Posted on 07/14/2004 11:44:35 PM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON -- Like Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark, the most remarkable aspect of last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is what its Democratic members did not say. They did not dissent from the committee's findings that Iraq apparently asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. They neither agreed to a conclusion that former diplomat Joseph Wilson was suggested for a mission to Niger by his CIA employee wife nor defended his statements to the contrary.
Wilson's activities constituted the only aspects of the yearlong investigation for which the committee's Republican chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, was unable to win unanimous agreement. Peculiarly, the Democrats accepted the evidence building up to the Wilson conclusions but not the conclusions themselves. According to committee sources, Roberts felt Wilson had been such a "cause celebre" for Democrats that they could not face the facts about him.
For a year, Democrats have been belaboring President Bush about 16 words in his 2003 State of the Union address in which he reported Saddam Hussein's attempt to buy uranium from Africa, based on official British information. Wilson has been lionized in liberal circles for allegedly contradicting this information on a CIA mission and then being punished as a truth-teller. Now, for Intelligence Committee Democrats, it is as though the Niger question and Joe Wilson have vanished from the earth.
Because a U.S. Justice Department special prosecutor is investigating whether any crime was committed when my column first identified Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA employee, on advice of counsel I have not written on the subject since last October. However, I feel constrained to describe how the Intelligence Committee report treats the Niger-Wilson affair because it has received scant coverage except in The Washington Post, Knight-Ridder newspapers, briefly and belatedly in The New York Times and few other media outlets.
The unanimously approved report said, "interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD (CIA counterproliferation division) employee, suggested his name for the trip." That's what I reported, and what Wilson flatly denied and still does.
Plame sent out an internal CIA memo saying that "my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." A State Department analyst told the committee about an inter-agency meeting in 2002 that was "apparently convened by [Wilson's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue."
The unanimous Intelligence Committee found that the CIA report, based on Wilson's mission, differed considerably from the former ambassador's description to the committee of his findings. That report "did not refute the possibility that Iraq had approached Niger to purchase uranium." As far as his statement to The Washington Post about "forged documents" involved in the alleged Iraqi attempt to buy uranium, Wilson told the committee he may have "misspoken." In fact, the intelligence community agreed that "Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Africa."
"While there was no dispute with the underlying facts," Chairman Roberts wrote separately, "my Democrat colleagues refused to allow" two conclusions in the report. The first conclusion merely said that Wilson was sent to Niger at his wife's suggestion. The second conclusion is devastating:
"Rather than speaking publicly about his actual experiences during his inquiry of the Niger issue, the former ambassador seems to have included information he learned from press accounts and from his beliefs about how the Intelligence Community would have or should have handled the information he provided."
The normally mild Pat Roberts is harsh in his condemnation: "Time and again, Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen that the President had lied to the American people, that the Vice President had lied, and that he had 'debunked' the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa . . . [N]ot only did he NOT 'debunk' the claim, he actually gave some intelligence analysts even more reason to believe that it may be true." Roberts called it "important" for the Intelligence Committee to declare much of what Wilson said "had no basis in fact." In response, Democrats were silent.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Why would a "covert operative" at the CIA be sending out an "internal CIA memo?"
Oh yeah, Chris Lehane is an infamous campaign dirty trickster. I forget who he worked for before Gore, but his whole resume is as a dirty campaigner. John Kerry hired him to neutalize his opponents and then he moved on to Wesley Clark's campaign, when Bill and Hillary started supporting Clark. Now, Lehane works for Michael Moore.
Wow! Howlin! That's a great point!
Obviously, Joe Wilson was not anywhere close to being the best choice to go. Maybe the Wilsons were working for the DNC/RATS/Kerry/Clintons to purposely discredit President Bush and lower his popularity.
We all know the Dims will do anything to regain the White House. MSM gladly spreads their lies while ignoring recent revelations that Plame recommended Joe. It surely looks like a setup to me. Follow the money trail… I hope heads roll.
Excellent point and an excellent way of blowing her cover. I seriously think any journalist with a dram of respect should analyze this whole thing from just that astute observation you made and build from there.
Has the Committee asked her??
Yes, the committee asked her and she told them she told her husband there was this "crazy" idea that Iraq was trying to procure uranium from Niger and could he go over and check it out. Plus they have her memo recommending him because he was familiar with the PM and other officials and the area.
As I've often stated, I hope and pray that the focus of the grand jury is about this scheme.
She did speak with the committe. There is a grand jury--into who "leaked her name", as the conventional wisdom goes. I've long opined that it may well be into a different aspect.
Amen.
And I think you are spot on in the idea of how this was suggested. Plame had recommended Wilson for his earlier trip, too--and that would have been under the Clinton administration, I do believe. That's one clue...
Exactly. As Cliff May noted, this indicates her status was not "undercover" and hence no law broken from the git go--no matter who had "leaked" her name/employer (and I've always stated, as has Novak, it was not anyone in the WH out to "get" Wilson).
SO...just what IS that grand jury investigating?...
excerpt:
Now that we know that Mrs. Wilson did recommend Mr. Wilson for the Niger assignment, can we not infer that she was working at CIA headquarters in Langley rather than as an undercover operative in some front business or organization somewhere?
excerpt:
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.
And I see I was correct in my memory that the earlier trip she had also recommended him for took place during the Clinton administration.
Mr. Kerry, "Now that the question about Iraq seeking Yellow Cake from Africa has been resolved will you stop telling Americans that the president lied?"
The other clue to me - that the overheard conversation was spot on - was when Blair came to the USA (right after that conversation with Bill) and spoke before a joint session of congress.
During that speech, Blair made a statement (which I wish I could quote verbatim), a statement which indicated that Bill Clinton had also told Blair the usual - America is a bully, too powerful, needs to back down. Blair totally disagreed with this stand, and said so, very strongly, in his speech. When I was listening to Blair - I caught it right away - I saved it .. but my computer crashed and I lost the statement. Blair basically said "America being too powerful" is bunk and that to think that way is out of touch.[paraphrase]
I guess that pretty much destroyed the Blair/Clinton relationship. However, I see the dems are courting Blair again .. praising him and still bashing Bush .. although BOTH of them have been absolved of any wrong doing.
She lied .. according to the Committees report .. SHE was the one who suggested her husband .. not the CIA
Yes--they both are liars, and she more than likely is not a covert agent, hence my hope that the grand jury is looking into this daring duo and they will both be "frog-marched" off to the slammer.
Fingers crossed...
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