I must confess it's not common knowledge to me... I missed this tidbit. You wouldn't happen to have a link to a report on this party, would you?
Sometimes I wonder if Wilson didn't out himself and his wife as a way of defending against prosecution for something else, perhaps something to do with Oil for Food or the WOT or job-related incompetance. Sometimes people become wanna-be 'whistleblowers' as a way of getting sympathy and making themselves look like candidates for martyrdom when in fact they know they've become targets of an investigation and are expecting the law to come down on them like a ton of bricks at any moment. Think of it as the defense team's preemptive strike against prosecution in court.
Another figure in the Pentagon tried smearing others when he was caught trying to land contracts for his buddy's telecom biz. The idea is to make the prosecution look bad for going after the 'poor wittle whistleblower.'
Think about it- Wilson, in spite of his public denials, did find additional humint to back up existing evidence that Iraq had sought to acquire uranium in Niger. But he didn't write a formal report upon his return. This seems to be an effort on his part to WITHHOLD or bury his newfound information from those who can act on it, certainly justification for dismissal of a normal employee. Wilson also effectively outed himself as the Niger-tale's 'covert operative' in his haste to get press time- he after all was abroad while Plame was behind a desk here waiting for his return.
"I missed this tidbit. You wouldn't happen to have a link to a report on this party, would you?"
It was the first of a couple of dust-ups Blair had with Clinton. Hillary was in London, hawking her book, and they were at a cocktail party with Blair. The conversation was overheard by some reporter. It was so long ago, I don't think I have any info about it.
The other dust-up came at another meeting between the two just before Blair was set to fly to the USA to speak before the joint session of Congress. Evidently, Clinton was saying the usual leftist drivel about America needed to share their power and it was somehow bad for America to be the only superpower.
When Blair spoke before Congress - he said this in reply:
“There is no more dangerous theory in international politics than that we need to balance the power of America with other competitive powers; different poles around which nations gather.
“Such a theory may have made sense in 19th century Europe. It was perforce the position in the Cold War.
“Today, it is an anachronism to be discarded like traditional theories of security. And it is dangerous because it is not rivalry but partnership we need; a common will and a shared purpose in the face of a common threat”.