Posted on 11/02/2005 9:54:29 AM PST by Dems_R_Losers
--snip--Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who said a Bush aide disclosed that his wife is a CIA operative in retaliation for his criticism of the Iraq war, has worked since May as an unpaid adviser to Senator John F. Kerry, offering foreign policy advice and speechwriting tips to the Democratic presidential candidate from Massachusetts. Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie said Wilson's work for Democrats may have motivated him to attack the administration.
--snip--
Rove remained a center of speculation yesterday about the case. Wilson has said that Rove condoned the leak and directed reporters to it after it appeared in a column by Robert Novak.
--snip--
The administration has promised to cooperate in every way it can, but some Republicans expressed anger yesterday at the way Wilson targeted Rove.
"Full disclosure is important here, so people can understand the context of Ambassador Wilson's comments all along," said John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert, Republican of Illinois. "He's certainly not a disinterested party here."
Kerry's advisers acknowledged yesterday that Wilson, who has also donated $2,000 to Kerry this year, told them about his allegations against the White House involving his wife before going public with them this summer. But Rand Beers, Kerry's top adviser on foreign affairs, said the campaign has not played a role in coordinating Wilson's charges.
--snip--
In the time between the State of the Union speech and Wilson's op-ed article, Wilson grew increasingly angry with Bush's leadership during the war and the uncontested assertions about nuclear material, Kerry advisers say. In mid-May, he began talking to Kerry's advisers about helping the campaign; he made his first donation May 23.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Don't forget, Chris Lehane is the one who ginned up a fake story during the 2000 campaign about an RNC ad using a subliminal message of "RATS" and got the New York Times to run it on the front page. He got the Bush DUI story held until five days before the 2000 election. He thought he had nailed Rove and Bush then. He was the source of the slime campaign against Katherine Harris during the Florida recount.
Lehane was later fired by the Kerry campaign in the fall of 2003. I'm still wondering why. It was around the time this Boston Globe story appeared, which was very embarrassing to Kerry and hurt Wilson's credibility. Perhaps Lehane failed to prevent the Globe from running this story, or perhaps some higher-ups realized this whole Wilson thing might be blowing up in their faces and that Lehane had once again sold them a bill of goods about a surefire plan to nail Karl Rove and bring down Bush. Lehane was one of those slimy guys that nobody wanted to have working for their opponents, but knew they would end up smelling if he were on their side for long. He later hooked up with Wesley Clark's campaign and immediately leaked to Drudge that Kerry was an adulterer. Clark eventually fired him too.
To me it's a simple sum up. This intially all started about money, then incomes the cover our butts for illegal purchases as you stated "Oil For Food". They knew they had to stop Bush from attacking Iraq because all this would be discovered eventually. I see many acts of treason here and beyond treason-an attempt to bring down an AMerican President to cover. The biggest part of this story is how a foreign country or countries along with our own CIA tried to bring down an American Adminstration!
Wilson did say in one early interview that he was planning a trip to Niger for business, when the Agency offered to pay his expenses to do some investigating of the Niger story. He says he represented himself as a "representative of the US government" throughout his trip. I think it was during an interview with Wolf Blitzer. If he did not directly say he traveled at the request of the Vice President, he certainly tied the VP's interest in the Niger story to his own (Wilson's) role in Niger as a "represenative of the USG"...... undoubtedly encouraging peoplr to make the assumption he, Joe, was traveling at the behest of the Vice President.
I will post the link if I can find it.
Maybe he's waiting for the dems get totally worked into a frenzy with this thing, and then he'd pop their bubble or spoil their champagne party!
Thursday, April 14, 2005 ADAMICK: In a sign the Bay Bridge contractor plans to vigorously fight allegations of faulty work -- claims that triggered an FBI investigation -- the joint venture’s lead contractor hired famed political strategist Chris Lehane to serve as spokesman.Lehane served in the Clinton war room, before becoming spokesman for former Vice President Al Gore’s 200 presidential bid. He also was a spokesman for Sen. John Kerry last year, before defecting to the camp of Gen. Wesley Clark. Californians may recall he was also hired by former Gov. Gray Davis to handle strategy during the energy crisis http://editorchrislopez.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_editorchrislopez_archive.html
"Wilson has had political and financial ties to both Democrats and Republicans: He was lauded by former President George H.W. Bush for "truly inspiring" service as head of the US Embassy in Baghdad during the run-up to the first Gulf War, and he donated $2,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000".
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps I've missed it before, but the Boston Globe article is the first I've seen of any mention connecting Wilson to the US Embassy in Baghdad during the first Gulf War.
I don't think Lehane was Novak's source; I think Novak actually blew the original plot wide open when he ran the column outing Wilson as a liar for suggesting to Kristof that Cheney sent him to Niger and deliberately ignored his report. But I do think he might have blabbed about it to some of his good friends in the media after Wilson told him. My guess is that Wilson really did tell Lehane that Val was CIA, because it embellished his credentials as a campaign spokesman on Iraq and WMD (perhaps he even offered her as a sympathetic source for leaked intel that could help Kerry), but he didn't tell him she had anything to do with his trips to Niger.
The "sweet mint tea" story published in the NYT, July 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm
Blog with excerpts from Senate report about Wilson trip
http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=665
In the Senate report Mrs Wilson mentions that her husband was planning a business trip to Niger (perhaps planning export of kitty litter?)
"Kristof's first article was May 6. A subsequent one I believe was June 13. Pincus's article was in June,"
After Wilson had gone to work for the Kerry campaign. It would have worked, if Wilson hadn't written his own article. Pincus and Kristof weren't going to reveal their source. Wilson stated to Wolf Blitzer that he was a source for Kristof's column.
I'm also curious as to why Wilson went from such a high-profile posting to Gabon. He did get promoted to Ambassador rank, but to me this smells of sending an incompetent hack to Siberia where he can't do any more damage. My theory on Wilson is that he is a serial liar and fabulist, with delusions of grandeur. He hitched his wagon to Al Gore's star, made it to the White House, but then left in 1998 after he married Valerie - I assume to make some money. I think he was not good at that either, (and may have gotten mixed up in Oil-for-Food either inadvertently or deliberately), and jumped into the Kerry campaign with visions of that big corner office in Foggy Bottom dancing in his head.
Another curious fact about Joe Wilson is that he was on the Africa desk at the National Security Council in 1997 and 1998, and may have been there at the time Sudan was offering up Osama's head on a platter and the Clinton administration turned them down. His boss at NSC? Sandy Berger. Maybe we have all been wrong about what records Berger was really trying to steal and destroy.
Thanks for the info! That seems a pretty big comedown for Lehane, doesn't it? From a top Democratic strategist and frequent TV talking head to a flack for a Canadian construction company? I do think he may have been blackballed by Howard Dean, though. There were allegations during the campaign from the Dean camp that he was running slime campaigns on Dean. There's a long thread on Kos about it, celebrating his firing by Kerry.
"Lehane served in the Clinton war room, before becoming spokesman for former Vice President Al Gore’s 200 presidential bid. He also was a spokesman for Sen. John Kerry last year, before defecting to the camp of Gen. Wesley Clark. Californians may recall he was also hired by former Gov. Gray Davis to handle strategy during the energy crisis"
Wow, what a resume! When can you start work!
My only Hollywood contact is on the other coast. :) I didn't know that about the weasel Lehane.
The Wilson story did not have legs before Wilson spoke to Lehane in May of 2003. It also has been said that Lehane was the force behind the Vanity Fair article and the NYT article.
Until I found this I did not realize that Joe Wilson was also sent to Niger at his wife's suggestion....in 1999. And Wilson reported to CIA that his Nigerien source said Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of yellowcake in 1998!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html
Senate Committe finds numerous lies in Wilson's statements. Senate reports that Wilson's information bolstered case that Iraq sought uranium from Niger!!!! Mentions Valerie had Joe sent to Niger previously, in 1999! Joe Wilson told CIA that his Nigerien contact reported Iraqis tried to buy 400 tons of yellowcake from Niger in 1998!
Interesting post #7.
No one is asking where Libya's uranium came from. There was a press report sometime back that the bulk of it came under the table from Niger, but since then that has dropped down the memory hole.
The documents were created, according to reports, using the name of officials not in office for a decade. This cries out that it was intended to be discovered as a forgery. Any competent intel person, for that matter even a layman would know to use the names of people in office at the time. Such an obvious mistake is a mistake intended to be discovered, not by specialists, but by people who are not specialists.
It is a mistake intended to be easily pointed out in a press article, not a specialist's analysis seen by other specialists.
So in figuring out the purpose of the forgery, the timing of it becomes very important. If it was created during the run-up to the war, it was intended as a "gotcha" to discredit the rationale for the war. If, as you say, the document was created in 2000, before anyone had thought of invading Iraq, then the purpose of the document has to be to discredit rumors of uranium smuggling.
So then the only question is, who would most want to discredit rumors of uranium black market deals; France, because she is the seller, or as you suggest, the buyer, be it Iraq or Libya.
If Saddam has no active nuclear weapons program, which although he aspired to have one, he evidently did not, then that leaves Libya, who did. Its not either-or, France or Libya; if Libya is buying from Niger, Niger is selling. And, in this case, Niger is France.
Rush has only minutes to get this on the air today.
The New Media will have to do it's job!
I wonder what date the correction to this Washington Post article was made changing it from Iraq to Iran that was trying to buy the uranium?
"Correction to This Article
In some editions of the Post, a July 10 story on a new Senate report on intelligence failures said that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV told his contacts at the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from the African nation of Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran that was interested in making that purchase, but no contract was signed, according to the report."
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