the horror,..the horror.....
Posted on 07/13/2005 6:25:47 PM PDT by Howlin
The Ambassador Strikes Back, Answers to the Right Wing Spin Machine *** A BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE ***
Ambassador Joseph Wilson fired back today at the Rightwing Spin Machine, which, having been issued marching orders late yesterday in a set of talking points from the RNC, is once again hoping to distract from the potentially treasonous crimes that George W. Bush’s top political operative and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove is being alleged to have committed.
In a phone discussion early this afternoon, Wilson told The BRAD BLOG in no uncertain terms that "the President should fire Rove."
He told us that he’d be appearing on NBC’s Today Show tomorrow morning and would be repeating that call.
As well, he told The BRAD BLOG that he planned to read a letter on air which he received from Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush shortly after an article of his was printed in the San Jose Weekly News, on October 13, 2002, in which Wilson related his concerns about the pitfalls of the approach to Iraq being taken at the time by both the U.N. and the U.S.
In reply to that article, Wilson said that the former President wrote that he had "read your article and I agree with a lot of it."
Additionally, Wilson explained, Bush 41’s own National Security Advisor, Brett Scowcroft had contacted him to ask whether he "could walk on over to the White House with the letter" at the time. Which apparently he did.
Wilson also had sent the article to Bush 41’s Secretary of State, James Baker.
"None of them responded saying you’re a Democratic partisan hack and your views suck," said Wilson.
The above points are notable, because armed with those RNC talking point, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" and Friends have today kicked into overdrive smearing and lying about Wilson, claiming that he was against the Iraq War from the get-go.
If fact, Wilson, who was in charge of the Embassy in Iraq during the first Gulf War under Bush 41 (he was the last American to speak personally with Saddam Hussein before the war begain, and was responsible for taking care of some 125 Americans who had sought refuge in the American Embassy there when they were not allowed by Saddam to leave the country just prior to the war), says that it was "a full eight months" after he was sent by the CIA to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium there, "before I had said anything publicly about what America should consider in regard to a war with Iraq."
"My real concern was always WMD," he told us, "not Regime Change."
That concern was expressed in the October 2002, San Jose Weekly News editorial which apparently George W. Bush’s own father and National Security Advisor tended to agree with. Wilson’s trip to Niger occurred a full eight months earlier, in February of that same year.
We asked him if he had heard Fox "News’" John Gibson make his deplorable and irresponsible statement yesterday which said that "Karl Rove should receive a medal," because Wilson’s wife, covert CIA asset Valerie Plame, "should have been outted."
"Where I come from," slurred Gibson, "we do not want secret spy masters pulling the puppet strings in the background.
Gibson’s "logic", such that he has any, seems to be based on the unsupported claims that Plame -- or Wilson’s "little wifey" as Gibson condescendingly referred to her -- was "pulling the puppet strings" of national policy from her covert position in the CIA by sending Wilson, to Niger. That was, in Gibson’s false claim, because Wilson, "was opposed to the War in Iraq, opposed to Bush policy, and pointedly and loudly said so."
No, he didn’t, Mr. Gibson. Never mind those pesky facts. It’s only Fox "News" you work for, so we realize such facts are hardly relevant to you receiving your paycheck there.
"That is something that should be out in the open," blathered Gibson, "And the person doing it should be identified and should own up to it. So Rove should get a medal, if he did do what he says he didn’t do."
In response, Wilson simply said, "Well, that’s a lie. But no surprise there."
In the meantime, despite such pesky facts, the wingnuts also continue to claim that Plame was, in fact, not even a covert asset at the time of her outting.
The BRAD BLOG has learned from several sources, as also confirmed in Time magazine that Plame was indeed a "NOC", a nonofficial covert agent, the most valuable and secretive of CIA assets.
In regard to whether she was covert or not at the time of her outting by Rove, Bob Novak or whoever his "two senior administration sources" were, Wilson said, "What I can say is, that the CIA looked at the evidence of what had happened and referred the case to the Justice Department. That means that the CIA may think that a crime has been committed."
On Rightwing Hackery hoping to cynically deflect from the seriousness of the potentially treasonous crime committed by claiming that "Wilson lied" about his wife’s involvement in sending him to Niger, Wilson says, "In actual fact, all I’ve done is repeat what the CIA itself has said since July 22nd, 2003 as reported initially in Newsday by Knut Royce and Tim Phelps."
That Newsday article says [emphasis added]:
A senior intelligence official confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked "alongside" the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger.
But he said she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment. "They [the officers who did ask Wilson to check the uranium story] were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising," he said. "There are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up, for some reason," he said. "I can’t figure out what it could be."
"The CIA said [my wife] was not the person to have authorized my trip. They’ve repeated that time and time again."
And the Bush Apologists, who suddenly don’t seem to care all that much about National Security after all, keep repeating the opposite. Time and time again.
Damn, you quote the DU site verbatim.
I remember the **** temperature controls in office buildings because I nearly froze to death. My boss being a hardcore Republican who couldn't stand Carter kept reminding everyone whose fault it was. lol! I couldn't have agreed more with him. I remember people walking around the hallways mumbling "damn you Carter". lol! This in the heart of the south where Democrats ran everything.
Oh, but no, no, no! That's double SUPER secret background. You know. Sorta like those double, triple, spit-on-your-hand, cross-your-heart, deep, dark secrets we all used to have as kids. The ones no adult could ever POSSIBLY hope to understand.
Now that is what Novak says in your article.
But this is what Wilson said in that same article:
Novak also contacted Wilson for the column and was told, "I will not answer any question about my wife," according to a quotation Novak used in the column.
Wilson disputed that in an interview Monday night on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now."
"Bob Novak called me before he went to print with the report and he said a CIA source had told him that my wife was an operative," Wilson said. "He was trying to get a second source. He couldn't get a second source. Could I confirm that? And I said no."
And that is NOT what he said in his OWN book:
Late on Tuesday afternoon, July 8, six days before Robert Novak's article about Valerie and me, a friend showed up at my office with a strange and disturbing tale. He had been walking down Pennsylvania Avenue toward my office near the White House when he came upon Novak, who, my friend assumed, was en route to the George Washington University auditorium for the daily taping of CNN's Crossfire. He asked Novak if he could walk a block or two with him, as they were headed in the same direction; Novak acquiesced. Striking up a conversation, my friend, without revealing that he knew me, asked Novak about the uranium controversy. It was a minor problem, Novak replied, and opined that the administration should have dealt with it weeks before. My friend then asked Novak what he thought about me, and Novak answered: "Wilson's an asshole. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie, works for the CIA. She's a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him." At that point, my friend and Novak went their separate ways. My friend headed straight for my office a couple of blocks away.
Once he related this unsettling story to me, I asked him to immediately write down the details of the conversation and afterwards ushered him out of my office. Next, I contacted the head of the news division at CNN, Eason Jordan, Novak's titular boss, whom I had known for a number of years. It took several calls, but I finally tracked him down on his cell phone. I related to him the details of my friend's encounter with Novak and pointed out that whatever my wife might or might not be, it was the height of irresponsibility for Novak to share such information with an absolute stranger on a Washington street. I asked him to speak to Novak for me, but he demurred— he said he did not know him very well—and suggested that I speak to Novak myself. I arranged for him to have Novak call me and hung up.
Novak called the next morning, but I was out, and then so was he. We did not connect until the following day, July 10. He listened quietly as I repeated to him my friend's account of their conversation. I told him I couldn't imagine what had possessed him to blurt out to a complete stranger what he had thought he knew about my wife.
Novak apologized, and then asked if I would confirm what he had heard from a CIA source: that my wife worked at the Agency. I told him that I didn't answer questions about my wife. I told him that my story was not about my wife or even about me; it was about sixteen words in the State of the Union address.
"He really sucks, doens't he?"
I can't recall a more blatant, glib self-promoter and exaggerator in a major US story.
The "Bush's Letter" ploy reeks of weakness.
the horror,..the horror.....
Coyote is smarter that Wilson.
you’re a Democratic partisan hack and your views suck
Nepotism usually results in problems and a job poorly done.
The worthless "hanger-on" survives being axed due to the support of the only usefull employee in the clan.
Joe Wilson perpetuates the stereotype.
Been there, done that, worked with the hangers-on.
washi
One thing I can assure you.
Novak will come out of this looking like a big irresponsible jerk.
And Joe Wilson didn't get this.
Had CIA (operative or otherwise) wished to do a hit-piece on Bushies and WOT -- they SHOULD have sent someone other than Wilson to explore the uranium/Niger deal. Maybe they should have suggested he NOT write that book. If it was all supposed to be about "protecting" Plame's super secret identity.
I'm so disgusted. Someone had this "great" anti-Bush strategery. Hide Valerie Plame in "plain sight" (cover of magazines, at dinner with then Pres Clinton); but scream foul if anyone else makes even a remote comment which might in anyway "implicate" or "involve" Plame.
I see a "planned" distraction with the intent to undermine US Security and Intel; take-out a sitting President (or whoever else can be snagged in this trap).
ugh.
Heck, at this rate... whoever thunk up this stupid dust devil ought at least to now demand that the names of ALLL AGENTS be made public. So all the rest of us might know to never do a "google" on their names, lest we BREAK the Intelligence blah blah act. fer cryin out loud...
Oh. I forget. Dems are already demanding to be in on "high security" stuff. Of course, obviously to prevent another "plame" event. piffle.
I know!
"Well, your daddy thought I was right!"
Check this out:
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and three other Senate Democratic leaders - Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan - sent a letter to Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, asking him to release results of an initial internal investigation into the leak and to begin a new probe "to explain public inconsistencies."
I feel a bit of suprise here. Is Conyers black? I hadn't noticed before. If your photo is correct, I am indeed embarrassed.
I have an idea as to what Reid can do with that new probe.
Uh huh.
Fits all the data in re Plame/Wilson.
Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."
"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?
"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"
"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
Partially right but the smell is definitely Hilly.
How do you know when Wilson's lying? It's easy, everything he says or writes is a lie.
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