Posted on 10/21/2005 5:44:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CLAREMONT - While investigations into the leak of his CIA-operative wife's identity continued, Joseph C. Wilson blasted the Bush administration in a speech at Claremont McKenna College on Wednesday night. The former U.S. ambassador to Iraq charged that the administration's actions, including those associated with the war in Iraq, have tarnished the world's perception of the United States.
"This is a radical administration and I fear history will judge us for Abu Ghraib," Wilson said, referring to the scandal-ridden, U.S. military prison in Iraq.
Speaking to nearly 650 people, Wilson addressed a broad range of issues, including the investigation surrounding the leak of his wife's identity and the United States' reputation.
Wilson explained how he traveled to Niger in 2002 to investigate claims Iraq was acquiring uranium from Africa in order to make nuclear weapons. He said he found no evidence to support the claim and in 2003 penned a column that appeared in the New York Times titled "What I Didn't Find in Iraq."
Following the column's publication, the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, was disclosed in a column written by Robert Novak. Novak also wrote that Wilson was sent to Niger because his wife worked for the CIA. Wilson has since charged that White House officials had deliberately blown his wife's undercover status to punish him for his public opposition to the administration's claims.
"The first line of my obituary now reads: Husband of the first American spy to have her identity compromised by her own government," Wilson said.
The leak investigation "is about the lies and deceptions that underpin the justification for taking this country to war," Wilson said. "This is the administration's effort to attack somebody who stood up and said, `I want to hold my government on account of what my government has said and done in the name of the American people.' "
A career diplomat for 23 years, Wilson most recently served as special assistant to the president and senior director for African Affairs from June 1997 until June 1998. He also served in Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission from 1988 to 1991.
Wilson said his background in African affairs was partly why he went to Niger. He noted he came out of "comfortable retirement" to travel to the country, and later realized that the administration's claims were untrue.
"It became apparent that we were badly misled on why we went to war," he said. "I talked to the State Department and people in the White House and said, `You need to correct the record on this. You have a responsibility to correct the record.' "
Following his attempts to have the claims corrected, Wilson charges that the administration began to look into fixing the "Wilson problem," which culminated in the disclosure of his wife's identity.
The disclosure has been painful for his family, but Wilson said he believes his telling the truth was an act of civic duty and not political courage.
With the U.S. war in Iraq - at the expense of more than $200 billion and nearly 2,000 U.S. lives - Wilson said he is concerned about the country's direction and reputation around the world. People had once looked at the United States as "the shining city on the hill, but now our credibility has collapsed because we have no followers," he said.
Many who attended responded favorably to Wilson's speech, but noted that it was simply Wilson's interpretation of events.
"Mr. Wilson has a point to make, but, overall, I was very receptive to what he had to say," said Nick Le Du, sophomore at Claremont McKenna College.
Jeff McCull, a retired U.S. history teacher, was heartened by Wilson's discussion of the country's reputation abroad.
"He brought forth what I'm worried about - the lies and misrepresentation," McCull said. "It may take a long time for the U.S. to gain back the respect."
Hey fool...countries don't have friends, they have interests. There are no international warm fuzzies.
This guy gets a pass from the MSM and even the conservative puditocracy.
If he took no prisoners, why should we?
Time for a cure. One bet is to prohibit nepotism in government, and prosecute people who violate the current law ~ e.g. Valerie Flame.
Send that chick to jail.
That's the ticket!
"He brought forth what I'm worried about - the lies and misrepresentation," McCull said. "It may take a long time for the U.S. to gain back the respect."
Sell it down the road, loser. Your side lost the last few elections.
History's gonna have a bigger docket than that. What a contemptible, vain, silly horse's ass this guy is.
Comfortable retirement? He was working for the Dems. Wise up Joe. The Dems took you for the schmuck you are.
Sounds like the reaction of a liar that got caught.
His ass is mud inside the Beltway too.
Interesting, But if I recall, it was President Bush himself that called Mexico, "Our good friend".
The author sounds as if she is very much attracted to Amb. Wilson.
There are two exceptions (Briton & Australia) and Mexico is not one.
Yeah, I'm sure this will go down as a real watershed in the annuls of history. Just goes to illustrate how narrow and small his thinking is. No wonder he and his wife are so big in their own minds. What a piece of work this guy is.
our credibility has collapsed because we have no followers," he said.
If that doesn't sum up eight years of Clintonian foreign
policy, I'll eat my hat.
The degree to which the American people are so thorougly uninformed and misinformed, and more so those in academia, is frightening at times.
Here is a listener who leaves a speech thinking the speaker (Wilson) has shown him something important about "lies and misrepresentations" and that speaker's tale of his own actions in current national WMD policy history consists of mostly lies and misrepresentations.
Liberalism can only succeed by maintaining illusions.
"The first line of my obituary now reads: Husband of the first American spy to have her identity compromised by her own government," Wilson said.
What a Drama Queen. Has he nothing of his own to stand on?
Aren't this bozo's 15 minutes up?
May I ask, what the Hell is wrong with these people?
Foreign policy is more important than this vain gasbag.
Let's cut through the crap: I thought all of this had to do with WMD's and Bush "lying" about WMD's and Plame being outed because Joe Wilson was critical of Bush's Iraq war policy because we did not find WMD's.
WHAT DOES ABU GHRAIB HAVE TO DO WITH IT?!
Wilson's a traitor who is in need of a stretched neck.
Great obit. You should go into that line of work. haha.
The leak investigation "is about the lies and deceptions that underpin the justification for taking this country to war," Wilson said. "This is the administration's effort to attack somebody who stood up and said, `I want to hold my government on account of what my government has said and done in the name of the American people.' "
******
Clifford May
July 12, 2004, 11:05 a.m.
Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV — he of the Hermes ties and Jaguar convertibles — has been thoroughly discredited. Last week's bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report concluded that it is he who has been telling lies.
http://intelligence.senate.gov/iraqreport2.pdf
We now know for certain that Wilson was wrong and that Bush's statement was entirely accurate.
The British have consistently stood by that conclusion. In September 2003, an independent British parliamentary committee looked into the matter and determined that the claim made by British intelligence was "reasonable" (the media forgot to cover that one too). Indeed, Britain's spies stand by their claim to this day. Interestingly, French intelligence also reported an Iraqi attempt to procure uranium from Niger.
But that's not all. The Butler report, yet another British government inquiry, also is expected to conclude this week that British intelligence was correct to say that Saddam sought uranium from Niger.
And in recent days, the Financial Times has reported that illicit sales of uranium from Niger were indeed being negotiated with Iraq, as well as with four other states.
According to the FT: "European intelligence officers have now revealed that three years before the fake documents became public, human and electronic intelligence sources from a number of countries picked up repeated discussion of an illicit trade in uranium from Niger. One of the customers discussed by the traders was Iraq."
There's still more: As Susan Schmidt reported — back on page A9 of Saturday's Washington Post: "Contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence."
The Senate report says fairly bluntly that Wilson lied to the media. Schmidt notes that the panel found that, "Wilson provided misleading information to the Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on a document that had clearly been forged because 'the dates were wrong and the names were wrong.'"
The problem is Wilson "had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel discovered. Schmidt notes: "The documents — purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq — were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger."
Ironically, Senate investigators found that at least some of what Wilson told his CIA briefer not only failed to persuade the agency that there was nothing to reports of Niger-Iraq link — his information actually created additional suspicion.
http://tinyurl.com/83qfd
Yeah, nothing scares the crap out of me like being judged by history. Except, perhaps, being murdered by terrorists.
The degree to which the American people are so thorougly uninformed and misinformed, and more so those in academia, is frightening at times.
Here is a listener who leaves a speech thinking the speaker (Wilson) has shown him something important about "lies and misrepresentations" and that speaker's tale of his own actions in current national WMD policy history consists of mostly lies and misrepresentations.
Liberalism can only succeed by maintaining illusions.
This guy is full of more stuff than is stuffed in Sandy Berger's socks.
Just another of the Lib Demonrats talking points on the road to their impeachment proceedings.
I have been a lurker for months on this site, but I have been closely following Plamegate.
The reappearance of both Joe Wilson and Matt Cooper (on Hardball) this week can't be a good sign.
The liberal pussheads are wetting their pants over this, but all in vain. Joe Wilson sees a camera pointed his way and he preens. That's it really. I, personally, wish they'd replay that first interview he gave, where he's sitting back with a mint tea and fingering his Arab love beads. What a pompous, traitorous jerk.
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