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.
Actually, the dems keep tossing the pins and holding the grenades. Bush has the same strategery he has in every election. Keep the high ground, don't wallow in the mud with your opponent, save your best shots for the last weeks, when people are paying attention.
Wilson lied, and his wife's career died.....
"In fact, I guarantee Dems will repeat the lies by November."
Come on Dems - bring it up.
If John Kerry tries to say anything about this or if he gives some opening during the debates he will be very sorry. I believe that W will get this mentioned during the debates.
Remember...there IS a grand jury investigatin underway and some of us have long hoped that it is indeed looking into different aspects of this case.
Exactly. The source that just happened to tout Wilson's false representations.
I assume you're smart enough to not hold your breath on that one!
Exactly. This report was issued before last weekend and of course Russert said not one word on MTP on Sunday. Chrissie Matthews has not mentioned it either after having Wilson on and pushing the "Scooter Libby" garbage for weeks on end.
Chris Lehane, while working for John Kerry is responsible for shopping the "Bush lied in his STOU" story to the media. The Kerry campaign still supports the Joe Wilson web site.
It's worse. The committee report was issued last Friday and the WaPo did the first story (a very good one, in fact) but placed it on page A9 last Saturday. The fact that Wilson is a documented liar has been out there for almost a week...
"ha" or should I say "ah"
ping
bump
Pray for W and The Truth
I'll be darned. And I thought she was a "double-o" deep under cover.
Has anybody observed what the DU reaction to this is? Have they offered apologies?
BUMP!
Michael Moore, a documented liar.
The NYT, a documented liar.
And now Joseph Wilson III, a documented liar.
You're going to be a lonely man on Free Republic if you're waiting for that ping...
"Remember...there IS a grand jury investigatin underway and some of us have long hoped that it is indeed looking into different aspects of this case."
...like whether or not Joe Wilson and Susan Lindauer are acquainted. They are both associated with EPIC (Education for Peace in Iraq Center) which I would assume is not a monster organization.
Your list of liars is redundant. All of these folks are stringers for the NYT.
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