Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission (Joe Wilson lied about EVERYTHING)

Washington Compost ^ | 7/10/04 | Susan Schmidt

[thoughtomator]

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

-------- snip! ----------

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

...

[claudiustg]

---Now, what were the scumbag 'Rats saying about this 8 months ago? Impeach Bush? ---

This was a Dem ploy to get an independent council to start a fishing expedition in the Bush administration. I'd take a look at the DNC for connections to this Wilson creep.

[cyncooper]

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

What a great revelation to wake up to.

Now, we all surmised this was the case (using our skills of logic and reason) and the reason reporters like Cliff May said they were told *by sources friendly to Wilson--not anyone out to harm him or his lovely bride*--that Wilson had gone to Niger at the suggestion of his wife, was to explain and justify it. Wilson being an outright political antagonist of the administration, the trip is highly suspicious.

I've often said I would think the grand jury is looking into why the CIA was employing these shenanigans (or worse--probably worse), not the idiotic Wilson claim that the WH "outed" Valerie. If the Senate report was able to establish she recommended him, then it goes to reason the grand jury has, too. So then the question is why---and why his "findings" were misrepresented not only by himself, but an anonymous "CIA official" in newspaper reports that sought to undermine this administration and President Bush in particular.

[cyncooper]

In other words, this whole Joe Wilson thing was completely manufactured by Democrat-affiliated political hacks for purely partisan purposes.

Something which has been obvious since day one. That and the media's willingness (in this and other stories) to purvey partisan lies in an effort to bring down President Bush or anyone in this administration (see Chris Matthews spitting out "Scooter Libby" like a turret's syndrome victim), and shun the facts on the record.

The only bright light is that eventually the media types are forced by sheer force of data and documentation to acknowledge and concede certain facts--well after they've lent credence and authority to liars and pond scum like Joe Wilson.

Ah, Fox news just promoted what stories will be covered this hour and this will be discussed shortly. Good.

[MeekOneGOP]

This story in today's Washington Post seems to indicate that Joe Wilson is a monumental liar, publicity hound and partisan hack. Truly a must-read. Spread the word.

Thanks! No doubt about it .....

Joseph C. Wilson IV has denied his wife's input.

---

Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And 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 that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

[cyncooper]

Well, Monday morning, we all oughta call Letterman's office.

Letterman?

BTW, points to Mike Emmanual on Fox. He just reported this story and pronouned Niger like "NIjer" instead of that French way. He said it several times so it wasn't just a slip. Yay for him (Brit and Tony, please take note)

[mathluv]

read later

[NavySEAL F-16]

Remember that when Bush hired a lawyer for this "Plame" investigation all the MSM's breathlessly reported it every five minutes. Have we seen this "Plame recommended husband) as breathlessly? I don't know how we can get the news out truthfully. WaPo only put it on A09 -- this should have been FRONT PAGE NEWS everywhere.

There are an infinite number of ways to lie and only one way to tell the truth -- and believe me the MSM will somehow spin this news as well.

[n-tres-ted]

You're right about Susan Schmidt. But many of her stories make the front page, and this one didn't. Take a look at this:

The panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.

The agency did not examine forged documents that have been widely cited as a reason to dismiss the purported effort by Iraq until months after it obtained them. The panel said it still has "not published an assessment to clarify or correct its position on whether or not Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Africa."

Now here is the question: Did the CIA bureaucracy refrain from following up on the yellow-cake investigation so as not to help the Bush administration to support the war against Iraq? What other reason is there to avoid checking out the facts behind Iraq's efforts to purchase uranium? Especially after Libya/Kadaffi turned over all the evidence of its nuclear programs (reportedly conducted in league with Iran, North Korea and IRAQ)! Seems to me, those in the CIA behind all this, including the investigation of the "outing" of Plame were motivated by anti-Bush politics. Any thoughts, anyone?

[cyncooper]

If I'm understanding this right, Tenet went to his analysts, told them he had an important job regarding critical intelligence that needed to be checked out and asked if any of them had any spouses completely lacking in espionage or investigative experience who might be up to the job. And that's how Wilson got the job.

He did not. He said the group sent Wilson on *their own initiative*, further he basically said the trip was a worthless venture.

Text of CIA Director George Tenet's statement

excerpt:

There was fragmentary intelligence gathered in late 2001 and early 2002 on the allegations of Saddam's efforts to obtain additional raw uranium from Africa, beyond the 550 metric tons already in Iraq. In an effort to inquire about certain reports involving Niger, CIA's counter-proliferation experts, on their own initiative, asked an individual with ties to the region to make a visit to see what he could learn. He reported back to us that one of the former Nigerien (sic) officials he met stated that he was unaware of any contract being signed between Niger and rogue states for the sale of uranium during his tenure in office. The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Iraq and Niger. The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales. The former officials also offered details regarding Niger's processes for monitoring and transporting uranium that suggested it would be very unlikely that material could be illicitly diverted. There was no mention in the report of forged documents -- or any suggestion of the existence of documents at all.

Because this report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not brief it to the President, Vice-President or other senior Administration officials. We also had to consider that the former Nigerien officials knew that what they were saying would reach the U.S. government and that this might have influenced what they said.

~snip~

But it freaks me out that there might still be analysts and operatives in the CIA as feckless as this woman was to suggest her husband.

Me, too. The woman's husband was writing columns for "The Nation", for crying out loud, spreading lies and disinformation far and wide, and now what we deduced as been proven--that she suggested him--certainly does cast suspicion on her motives. I think the grand jury is investigating this. It is very delicate and these people are ruthless. The media demonstrated which side they would support, so getting the ducks in a row and proving what they were doing beyond a reasonable doubt is absolutely necessary. I would like to see it move along, but I think this documentation is a huge step forward.

[cyncooper]

We already knew that didn't we.

Yes, we did. But now we have documented proof.

[cyncooper]

I'm shocked, shocked!(NOT)..I don't like it that the CIA never really investigated the documents referred to,though.

I guess I better go read the whole article---but before I do I'll just note that the documents (the forged ones, I take it) had nothing to do with Wilson or his trip. The CIA got them in February 2003, I think (a year after the trip) and turned them over to the UN.

I'll go read what the report says...

[piasa]

The panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.

[billhilly]

The story of the senate intellegence panels findings did start on the front page. It is not at all uncommon for a front page story to spawn other stories on the inside page where the front page story is continued, as is the case today with Sue Schmidt's article. Effectively, her's is a continuation of the front page story.

[Happy2BMe]

It would be interesting to know how many contacts Wilson has had with Kerry.

[The Wizard]

GWB Wins again

[Cindy]

Thank you Piasa.

[piasa]

Speaking of Benin, here's a link to an article I posted a while back:

Niger's low security for uranium, radioactive materials under scrutiny AP via The Canadian Press, Canada.com ^ | Friday, September 19, 2003 | BRUCE STANLEY

[Caesar Soze]

Why would the CIA send in a person who possesses no experience in the first.

Have you ever seen Spies Like Us?

[CyberAnt]

Ahhhh! Orchestrated by the Wilson's best friend = HILLARY!!

In case you haven't heard .. the Wilson's were FUNDRAISERS for the Clintons. That puts them in bed together .. well practically.

[cyncooper]

I am so glad I read the whole article. It is very interesting:

The report said Plame told committee staffers that she relayed the CIA's request to her husband, saying, "there's this crazy report" about a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq. The committee found Wilson had made an earlier trip to Niger in 1999 for the CIA, also at his wife's suggestion.

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. 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.

~snip~

Well, Plame exposes herself right off the bat by betraying that the report on seeking uranium from Niger is "crazy". This again buttresses my suspicion that it is she who was the anonymous "CIA official" that peddled the Wilson version of the story to foreign press like the BBC.

We've been pointing out since he said it that Wilson was lying about the forged documents havig anything to do with him. The media would and should have seen it, too, if they weren't in the business of printing democratic talking points straight from the fax machine to the front page (incidentally, I see this landed on page 9 of today's least read day of the week issue--though in fairness to the day of the week, the report was just issued yesterday).

I say again, I hope to see both of these appalling people "frogmarched" (to coin Wilson's charming term) off to prison someday. I really do.