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 ...
Regardless, Kerry had been stumping on "Niger" and added Valerie's supposed outing to his agenda after Valerie was "supposedly" outed.
Miller said of the notation in her book on May 22nd, 2003 and her conversation with Libby that she didn't know why she wrote Valerie "Flame AND ALSO said that Libby WAS NOT HER SOURCE.
Unbelievable! Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of yellowcake in 1998, while the sanctions were on? I guess this isn't news, huh?
May be another explanation for the Niger forgeries.
The NSC's Millennium After Action Review declares that the United States barely missed major terrorist attacks in 1999 — with luck playing a major role. Among the many vulnerabilities in homeland defenses identified, the Justice Department's surveillance and FISA operations were specifically criticized for their glaring weaknesses. It is clear from the review that actions taken in the Millennium Period should not be the operating model for the U.S. government.
In March 2000, the review warns the prior Administration of a substantial al Qaeda network and affiliated foreign terrorist presence within the U.S., capable of supporting additional terrorist attacks here. [My note: AD info?]
Furthermore, fully seventeen months before the September 11 attacks, the review recommends disrupting the al Qaeda network and terrorist presence here using immigration violations, minor criminal infractions, and tougher visa and border controls.
It falls directly into the AD timeline. In that same post, I note that what Sandy Berger stole was the versions of the after action report:
The missing copies, according to Breuer and their author, Richard A. Clarke, the counterterrorism chief in the Clinton administration and early in President Bush's administration, were versions of after-action reports recommending changes following threats of terrorism as 1999 turned to 2000. Clarke said he prepared about two dozen ideas for countering terrorist threats. The recommendations were circulated among Cabinet agencies, and various versions of the memo contained additions and refinements, Clarke said last night.
Therefore, they were never provided to the Commission, as evidenced by the Commission Report footnotes (#769):
46. NSC email, Clarke to Kerrick,“Timeline,”Aug. 19, 1998; Samuel Berger interview (Jan. 14, 2004). We did not find documentation on the after-action review mentioned by Berger. On Vice Chairman Joseph Ralston’s mission in Pakistan, see William Cohen interview (Feb. 5, 2004). For speculation on tipping off the Taliban, see, e.g., Richard Clarke interview (Dec. 18, 2003).And to what does footnote (46) refer? On p. 117, Chapter 4, we find this:
Later on August 20, Navy vessels in the Arabian Sea fired their cruise missiles. Though most of them hit their intended targets, neither Bin Ladin nor any other terrorist leader was killed. Berger told us that an after-action review by Director Tenet concluded that the strikes had killed 20–30 people in the camps but probably missed Bin Ladin by a few hours. Since the missiles headed for Afghanistan had had to cross Pakistan, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was sent to meet with Pakistan’s army chief of staff to assure him the missiles were not coming from India. Officials in Washington speculated that one or another Pakistani official might have sent a warning to the Taliban or Bin Ladin. (46)How about that? How many times have we heard Clinton say that he missed Bin Ladin by just a few hours? Yet the after-action report is missing, so the Commission relied on Sandy Berger's testimony.
Then the Clarke/Kerrick memo peaked my interest and I found this (#784):
Clarke was nervous about such a mission because he continued to fear that Bin Ladin might leave for someplace less accessible. He wrote Deputy National Security Advisor Donald Kerrick that one reliable source reported Bin Ladin's having met with Iraqi officials, who "may have offered him asylum." Other intelligence sources said that some Taliban leaders, though not Mullah Omar, had urged Bin Ladin to go to Iraq. If Bin Ladin actually moved to Iraq, wrote Clarke, his network would be at Saddam Hussein's service, and it would be "virtually impossible" to find him. Better to get Bin Ladin in Afghanistan, Clarke declared.Kerry and crew could not afford to have this info come out before the election.
Well, now I see the Post printed a retraction. False alarm.
Loftus: “I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, ‘My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they’re going to find out about our nuclear program. And who’s going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?’”
Shawn: “You’re saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?”
No wonder Quack-daffy came "clean"! He knew with the invasion of Iraq he was busted and might be next.
Loftus: “I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, ‘My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they’re going to find out about our nuclear program. And who’s going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?’”
Shawn: “You’re saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?”
No wonder Quack-daffy came "clean"! He knew with the invasion of Iraq he was busted and might be next.
"In Mid-May [2003, Wilson] Began Talking To Kerry's Advisers About Helping The Campaign; He Made His First Donation May 23." -- Patrick Healy and Wayne Washington, "In Probe Of CIA Leak, Two Sides See Politics," The Boston Globe, 10/2/03
I think Fedora did a post on Wilson's finances, including mortgage amounts, if I remember correctly. It didn't seem to add up.
I went back to see when Joe and Valerie were married. April 3, 1998. My contention was that the "she was in the process of being declassified in the spring of 2003" had to have the 5 year stip attached to it AND the earliest date that Joe could "legally" know of Valerie's role.
I think it was a BIG mistake for Joe to say she outed herself on their third date. I'm betting the CIA flipped when they read that. Did Valerie deceive the CIA? Me thinks so.
There is no better explanation of why Joe Wilson said nothing about his trips to Niger until May 2003, of how Wilson came to the attention of Nick Kristof and Walter Pincus, of why he then upped the ante with his op-ed in the Times, and of why he specifically went after Karl Rove after Novak's column appeared and continues to insist that Rove is the main culprit.
I agree with you on Berger's bungled burglary especially since Wilson was fired from the Kerry campaign within a few days of Berger. I believe Berger first burgled on June 28th, 2003. (but I'd have to check). The general public didn't know for almost a year when it was "leaked". Berger's attorney was furious.
The Post did a retraction? This is a misquote of the Bipartisan Senate Committee report about Joe Wilson?
Really, than why did Matt Cooper (Mandy Grunwald's hubby) make his call to Rove at the Whitehouse on July 11th. Why didn't every reporter and his brother call the Whitehouse on the 11th? OR CALL JOE WILSON??
Not only that, Cooper called the Whitehouse and his call was transferred to Rove. The transferred call was not on Rove's phone log. I believe the little Asian? girl testified as to how the system works.
Not only that, Joe KNEW Novak was going to publish an article. Joe said: "Leave my wife out of this". It's NOT the name "Plame" and it's not the "CIA", it's the fact that this secret envoy was sent by the CIA via his CIA wife's "interference". They didn't have any other suitable persons at the CIA? Only Joe was available? What a crock!
I think I remember an article that said that Joe and JACQUELINE (pre-Gulf War Period) were at lunch with Saddam or something like that.
Recall what Rove said in his email to Steve Hadley about the call from Cooper. "I didn't take the bait." Rove is a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them. I'm sure he could tell right away that Cooper was trying to bait him, and he may have even known why. Surely he knew who Cooper was married to. He even warned Cooper not to "get too far out on this Wilson story."
Whoa!!
It's occurred to me many times on these Plame threads: "Hey, isn't it the press whose supposed to be asking all these questions and doing all this research?" But they aren't interested; Joe Wilson gave them their preferred story line, and they haven't budged, no matter what facts come out.
I went back to find out about Mandy's history AND HER Famous Father, Henry Grunwald, who, as Chief Op Ed of Time, was the first to suggest (with malice) that Nixon should resign. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Henry died February 26, 2005. Deepthroat came out when?? Woodward said there were others involved. I'm guessing that Grunwald was one of them. It was a death pact don't forget.
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