Letters to the Editor
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Why we can be sure the "scoop" is false
When the Niger yellowcake story had been (behind the scenes) exploded to smithereens, the White House bent heaven and earth to get the sixteen words into the State of the Union address.
If the ABC story has any authentic basis, then Bush has certainly been briefed on the evidence for the accelerated centrifuge program. Bush has every motivation in the world to hype even the most vague, most equivocal evidence of Iranian ill doing. Yet, when asked the direct question, "Have you seen evidence of acceleration?", Bush ducked the question, responding with platitudes of general concern.
So we know that the C.I.A. has told Bush in no uncertain terms that , to adopt George Tenet's phrase, they don't want him to be a "fact witness on this". If there were any facts - heck, if there were any quasi-facts, hemidemisemifacts, or pseudofacts - behind the ABC story, Bush would have gratefully seized on the question rather than ducking it.