the flawed intelligence has claimed a slew of victims in
Washington, including the scalp of the Central Intelligence Agency chief George
Tenet.
Yesterday, almost four years after the Iraq invasion, the nuclear
dossier led to the toppling of a central White House figure, when Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of
perjury.
However, despite the CIA's reservations over the central claim that
Saddam was allegedly attempting to buy yellowcake from Africa for his nuclear
weapons programme, and the White House having formally backed away from the
report, the British Government still clings to its original position.

So now you know what the "Niger Claim" is. Perhaps Mr Blair will use the Elf Defence to justify his claims.

Oh, by the way pop along to Iraq Dossier for more details on the work of fiction that took us to war.

Independent Online Edition > Americas