Posted on 07/17/2005 12:53:21 PM PDT by doug from upland
Remember Joe Wilson, he of the cheesy V.F. photo shoot that seemed meant to evoke an aura of Gatsbyesque grandeur and Viennese espionage derring-do (rather underwhelmingly, I'd have to say)?
Recall Wilson had this to say about his trip to Niger:
I spent the next eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place....
...If my information was deemed inaccurate, I understand (though I would be very interested to know why). If, however, the information was ignored because it did not fit certain preconceptions about Iraq, then a legitimate argument can be made that we went to war under false pretenses.
Might Wilson have spent a tad too much time sipping all that tea?
Check out this, quite interesting, piece from today's FT.
To be sure, as the FT article reminds us, some documents that detailed alleged uranium transfers as between Niger and Iraq have indeed proved fraudulent.
So why then, now many months out, is British intelligence still sticking by the story, despite the embarrassing forgeries?
Here's why:
However, European intelligence officers have now revealed that three years before the fake documents became public, human and electronic intelligence sources from a number of countries picked up repeated discussion of an illicit trade in uranium from Niger. One of the customers discussed by the traders was Iraq.
These intelligence officials now say the forged documents appear to have been part of a "scam", and the actual intelligence showing discussion of uranium supply has been ignored.
More:
The FT has now learnt that three European intelligence services were aware of possible illicit trade in uranium from Niger between 1999 and 2001. Human intelligence gathered in Italy and Africa more than three years before the Iraq war had shown Niger officials referring to possible illicit uranium deals with at least five countries, including Iraq.
This intelligence provided clues about plans by Libya and Iran to develop their undeclared nuclear programmes. Niger officials were also discussing sales to North Korea and China of uranium ore or the "yellow cake" refined from it: the raw materials that can be progressively enriched to make nuclear bombs.
The raw intelligence on the negotiations included indications that Libya was investing in Niger's uranium industry to prop it up at a time when demand had fallen, and that sales to Iraq were just a part of the clandestine export plan. These secret exports would allow countries with undeclared nuclear programmes to build up uranium stockpiles.
One nuclear counter-proliferation expert told the FT: "If I am going to make a bomb, I am not going to use the uranium that I have declared. I am going to use what I acquire clandestinely, if I am going to keep the programme hidden."
As the FT wryly closes its piece:
Mr Wilson was critical of the Bush administration's use of secret intelligence, and has since charged that the White House sought to intimidate him by leaking the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent.
But Mr Wilson also stated in his account of the visit that Mohamed Sayeed al-Sahaf, Iraq's former information minister, was identified to him by a Niger official as having sought to discuss trade with Niger.
As Niger's other main export is goats, some intelligence officials have surmised uranium was what Mr Sahaf was referring to.
Goats, yellowcake, sweet tea--what's the difference?
It's all about "false pretenses" and a mad rush to war!
UPDATE: The FT is now giving this story bigger coverage and has a second (lead) story up:
Intelligence officers learned between 1999 and 2001 that uranium smugglers planned to sell illicitly mined Nigerien uranium ore, or refined ore called yellow cake, to Iran, Libya, China, North Korea and Iraq.
These claims support the assertion made in the British government dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme in September 2002 that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from an African country, confirmed later as Niger. George W. Bush, US president, referred to the issue in his State of the Union address in January 2003.
The claim that the illicit export of uranium was under discussion was widely dismissed when letters referring to the sales - apparently sent by a Nigerien official to a senior official in Saddam Hussein's regime - were proved by the International Atomic Energy Agency to be forgeries. This embarrassed the US and led the administration to reverse its earlier claim.
But European intelligence officials have for the first time confirmed that information provided by human intelligence sources during an operation mounted in Europe and Africa produced sufficient evidence for them to believe that Niger was the centre of a clandestine international trade in uranium.
Well, I guess that's one fewer "lie" to throw at the feet of the Bushies.
But, of course, in the cretinous intellectual and political climate we inhabit (where the likes of Michael Moore parade about playing pretend noble dissident and are applauded by our estimable "cultural" arbitrers--from Tarantino's Cannes to Weinstein's Ziegfeld bash)--how many will read this critical update to the yellowcake chronicles in the august pages of the FT (or Instapundit!)?
Too few, doubtless.
Oh, and might Sy Hersh want to clarify his earlier New Yorker reporting on this matter?
The Bush Administration’s reliance on the Niger documents may, however, have stemmed from more than bureaucratic carelessness or political overreaching. Forged documents and false accusations have been an element in U.S. and British policy toward Iraq at least since the fall of 1997, after an impasse over U.N. inspections. Then as now, the Security Council was divided, with the French, the Russians, and the Chinese telling the United States and the United Kingdom that they were being too tough on the Iraqis. President Bill Clinton, weakened by the impeachment proceedings, hinted of renewed bombing, but, then as now, the British and the Americans were losing the battle for international public opinion. A former Clinton Administration official told me that London had resorted to, among other things, spreading false information about Iraq. The British propaganda program—part of its Information Operations, or I/Ops—was known to a few senior officials in Washington. “I knew that was going on,” the former Clinton Administration official said of the British efforts. “We were getting ready for action in Iraq, and we wanted the Brits to prepare.”
Hersh might owe British intelligence a little apology, no?
After all, he accused them of cooking the books on Niger.
"Sexed up" intel and all that.
But, rather, it looks like, if anything, the story was a lot bigger than what Hersh derisively accused the Brits of hyping.
It, reportedly, wasn't just Iraq that may have trying to obtain uranium from Niger.
For good measure, throw in China, NoKo, Libya, and Iran too.
So who comes off looking more credible in this whole affair: Bush/Blair--or Hersh/Wilson?
I report, you decide.
N.B: But, as you do so, recall Wilson went out to Niger and sent back the 'all clear' to HQ on the yellowcake front.
He'll have a lot of egg on his face if it turns out Niger was, per the FT, at the "centre of a clandestine international trade in uranium", no?
But, then again, he was never the spy in the family!
STILL MORE:
Josh Marshall appears to intimate the FT has been peddled some misinformation.
He mostly ignores the FT's main revelation (that Niger may have been at the center of a clandestine international trade in uranium) and instead focuses on the identity of the forger.
Marshall all but formally announces he's got a mega, air-tight story in the works that will apparently point to a different person or persons or organizations (ie, not the unnamed Italian businessman) regarding the "origins of those forged documents and who was involved."
He then provides this "hypothetical" to put the FT piece in context:
Let's say that certain individuals or organizations are responsible for some rather unfortunate misdeeds. And let's further postulate that such hypothetical individuals or organizations find out that some folks are on to them, that a story is in the works -- perhaps more than one -- and that it's coming right at them. Those individuals or organizations -- as shorthand, let's call them 'the bad actors' -- might well start trying to fight back, trying to gin up an alternative storyline to exculpate themselves and inculpate others. If that story made its way into the news, at a minimum, it might help the bad actors muddy the waters for when the real story comes out. You can see how such a regrettable turn of events might come to pass.
Developing...TPM versus the Financial Times!
(Or is it TPM--or some other media outlet Josh may be working on the story for singly or jointly with others--versus "the bad actors"?)
I wish Josh the best of luck if he's got a scoop of this size.
He would become a launched journalistic brand.
But, it's worth bearing in mind, the FT isn't stock-full of gullible hacks.
And there's still the matter, quite aside from the identity of the forger(s), of whether Niger sat at an epicenter of major cross-border trade in uranium or not.
We can't just sweep that issue aside, can we?
Posted by Gregory Djerejian at June 27, 2004 10:44 PM
It was partisan propaganda from the beginning as far as Wilson was concerned.
It really is beginning to look like Plame wanted Wilson to go there and create doubt for the war. She wanted to hurt the President politically. Wilson certainly did, so I presume they both shared the same philosophy.
As an investigator myself, I think it's a little moronic to go to Niger and ask the corrupt government officials there if the Iraqis had been trying to buy yellowcake from them. Of course this is the age of recreational drugs so things are being done a lot differently. It's kind of like going to a prison and asking the cons if they are really guilty of committing the crimes they have been convicted of committing.
Posted on 07/14/2004 10:44:48 AM PDT by doug from upland
JOE WILSON'S secret diary; entries Feb. 17 - 25, 2003
Monday, Feb. 17
my biggest worry - when was I last immunized for yellow fever?...hectic cab ride to the airport...grabbed a latte on the way at the Starbucks where Caity Mahoney was murdered...awwww, she didn't get her chance to talk to Ken Starr...damn Republicans...caught United flight to Paris.....caught Al Algerie and landed in Niamey...20 hours and a lot of smelly people....man, I better find a way to get a book deal out of this
Tues, Feb. 18
fourth floor suite at the Gawaeye is okay...jet lag hitting hard...sat by the pool sipping sweet mint tea most of the day...asked a bellhop if he knew anything about Iraq buying yellow cake...he didn't
Wed., Feb. 19
spent about three hours sipping sweet mint tea...watched some CNN...I don't know whether to thank or blame Valerie for getting me this gig...if she ever finds out about the student who came in on my flight from Paris, she will hang me by my nads...asked Bridgette if she knew anything about Iraq buying yellow cake...she didn't
Thurs, Feb. 20
had a traditional Niger breakfast and stomach felt queasy most of the day...met with a few government officials...we sipped sweet mint tea...can't remember their names...asked if they knew about Iraq buying yellow cake...they didn't
Fri, Feb. 21
went to the Niamey Grand Market to do some shopping...asked the cabbie on the way if he knew anything about Iraq and yellow cake...he didn't...had a leisurely lunch and sipped sweet mint tea for about an hour and a half...asked 10 shop keepers if they knew about Iraq buying yellow cake...nine of them knew nothing...one guy heard some kind of a rumor from his brother-in-law in Chad but didn't trust him, particulary after his honor killing of their niece ...bought Valerie an authentic Djenne-Djeno copper alloy bead necklace...got one for Bridgette, along with a copy of Leaves of Grass in French...put it all on expense account...thank you, taxpaying suckers...watched a little CNN and a porno tape I brought with me
Saturday, Feb. 22
it was a tough week, so I thought I deserved some R&R...went to see camel races...asked three camel jockeys if they knew whether Iraq had bought yellow cake...they didn't...the races were fun, but the sweet mint tea had me jumping up to go to the bathroom too often...ha, ha, kind of like Al Gore was not in the room because he drank too much iced tea and had to go pee...took Bridgette out for some dinner and entertainment...we had a fairly decent meal of rice and sauce, couscous, kebabs, grilled fish and chicken...then went to the Jet-7 and drank a few too many beers
Sunday, Feb. 23
slept in late...this stinking place has no decent Sunday brunch in the whole damned country...had a continental breakfast -- orange juice, coconut milk, stale pastry of some kind...sat by the pool most of the day drinking sweet mint tea...in the evening, I went by a mosque and asked some kids outside if they knew anything about yellow cake...they ran away...I think they were scared and thought I might have been out gay cruising...maybe I'm lucky I didn't get beaten up like Kevin Spacey when he was out cruising in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in London
Monday, Feb. 24
last day here...in good faith, I really wanted to do my job and find out about this yellow cake stuff...a police officer knew nothing, a librarian knew nothing, three tribal leaders knew nothing, a high-ranking military officer knew nothing, a peddler knew nothing, a guy I met in a public restroom knew nothing...spent another few hours by the pool to get in my last several cups of sweet mint tea
Tuesday, Feb. 25
another 20 stinking hours from Niamey to Paris to D.C....if this religious warrior and cowboy thinks he is going to get away with claiming Iraq was a threat, I have all the info I need to nail him...hell, he was never elected in the first place...I wonder if it will be Howard Dean or Hillary who gets the nomination...if I were Howard, I would worry that Hillary might whack me...whoever gets the nod, if they win, I had better get a good job...but I'm not going back to Niger...give me Paris
Maybe Wilson was in the bathroom with Gore - both having ingested too much tea....
He went there with an agenda and did superficial work. Do we know the author of the forged report for Italy? That was set up, knowing it would be found, in an attempt to hurt the President.
I think now that we've learned that we can send partisan political hacks to places like Niger to learn what's going on in the world, I have to ask, why do we need a CIA?
I am in disbelief that someone was responsible for letting this guy go over there. We needed someone without an anti-Bush and anti-war agenda. This was a massive failure on someone's part. Or, it wasn't a failure. It was on purpose by a leftist hack. Does anyone know who made the final decision to approve and send Wilson? Was it a committee or a person? That is part of this story.
Since this is from last year, you might already have this in your files--but here's a ping in case you don't.
So far, no one is taking credit for sending this dork Wilson over to Niger. That's the real story here. I suspect it was the DNC, the NYT or his publisher. Just another example of government waste of taxpayers' dollars I guess.
The following is from a Oct 29, 2003 Transcript of Chat with Ambassador Joe Wilson as it appeared on the old "Restore Honesty" web site:
Chatmaster2 (Oct 29, 2003 10:56:59 AM)
Ambassador Wilson, my sister and I are ardent fans of yours and wish you’d throw your hat into the ring. My questions, all related, are: how do we get a special prosecutor involved in the case involving your wife? Obviously, Ashcroft can’t be allowed to investigate—talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!! Is bush’s statement that he doesn’t know whether the “leaker” will ever be found the end of the issue? Does anyone here believe that if he really wanted to find who leaked your wife’s name, he couldn’t? A crime has been committed—in the name of revenge and intimidation! Is nothing going to happen? HELP!!!!
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 10:57:41 AM)
Thanks very much. For right now, I am most interested in seeing that we get John Kerry elected as the next President so we can get our destiny back on track.
manyrivers (Oct 29, 2003 10:57:50 AM)
I want to personally thank you for your integrity Ambassador Wilson
Chatmaster3 (Oct 29, 2003 10:58:01 AM)
John from Florida asks: Why do you think it took the mainstream media so long to pick up on the uranium story?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 10:58:54 AM)
I don't know but it generally takes awhile for the press to get on to a story. There is also the fact that until now the press has been cowed by the White House on a lot of this stuff
Chatmaster2 (Oct 29, 2003 10:59:12 AM)
Manyrivers writes: admire your honest stand and your service for our nation. It is refreshing to even hear the word "honesty" in today's political circus. Please then, answer honestly one question. In your opinion, is this war in Iraq about the oil and gas reserves?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:00:04 AM)
Initially, I think the war was about redrawing the political map of the Middle East. That said, with each passing day it becomes about vested interests, of which oil is a big one
~ snip ~
RonH (Oct 29, 2003 11:03:22 AM)
Ambassador, what was it about Kerry that made you decide to support his candidacy over let's say some of the other 'antiwar' candidates?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:04:20 AM)
Kerry faced down the Senate over the Vietnam war in a key statement when he said who is going to send the last man to die for a mistake. What I did was easy by comparison.
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:05:06 AM)
Let me add that I was and am not anti war per se. I am and John is anti stupid war. Invasion-conquest-occupation unilaterally is a classic example of stupid war
Chatmaster2 (Oct 29, 2003 11:05:21 AM)
Joseph writes: Ambassador: First, let me express my gratitude for your courageous actions in exposing the lies of the Bush administration as to the Niger incident. My question is, how great a threat is this incident to national security? How possible is it that by revealing your wife's identity as a CIA operative will result in yet another deadly terrorist attack during the Bush administration's watch? Thank you again. Sincerely, Joseph V.
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:07:28 AM)
This was a crime against the national security of my country, the security of which to which both my wife and I many years ago dedicated ourselves. Somebody, to protect their political agenda took a national security asset off the table. That somebody is still in the Administration and might leak again. Do you sleep better at night knowing that? I don't. And it impacts directly on WMD and terrorism
Guest (Oct 29, 2003 11:07:37 AM)
At what point did you lose faith in the Bush Administration and why exactly do you fell that John Kerry is the best candidate?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:09:25 AM)
When Bush the candidate went to South Carolina and ran a subrosa campaign against McCain accusing his wife of being a drug addict and his kids of not being white (as if that mattered). That is not the change of tone I was looking for. When the neoconservatives got control of our national security policy, I knew we needed to mobilize to fight
Fe (Oct 29, 2003 11:09:37 AM)
Ambassador, do you think Senator Kerry's plan for Iraq peace is viable for the situation and the region? Fe
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:10:56 AM)
It sure is. Take a look at it and you will see that slowly the administration is seeing the wisdom of his ideas. Internationalize, turn over sovereignty, make it a reconstruction rather than an occupation. All that is key to success
Chatmaster2 (Oct 29, 2003 11:11:10 AM)
Dear Ambassador Wilson, On 'Meet The Press' Vicepresident Cheney says that he never met you, and didn't know who you were until you 'outed' the fact that you had been sent by CIA to investigate the supposed sale of yellow cake to Saddam by Niger. Is this true? Do you believe he didn't know who you were? Eugenio
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:12:21 AM)
Cheney was secretary of defense when I was in charge of the embassy in Baghdad. He was an addressee on cables I sent from there. I am sorry his memory is so bad but, frankly, I am not too sorry never to have shaken his hand. I take it as a badge of honor that I don't know him.
~ snip ~
riverrat (Oct 29, 2003 11:17:37 AM)
The leak about your wife was a clear violation of a specific law about exposing the identity of CIA agents. But most leaks don't violate this particular law, although they often involve the release of other kinds of classified information that is illegal under other statutes. Can we really expect to have a government that doesn't leak? Don't people in the executive branch often use classification to hide policies from the public they think would be unpopular?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:17:50 AM)
That does indeed occur.
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:17:57 AM)
But there are legitimate reasons to classify information.
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:18:16 AM)
The problem in my case was that what was leaked was the name of a national security asset, my wife, which is unprecedented
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:18:40 AM)
not for the purpose of protecting a policy, but for the purpose of protecting a person with a specific political agenda at the expense of the national security of our country
Knight_of_the_Star (Oct 29, 2003 11:18:57 AM)
Ambassador Wilson, what was your initial reaction when you found out that your wife's identity as a CIA operative was leaked to the press?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:19:07 AM)
My initial reaction was unprintable
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:19:11 AM)
but it starts with an F
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:19:18 AM)
But then I asked myself 2 questions:
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:19:26 AM)
-what did my wife's name add to the article
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:19:29 AM)
nothing
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:19:48 AM)
-and what part of no didn't Bob Novak understand when the CIA told him not to use it
~ snip ~
Guest (Oct 29, 2003 11:25:36 AM)
Mr. Ambassador--if the policy is Iraq is such a failure, and the administration is so nefarious in its handling of the truth, why then is the US public not in a frenzy against Bush et al. What is your take on that?
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:25:57 AM)
It takes time, and effort to educate Americans as to the consequences of some of the actions being taken on their behalf
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:26:15 AM)
remember that during the Vietnam era, it was only 6 or 7 years after Americans were dying there that we realized
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:26:22 AM)
the consequences.
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:26:43 AM)
It was John Kerry, who took that message most directly to the seat of power when he appeared before the Senate. That, by the way
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:27:06 AM)
is the act as distinguished from mere words, that for me makes him the candidate I enthusiastically support
florida (Oct 29, 2003 11:27:12 AM)
can we expose the leaker and nail this administration for once. they have gotten away with so much thus far.
~ snip ~
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:34:12 AM)
John Kerry's personal courage in Vietnam and in front of Congress at a young age
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:34:21 AM) as well as his professional experience have convinced me
*** Joe Wilson (Oct 29, 2003 11:34:29 AM)
that he is best suited to be President of the United States
Great stuff. It goes all the way back to Vietnam for this POS.
Did you get that lemon juice trick from NATIONAL TREASURE?
More and more, this smells of Plame and Wilson trying to help Kerry and hurt America.
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