The Cost of the War

[Undertoad]

This morning Instapundit has a link to a story in the Telegraph that completely blew my mind.

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/ne...eudora=autourl

The French secret service is believed to have refused to allow MI6 to give the Americans "credible" intelligence showing that Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger, US intelligence sources said yesterday.

MI6 had more than one "different and credible" piece of intelligence to show that Iraq was attempting to buy the ore, known as yellowcake, British officials insisted. But it was given to them by at least one and possibly two intelligence services and, under the rules governing cooperation, it could not be shared with anyone else without the originator's permission.

US intelligence sources believe that the most likely source of the MI6 intelligence was the French secret service, the DGSE. Niger is a former French colony and its uranium mines are run by a French company that comes under the control of the French Atomic Energy Commission.

Follow? The Brits did not rely on the infamous forged Niger document when they said Saddam was trying to buy uranium from Niger. And the most likely reason only the Brits, and not the US, have information on the Niger - Iraqi uranium link is that the key intel is French.

I'm tellin' ya, there is more to this thing.