(excellent piece from July 2004) Joe Wilson: Lying Weasel

I long ago argued that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, could not have been "outed" as a CIA operative because she was the one who lobbied for Wilson to get the job of going to Niger to investigate any ties to Iraq.

Holding up a sign that says "I'm in the CIA and I know my husband has ties inside Niger that can help, so let's send him" is hardly keeping a low profile. As Robert Novak reported:

Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report.

As the Senate Report stated:

The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her 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." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said.

—Washington Post

Joe Wilson knew this all along. He also knew that if he wanted to "get" President Bush, he was going to have to lie about Niger, Iraq and attempts to obtain yellowcake (a form of uranium ore). He has already admitted that his claims that Karl Rove was "behind" the "outing" of his wife was a lie, and the Senate report confirms that his wife lobbied for him to get the job of going to Iraq, just like Novak reported.

What better way to defend his lies than by attacking President Bush and the Republicans from the start? It is a tactic the Democrats learned well during the Carville era. When someone attacked Clinton, the Carville machine attacked them relentlessly and vigorously. Wilson told many lies during the course of this little affair, but his biggest lies expose not only his role, but also his wife's role, including the fact that she gave him access to confidential CIA material.

Wilson's first mistake was the way he "investigated" the claims in Niger. He simply sat down and had some iced tea with a couple of people he knew in Niger and asked them if they knew anything about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium ore. That is not a legitimate way to investigate anything, except perhap the quality of poolside beverage service.

Gee, what a surprise that Nigerien officials claimed no knowledge of any such attempts. That was enough to satisfy Wilson, who promptly began writing a book to capitalize on the "Bush lied!" propaganda campaign. One item that provided cover for Wilson was the forged document that liberals claim was the only proof President Bush had that tied Iraq to attempts to obtain yellowcake. That, however, has never been true. President Bush has always cited British intelligence, not any specific document. In addition, if Iraq was going to make such attempts, it would be in their interest to (help) issue such forged documents to poison the well against any attempt to report on their activities. Once one forged document was exposed, they could claim that all such documents were forged.

The problem is that the truth is emerging about Iraq and Niger. This information is available at UPI as well:

London, England, Jun. 28 (UPI)—Iraq and four other countries were attempting to purchase uranium from Niger as far back as 1999, European intelligence officials told the Financial Times.

The unidentified sources told the newspaper illicit sales were being negotiated at least three years before last year's U.S.-led invasion.

They said between 1999 and 2001, uranium smugglers planned to sell the ore or refined ore called yellow cake, to Iran, Libya, China, North Korea and Iraq.

An official said meetings between Niger officials and would-be buyers from the five countries were held in several European countries. Intelligence officers were convinced that the uranium would be smuggled from abandoned mines in Niger, circumventing official export controls.

Even the liberal media can no longer provide cover for Wilson on that issue, as the Washington Post admitted:

Wilson's assertions—both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information—were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

Wilson also incriminated himself and his wife when he quoted material from the CIA which was unpublished at that time. From the Senate report (emphasis added):

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents—purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq—were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

The obvious conclusion is that his wife gave him access to CIA documents. Now that is a real reason to investigate something related to Valerie Plame's CIA employment!

What did Wilson know, when did he know it, and who gave him classified information?

His wife, of course. Nothing like a husband and wife tag-team that is willing to break the law, tell lies and blame their political opponents for all that is wrong with the world. They would get along well with the Clintons!

Holding up a sign that says "I'm in the CIA and I know my husband has ties inside Niger that can help, so let's send him" is hardly keeping a low profile.

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