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.
Can you say Oil For Food, boys and girls? I knew you could.
Paging Norm Coleman...
You may have seen this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1446394/posts
Some Questions for Sen. Schumer
6. Would you refresh my recollection regarding your outrage when Democrat Sandy Berger was caught stuffing classified documents into his pants upon leaving the National Archives?
And what does this tell us of the way the CIA was operating at that time?
Oh, and another thing. Ms Plame was a WMD analysist, why was she still employed after we took Baghdad? It's pretty obvious that she was a complete failure at her job.
"Wilson has claimed that ONLY his travel was paid for by the CIA, his time was 'freeeeeee'."
If I remember correctly from my brief sojourn as a federal contractor, that is a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act.
"The question is, why on earth would the CIA send a rank amature on such an assignment? Why wouldn't they have seasoned operatives to investigate this? Are they really that inept?"
In 1977, a lot of covert operations staff were fired by Carter's CIA chief, and the CIA started relying on technical intelligence--pictures and signals intercepts--far too much.
Are there any reports on how "chummy" Plame and President Clinton were?
Do you think Joe W may have done his gov work in Niger for free because he really conducted other personal business there? Doesn't he have some kind of business consulting in Africa?
Don't forget, this started with Novak and a "mystery friend" of Wilson's...on a walk down a street...not Novak's article, not Rove or Libby....not Cooper.
I thought I remember he was into gold investments. That's a nice way to hide money.
Yes, I do wonder this. He came back with virtually "NO DATA" on the uranium matter. What, exactly, did he come away with; who exactly did he meet, and for what purpose(s).
Earlier this morning, trotting around.. the song "Staying Alive" came on.. and I could see Disco Wilson... starring in it..
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Well now, I get low and I get high,
and if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes.
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right. It's OK.
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin' alive.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm,
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah.
I'm stayin' alive.
Earlier this morning, trotting around.. the song "Staying Alive" came on.. and I could see Disco Wilson... starring in it..
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Well now, I get low and I get high,
and if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes.
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right. It's OK.
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin' alive.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm,
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah.
I'm stayin' alive.
Dudley Moore "Foul Play"
Just think of the possibilities. What hath Travolta Wrought!
Has anyone noticed how much V. Plame looks like the "deep throat" bitch dog daughter Felts? Eerie if not demonic. Is this a race of wierdos or something worse?
I'm kinda interested as to whether Wilson's name was attached to his Niger Report originally. I'm getting the impression that it was not.
I like chocolate cake.
this was an unpaid trip, except of course for those all important Green Tea expenses.
Novak has an interesting article dated October 4, 2003 about Valerie's $1000 contribution to the Dems in "1999" using the name VALERIE E. WILSON.
I just have this image in my head of high ranking government officials in Niger who all look like Kofi Annan sitting with Joe Wilson, sipping Green Tea, and saying "Oooo Nooo, we hahve hahd noooo coontahcts with Meester Saddam HU-ssin regahding yellow-cake. Nooo, none aht'all."
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