Diplomat's `outrage' finds political outlet (Wilson)

Boston Herald | 10/25/03 | Boston Herald editorial

[kattracks]

Now here's a real political shocker for you. Joseph Wilson, the former diplomat who threw a hissy-fit when his CIA-employed wife was outed in a Robert Novak column, has officially endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president.

Oh, stop the presses!

Wilson was beamed into New Hampshire via a conference call Thursday to make the endorsement official. He'll put in a personal appearance there next month. It had already been revealed that Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, had contributed to the Kerry campaign.

Wilson also acknowledged that he has been advising Kerry on foreign policy for about five months. Yes, that would put it before Wilson started criticizing President Bush for the line in his State of the Union message about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger for use in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. (Wilson was the one sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate the charge, but insists he found no evidence of same.)

And, of course, it was before he so very bravely came to the defense of his wife and rashly accused Bush adviser Karl Rove of being the source of the leak. Wilson later retracted the charge, but now that he's an official member of the Kerry team he's not so sure. So he used the occasion of his endorsement of Kerry to impugn the integrity of both Rove and Attorney General John Ashcroft, whose Justice Department is probing the leak of Plame's name.

``The reports that somehow the attorney general, who is very, very close to Mr. Rove, both personally and professionally, is getting daily updates on the status of the investigation strikes me as the potential for at a minimum the appearance of a conflict of interest,'' he said.

Whoever leaked Plame's name should be ousted on the grounds of sheer stupidity alone.

But clearly Wilson has his agenda, has had it for quite some time and all of his righteous indignation ought to be considered accordingly.

[Az Joe]

This guy was an obvious ringer from the word go.

[MJY1288]

Wilson Ping

[donmeaker]

The person who outed Plame is.......Wilson!

Her maiden name is on his website. Besides, the law only covers covert agents who have been stationed outside the country for the last 5 years. She doesn't qualify. The whole thing is a non-event.

The scandal should be that he was sent to Niger, but he did have some background in that neck of the woods, and he did confirm that Saddam's boys were trying to buy stuff from Niger, but the transaction did not go through.

The famous "16 words" did not reference Wilson, but rather British intelligence, a more reliable source.

[MJY1288]

I believe it was Alan Foley..... Valerie Plame's boss. Do a google search on Alan Foley and see if you think it's odd that he announced his resignation as all this got started

[MJY1288]

The other thing is this.... If Wilson was actually sent to Niger on official business for the CIA, One would think that his OP-ED in the NYT's revealing his mission to Niger would be a violation in itself??????

[marron]

he did confirm that Saddam's boys were trying to buy stuff from Niger,

He actually confirmed Bush's charge, that Iraq "sought" uranium, but you would not know that to listen to him squeal. Iraq's trade mission to Niger was public information. It doesn't even rely on British intel, its public. No one disputes it. And according to Wilson, according to Tenet, the Iraqis followed that mission with further efforts.

He also claimed that the transaction couldn't take place because the mines are under IAEA inspection. But IAEA says they don't have the personnel to monitor them, and they don't have the legal authority to monitor them. Meaning, they aren't being effectively monitored by IAEA.

Wilson is a liar, and not a very good one. His histrionics only work because no one from the press puts him under any close scrutiny. Before giving him any further credibility, someone should ask him how you investigate uranium sales without auditing company records, interviewing plant personnel, following the trucks to see where they go, staking out the port to see which ships they load in to, and verifying where those ships actually go. How do you do that in a one-week visit in which you never left the capital.

And the CIA should have to answer why they would send someone like this to do a non-investigation. Do they have no assets in Niger devoted to doing this work? Do they have no people on the ground in a West African country that has attracted Al Qaeda interest as a potential refuge, Libyan interest, and is a uranium producer? Is that why the closest thing to a Niger expert they can find is a guy who was there 20 years ago?

I would like to hear some discussion of this apparent admission on their part that we are terribly exposed in that part of the world.

[MJY1288]

If you check out George Tenet's testimony in the Senate hearing on this, he says he knew nothing about Wilson's trip to Niger and was not aware of any verbal report of his findings and was not aware that Wilson had ever been asked to go to Niger.

This backs up you and I's suspicion that the real scandal lies in who was behind the decision to send Joe Wilson to Niger to begin with and if his wife's job was so secretive, why would they send a totally unqualified person on a mission concerning something as serious as the proliferation of Nuclear material?

These questions must be asked and considering that Joe Wilson is just looking out for what's best, he should have no problem being placed under oathe and testify on everything he knows? My guess is he will take the 5th if that day ever comes, because when all is said and done we will find out that him and his wife are involved in a political smear campaign that could end up puting a few people in jail

[Just mythoughts]

Kerry is really out there in the clouds if he thinks that this political hack is going to bring him the votes.

Now could it be that Mr. Wilson was a demwit plant to go gather intel and not really sent by the CIA, but an out and out "LEFT WING CONSPIRACY" to defraud this nation.

So when is CONGRESS going to demand the "NAMES" of these unknown, that selected and sent the Mr. Wilson to go gather intel?

The real scandal is being hidden by what "appears" to be the outing of a "covered agent".

[MJY1288]

If you really want to scratch your head about this story, Check out what UK's Jack Straw said when asked about their Intel on this matter, Straw admits that they didn't share their Intel with the United States for "Good Reason's, which I explained in closed session"..... Why would the Brits not want to share their intel???? Is it because we knew there was "mole" in the CIA and cut off all intel sharing?..... There wasn't any problem sharing Intel in Operation Enduring Freedom, so why did they decide they couldn't share intel with us on something as simple as Saddam sending a deligation of high level military personel on a trade mission to Niger?????

[MJY1288]

Post #10 was meant for you

[marron]

I'll have to re-read some of the material on Tenet. The story of the Iraqi "businessman" trying to meet with Niger officials somes from Wilson by way of Tenet. It was left out of his op-ed piece. Also left out was the trade mission.

This is what bothers me. The trade mission was not a secret, it was effectively public knowledge. That trade mission seals the deal on Bush's remark that Iraq "sought" uranium. There was no need to reference British intel, or anyone else's intel.

So the reference to the Brit's unwillingness to discuss certain intel issues with us regarding Niger is curious. This may have been a reference to supposed French unwillingness to confirm to the US stuff that they had already confirmed to the Brits, according to some things I have read.

The whole thing smells. To confirm "seeking uranium" doesn't require a trip to Niger, as we said, the trade mission is not a secret. To confirm actual transactions, though, would require a real surveillance, some penetration of mining company staff, the tapping of communications. It would require an actual effort. Wilson's trip was not an investigation, it was tourism. And it was tourism he himself exposed with his op-ed. He probably thought he was outing the president, but he was outing the CIA's nakedness in that part of the world.

This is some weird stuff.

I always get a "through the looking glass" sensation with this kind of thing. What is so obvious to us here gets no attention at all in the press. They have all the dots but studiously refuse to connect any of them. When you yourself have finally connected them yourself, you can see in the way stories are written that they are stepping around truths they do not want to address. If they are stepping around them, they know them. Its maddening.

[Miss Marple]

Not only maddening, but infuriating. On top of that, it is fairly easy to explain what the real scandal is to anyone with an IQ above that of a turnip, so they can't use the excuse that it's "too complicated for the avearage person" like they do on so often.

I had zero trouble explaining this to two gals who work in the nail salon. They were properly curious and outraged about the thing.

I will tell you what else I think. I bet you Wilson and his wife were under internal investigation by the CIA and he went public to keep himself out of jail. I think he figured if he made enough noise, no one would touch him because of looking like it was politically motivated. It is rather like why I think Janet Reno ran for governor of Florida. She had to know that she had zero chance, but as long as she was a candidate no one was going to indict her.

[Diogenesis]

So far Novak, Wilson, and TIIME-LIFE (who outed Palme first)
are traitors to the USA. Now we find Wilson
WORKED WITH/FOR KERRY as this was happening.

Yup, that makes Kerry a .......

[Ben Hecks]

I heard a news update a couple of days ago that indicated the leak investigation had been expanded to include the CIA and State Department. It would appear that a lot of the speculation expressed here may have a basis in fact.

[Miss Marple]

MJY1288 has the most information on this situation, I think. He has downloaded and printed reams of stuff.

I think he grasped the connections between Wilson and the democrats early, and started looking around to see where Wilson had been.

I noticed that about the expansion of the investigation. My fervent hope is that a lot of embedded Rats are caught in a trap of their own making.

[Matchett-PI]

"This guy was an obvious ringer from the word go." ~ Az Joe

Novak: The Wilsons for Gore
Townhall.com ^ | 10/05/03 | Robert Novak
Posted on 10/05/2003 12:58 AM EDT by Pokey78
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/995369/posts

WASHINGTON -- On the same day in 1999 that retired diplomat Joseph Wilson was returned $1,000 of $2,000 he contributed to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore a month earlier because it exceeded the federal limit, his CIA-employee wife gave $1,000 to Gore using a fictitious identification for herself.

In making her April 22, 1999, contribution, Valerie E. Wilson identified herself as an "analyst" with "Brewster-Jennings & Associates." No such firm is listed anywhere, but the late Brewster Jennings was president of Socony-Vacuum oil company a half-century ago. Any CIA employee working under "non-official cover" always is listed with a real firm, but never an imaginary one.

A footnote: In July when he revealed himself as author of a report commissioned by the CIA, Wilson sought a book agent. After being turned down by a prominent agent, he has now found one.

[Matchett-PI]

"They have all the dots but studiously refuse to connect any of them."

Talking about "connecting the dots", let's not forget the Saudi connection to Wilson.

As Mark Stein pointed out, there are a LOT of people in our government (Wilson, for instance) on the Saudi payroll (See excerpt of his article below). It isn't much of a stretch to figure that people like Sheldon Drobny, co-founder of anshellmedia.com , the new "liberal" radio network, and his like-minded friends running this web site, "makethemaccountable.com", are being pay-rolled by them, too.

Mark Steyn: With friends like the Saudis . . .
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 19 2003 | Mark Steyn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1003888/posts

Excerpt:

....That would also include the pro-Saudi Middle East Institute, whose "adjunct scholar" is one Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Remember him? He's the fellow at the center of the Bob-Novak-published-the-name-of-my-CIA-wife scandal.

The agency sent him to look into the European intelligence stories about Saddam Hussein trying to buy uranium in Africa. He went to Niger, drank mint tea with government flacks, and then wrote a big whiny piece in the New York Times after the White House declined to accept his assurances there was nothing going on.

He was never an intelligence specialist, he's no longer a "career diplomat," but he is, like so many other retired ambassadors, on the House of Saud's payroll.

And the Saudis were vehemently opposed to war with Saddam.

Think about that. To investigate Saddam's attempted acquisition of uranium, the United States government sent a man in the pay of the Saudi government.

The Saudis set up schools that turn out terrorists.

They set up Islamic lobby groups that put spies in our military bases and terror recruiters in our prisons.

They set up think tanks that buy up and neuter the U.S. diplomatic corps.

And their ambassador's wife funnels charitable donations to the 9/11 hijackers.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Thank you for the ping. I expect that this story will be around for a while. And I doubt it will move in directions of Wilson's liking.

The dems will have no one to blame but themselves, though, when it explodes in their faces.

Pinz

[anglian]

Looky here http://www.restorehonesty.com/