The “Confusion” Of Joseph Wilson
By Vincent Fiore (07/21/04)
Memo to the masses: When you see the words “misspoken,” “erred,” and “confused,” in relation to former ambassador Joseph Wilson, know this: These words are typical beltway qualifiers that seek to say in essence that “I lied,” without ever having to say the word “lied.”
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In his New York Times op-ed, Wilson brazenly declared: “Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”
But as the Senate Intelligence Committee’s July 9 report of this year shows, it is Wilson who twisted intelligence to actually downplay Iraq’s nuclear threat, thereby meeting his own political agenda of helping Kerry win the election in November.
Consider the Senate committee’s findings:
-The panel found that Wilson’s report, “rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, actually bolstered the case for most intelligence analysis.”
(www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39834-2004Jul9)
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-Ambassador Wilson’s wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, “specifically recommended” Wilson for the trip to Africa. In a memo from Plame dated February 12, 2002 to the deputy chief of the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) from Plame, the Senate report concludes that according to the CIA testimony, Plame “offered up his (Wilson) name.” (www.gopusa.com/news/2004/july/0713_wilson_plame_intel.shtml)
-Wilson misled the Washington Post in June of 2003, when he told the paper that the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong." In fact, Wilson had never seen the reports.
When the Senate committee staff asked Wilson how he could have come to that conclusion, Wilson replied he may have “misspoken” (See first paragraph) to reporters.
(www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39834-2004Jul9)
-Contrary to Wilson’s claim’s that the Bush administration understood that it was knowingly passing along questionable information to the American public, the Senate committee found in its investigations that the CIA did not tell the White House it had its own doubts about an Iraq/Niger connection for the procuring of uranium.
Joseph Wilson has had extensive ties to the Democratic Party throughout much of his time in Washington. Wilson is an unabashed supporter and donor to the Kerry/Edwards campaign for the presidency. In 2000, he donated to Vice President Gore’s election, as has his wife, Valerie Plame. In the mid-eighties, Wilson worked for Gore as a congressional staffer. He has donated money to such liberal stalwarts as Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy. He has in the recent past spoken to liberal “527” groups like Win Without War, which is a part of MoveOn.org, the premiere liberal hate group that is renowned for its coarse and hate-inspired political sloganeering.
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