pomes of buddy don: Classified

mayhap ye caught this here story in the washington post name of New Doubts On Nuclear Efforts by North Korea; U.S. Less Certain of Uranium Program:

The Bush administration is backing away from its long-held assertions that North Korea has an active clandestine program to enrich uranium, leading some experts to believe that the original U.S. intelligence that started the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions may have been flawed.

The chief intelligence officer for North Korea, Joseph R. DeTrani, told Congress on Tuesday that while there is "high confidence" North Korea acquired materials that could be used in a "production-scale" uranium program, there is only "mid-confidence" such a program exists. Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, the chief negotiator for disarmament talks, told a conference last week in Washington that it is unclear whether North Korea ever mastered the production techniques necessary for such a program.

If the materials North Korea bought "did not go into a highly enriched uranium program, maybe they went somewhere else," Hill said. "Fine. We can have a discussion about where they are and where they've gone."

The administration's stance today stands in sharp contrast to the certainty expressed by top officials in 2002, when the administration accused Pyongyang of running a secret uranium program -- and demanded it be dismantled at once. President Bush told a news conference that November: "We discovered that, contrary to an agreement they had with the United States, they're enriching uranium, with a desire of developing a weapon."

The accusation about the alleged uranium program backfired, sparking a series of events that ultimately led to North Korea's first nuclear test -- using another material, plutonium -- nearly five months ago.

it putt me in mind to rite a lil pome bout how our leaders use classified infermayshun:

Classified

The classified data that we review
Is ours to assess so we know what to do
Or even what’s said to the likes of you
To make you believe that our truth is true
Since it is our job to make you construe
Conclusions that sanction the paths we pursue
When later we say we knew what we knew.

The truth is that proof is all classified:
And you can’t prove whether we truly lied.

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