Joe Wilson In A Bind

American Spectator ^ | 10-31-05 | Clinton W. Taylor

[smoothsailing]

   

Joe Wilson in a Bind

By Clinton W. Taylor

Published 10/31/2005 12:07:45 AM

Last week I had the privilege of being lied to personally by Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who spoke here at Stanford last Monday.

The fact that Joe Wilson is economical with the truth probably won't surprise many Spectator readers.

Nonetheless I assure you the horse I am beating, although it may be lying in the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times, is far from dead.

But this week there's new evidence of his lies to flog him with. When the indictment of Scooter Libby was unsealed on Friday, it finally placed one of Wilson's oft-repeated fabrications beyond the most hopeful partisan's credibility.

First the lie: In the Q&A after his talk last Monday, Wilson answered a question of mine with essentially the same statement about the origin of his mission to Niger that he relates in his L.A. Times op-ed:

Valerie was an innocent in this whole affair. Although there were suggestions that she was behind the decision to send me to Niger, the CIA told Newsday just a week after the Novak article appeared that "she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment." The CIA repeated the same statement to every reporter thereafter.

The Newsday article he refers to notes:

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."

This has been Wilson's story ever since the issue came up: he maintains his wife had nothing to do the CIA's decision to send him. It's important to his narrative that "outing" his wife was a bolt from the blue designed to intimidate and punish him.

The more plausible explanation is that the information came out because it cast Wilson's mission and his credibility in a new light. Evidence supports this interpretation. While the CIA may back Wilson's account to reporters, it has now twice contradicted him when the chips were down and the threat of perjury loomed.

The first contradiction, of course, occurred back in July 2004, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence devoted a few pages of its report on WMD intelligence failures to point out that Valerie Plame came up with the idea of sending her husband to Niger. Both a memorandum Plame wrote and the testimony of a CIA officer show that Wilson's trip was her idea. (The report can be downloaded here, and the relevant sections are on page 39, 40, and 72.)

That should have put an end to Joe Wilson's credibility, but it wasn't good enough for the diehard Wilson fans, like most of the audience at Stanford last week, or the editorial staff of the L.A. Times. But now the indictment of Scooter Libby has proved yet again that Wilson is full of it.

In order to claim that Libby had perjured himself and obstructed justice, the grand jury goes to great lengths to show how and when he had actually learned about the origin of Wilson's trip. To do so, they refer on page 4 of the indictment to a conversation between Libby and a "senior officer of the CIA" on June 11, 2003:

[Libby] was advised by the CIA officer that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was believed to be responsible for sending Wilson on the trip.

And again on page 12 of the indictment:

[Libby] was informed by a senior CIA officer that Wilson's wife was employed by the CIA and that the idea of sending him to Niger originated with her.

This puts Wilson's fan club in a bind: either Wilson is lying, or the indictment is. Which is it? If it's the latter, then perhaps Scooter Libby didn't know what the indictment said he knew, and the indictment ought to be thrown out or at least amended.

Alas, most of the world sees it's the former. Wilson's lie, of course, wouldn't excuse any crime Libby might have committed, but it ought to be enough to prevent Wilson from ever being taken seriously again.

Clinton W. Taylor (clinton_w_taylor@hotmail.com) is a lawyer and a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Stanford.  

[bvw]

To untype a typo: "You blue helmets go sell all that nasty yellowcake and buy some food and medicine for our poor starving children."

[Steve_Seattle]

"Isn't it plausible that Joe Wilson really went to Niger on personal business? Isn't it plausible that Wilson's sudden "truth-telling" was, in fact, an orchestrated campaign of lies and distortions planned and executed by the Kerry campaign?"

My theory is that Wilson's original main reason for the trip was that he wanted to explore some business opportunities there, and that the uranium investigation was just an add-on after his wife suggested his name to the CIA. Based on his own rather flippant account of the trip ("sipping mint tea"), I think he conducted a half-assed "investigation," filed a flimsy report, and thought he was done with it.

Then, months later, as the no-WMD-found-in-Iraq issue began to gain political traction, someone in the Kerry campaign approached Wilson about spinning the trip as an example of White House deceit, or worse. So Wilson went to the press, and gradually embellished the story with falsehoods, all of which were calculated to make the White House look bad. Wilson grew into the role as his celebrity expanded, and perhaps a faction in the CIA - now in full CYA mode about Iraq - threw its support to Wilson and tried to maximize political damage to the White House. So I see this not as a CIA plot from the start, but one of opportunity.

[rockthecasbah]

Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA agent, speaks at SF State
Says U.S. troops should only be used for training and air support
By Brian Babcock, Tribune Correspondent
Inside Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO - American troops should be taken out of combat and used in limited ways only, such as training Iraqi troops and giving air support, Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, said Tuesday night (10/18/05) at San Francisco State's McKenna Theatre.

Some in the audience urged him to run for political office. But Wilson said he'd been a true child of the 1960s and had ``too many wives and taken too many drugs. And, yes, I did inhale.''

But he said he remained fueled by the optimism of the 1960s and the belief that America could ``once again become a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.''

[bvw]

So I see this not as a CIA plot from the start, but one of opportunity.

As ninety-plus per cent of all criminal behaviour is (one guesses). Crimes of opportunity.

[hosepipe]

[ By the way, this thread is not about me. ]

Ah the art of creative insult is NOT dead..

[Eagles Talon IV]

The Commission report identified an email from Plame suggesting her husband for the trip to Niger because he had contacts there. All Wilson could manage to do is say that the Commissioners who gathered the evidence and wrote the report were wrong in their conclusions. None the less the memo's exist and Wilsons excuse was at best lame.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60223-2004Jul18.html

"In the recently released Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the panel, and two other Republican members concluded that the plan to send Wilson to Niger "was suggested" by his wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA employee who specialized in weapons of mass destruction. Wilson and senior intelligence officials have repeatedly denied that Plame played a role in selecting him to go to Niger other than as a conduit to come to the agency to discuss the issue.

Roberts based his conclusion in part on a memo Plame sent to her boss describing Wilson's "good relations'' with Niger officials. The committee report also disclosed that a CIA reports officer had told the staff that Wilson's wife had "offered up [Wilson's] name."

Wilson said yesterday on CNN that the reports officer's statement "was taken out of context" and in a letter to the Senate committee he had asked that the reports officer be re-interviewed. As for his wife's note to her boss about his Niger contacts, Wilson said that "he was told that somebody in that chain of command asked Valerie to do my list of curriculum vitae."

On how his trip to Niger was initiated, Wilson said, the committee "got that particular point wrong."

[shield]

Brit Hume on Wallace's show Sunday, brought this out several times. Wilson is a liar and was proven by the senate investigation... LOL...

Wallace wanted so bad to keep the BS going that Rove was still in big trouble. Which US Attorney Ray told Wallace...'he disagreed with Senator Durbin regarding Rove...Fitz's body language in his news conference said it all. Rove did nothing wrong and was not indictable.' LOL.

Hoping the Wilsons' and part of the CIA who ran an op against the WH...is soon toast.

[Eagles Talon IV]

BTW, in the Commission report it was also stated that the CIA, rather then taking Wilsons verbal report as evidence that there was no attempt to purchase yellow cake in fact stated that it actually bolstered the case they were.

I can only wonder where you are getting your information from, but seeing your handle as liberallarry answers my question.

[Sacajaweau]

That would be nice except his 1st trip to Niger in 1999 was also at the recommendation of Valerie. That would have been during....Lo and Behold....Bubba's administration. He issued no written report on that mission either. Did he sign a non-disclosure agreement for the 1999 mission?

[p23185]

The only ones who have ever taken him serious will always take him serious.

I want the Libby trial (if there is one) to put this joker on the stand under oath. There ought to be a reason to do this, and then charge him for perjury!

[smoothsailing]

LOL! I saw the show,I almost fell out of my chair when Brit said to Juan "we need to hose you down". HA!

[Steve_Seattle]

"I find it particularly amusing that the CIA says it had no other options but to send Wilson."

Did they really say that? If that is true, then the CIA is in sad, sad shape. More likely, they are saying that as CYA, to cover the fact that Wilson was a lousy choice, that the CIA did not take even minimal steps to guarantee his mission's secrecy, that as a result Plam'e cover was blown, and that Wilson's trip did not qualify as a serious, professional investigation, but was in fact a half-assed proposition from the get-go. So this interpretation ALSO leads to the conclusion that the CIA is in sad shape.

[Steve_Seattle]

"That would be nice except his 1st trip to Niger in 1999 was also at the recommendation of Valerie."

I wonder if she was just sending them there on these semi-offical pretexts as a way of getting the feds to pay for his personal business junkets. Does anyone know if the CIA picked up the tab for any of his expenses?

[hosepipe]

[ Nobody's lying. People have differing and imperfect recollections of what probably was considered a relatively minor and unimportant event at the time. ]

Of course nobodys lying.. (wry smile)..

Is Portor Goss good or what.?..

Plame and Wilson are useless now and no doubt any they both were "connected to" in various agencys as well..

Tom Clancy eat your heart out.. Goss must be laughing an Eddie Murphy laugh over all this.. What you see is not always what you git.. If only Paul Harvey was a CIA operative.. But if we got the "rest of the story", we wouldnt have any national security at all..

[shield]

Brit is GREAT...LOL...I've always wondered when Brit isn't being shown through Juan's typical emotional rants (which is what loons do...never facts...stating pure emotional garbage) is ROLLING HIS EYES.

What I did notice is Wallace cut Juan off in his first rant which I've never seen before. Brit is Wallace's boss...bet ya' Wallace has been told to shut Juan up on occasions who he's makin' a fool of self with his unfactual statements. LOL...

[Dolphy]

Wilson did testify

Do we know that for a fact?

[Dems_R_Losers]

Of course the CIA picked up the tab for his trips. That was the whole point! He was a failed diplomat, a failed White House adviser, and a failing businessman, desperately trying to salvage a living by selling his contacts with various Africans and using his CIA wife to help him. Now he has a wonderful life, selling books and making thousands on the speaking circuit. Pretty nice work, huh?

You have hit it - Wilson did a half-assed "investigation" while he was in Niger, and spent most of his time doing personal business. The CIA didn't care either, they just wanted to answer Cheney's request for more info. That's why there was no written report and why Wilson didn't sign a confidentiality agreement. It was a toss-off as far as the CIA was concerned. Now, when the Kristof and Pincus articles hit, the stuff hit the fan from Libby and suddenly the CIA had to do some major CYA about Wilson's trip to cover the fact that they half-assed the job Libby had asked the agency to do.

I am absolutely, 100% convinced that this whole thing was concocted by the Kerry campaign, using Joe Wilson as a willing accomplice. It blew up in their face when Novak outed Joe Wilson as a liar about who got him the gig. Then they had to spin another myth about Karl Rove running a "war on Wilson," thinking that at the least they could still maybe force Rove to resign. It was no coincidence that Wilson made the remark about seeing Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House.

All they had to do was get Mandy Grunwald to ask her husband to make an "innocent" phone call to Karl Rove - oh, and by the way, be sure to use the WH switchboard so your call won't be in Rove's phone log, then you can say he told you whatever you want - then bait him into talking about Wilson and Plame. Rove said nothing incriminating, as we now know of course, but that didn't stop Cooper from embellishing and writing his "war on Wilson" piece in Time. And then the MSM were off to the races.

It's no coincidence that Cooper went to jail to avoid talking about his call with Rove. He didn't want to testify because he didn't want to let Rove off the hook! Cooper himself just wrote in Time that he is astonished his testimony was what got Libby indicted. Of course he is! Libby was never the intended target of this campaign; Karl Rove was. Notice Rove's email to Hadley, saying "I didn't take the bait." Rove KNEW he was being baited. I'll bet $1000 that's what he told the grand jury, too.

By the way, here's another little known fact about Joe Wilson: He was manning the Africa desk at the National Security Council in 1998, when Sudan offered up Osama bin Laden on a platter and Bill Clinton turned them down. And his boss at the time? Sandy Berger. Coincidence? Just who is REALLY runing the coverup here?

[popdonnelly]

"Isn't it plausible that Wilson's sudden "truth-telling" was, in fact, an orchestrated campaign of lies and distortions planned and executed by the Kerry campaign?"

That would be the simplest explanation.

[popdonnelly]

Joe was Ambassador to Gabon, which is a political appointment, from 1992 to 1995. Then he got a job on Berger's National Security staff. Apolitical he ain't.

[NonLinear]

It would be interesting...but will never make it to the ms news.