Mark Steyn: How a serial liar suckered Dems and the media

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 07/18/04 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

Well, the week went pretty much as I predicted seven days ago:

BUSH LIED!! Not.

BLAIR LIED!!! Not.

But it turns out JOE WILSON LIED! PEOPLE DIED. Of embarrassment mostly. At least I'm assuming that's why the New York Times, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, PBS drone Bill Moyers and all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they've previously given the hold-the-front-page treatment, too.

And what about John F. Kerry? Joe Wilson campaigned with Kerry in at least six states, and claims to have helped with the candidate's speeches. He was said to be a senior foreign policy adviser to the senator. As of Friday, Wilson's Web site, restorehonesty.com, was still wholly paid for by Kerry's presidential campaign.

Heigh-ho. It would be nice to hear his media boosters howling en masse, "Say it ain't so, Joe!" But Joe Wilson's already slipping down the old media memory hole. He served his purpose -- he damaged Bush, he tainted the liberation of Iraq -- and yes, by the time you read this the Kerry campaign may well have pulled the plug on his Web site, and Salon magazine's luxury cruise will probably have to find another headline speaker, and he won't be doing Tim Russert again any time soon. But what matters to the media and to Senator Kerry is that he helped the cause of (to quote his book title) The Politics Of Truth, and if it takes a serial liar to do that, so be it.

But before he gets lowered in his yellowcake overcoat into the Niger River, let's pause to consider: What do Joe Wilson's lies mean? And what does it say about the Democrats and the media that so many high-ranking figures took him at his word?

First, contrary to what Wilson wrote in the New York Times, Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire uranium from Niger. In support of that proposition are a Senate report in Washington, Lord Butler's report in London, MI6, French intelligence, other European agencies -- and, as we now know, the CIA report, based on Joe Wilson's original briefing to them. Against that proposition is Joe Wilson's revised version of events for the Times.

This isn't difficult. In 1999, a senior Iraqi "trade" delegation went to Niger. Uranium accounts for 75 percent of Niger's exports. The rest is goats, cowpeas and onions. So who sends senior trade missions to Niger? Maybe Saddam dispatched his Baathist big shots all the way to the dusty capital of Niamy because he had a sudden yen for goat and onion stew with a side order of black-eyed peas, and Major Wanke, the then-president, had offered him a great three-for-one deal.

But that's not what Joe Wilson found. Major Wanke's prime minister, among others, told Ambassador Wilson that he believed Iraq wanted yellowcake. And Ambassador Wilson told the CIA. And the CIA's report agreed with the British and the Europeans that "Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Africa."

In his ludicrously vain memoir The Politics Of Truth, Wilson plays up his knowledge of the country. He makes much of his intimacy with Wanke and gives himself the credit for ridding Niger of the Wanke regime. The question then is why a man who knew so much about what was going on chose deliberately to misrepresent it to all his media/ Democrat buddies, not to mention to the American people. For a book called The Politics Of Truth, it's remarkably short of it. On page 2, Wilson says of his trip to Niger: "I had found nothing to substantiate the rumors." But he had.

That's what lying is, by the way: intentional deceit, not unreliable intelligence. And I'm not usually the sort to bandy the liar-liar-pants-on-fire charge beloved by so many in our politics today, but I'll make an exception in the case of Wilson, who's never been shy about the term. He called Bush a "liar" and he called Cheney a "lying sonofabitch," on stage at a John Kerry rally in Iowa.

Saddam wanted yellowcake for one reason: to strike at his neighbors in the region, and beyond that at Britain, America and his other enemies. In other words, he wanted the uranium in order to kill you.

The obvious explanation for Wilson's deceit about what he found in Africa is that his hatred of Bush outweighed everything else. Or as the novelist and Internet maestro Roger L. Simon put it, "He is a deeply evil human being willing to lie and obfuscate for temporary political gain about a homicidal dictator's search for weapons-grade uranium."

Technically, it's weaponizable uranium, not "weapons grade." But that's the point. Simon isn't the expert, and, as Ambassador Wilson trumpets loudly and often, he is. This isn't a case of another Michael Moore, court buffoon to the Senate Democrats, or Whoopi Goldberg, has-been potty-mouth to John Kerry. They're in show biz; what do they know?

But Wilson does know; he went there, he talked to officials, and he lied about America's national security in order to be the anti-Bush crowd's Playmate of the Month. Either he's profoundly wicked or he's as deranged as that woman on the Paris Metro last week who falsely claimed to have been the victim of an anti-Semitic attack. The Paris crazy was unmasked within a few days, but the Niger crazy was lionized for a full year.

Some of us are on record as dismissing Wilson in the first bloom of his unmerited celebrity. But John Kerry was taken in -- to the point where he signed him up as an adviser and underwrote his Web site. What does that reveal about Mister Nuance and his superb judgment? He claims to be able to rebuild America's relationships with France, and to have excellent buddy-to-buddy relations with French political leaders. Yet anyone who's spent 10 minutes in Europe this last year knows that virtually every government there believes Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa. Is Kerry so uncurious about America's national security he can't pick up the phone to his Paris pals and get the scoop firsthand? For all his claims to be Monsieur Sophisticate, there's something hicky and parochial in his embrace of an obvious nutcake for passing partisan advantage.

Any Democrats and media types who are in the early stages of yellowcake fever and can still think clearly enough not to want dirty nukes going off in Seattle or Houston -- or even Vancouver or Rotterdam or Amman -- need to consider seriously the wild ride Yellowcake Joe took them on. An ambassador, in Sir Henry Wootton's famous dictum, is a good man sent abroad to lie for his country. This ambassador came home to lie to his. And the Dems and the media helped him do it.

[Bernard]

In a little-known aside, it was actually Pierre Salinger who first discovered Joe Wilson and made him a hero.

[gargoyle]

..."An ambassador is a good man sent abroad to spy for his country. An ambassador that comes home to spy on his country is a traitor"...TFTP!!!

[GretchenM]

Thanks for pinging me. =)

of Friday, Wilson's Web site, restorehonesty.com, was still wholly paid for by Kerry's presidential campaign.

I first read that as "Wilson's web site, RETROhonesty". Sounds like it could be a dem slogan: "We stand for retrohonesty. When it suits us."

[aruanan]

...all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they've previously given....

I also thought the tense of "they've previously" was strained; I thought the past perfect would be better.

You're right. "they'd previously" would be better since there was, indeed, a point after which they ceased to give Wilson the "hold-the-front-page treatment," that point being when it became painfully evident to even his most firmly attached sycophants that he had lied and was continuing to do so. Their response was merely to fall silent.

[hattend]

BTTT

[auboy]

"He is a deeply evil human being willing to lie and obfuscate for temporary political gain"

Change to, "they are deeply evil human beings willing to lie and obfuscate for temporary political gain", and we have the essence of the Democrat Party and MSM.

[Rockpile]

In my humble opinion that I venture from out here in the sticks, Mark Steyn and everyone else are overlooking one possibility----that Wilson was bought by Saddam Hussein.

Iraq's connections in Niger may have put the Baathist's together with Wilson and KA-CHINGG!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Remember that Saddam had access to literally HUNDREDS of millions of dollars in CASH.

But perhaps Wilson has just too much integrity to be bribed.

[satchmodog9]

bump

[speekinout]

Turns out HE, himself, was the one who told Novak his wife was in the CIA.

That rumor has been around since the beginning. The story was that Wilson was fond of telling people at parties and other gatherings that his wife was a CIA operative.
Novak could have been at one of those gatherings, or almost anyone in DC could have told Novak about her job, and he might have pursued the story from that side. Novak might not be telling because he's protecting a source that he uses for entirely unrelated stories.

Anyway, her job was not a secret any more than is the fact that the Press is anti-Bush.

[Fintan]

I hope Mark Steyn is on President Bush's ping list.

 

Heck, I hope I'm on Dubya's ping list.

[okie01]

But perhaps Wilson has just too much integrity to be bribed.

You jest, of course.

But it is nonetheless worthwhile to speculate as to just whose payroll Wilson was actually on.

The DNC and Kerry Campaign are only the most obvious nominees.

You've suggested Saddam Hussein as another possibility.

Then, there are the Saudis -- with whom Wilson has very close fiduciary relations. He is on the board of their Middle East Institute (a common sinecure for the more corruptible State Dept retirees) and runs a "consulting service" out of the offices of the Rock Creek Corporation, which is a Saudi front.

Perhaps, we shouldn't discount al-Qaeda itself as a possible Wilson paymaster -- veiled by his Saudi contacts.

In any event, there is no reason to believe that Wilson has been pursuing the national interest of the United States at any time during the past two years. The only question is whose interest is he, in fact, most concerned with (aside from his own, of course).

[neverdem]

BTTT

[okie01]

Steyn on Joe Wilson ping.

[AmishDude]

I highly doubt Wilson himself was the leak. I do not believe that has been confirmed at all.

That is one source that Novak would not protect. It is much more likely that a low-level functionary in the administration -- maybe even a non-political appointee let Washington's worst-kept secret slip.

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks for the ping! I especially like Steyn's use of the word "incurious" (regarding Kerry), since that is one of the charges so often leveled against President Bush. Seems like a nice, pollite way to mash the faces of the left into their own excrement. And given Steyn's genius with the written word, the selection of that one was purely inspired!

[alwaysconservative]

Make that "uncurious", rather than "incurious". (Must...read...more...carefully.)

[Rockpile]

It would be nice to think that some competent fiduciary investigators are taking a hard look at Mr. Wilson but I would not want to bet on it.

Is it known who exactly sent him on to the Yellowcake Road? Not that he couldn't have bamboozled some otherwise honest superior who would have had no reason to distrust him.

An Al Qaeda connection could be possible I reckon but it just seems to me that his actions would have had more benefit to Saddam in trying to eliminate reasons for an American invasion. Didn't Wilson start to sing a new tune before the US attack on Saddam?

[Rummyfan]

Thanks Pokey for an excellent Steyn!

[MHGinTN]

If Wilson actually goes on Wolfie's show, Wolfie will shmooz him into greyout ... Blitzer loves his democrats too much to expose the deceits of Joe Wilson and his service to the democrat party lie campaign.

[No Longer Free State]

According to C-SPAN this morning, Yellowcake Joe is scheduled to be on Wolf Blitzer's Late Edition tomorrow (Sunday). Should/could be interesting.

Well, then, shouldn't we be stuffing Wolfy's inbox with copies of the report?