James Taranto must be blue in the face

So perhaps we should start listening to him as once again he tries to set the record straight at the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web.

This time Taranto is trying to correct this notion that the Bush administration's 2002 claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa has been "discredited." As he notes, this is, er, a falsehood, and one that the media is particularly fond of constantly recycling.

To make his case, Taranto only needs to point to the 2004 findings of the nonpartisan Factcheck.org:

After nearly a six-month investigation, a special panel reported to the British Parliament July 14 that British intelligence had indeed concluded back in 2002 that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium. The review panel was headed by Lord Butler of Brockwell, who had been a cabinet secretary under five different Prime Ministers and who is currently master of University College, Oxford.

The Butler report said British intelligence had "credible" information--from several sources--that a 1999 visit by Iraqi officials to Niger was for the purpose of buying uranium:

Butler Report: It is accepted by all parties that Iraqi officials visited Niger in 1999. The British Government had intelligence from several different sources indicating that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring uranium. Since uranium constitutes almost three-quarters of Niger's exports, the intelligence was credible.

The Butler Report affirmed what the British government had said about the Niger uranium story back in 2003, and specifically endorsed what [President] Bush said [in that year's State of the Union Address] as well.

As Taranto concludes:

The erstwhile Iraqi regime's quest for uranium appears to have been in vain. But the claim that Iraq didn't seek uranium is simply false. News organizations that repeat it are serving, wittingly or unwittingly, as propaganda outlets for those who oppose the U.S. war effort.