Open Up, Mr. President [WaPo admits Wilson/Plamegate is a CIA set up of the White House!]

Washington Post ^ | Thursday, November 3, 2005 | Jim Hoagland

[shhrubbery!]

Open Up, Mr. President

[snip]...It is not surprising that your White House distrusts and/or despises the media, the CIA, the State Department's career officers, the United Nations and a host of other institutions that you could not control...People in those institutions were out to defy and/or get you.

But you and yours helped them accomplish the mission. One lesson available in this story is that amateurs are no match for the CIA in disinformation campaigns. The spies are far better at operating in the shadows than you politicians will ever be. They have a license to dissemble.

The hidden management of the criminal justice process and the news media practiced by spooks in Wilson-Rove-Libbygate is nothing short of brilliant. So you were right to fear the agency...

Fear probably caused you to keep the Clinton-appointed leadership in place at the CIA long after some of its top operatives mounted a rebellion against the White House, in part to shift attention from their failures to yours. I know that George Tenet charmed you, and the rest of us. That's what spies and spymasters do, sir. You should have been taking that into account...

...After Wilson's slanted account of his mission to Niger provoked a small hubbub over your 16-word reference to Iraq's seeking uranium, Britain reiterated repeatedly to the United States that it stood by its reporting on that topic -- which was not based in any way on the much-ballyhooed forgeries from Italy...

...Telling the public that there was an independent stream of intelligence, with all the problems and counterattacks it would have triggered from the opposition leakers, would have been better for you than aides' taking it on themselves to plant stealthy suggestions of nepotism at the CIA...[excerpts -- all emphasis added by me -- shhrub]

[RegulatorCountry]

"While I heard Andrea Mitchell lie thru her teeth the other night while talking about the matter to Russert"

Circling the wagons, lol.

[mosquitobite]

Doesn't Pincus work at WaPo? ;)

[Peach]

After Wilson's slanted account of his mission to Niger provoked a small hubbub over your 16-word reference to Iraq's seeking uranium, Britain reiterated repeatedly to the United States that it stood by its reporting on that topic -- which was not based in any way on the much-ballyhooed forgeries from Italy...

Sounds like CYA to me, but I see that others don't agree. Surprising article.

[Steve_Seattle]

"What the heck is going on here?"

Maybe they are just now realizing that Libby has hired one of the best lawyers in the country and is going to fight his indictments right down to the last iota, and Libby's defense will inevitably bring to light - in open court, and under oath - a lot of stuff that the MSM has deliberately suppressed. The smarter folks in the MSM may realize it's time to jump off Wilson's bandwagon and do a little CYA for their own willful mismanagement of and complicity in this farcical story.

[RegulatorCountry]

"After Wilson's slanted account of his mission to Niger provoked a small hubbub over your 16-word reference to Iraq's seeking uranium"

Small hubbub? Ha. It was the centerpiece of the Kerry presidential campaign at the time.

[Peach]

Good catch.

[Zon]

It's a trial balloon as was yesterday's LAT article.. Expected this. What were / are they thinking? Know your enemies. The Art of War -- Sun Tzu. See tag line.

That's all I'll say. Lose lips sink ships. 

[Mo1]

But you and yours helped them accomplish the mission. One lesson available in this story is that amateurs are no match for the CIA in disinformation campaigns. The spies are far better at operating in the shadows than you politicians will ever be. They have a license to dissemble.

He's blaming the President because the CIA was out to get him???

This is the oddest article I've ever read

[I'm ALL Right!]

I hope you're right.

[RegulatorCountry]

"This is the oddest article I've ever read"

I almost get the feeling that somebody at the White House is expected to recognize certain passages. Leaked internal assessment? It is just dripping with mockery.

[jan in Colorado]

ping

[fantom]

Dice i hope you are right. i must say i have ZERO faith in th WH or the majority party to do anything except apologize and fold like a cheap suit. they are pathetic. and the WH has no pr machine. frist is a crybaby. i know this sounds like a bitch-fest but i can not be the only one who thinks the party in power should defend themselves.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Joe's been all over the place. A veritable media tour, timed to coincide with the indictments."

Yep, I don't think I'd be surprised if my director brought in Wilson and introduced him to everyone in the office.

[Steve_Seattle]

"i can not be the only one who thinks the party in power should defend themselves."

The media characterize any Bush response to any critic as a "smear campaign." To counteract that requires a better talent than Scott McClellan. McClellan is proof positive that Bush is NOT the master manipulator of public opinion that he's given credit for (that is, accused of) by the Dems.

[syriacus]

Where did Joe suddenly go??

Joe was on countdown last night.

Joe took the Islamicists' side,
When he said that the President lied.
Since the Times spread Joe's tale,
Please put them in jail
And, certainly, Joe should be fried

[fantom]

Thank you steve.

[Bernard Marx]

There's divided opinion here on the intent of this piece, so far. The FR jury's not quite in yet. Again, I'll grovel if this turns out to be satire and I was too ...uh, retarded... to get it.

Calm down. The poster was trying to make clear to you that the WAPost's (or any newspaper's) official opinions are presented in formal unsigned editorials, not opinion columns. Opinion columns are given wide latitude and they often disagree with a paper's editorial positions.

Hoagland is a by-lined opinion columnist, just like George Will and many others. The Editorial section (editorials and op-ed pieces by columnists and letter-writers) are separate from the so-called "news" pages, where stories are theoretically objective and even-handed. Of course they're not but that's the stated objective.

Your headline stating "WaPo Admits Wilson/Plamegate is a CIA Set Up of the White House!" is simply wrong. Jim Hoagland of the WaPost is saying it, not the WaPost. I don't think it's satire but it's wrong-headed. Still, perhaps inadvertently, it states some important truths.

[Steve_Seattle]

I was browsing through Wilson's book today, and a couple of things seemed odd: (1) It's very long (about 500 pages, plus index), much longer than the usual rushed-to-print book associated with a transient news story; and (2) only a small part of the book deals with the Niger uranium story, and this section is chronologically out of place with the rest of the book, i.e., it is placed up front, whereas the rest of the book deals with Wilson's career in chronological order. (By the way, Wilson came to the public's attention in July, 2003; the book came out in April, 2004, which leaves only about 8 months for writing and publication, IF the book was written after the Niger story broke.)

These facts suggest that Wilson had written most of this book prior to July, 2003, as a biography of his career, not as a response to the Niger flap. It is mainly a long, rambling account of his career and of his critique of the Bush administration. However, it appears that the Niger story might not have been part of the original narrative, and was stuck in only after it became a big issue in July 2003. In other words, Wilson himself might not have attached any great significance to his trip and his alleged findings until it became politically expedient to do so, coinciding with his involvement in the Kerry campaign.

When I first looked for his account of the Niger trip, I looked for it where it should be chronologically, but it wasn't there. Then I realized it was placed at the front of the book, suggesting it was an "add in" to a manuscript which did not originally include it.

Am I trying to make something out of nothing, or does anyone else see any significance to this? After all, maybe they just lifted the Niger section from its original spot and moved it up front because that was Wilson's claim to fame.

[jw777]

hopefully, he won't be vince fostered for this.

[Txsleuth]

Good suggestion...I should have thought of that myself...thank you!!!