Posted on 07/15/2004 5:30:16 AM PDT by Pokey78
Like Sherlock Holmes' 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. 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 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 committee Democrats, it is as though the Niger question and Joe Wilson have vanished from the Earth.
Because a 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 October. However, I feel compelled to describe how the committee report treats the Niger-Wilson affair because it has received scant coverage except in a few 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 ''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 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 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 committee to declare much of what Wilson said ''had no basis in fact.'' In response, Democrats were silent.
Now in the interest of truth, every single media outlet that ran front page or prime time stories on Joe Wilson and his claims, will run another front page or prime time story on the fact that he is a liar. Right?
See post #6--Alan Foley must have signed off on it.
The RATS keep tossing bombs at the Bush administration and Bush keeps lobbing them back over the net.
With the Net and FNC as the new primary medium for fair and balanced information, more people are getting a taste of the RATS real mission which is removing the Republican administration from office.
As we have seen with the Communist party over the last 70 years, they are very narrowly focused and never deviate from their plan. We sit here and condemn the CIA based on Democrat talking points and leftist media commentary.
Fact is everything the CIA has presented to the American people over the last 4 years has been accurate. Gorelicks wall, yellowcake, Iraq WMD has all been confirmed. However the RAT talking points disclaim it and the media takes their position. This makes the CIA look like the keystone cops.
Wilson, Clarke and company flat out LIED to the American people and the press buries it so they cannot be held accountable for yellow journalism. Then they wonder why their advertising revenue is down as well as their ratings.
Best thing for the media to do is come clean, admit it was blinded by Socialist values, purge their ranks and begin to do what they were trained to do. Be reporters and not commentators.
Yahhhh.. that will happen.
Russert is a "Rat" shill ... as everyone at FR knows. My watershed moment with Russert came with the Powell interview back a couple of months ago. I won't go into the details as most are familiar with them ... but Russert came across as a complete ass. That was it ... haven't watched MTP since ... don't expect Russert to clarify the Wilson situation ... Russert, like his brethren in the liberal media don't have it in them.
And, as we all know, perception is everything.
" ... Best thing for the media to do is come clean, admit it was blinded by Socialist values, purge their ranks and begin to do what they were trained to do. Be reporters and not commentators. "
I truly wish that were the extent of it.
I believe the "media" are willful partners in crime with the enemy Democrat Party.
They obviously have aligned themselves with the socialist left, and emulate the European malady.
They are not the ones "fooled". They are the ones "fooling".
drip, drip, drip. methinks the damn is close to bursting on the WMD's.
1. I did not see this in this morning's newspaper nor on last evening's news. Other than Novak, is this issue of Wilson's lies being publicized anywhere? Certainly the media blanketed his allegations.
2. Why is Valerie Plame still employed by the CIA? With the recent reports about CIA incompetence, she should be the poster girl for all that is wrong with the CIA. She should be frog-marched to the door this morning. Permanently.
As Rush would say, "Seriousness of the charge, not the truth is more important for the left."
With the Net and FNC as the new primary medium for fair and balanced information, more people are getting a taste of the RATS real mission which is removing the Republican administration from office.
As we have seen with the Communist party over the last 70 years, they are very narrowly focused and never deviate from their plan. We sit here and condemn the CIA based on Democrat talking points and leftist media commentary.
Fact is everything the CIA has presented to the American people over the last 4 years has been accurate. Gorelicks wall, yellowcake, Iraq WMD has all been confirmed. However the RAT talking points disclaim it and the media takes their position. This makes the CIA look like the keystone cops.
Wilson, Clarke and company flat out LIED to the American people and the press buries it so they cannot be held accountable for yellow journalism. Then they wonder why their advertising revenue is down as well as their ratings.
Best thing for the media to do is come clean, admit it was blinded by Socialist values, purge their ranks and begin to do what they were trained to do. Be reporters and not commentators.
Yahhhh.. that will happen.
worth repeating bump
Now, just think about what you asked. Valerie went to Bill Clinton, and you want to know what kind of position she could have been in? Probably ON HER KNEES, yathink?
More likely DIE with an idiot left wing government.
(Hello Miz!!!!)
Accurate read. But chin up. For no other reason than to take what comes with some fighting spirit -- for at times only that fighting spirit is left.
Did Mrs. Wilson accompany her husband to Niger? Was he her cover?
Nope. My best friend works for CIA, as does her father, step mother, and one of her siblings. It's actually quite common for family members to work for the same agency, although any relationships have to be declared upfront on the employment application.
Will someone please ping me when the Dems apologize for calling Bush a liar?
BTTT
I have not heard otherwise so I assume she does.
Wilson's site - http://restorehonesty.com/
Per sam spade whois...
whoisWhois:
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Server Used: [ whois.godaddy.com ]
http://restorehonesty.com = [ 64.202.167.129 ]
Registrant:
John Kerry for President Inc.
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Domain Name: RESTOREHONESTY.COM
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"had no basis in fact"
Sounds like lies by any other name. If it had been a pubbie, all the headlines would have been in bold print LIES, LIES, and MORE LIES by REPUBLICANS or the President.
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