Posted on 03/03/2004 11:58:03 AM PST by Quilla
Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson will reveal the name of the person he thinks leaked his wife's identity as an undercover CIA (news - web sites) officer in a book due out in May, his publisher said Tuesday.
A federal grand jury has heard testimony from at least four White House officials in its investigation to identify the leaker of Valerie Plame's name to syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who published the name in his syndicated column last July. Numerous other officials have been interviewed by the FBI (news - web sites).
Spokeswoman Karen Auerbach of the Avalon Publishing Group in New York said she did not know the identity of the purported leaker.
Novak said in his July 14 column that his sources were two unidentified senior administration officials. Novak has not commented about the matter during the grand jury investigation.
Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth," is scheduled to come out May 20.
Publication of the book and Wilson's accompanying promotional tour could have political overtones because he is now a foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry (news - web sites). Democrats are seeking to raise questions of credibility in the minds of voters about the reasons President Bush (news - web sites) went to war.
Wilson did not return telephone calls seeking comment for this story. He has previously contended that White House political adviser Karl Rove condoned the leak but was not the actual leaker.
After Novak's column appeared, Wilson said other reporters told him that Rove had characterized Plame as "fair game" because of Wilson's criticism of the White House's uses of intelligence before the Iraq (news - web sites) war.
The White House has repeatedly denied that Rove was the leaker.
Wilson was enlisted by the CIA to investigate whether Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. He said he found no evidence of such an attempt and has accused the Bush administration of exaggerating Iraq's nuclear capabilities to build support for war.
A description of the book on the publishing company's Web site says Wilson's conclusions about the Niger uranium were "brushed aside" by the administration.
The grand jury has continued to meet regularly in Washington under the direction of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General James Comey to oversee the probe. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) disqualified himself from the case in December in the face of Democratic criticism of his close political ties to the White House.
The leaker could be charged with a felony that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
To liberals, that's anyone who believes that a businessman should be able to keep most of what he has earned instead of having his earnings taxed at ninety percent.
Gotta yawn, 'cause Joe is boring me. Hey, Joe, I thought you already did this — didn't you blame Karl Rove awhile back? In any case, I hope whoever you name in your tome is totally innocent so he or she can sue your arse six ways from Sunday.
He was also angling for a movie deal, but don't know if he got one.
"Hey, I want some of the money Clarke just made!"
"...In 2002 the CIA sent Wilson to Niger to investigate an allegation that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium there. If true, it would have buttressed Bush’s assertions that Iraq was making nuclear bombs. Wilson reported that the allegations were not accurate, but Bush repeated them in a 16-word section of his 2003 State of the Union address.
Wilson then wrote “What I Didn’t Find In Africa,” a New York Times essay last summer about his trip to Niger and the nonexistent uranium.
“I write in the book about why I went ahead and wrote the Times piece,” Wilson says, “and the consequences to my family.”
But will he say Bush lied? Will he say Bush referred to "Niger"? Hmmm...
Apparently, there are a series of books by Leftist authors scheduled to come out at a rate of about one a month or so through the election. All will attempt to discredit President Bush and his administration. Bob Woodward has one coming out soon, and you know it will get lots of friendly coverage. That scum, John Dean, has one either out or out soon. Then there's Wilson, and who knows how many others. Sigh.
There is a full-court press on by the Left and its media shills to do everything they can to bring Bush down. I honestly think they will stop at nothing. At the moment, they are trying the tactic of savaging his reputation and the reputation of some of his closest aides. If that doesn't work, who knows what else they might try.
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Sigh
He said he did not think a transaction took place.
Excerpt:
It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.
~snip~
And that is it. That's the big "finding" of Wilson. A big nothing.
Oh, I just noticed this part of Wilson's op-ed. I've often posted George Tenet's statement on this issue. So first, here is Wilson's grandiose opinion of what reports were written up due to his trip
Though I did not file a written report, there should be at least four documents in United States government archives confirming my mission. The documents should include the ambassador's report of my debriefing in Niamey, a separate report written by the embassy staff, a C.I.A. report summing up my trip, and a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president (this may have been delivered orally). While I have not seen any of these reports, I have spent enough time in government to know that this is standard operating procedure.
~snip~
Here is how little Tenet thought of this. BTW, HE did not send Wilson.
Text of CIA Director George Tenet's statement
Excerpt:
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~
Just an interesting observation.
Like Clarke, Wilson's credibility ought to have long since been deemed virtually nil. Thank goodness Clarke was exposed quickly enough.
....Also in the fall of 2002, our British colleagues told us they were planning to publish an unclassified dossier that mentioned reports of Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium in Africa.
...But in the interest of completeness, the report contained three paragraphs that discuss Iraq's significant 550-metric ton uranium stockpile and how it could be diverted while under IAEA safeguard. These paragraphs also cited reports that Iraq began "vigorously trying to procure" more uranium from Niger and two other African countries, which would shorten the time Baghdad needed to produce nuclear weapons...."
Odd...
Clinton had many of his people transferred to Civil Service before he left. Many are still there. Firing them is incredibly difficult.
My initial thought, as well. But, remember, Novak says he called the CIA for confirmation of Plame's identity, got it...then was asked (not told) not to report it.
Novak has never revealed who he talked to in the CIA, either.
You don't suppose this publisher has an agenda, do ya?
On the other hand, the publisher may well be a free market conservative who has figured out how to enrich himself by relieving liberals of their paychecks...
On the other hand, liberals earning a paycheck represents a pretty narrow marketing niche...
Who will be the accused?? Well, who's accusation would cause the most damage to the Bush re-election campaign, that's who.
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