"D*mn straight, Man!"
Posted on 07/12/2005 2:43:43 PM PDT by MamaLucci
BY JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 3:14 p.m. EDT
< snip >
Yesterday's White House press briefing featured a similarly hilarious question from ABC News's Terry Moran to press secretary Scott McClellan:
Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation?
The information that Rove has been "caught red-handed peddling" is that Wilson's wife, Plame, engineered his trip to Niger. Wilson denied this when it became public two years ago this week, but it turned out that Rove was telling the truth and Wilson was not. In other words, here we have Moran, a reporter, attacking the White House for providing accurate information to reporters! This is journalism at its best?
< snip >
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Roly Poly fish head are never seen drinking cappucino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women...
Funniest video ever made.
Hudson wrote it.
I used to watch it on MTV back in the mid 80s, if I remember right...
Nope. Rove is lying. Plame never had the authority to make that decision. She recommended him. That's all. Have you looked at his resume? I'd have recommended him. Anyone would have who cared more about competency than political loyalty.
Two years later sounds the Same.
Correct, and I'm pretty certain it was '79.
Rove is quoted as saying Plame engineered Wilson's trip to Niger. What do you think that means? If she didn't make the decision to send him then what - exactly - did she do?
The liar here is WILSON himself, who denied that his wife had anything to do with him being sent
He lied too since she did recommend him.
I don't need to look at his resume
No need to proceed farther. Anyone who thinks a resume is irrelevant is not worth talking to.
Has anyone photoshopped Joe Wilson being "frog-marched"?
The information that Rove has been "caught red-handed peddling" is that Wilson's wife, Plame, engineered his trip to Niger. Wilson denied this when it became public two years ago this week, but it turned out that Rove was telling the truth and Wilson was not. In other words, here we have Moran, a reporter, attacking the White House for providing accurate information to reporters! This is journalism at its best?
A guy who goes to Niger and admits he did nothing there but sit around cafes drinking tea? That's competency for ya -- someone who puts on a blindfold to make sure he doesn't find what he doesn't want to find.
Plame DID engineer hubby's trip.........and it was approved (ie: the decision to send him was made) BY SOMEONE ELSE. This is not that complicated. FWIW, I know a lot of worthless people with kick ass resumes, Larry......and on the flip side, I was just hired after 8 years away from the work force (to raise my kids)..........I am a GREAT employee, but my resume doesn't necessarily reflect that.
Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip."
from NEWSWEEK
From Wilson's July 6 New York Times article;
In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.
After consulting with the State Department's African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.
In late February 2002, I arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey, where I had been a diplomat in the mid-70's and visited as a National Security Council official in the late 90's. The city was much as I remembered it. Seasonal winds had clogged the air with dust and sand. Through the haze, I could see camel caravans crossing the Niger River (over the John F. Kennedy bridge), the setting sun behind them. Most people had wrapped scarves around their faces to protect against the grit, leaving only their eyes visible.
The next morning, I met with Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick at the embassy. For reasons that are understandable, the embassy staff has always kept a close eye on Niger's uranium business. I was not surprised, then, when the ambassador told me that she knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington. Nevertheless, she and I agreed that my time would be best spent interviewing people who had been in government when the deal supposedly took place, which was before her arrival.
I spent the next eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.
Given the structure of the consortiums that operated the mines, it would be exceedingly difficult for Niger to transfer uranium to Iraq. Niger's uranium business consists of two mines, Somair and Cominak, which are run by French, Spanish, Japanese, German and Nigerian interests. If the government wanted to remove uranium from a mine, it would have to notify the consortium, which in turn is strictly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Moreover, because the two mines are closely regulated, quasi-governmental entities, selling uranium would require the approval of the minister of mines, the prime minister and probably the president. In short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired.
(As for the actual memorandum, I never saw it. But news accounts have pointed out that the documents had glaring errors — they were signed, for example, by officials who were no longer in government — and were probably forged. And then there's the fact that Niger formally denied the charges.)
Before I left Niger, I briefed the ambassador on my findings, which were consistent with her own. I also shared my conclusions with members of her staff. In early March, I arrived in Washington and promptly provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. I later shared my conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau. There was nothing secret or earth-shattering in my report, just as there was nothing secret about my trip.
That's competency for ya -- someone who puts on a blindfold to make sure he doesn't find what he doesn't want to find.
You're describing yourself, not Wilson.
Saying "did", "DID", or "DID!!!" proves nothing. Plame heard from her superiors about the proposed mission and recommended her husband. That's it.
I know a lot of worthless people with kick ass resumes
Noone ever said Wilson was worthless until he publicly criticized the Administration. Quite the contrary. That tells me all I need to know.
Once again, read his resume. He was perfect for the mission...and even so the CIA did not rely on him alone. They also asked for reports from our Ambassador to Niger and from General Carlton Coons (reports which have never been made public and probably never will be. Standard CIA policy).
You argue my point for me. All he did by his own admission is sit around cafes and talk to people -- in public where they could be seen talking to him instead of in private where they could be more candid -- who had a vested interest in saying nothing to see here, show's over, move along if a deal or an attempt at a deal had taken place?
And there's this misleading statement (lie):
It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.
As I recall, neither the memo nor Bush said a transaction had taken place, i.e., Iraq actually bought the yellow cake. Only that Iraq had come there and made inquiries. Uranium makes up 75% of Niger's exports. What else would Iraqis be going there for? Joe Wilson is the liar no matter how you slice it, on many levels, including suggesting that Bush's assertion was based on this memo. It wasn't: http://www.factcheck.org/article222.html The State Department as a group has been anti-Bush and sought to undermine his policy from the moment Gore conceded (in large part because diplomats by their nature tend to think EVERYTHING can be resolved via diplomacy). There are unfortunately folks like this in the CIA, like Ms. Plame. She and Wilson have been caught in a series of lies and yet you focus on Rove, based on a reporter using the word "authorized" and not Rove's words himself. Take your Joe Wilson Turbo 2000 Signature Blindfold back, please.
Wilson is a political hack who milked this for fame with a book tour, a Vanity Fair photo pose with his wife(so much for her instincts for staying low-profile), and then shot his mouth off and ended up being caught in several lies over just this incident. Not exactly someone displaying stellar judgement.
BTW, how useful as an 'undercover spy' is someone married to a former ambassador? Isn't being undercover all about disguising any loyalties/connections to the US govt? Since he had already listed on his bio webpage her name, that she was his wife, and that she worked at the CIA, either she was no longer concerned about maintaining cover (especially since the CIA beleived Aldrich Ames outed her in 1994) or he is very, very sloppy. Perhaps both.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.