I have a quibble with one aspect of Stephen Spruiell’s argument, discussed in my last post. It’s rather arcane, so I’ll tuck it in the extended entry.

[Extended entry:]

Spruiell argues, not just that Wilson didn’t find evidence disputing Iraqi efforts to buy yellowcake (he didn’t), but that Wilson never ever purported to have such evidence. This is not quite true; Spruiell is giving Wilson too much credit for hewing closely to the facts.

It is true, as I have noted before, that Wilson did uncover convincing evidence of Iraqi efforts to obtain yellowcake from Niger. According to the former Nigerien Prime Minister, an Iraqi delegation had sought to discuss “expanding commercial relations” between Niger and Iraq. The former Prime Minister had interpreted this as interest in uranium yellowcake sales — and no wonder, since Niger has only three other exports besides yellowcake. What other Nigerien exports did Wilson think the Iraqi delegation was interested in? Livestock? Cowpeas? Onions?

The conclusion that Saddam sought yellowcake from Niger is almost irresistible.

But, in claiming that Wilson never disputed this assertion, Spruiell is giving lyin’ Joe a little too much credit. Spruiell is correct that:

• Wilson didn’t find evidence disputing the claim (which Bush did not make in the SOTU) that Saddam had bought uranium from Niger.

• Wilson actually found evidence supporting the contention that Saddam sought yellowcake. (I described that evidence in this post, among other places.)

and

• Consistent with these facts, Wilson has said:
  

  I never claimed to have “debunked” the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. I claimed only that the transaction described in the documents that turned out to be forgeries could not have occurred and did not occur.

Wilson has said that. But it’s not quite accurate.

In fact, Wilson did at least try to sound like he had debunked exactly that allegation — though he never had the evidence to support his claim. Let’s roll the tape on his New York Times op-ed, which started this whole ball of wax rolling. In it, Wilson described his Herculean efforts drinking sweet mint tea, and related how he came to his conclusion that no actual transaction had taken place. He conveniently omitted from his op-ed the evidence he had found that supported the assertion that Iraq had sought yellowcake from Niger. And then he said:

Then, in January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.

Actually, lyin’ Joe, that conclusion was indeed borne out by the facts your trip had uncovered. But in your zeal to make yourself sound like an anti-war hero, you hid that evidence from us. It wasn’t until the Senate Intelligence Committee Report came out that we found out how deceptive you’d been.

So I don’t quite agree that we should wail when the press tells us that lyin’ Joe disputed the Administration’s claims regarding Iraqi efforts to obtain yellowcake. However, we should indeed speak out when the press claims he didn’t find any evidence of those efforts. Because he damn well did.