Plame and Wilson
How could this story be BURIED by the MSM for two years?? This whole thing was a Kerry campaign plot! Wilson said N-O-T-H-I-N-G to anyone about his trip to Niger until he signed on with the Kerry campaign. The Kerry people make a very lame attempt in this story to spin that Wilson's "outrage" about Bush using the Niger story led him to Kerry - but if that's true, why was Wilson, clearly a fame-seeker, not pushing the story on his own as soon as the subject appeared in the State of the Union address? Wilson has NEVER been forced to answer this very simple question!
I believe that Joe Wilson clearly embellished his story to the Kerry camp, and Chris Lehane then shopped it to his pals at the NYT and WaPo. When these stories failed to ignite the media firestorm they hoped for, they decided to go public with Wilson in the NYT, knowing that then they could book him on all the TV talk shows and force the story onto the front pages.
It blew up in their faces with Novak's column, which outed Joe Wilson as a liar and fabulist. So Lehane then hatched the story that Karl Rove was behind a White House "conspiracy" to "out" Plame as punishment of Wilson's "whistleblowing." He thought he was going to nail his arch-nemesis, Karl Rove, right in the middle of the campaign! This was going to be his crowning political achievement at last. And all he had to do was dangle a future Secretary of State appointment at Joe Wilson to get him to play along. And have fellow Kerry strategist Mandy Grunwald get her husband to make the baiting phone call to Rove and get him on the record blabbing about Valerie Plame, then write his story about "the war on Wilson." By this time Lehane had already planted the info about Plame to so many reporters that none of them even knew where the information had come from. He was very good at this.
Unfortunately for Lehane and Wilson, Rove - in his own words - "didn't take the bait" when Cooper called him. But Cooper wrote the story anyway. And it was easy for Plame to get her superiors at the CIA to quickly ask for a Justice Department investigation of her "outing." Rove under investigation! What could be better in the middle of a campaign! He must resign! No Rove = Kerry wins!
Joe Wilson made a very high stakes gamble by going along with this plot. I believe he was suckered by Chris Lehane. He thought he would help Kerry win the election and he would be Secretary of State and a Democratic hero forever. When Kerry lost and Rove went nowhere he was facing oblivion. He had to keep the story going. He latched onto the Fitzgerald investigation as his last hope for continued relevance, fame, book sales, and huge speaking fees.
So Wilson's vendetta against Karl Rove continues. He has one shred of a chance left at permanent God status in liberal circles, and that is to nail Rove. Despite no indictment, no indication of one, and no evidence that Rove was even involved in any proactive discussion with reporters about him or his wife, Wilson seems determined to somehow bring him down. Last night he continued his campaign on Larry King, saying that he and Val went to the same church as Rove and his wife, so surely Rove knew who they were! Can you say "grasping at straws?"
I am also wondering why Chris Lehane has not been seen or heard of for months. A Google search on his name shows nothing since an ill-fated effort in late 2004 to do PR for Michael Moore. This guy was on TV all the time whenever there was something partisan being discussed. It's incredible that he has not appeared in any discussions of the Wilson/Plame affair since he was the top media guy for the Kerry campaign when Wilson's op-ed appeared, and he hates George Bush and Karl Rove. Now why would such a high-profile Democrat mouthpiece disappear?
Cement overshoes?
Pinging you to this, since you also believe the Kerry campaign was behind this whole thing. Here's the smoking gun!
It is known through other articles that Wilson began work with the Kerry campaign before he wrote his NYTimes editorial. The MSM didn't push it because attention to it too obviously undermines Wilson's credibility.
But it was known.
How come Karl "the genius" Rove didn't push attention to it?
For over two years?
Because he isn't.
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/category/uncategorized/
UPDATE:
Our Reader Lucky Bogey has found some possible confirmation of this theory here.
Highly-reliable sources within the Italian intelligence community have confirmed to this Service that the documents — subsequently demonstrated to have been forgeries — introduced by the US and UK governments showing a contact between the Nigerien and the Iraqi governments for the export of uranium were, in fact, produced by the Libyan Government. The documents were used in the State of the Union Address by US Pres. George W. Bush on January 28, 2003, and were widely interpreted as part of the casus belli underwhich the US-led Coalition attacked Iraq in March-April 2003.
…
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]?”
This is a lot to get through, so more later
END UPDATE
Mac Ranger has been building a case that Joe Wilson’s relations to Niger and the need for him to get there in 2002 were due to some possible dubious CIA-Wilson activities. The details are here and here, but a quick overview is Wilson wanted to start his international trade company, playing on all his government contacts, and Val sent him to Niger in 1999 to get involved in something coordinated with some CIA dealings.
This was a bit of a jump for me so I was not posting on this yet. But I did trip over this interesting detail about the Niger documents - and who might want to make it look like Saddam was buying Uranium from Niger. The source, funny enough, come from this Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld conspiracy theory posted at ex-CIA security agent Larry Johnson’s site. They led me to investigate the claim that the Financial Times had reported the source of the Niger documents claimed it was US and Italian governments which wanted the forgeries:
A French intelligence operation to safeguard Niger’s uranium industry and prevent weapons proliferation, inadvertently led to the forging of documents relating to an apparent clandestine uranium trade with Iraq, western intelligence officials say.
The operation, begun in 1999, reflected concern among several intelligence services that rogue states may have been trying to procure uranium. France was also concerned about the security of its own uranium supplies from Niger, as well as the security of the two French companies that control Niger’s uranium industry. Rocco Martino, an Italian businessman who has admitted that he has made a career out of “selling information”, has held regular meetings with French intelligence officials in Brussels since at least 1999.
Coincidentally, this is the same time Valerie got Joe his first gig to Niger to help start his fledgling business JC Wilson International Ventures (which this blogger sniffed out a while ago). But back to the Financial Times article - which provides clear proof these were not the work of the Bush administration:
According to senior intelligence officials, the forged documents were produced with the involvement of people familiar with Niger, and were created in 2000.
OK, either Bush knew he was going to win the election, 9-11 would happen and he would need one more marginal bit of information beyond the 1999 intel to make the case to go to war in Iraq…
Or the democrats are heading for a political disaster. Shhhh - no one tell them about this article! They just shut down the senate so they could bring up the forged Niger documents.
Anyway, back to the Wilsons. So the forger has this alibi
Mr Martino said the Italian foreign intelligence service, the SISMI, had forged the documents and had arranged for them to be passed to him by an official of Niger’s embassy in Rome.
Yeah, right. Which was what the ex-CIA nutcases were pointing at for proof the pentagon forged the documents (in 2000). BTW, it was the Niger Embassy in Rome which was broken into and had documents stolen which were the basis of the forgeries. Interesting how Martino picked that Niger embassy for his alibi.
Anyway, back to Mac Ranger. He believes we have an ex-diplomat trying to make money in 1998 and 1999, and one of his key market niches is doing business with Niger - which has one real product. And there are indications that the French are concerned about the uranium and whether it is being tracked correctly in 1999 as well. There is also Valerie, now working at a front company for the CIA with an abysmally weak cover (so international intelligence resources can confirm it is a cover easily?) which is charged with monitoring the trade in things like uranium…
If there needed to be forgeries in 1999 and 2000 to implicate Saddam, would they be to make the case for a war in 2003 or to divert attention to Saddam from some other destination and activity? Pre 9-11, pointing to Saddam as a buyer of missing uranium would mean covering your tracks and putting the hounds onto Saddam. So what could possibly need to be covered that the CIA knew about?
Let’s look at the Senate Iraq report for a possible clue [page 59]:
On November 25, 2002, The Naval [REDACTED] issued a very brief report {Alleged Storage of Uranium Destined for Iraq [REDACTED] that a large quantity of uranium from Niger was being stored in a warehouse in Cotonou, Benin. The uranium was reportedly sold to Iraq by Niger’s President. The report provided the name and telephone numbers for the individual, a West African businessman, who was responsible for coordinating the alleged uranium transaction and indicated that he was willing to provide information about the transaction. CIA’s DO told Committee staff that the businessman has never been contacted and the DO has not made an effort to determine whether this individual had any useful information. The DO told Committee staff that they saw no reason to contact him and noted that “no one even thought to do that.”
Let me try and remember again who was establishing a business of trade in Africa, specifically Niger? Ah, yes - Joe Wilson. And who was in Niger in early 2002? Joe Wilson. And all of a sudden this report comes into the CIA about uranium in a warehouse for Saddam, but the CIA never follows up. We are going to war, the VP is at the CIA asking questions – and a load of uranium in a warehouse is ‘misplaced’.
OK, if - and this is all speculation here folks - Wilson was assisting folks in Pakistan, Libya and the AQ Kahn network in acquiring uranium, and the French were getting close to finding the deal out - some forged documents in 1999 pointing to Saddam would throw them off the trail real nicely. And again, in 2002, when the forgeries were out and there was the build up to war, maybe Wilson went to Niger to establish another cover (shipments to Iraq) or do something else. It would explain why Wilson never gets agitated about the build up to the war until after December of 2002, when the uninvestigated lead shifts attention away from uranium shipments out of Niger and onto something heading to Iraq. The financial Times article gives the impression there were legitimate monitor and control concerns in 1999. That means there could have been something going on for real.
AQ Kahn was still in business in 2001 and 2002 - only to finally be shutdown in late 2003 and early 2004. Why did the CIA miss AQ Kahn for so many years? What was Valerie’s CPD group doing all this time? Was Niger uranium going to North Korea? And when things got dicey why wouldn’t these people pointed the finger at Saddam Hussein?
Is that why Valerie was pushing Wilson to go to Niger the minute the ‘crazy report’ and questions began hitting the CIA about Niger uranium?
He doesn’t want to talk about how the very day that Vice President Cheney’s office asked for more information on a report Saddam was trying to buy nuke bomb fuel from Niger, on that very day, Wilson’s wife wrote a note to her boss saying her husband — Wilson — would be perfect to go to Africa to investigate what she called “this crazy report.”
Was Wilson quiet about Niger forgeries until the coast was clear - and then got the idea to throw everybody of his trail by using them himself to bash Bush? Did a gullible press get used again?
Interesting theory. And absolutely nothing to back it up!
Now this: AJ. This was posted over at CQ this morning….
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, July 29, 2003
Niger-Iraq Uranium Reports Involve Ongoing Libyan Deception Ops
http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Iraq/Sep0804.htm
Highly-reliable sources within the Italian intelligence community have confirmed to this Service that the documents — subsequently demonstrated to have been forgeries — introduced by the US and UK governments showing a contact between the Nigerien and the Iraqi governments for the export of uranium were, in fact, produced by the Libyan Government. The documents were used in the State of the Union Address by US Pres. George W. Bush on January 28, 2003, and were widely interpreted as part of the casus belli underwhich the US-led Coalition attacked Iraq in March-April 2003…….
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]?”
Loftus:”Yeah. This was a treaty signed by a man called Ali Sobree. He was the Foreign Minister of Iraq. And he went to [Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-] Qadhafi and they worked out a whole protocol. Qadhafi would donate a hollowed out mountain in Libya; Iraq would provide the nuclear scientists, and North Korea would provide the uranium……..
And This: AJ
DID YOU HIT A NERVE???
Larry C. Johnson just removed his blog!!!!!!!
I just searched, previous searches and they come up only cached in type
Left by mary mapes on November 2nd, 2005
The main site is all white . But the article about the Niger forgery that AJ linked is still there. Save it to your desktops ASAP
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/11/more_on_the_nig.html
All the information about Wilson’s business dealings is not a surprise to me. All you have do is read what this guy writes. He is so sanctimonious and hypocritical.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson reminds me of that Ambassador Joseph Davies we had in Moscow during Stalin. He never noticed the purges and the government-orchestrated famines because he was able to buy art the communists stole from the Czar, the churches and people at bargain-basement prices.
If Wilson turns out to be tied-in to the trafficking of uranium or to the forged documents, that’s going to be a real shocker.
Saddam bought lots of media, officials and politicans in other countries. I expect he had a few American turncoats in his pockets as well.
"two sides see politics"
Yeah, but only the Republican side is correct.
Good research.
"he and Val went to the same church as Rove and his wife, so surely Rove knew who they were"
One of those people who goes to church for purely social and business reasons.
No religious reason at all, Wilson is scum! I know a bunch of real estate people like that!
Didn't Novak say something to the effect that everyone would be quite surprised at who his source really was?
..anybody check Fort Marcy Park?
Doogle
ping
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.
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!
Rush has only minutes to get this on the air today.
bump to the top
Bump
Wilson himself told the Kerry campaign about his wife before he went public! Does anyone now wonder why his wife's identity was "common knowledge" among reporters?
***
I'm confused. I haven't been following this story in the last month or so, so I hope you will bear with me.
How do you get that Wilson told the Kerry campaign about his wife before he went public? I read the whole article and didn't see that. Am I missing something?
TIA