Posted on 10/12/2005 7:29:49 PM PDT by Perdogg
The grand jury hearing testimony from Rove, Judith Miller, and others may not be investigating what the press thinks. The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus and the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof have failed to respond to Joseph Wilson’s backtracking from their year earlier interview-based stories about how Wilson had supposedly discovered the Administration had relied on a patently fake document to justify the war, and ignored his report warning them it was fake. This failure reveals their lack of concern for the public’s right to know the truth—that they’d been snookered into making these sensational charges.
But Bob Somerby, editor of the liberal blog Daily Howler, expressed his outrage at the hoax, observing that the Democrats deserved what they got for promoting a fabulist with wild and sensational claims, simply because he, like they, wanted to win the election.
In our view, Wilson’s letters to the Committee and the Post are fake, evasive, insincere, misleading. Correctly, Getler burned Wilson’s Straw Men in his ombudsman column, and similar Straw Men littered the letter Wilson sent to the Committee itself. But here is the most amazing thing Wilson says in his “rebuttal” to the Committee. Take a seat. Strap yourselves in. Try to believe that he said it:
WILSON (letter to the Intelligence Committee): My article in the New York Times makes clear that I attributed to myself “a small role in the effort to verify information about Africa’s suspected link to Iraq’s nonconventional weapons programs.”...I went to great lengths to point out that mine was but one of three reports on the subject. I never claimed to have “debunked” the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. I claimed only that the transaction described in the documents that turned out to be forgeries could not have occurred and did not occur.
Amazing, isn’t it? I never claimed to have “debunked” the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa! Readers, what has the last year been about if Wilson didn’t claim to debunk Bush’s claim? (Think hard—we know you’ll come up with something.) Let’s compare two important statements—Bush’s famous 16 words, and Wilson’s amazing new admission:
BUSH: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
WILSON: I never claimed to have “debunked” the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.
Finally! This is what we’ve always told you—Wilson had no way of knowing if the 16-word statement was right or wrong. He had no way to debunk it! But throughout his thrilling and best-selling book, he calls this statement a “lie-lie-lie-lie,” over and over and over again. But then, grinding overstatement like that has been the problem with Wilson all along (as the three senators correctly note). And now, alas, Dems will start to pay a price for investing so much in his presentations.
Marking to read later.
That's a great article that highlights Wilson's backtracking on his claim that his Niger trip debunked the Admin's claim the Iraq was seeking uranium.
Contained in this article is a link to a great article on many of Wilson's key conflicting statements:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh072004.shtml
It's not that his handwritten (holographic) copies were forgeries ~ rather, the "originals" in the files were actually forgeries provided by the French intelligence agency.
One can only suppose the French put them there to trip up a spy ~ our guy ~ and Wilson outed him.
Fitzgerald is undoubtedly working the espionage statutes overtime on this one!
Glad to see one of the "lefties" has figured out Wilson's little problem!
He's been awfully quiet lately.
The GOP better make the dummycrats pay for this one. They need take the page out Tom Delay's playbook.
I see "Bush lied, people died" bumper stickers all over Vermont. Liberals are very quick to suck up these lies, and very slow to open their ears to the truth.
I'm not getting my hopes too high, but I would be really, really happy if Fitzgerald indicts Wilson for his part in this scummy propaganda ploy.
Can somebody post that photo of Wilson and Plame sitting in their car? I can't seem to find it on the web. It pretty much sums up the whole affair for me.
...ohpleaseGodpleasepleaseplease...
:-D
ping
Thank you very much.
At that point, Wilson's story not only begins to look highly suspect, it looks downright deadly because it's Wilson who sought out a "reporter" who not only would publish his stuff, but do so without attribution!
All the while some poor spy in Niger has been snuffed because Wilson let the French (through the press) know what he'd been up to!
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?
That's it. Thanks to you both! What a classic picture.
She's a super secret double naught spy, ya know.
~smirk~
And thanks to you too. I think this photo will come back and bite Wilson on the rear end yet.
I pray you are right.
He may be "The man without a country" soon. I believe those leaks to the Times were classified. His wife is guilty of pillow talking too!!
Did you hear Matthews tonight? It's like listening to somebody who lives in a parallel universe.
"Rove never admitted he had had talked to Matt Cooper."
Catch the fancy wristwatch and the four-button cuffs, too.
Jean Kerry's tailor-made five-button cuffs during the last campaign were overkill, IMHO. Not really the thing at all.
"I claimed only that the transaction described in the documents that turned out to be forgeries could not have occurred and did not occur."
Wilson is a slippery fish. Outsmarted Rove early on.
No one said the "transaction" actually occurred. He shot down a straw man.
And he thought Iraq had chemical and bio weapons. Must have been wifey's opinion too.
Wilson: I never claimed to have “debunked” the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. I claimed only that the transaction described in the documents that turned out to be forgeries could not have occurred and did not occur.
And this is where Wilson really steps into it.
1. While Wilson was sent to Niger in Feb 2002, the "forgeries" were not in American hands until Nov 2002. Thus, the documents played no part in Wilson's assignment.
2. When Wilson began leaking to the media in May, 2003, the documents, while now known to be "forgeries", had not been made public. Thus, Wilson had no (legal) way of knowing "the transaction described".
Wilson was rightfully called on his misrepresentations by the 9/11 commission. His response is that he was confused and misspoke. However, the very direct statement in the last sentence of the pullquote denies this possibility.
Amb. Joseph C. Wilson IV (ret.) is a devious lying partisan slug.
I did and it was sickening.
Yes and they never mention Cooper is married to a Clintonista, nor that Pincus was a social friend of the Plame gang.
I pray it's one of his friends indicted.
I'm getting worried though.
Wilson reported back to the CIA that the Iraqis did indeed approach Niger about expanding "trade" which the Niger officials understood as "illicit uranium purchases." After all, Niger had nothing else to trade.
They never did say whether they took Iraq up on the offer or not. That is "confirmation" to me regarding the 16 words.
So, Wilson lied through his teeth in his Op-Ed piece.
Why isn't that under investigation?
And they never mention that Miller, too, "forgot" that very meeting they are accusing Rove of not "admitting" to.
It was like Matthews put the worst possible connotation on everything he said.
Of course there is always the possibility that Wilson knew (from his French friends) that the papers were forgeries before the gov't knew.
Here's the part that stops me - when and how are they going to "pay a price"?
So what if they're forgeries - they're "fake but accurate", aren't they?
indeed . delay is going full roman on that idiot earle. mr. fitz and co. pay attention to the delay push back. if you charge rove it had better be the real deal. the left has overreached this time. this kind of a set up is west wing crap . pulling it off in the real world will be difficult. they see visions of nixon . onward into the past.
THIS sentence is what Joey is in trouble for. He said he SAW these forged documents months BEFORE they came to light. Rut Roh. Buh Bye Liar.
"Is this White House going down?"
Yeah, Chrissy . . . they're going down to the seed and feed for some shovels and lime!
I figure what is going on on Hardball is happening because they believe that perception is reality. They are going to play this out the way they want it to go night after night. Then bury the real story when it comes out. Just like they like to say Florida was stolen, when it was not.
The simple smirk on that guy's face may soon disappear. If not, the Dems. are going to have that picture up on their den walls for decades to come.
Excellent post.
I think what you gentleman fail to realise is that the biggest threat to peace and stability in the world is ......The CIA.
Everytine I see "super secret" I think of Napoleon Dynamite.
"I've got skills. I've got super secret ninja spy skills."
bump for later
Once you drag your eyes away from those smiley faces, that pink tie says it all.
It is irrelevant what Wilson found or did not find. Fact is, the President attributed the yellow cake information to the Brits. Unless Joe Wilson spoke to the Brits and vetted or refuted their information, it is absolutely idiotic to think that because he went and had coffee in Niger with some officials, that he could have discovered any information that would lead him in any direction, either towards verifying or refuting the British findings.
How incredibly stupid of you to say something like that. I think I'm going to report you to my handlers and see what they want to do with you.
Hi..........I should imagine your "handlers" will do what they are (in)famous for...Backstabbing!!
Think of the following:
Guatamala.
Chile.
Iran.
Iraq.
Afghanistan.
Vietnam.
Cuba.
Angola.
Anywhere you find the CIA you will find the worst kind of Backstabber.... they don't even have the Intestinal fortitude ( guts ) to admit being part of the "company".
Let's put this in the form of a question to Chrissy "Oddball" Matthews and see his yellow head explode!
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