The White House is admitting that the Niger documents were forgeries but then we already know that. They conceded this some months ago. Yesterday Ari Fisher said "Knowing all that we know now (emphasis added) the reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech." Franky, no one is disputing that knowing what we know now it should not have been included. The real issue, which the White House is trying to avoid, is that knowing what they know then, the uranium story should never have made it into the speech.
The interesting part of the story is that they are now admitting that the 'other intelligence' line is no longer working. The White House has often implied that the Niger uranium documents were bogus but that there was other intelligence that justified the claims. Apprently, the intelligence was so top-secret that they could not share it with the CIA but the president's speech writers had sufficiently high clearance to see it.
"There is other reporting to suggest that Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Africa," the statement said.
"However, the information is not detailed or specific enough for us to be certain that attempts were in fact made."
In other words, said one senior official, "we couldn't prove it, and it might in fact be wrong."
Separately tonight, The Washington Post quoted an unidentifed senior administration official as declaring that "knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech." Some administration officials have expressed similar sentiments in interviews in the past two weeks.
The White House is basically saying 'it's not true that we didn't have any other information. We had some even if we didn't trust it.
The timing of the admission is interesting. The White House most likely timed it to coincide with Bush's trip to Africa knowing full well that it is considered inappropriate for the press or politicians to publicly criticize the President while he is abroad. By the time Bush returns the story will be 'old news.'