Unearthing the Story

Jim Henley finds the real story buried in this LA Times Article:

The CIA first heard allegations that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger in late 2001 but did not obtain the documents until about a month ago, and it promptly turned them over to U.N. inspectors, the official said.

Initially, the existence of the documents "was reported to us second- or third- hand," the official said. "We included that in some of our reporting, although it was all caveated because we had concerns about the accuracy of that information."

What interesting timing. The CIA got the documents "about a month ago." The President gave his State of the Union address, where he brought up the Niger claims, two months ago. So the President was selling Congress and the American people information that "was reported to us second- or third- hand."