Ex-Ambassador Wilson to speak in Tallahassee [Heads Up to our Florida Freepers]

Tallahassee Democrat ^ | August 11, 2005 | Bill Cotterell

[Quilla]

The former diplomat whose criticism of White House war policy touched off a nationwide political and journalistic debate will speak in Tallahassee today.

Joseph Wilson, the husband of CIA operative Valerie Plame, is the featured speaker for a noon meeting of the Capital Tiger Bay Club at the Silver Slipper. Members of the political and business luncheon group can bring guests for $25 per person.

Wilson, the last American envoy to Iraq before the Gulf War, was sent to Niger in February 2002 to find out whether Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium for a nuclear program. Wilson later wrote about his findings in the New York Times and Washington Post, disputing administration policy on Iraqi weapons capability.

After Wilson wrote that President Bush led the nation into war on false pretenses, his wife's links to the CIA were disclosed to conservative commentator Robert Novak. Reporter Judith Miller of the New York Times, who also received such a tip, is in jail for refusing to testify about her source and Time magazine writer Matt Cooper also faced imprisonment in the case until his magazine agreed to give up e-mails and other information about some of his contacts.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether Karl Rove, the president's political strategist, illegally identified a CIA operative. Democrats in Congress have demanded Rove's firing, and the case has sparked widespread discussion in legal circles and news organizations about protection of confidential sources.

[Quilla]

This may be an excellent opportunity to freep this traitor.

[SoFloFreeper]

Members of the political and business luncheon group can bring guests for $25 per person.

Oooh...$25 a person! Wow, sounds like Joe is really packing in the crowds!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Banana cream pie, anyone ?

[GiveUsLiberty]

What did Wilson do that would make you call him a "traitor?"

[clintonh8r]

What made you sign up today?

[Quilla]

All right, I'll bite:

Wilson, a former State Dept. official and adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign, along with his wife, a CIA employee, actually concocted a lie in an attempt to smear a sitting President during wartime. They are operatives for the democrats who used the complicit liberal media to subvert the national security objectives of this administration. Traitors, the lot of 'em.

[popdonnelly]

"at the Silver Slipper."

Sounds like a strip joint.

[EnricoGiamondi]

These actions might properly brand him any number of negative things. You could call Wilson a liar, a cheat, a hornswaggler, a flim-flam artist, an opportunist, a liberal ... but I am not entirely certain that I would be comfortable bandying the word "traitor" around in such a cavalier fashion. You say he and his wife were operatives for the democrats -- okay, but like them or not, last I checked, democrats were Americans.

So... if he were an operative for the Saudi government, the Cuban government, or even the Amsterdam Flower Girls... then "Traitor" would be an accurate label, no?

Lets just take a good look at the events and call them accurately. You win more victories with truth than with rhetoric -- especially rhetoric that can't be backed up.

[nopardons]

Then call Wilson a traitor because he had her name published in WHO's Who, long before Novak's column, and used to introduce himself and his wife, at parties, as "THE DIPLOMATE AND THE SPY".

[nopardons]

Yes, let's all look at the facts, none of which you appear to know.

For starters, it is against the law, for anyone to set up jobs, for their relatives, in our government. Valerie Plame made up the necessity for the trip to Niger and and then had her husband sent. That's not only nepotism, but he was never debriefed, never had to sign a confidentiality agreement with the CIA, and then used that trip to smear a sitting president, in a time of war, and wrote and said things which gave aid and comfort to our enemies in Iraq. And that's just for starters.

You're new here, but if you keep on posting like a LIBERAL, you aren't going to be here very much longer.

[nopardons]

And who do YOU think revealed her name?

Do you know that it is NOT against the law, nor illegal to reveal the name of a non-covert CIA agent, who has not been overseas in the past FIVE years, on assignment? And do you know, that when old Valerie's name was revealed, she had NOT been overseas for years more than five?

[Quilla]

Thanks for the excellent response. I didn't bother replying to the poster a second time as I noticed the mods had swiftly banned his account. mrchmp, who I assumed was a reincarnation, is no longer with us as well. Amazing work by the "powers that be" around here. ;-)

[nopardons]

My pleasure. :-)

Yes, the Mods have been kept VERY busy lately.