The Wrong Sixteen Words

In the famous sixteen words in his State of the Union speech, President Bush said that according to British intelligence, Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa. It has been widely noted–by Glenn Reynolds among others–that the left has gotten into the habit of misquoting Bush. It is generally reported, falsely, that he said that Saddam tried to buy uranium in Niger. The significance of this change is that someone is known to have forged documents relating to a purported uranium purchase from Niger; this is the basis for the claim that the sixteen words weren’t true.
This morning the New York Times finally bowed to the pressure and corrected its misreporting of the speech:
“In article on Oct. 5 about tensions between the White House and George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, referred incorrectly to the comment in President Bush’s State of the Union address that Mr. Tenet was blamed for not having deleted. The president said Iraq had been seeking to buy uranium in Africa. He did not specifically mention the African country of Niger, though it was identified several weeks earlier