Posted on 07/20/2005 12:59:00 AM PDT by nickcarraway
There's a more scandalous question hovering in the background of Valerie Plame affair than whether presidential adviser Karl Rove intentionally or inadvertently blew the cover of a CIA agent -- namely, the question of how Plame's husband Joe Wilson wound up as point man to investigate whether Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire uranium from Africa.
It was Wilson, recall, who claimed in July 2003 op-ed for the New York Times that the agency had dispatched him to Niger -- at the personal request, he insinuated, of Vice President Cheney -- to look into the Iraq-Africa connection. Wilson insisted that he'd found no link and accused President Bush of lying in his 2003 State of the Union when he said, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Wilson's conclusion that Iraq had never sought to buy uranium from Niger, we now know, wasn't borne out by his own sketchy, hearsay-filled report; indeed, the British government still stands by the intelligence Bush cited. Wilson, in short, misrepresented his own findings in order to undermine the re-election of the president. In the words of Pat Roberts (R. Kansas), chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee which looked into the matter, "[Wilson] seems to have included information he learned from press accounts and from his beliefs about how the intelligence community would have or should have handled the information he provided...Time and again Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen that the president had lied to the American people...and that he had 'debunked' the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa....Not only did he NOT 'debunk' the claim, he actually gave some intelligence analysts even more reason to believe [the British report was] true."
Equally troubling, we now know for certain that Wilson was recommended for the job not by the Vice President but by his own wife, the aforementioned Plame -- whom Wilson has always vehemently denied had anything to do with his assignment. Plame told CIA director George Tenet, in an interagency memo which has been made public, that her husband was the man for the Niger job because he "has good relations with the both the PM (prime minister) and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention a lot of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity."
The deeper scandal, thus, doesn't involve Rove but the CIA itself: How did Plame manage to wangle an assignment of such magnitude for her husband? The agency, after all, signed off on Wilson's fact-finding expedition...and the guy turned out to be a congenital liar and partisan moonbat.
Think about that for a moment.
It's not as if Wilson was sent off to investigate the impact of reggae on Niger's music industry. He was looking into the possibility that Saddam had sought to acquire uranium for WMDs.
So Plame put in a good word for her husband. How rampant is nepotism inside the agency? So Wilson had contacts in Niger. Whatever happened to psych profiles? Heads should have rolled at the CIA, chief among them Tenet's, the moment Wilson published his loopy Times op-ed.
If, in the end, Rove's head winds up in the basket, the Bush Administration will have no one but themselves to blame.
Mark Goldblatt (MGold57@aol.com) is the author of Africa Speaks, a satire of black urban culture.
"...somebody somewhere early on was orchestrating a protection racket for Saddam."
Well said, as the plot thickens.
bttt
LOL .... Considering the French for the most part, control the "yellowcake" buying and selling in Niger that is a possible "code" name.
Not to mention Plame's.
What person (office) authorized Joe Wilson's travel?
It may be classified but there is an audit trail somewhere.
Maybe the special prosecutor has the answer?
Wilson has claimed that ONLY his travel was paid for by the CIA, his time was 'freeeeeee'.
This posting and the comments are what I have been thinking for weeks.
Jes, I listen to Russert pontificating and to think he makes 2 mil plus and can't think this creativity? no wonder the lame-stream media is screwing itself, but I digress.
The question remains, Who sent him and why, It hasn't been answered to my satisfaction.
My thought on this is did they spin it after he got back? hear me out on this, Wilson/Plame seem to be in the Dem's camp and Grunwald is Cooper's wife.
I smell a rat here, Somehow is the Miller jail time to protect either Hillary or the Kerry Camp since maybe the Wilson/Plame's shopped the story to them? Am I way off base on this?
I need to confirm this but was it Novak that said when he went to Niger he went in suit and tie and suck out like a sore thumb and looked like a G-man and nobody wanted to talk to him, if so this guy is a real dingbat and the even bigger dingbat is the wife that may have sent him.
Another side note, What is the yellow cake from Africa is not about Niger?
From what I have read there are three countries that mine Uranium in Africa. What if Niger is just a distraction and not Sadam's targeted source and ergo Britian's Intel's either, It could be still classified and sensitive.
When were the phony niger documents introduced to the fracas, and when did they originate?
Here is some background on phony docs and "yellowcake".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210040/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1226942/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/946072/posts
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, oil, orange juice and vanilla. Mix well and pour into prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Together with his own insipid narcissism, Wilson correctly figured that lying to the public about Bush would get him lionized by Big Media. That happened. He didn't count on the fact that with the internet and an awakened conservative citizenry who can discover the truth behind any liberal stack of lies, his new scandal-driven career would go down in plames...er, I mean flames.
Call me when its ready.
Bingo... alongside this matter, I still want to know about Sandy Berger's docs.....
Can you say Treason? (I love the word, no one uses it anymore).
Maybe someone more knowledgeable than I would know if
we could file for freedom of information on Wilson's and Plames financial interests.
I want to know more about what markets Joe Wilson's "Venture" Company delves into? Global? What specific markets, globally. Could there have been vested interest in say, Saddam's enterprises vis a vis countries in on the oil-for-food program largesse?
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