IN THE NEWS - So John Howard, George Bush and Tony Blair all deny accusations they knew Iraq did not seek weapons grade uranium from Nigeria. Apparently the defense and intelligence organisations knew, but did not inform the government. Surely before going to war John Howard would want to make sure the information he was fed was correct? He would keep in close contact with all members of the organisations in charge of keeping him informed, as would Tony Blair (who I reckon is good actually) and George Bush. It seems a little odd that apparently no-one informed any of the leaders of our three countries that in fact Iraq wasn't seeking uranium for nuclear weapons from Nigeria at all, that in fact the documents claiming this had been forged. And yes they had been forged, by someone.

Here's a little timeline to help you put things in perspective.

· February 2002: Ambassador Joseph Wilson is dispatched by Cheney to Niger to investigate Iraq-uranium claims. Eight days later, he reports back that the documentary evidence was a forgery;

· August 26, 2002: Dick Cheney claims Iraq is developing a nuclear program;

· September 24, 2002: CIA Director Tenet briefs the Senate Intelligence Committee on the reported Iraqi nuclear threat, using the Niger evidence to back his claims;

· September 26, 2002: The IAEA vigorously denies that any such nuclear program exists in Iraq;

· October 6, 2002: George W. Bush addresses the nation and threatens the American people with "mushroom clouds" delivered by Iraq, using the same Niger evidence;

· October 10, 2002: Congress votes for war in Iraq, based on the data delivered by Tenet and by the nuclear rhetoric from Bush four days prior;

· January 2003: George W. Bush, in his State of the Union Address, says, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa."

· March-April 2003: War in Iraq kills thousands of civilians and destabilizes the nation;

· April-July 2003: NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons can be found in Iraq. 212 American soldiers have died, and 1,044 more have been wounded, as a guerilla war is undertaken by Iraqi insurgents;

· July 2003: Amid accusations from former intelligence officials, the Bush administration denies ever having known the Niger evidence was fake.
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Makes me wonder how much of the other evidence they had had been forged or mis-represented. Stranger still, who would forge documents claiming Iraq was buying uranium from Nigeria? Who would have had the motive and the ability? We will find out, in the end...

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Well yesterday was interesting. We had decided to do a little more filming for our upcoming video by going to the salt flats out near the harbour. We had a piece of masonite with rope tied to it and to the back of the car (jon h's), someone sitting on the masonite being pulled around, and for awhile it worked, but eventually they went into softer and wetter sand, or to put it more accurately, mud. Jon Hall's car got bogged, so Chris A got his car and brought it around infront of Jon's so we could tie a rope to it and Jon's to pull it out, but Chris got his car bogged too. So we had two cars stuck in mud. Luckily Aaron's car was still on the hard stuff. So a group of about 10 of us worked for 4 or 5 hours to release both cars. We got chris's out once, then it got bogged again nearby, we got Jon's out once, but it got bogged again about a metre away. Finally we got Chris's out fully and he escaped, but as of 9:30 am this morning Jon H's car is still out there. His dad's coming down to winch it out. We got everything on film, so there'll be video up showing our escapades in the not too distant future.
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