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Is Everything We Know About Joe Wilson’s Trip to Niger Wrong?
National Review ^ | Byron York

Posted on 02/07/2007 5:30:00 AM PST by slowhand520

Is Everything We Know About Joe Wilson’s Trip to Niger Wrong? New evidence from the Libby trial — evidence Senate investigators never saw — could change the storyline.

By Byron York

For the last two weeks, a number of Republicans in Washington — in the administration, on Capitol Hill, and in the intelligence community — have been watching closely as the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Lewis Libby unfolds in federal court. In particular, those Republicans have been poring over dozens of documents released as evidence in the case. Much of what they’ve seen is old stuff, things they’ve known about for years. But two documents are new, to most eyes at least, and they may significantly change our understanding of how the entire Joseph Wilson-Valerie Plame Wilson-Niger affair began.

The accepted version of events is that Vice President Dick Cheney got things started when he asked for information about possible Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium in Africa. After that request, CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson suggested sending her husband to look into the question, and after that, the CIA flew Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate. But the new documents suggest that Mrs. Wilson suggested her husband for the trip before the vice president made his request. In other words, Joseph Wilson’s visit to Niger, which everyone believes was undertaken at the behest of the vice president, was actually in the works before Dick Cheney asked his now-famous question. And if that is true, our current understanding of the chronology of events is wrong.

The story is contained in two exhibits, known in court as DX 66.2 and DX 66.3, entered into evidence by Libby’s defense team. The first is a CIA document headlined, “Briefer’s Tasking for Richard Cheney on 02/13/2002.” It begins:

Briefer: David D. Terry Briefing Date: 02/13/2002 Principal: Richard Cheney

Tasking: The VP was shown an assessment (he thought from [the Defense Intelligence Agency]) that Iraq is purchasing uranium from Africa. He would like our assessment of that transaction and its implications for Iraq’s nuclear program. A memo for tomorrow’s brief would be great.

The document doesn’t seem particularly newsworthy until it is viewed alongside a memo first revealed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in its report on the African uranium matter, released in July 2004. That report cited an e-mail written by Valerie Plame Wilson to her boss, the deputy chief of the CIA’s Counterproliferation Division, in which she suggested her husband for the fact-finding mission to Niger. A CIA official told the committee that Mrs. Wilson “offered up [Joseph Wilson’s] name” for the job, and the Senate report quoted the e-mail written by Mrs. Wilson saying, “my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.”

According to the Senate report, Valerie Plame Wilson sent her e-mail on February 12, 2002 — the day before the vice president was briefed on the African uranium matter. The discrepancy between the two dates seems glaring, but was not included in the Senate report. That is because, according to a source familiar with the committee’s investigation, the CIA did not include the document in the materials it turned over to the committee. Senate investigators apparently never knew the exact date of the vice president’s request, so they never knew it came after Plame’s e-mail.

What does the new information mean? On February 12, 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency released — inside the government, not publicly — a report covering the Africa uranium issue; its title said that Niger had “signed an agreement to sell 500 tons of uranium a year to Baghdad.” CIA officials told Senate investigators the report spurred requests for information from both the State Department and the Department of Defense. Knowledgeable sources speculate — and they stress, they are speculating — that those inquiries from State and Defense were made on the 12th, the day the Defense Intelligence Agency report was sent around, and that Valerie Plame Wilson, in suggesting her husband be sent to investigate, was reacting to those requests, and not to the vice president’s question, which came the next day. In this new version of events, Dick Cheney was the last guy to request more information, not the first; the notion that his request started the whole affair seems wrong.

The other new document entered into evidence in the trial is another CIA memo, this one headlined “Memorandum for the Vice President” and dated February 14, 2002. That memo appears to begin — it’s not possible to say for sure because it is blacked out — with a discussion of the uranium issue, followed by this statement:

We have tasked our clandestine source[s] with ties to the Nigerien Government and consortium officials to seek additional information on the contract. We also are working with the Embassy and the defense attaché’s office in Niamey [Niger] to verify their reports.

It is not clear from the poorly-defined copies released as evidence whether the memo refers to a “clandestine source” or “clandestine sources.” But from everything that we know about the case, Joseph Wilson was the person who was given the assignment to check out the Niger uranium story. Embassy officials were also told about it, as the memo indicates, but Wilson was the CIA’s man with ties to the Nigerien government.

If the timing spelled out in the new document is accurate — if Wilson had already been picked for the task by February 14 — the new evidence sheds a different light on the version of events given by Wilson himself in his book The Politics of Truth. In that, Wilson wrote about a meeting with CIA officials — a meeting that took place on February 19, 2002 — at which “I was asked if I would be willing to travel to Niger to check out the report in question.” Perhaps Wilson was indeed asked to go to Niger at that meeting, but the newly-released CIA document suggests the agency settled on Wilson several days earlier.

The source familiar with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation says the committee was never given the second document, either.

Perhaps it will turn out that there is some mistake in the memos, or in the interpretation of them, and that the generally-accepted version of the story remains accurate. But if the story told in the newly-public memos is correct, our entire understanding of how the CIA leak affair began will have to change.


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cia; cialeak; fitzfong; joewilson; lewislibby; libby; medialies; plame; plamegate; scooter; scooterlibby; valerieplame
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To: ItsTheMediaStupid

Me either.


41 posted on 02/07/2007 6:23:48 AM PST by misterrob (Jack Bauer/Chuck Norris 2008)
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To: windchime
Thanks! I thought I remembered commenting on that at the time, but I am TERRIBLE at looking up old articles.

Your effort is much appreciated!

42 posted on 02/07/2007 6:28:02 AM PST by Miss Marple (Prayers for Jemian's son,: Lord, please keep him safe and bring him home .)
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To: Miss Marple

You're welcome!


43 posted on 02/07/2007 6:35:20 AM PST by windchime (I consider the left one of the fronts on the WOT.)
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To: A Citizen Reporter; AliVeritas; alnick; AmeriBrit; AmericaUnited; arasina; BlessedByLiberty; ...

Scooter ping!!


44 posted on 02/07/2007 6:38:46 AM PST by Howlin (Honk if you like Fred Thompson!!!)
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To: Howlin

The headline should be: Is everything the MSM told you about Joe Wilson wrong. And the correct answer would be: Yes.


45 posted on 02/07/2007 6:41:17 AM PST by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they captured or killed.)
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To: slowhand520

Sounds like some sort of offbeat Firesign Theatre album.


46 posted on 02/07/2007 6:47:43 AM PST by TBP
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To: Bryan24; the Real fifi; Laverne; onyx; SE Mom; Grampa Dave; samadams2000; popdonnelly; ...
t's called "Shaping Policy".

And possibly contriving/planting intelligence?

47 posted on 02/07/2007 6:47:47 AM PST by STARWISE (They (Rats) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
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To: Diddle E. Squat
In that, Wilson wrote about a meeting with CIA officials — a meeting that took place on February 19, 2002 — at which “I was asked if I would be willing to travel to Niger to check out the report in question.” Perhaps Wilson was indeed asked to go to Niger at that meeting, but the newly-released CIA document suggests the agency settled on Wilson several days earlier.

You mean he was confused about when he heard he would go to Niger?

Indict him!

48 posted on 02/07/2007 6:48:25 AM PST by Howlin (Honk if you like Fred Thompson!!!)
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To: slowhand520

BTTT


49 posted on 02/07/2007 6:52:12 AM PST by Edgerunner (Better RED state than DEAD state)
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To: JimRed
Hmmmn.

So Plame, before ANYTHING got "leaked" was already promoting her husband.

For the chance to earn lots of (taxpayer) money and (retain) power & influence among the DC lobbyists and special interests in the (future) DNC-controlled WH.......
50 posted on 02/07/2007 6:52:30 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: ItsTheMediaStupid
the VP did ask that SOMEONE be sent

No, he didn't; he asked his briefer for more detail and the CIA went into overdrive.

51 posted on 02/07/2007 6:52:59 AM PST by Howlin (Honk if you like Fred Thompson!!!)
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To: Howlin
I have followed this story from afar, but not with the attention that you have. I have long thought that there was something missing in our understanding of what occurred. Something fundamental that we're just not getting.

What this information tells me is that the CIA was targeting Cheney for impeachment, and this was true even before the meeting in which he asked for information on the yellow cake rumor.

In fact, it looks like the CIA floated the yellow cake story, knowing that it could and would shoot down that story at the right time for maximum effect. Then they set a trap in which Cheney would naturally ask for confirmation. They had the "confirmation" results (discrediting the rumor) already planned before they ever enticed Cheney to request it.

Cheney was set up. Big time. But he still refused to buckle under and has fought them ever since. I greatly admire that.
52 posted on 02/07/2007 6:55:02 AM PST by Iwo Jima ("Close the border. Then we'll talk.")
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To: Neverforget01
It hasn't stopped the MSM from suggesting Cheney leaked her name has it?

So why would this information, or any information change that?

53 posted on 02/07/2007 6:56:13 AM PST by ItsTheMediaStupid
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To: woofie
...that he "pressured" the intelligence community into submitting false information...Thiss would show it didnt happen

There was an actual investigation into whether Cheney pressured anybody and the Congressional panel found he didn't!

54 posted on 02/07/2007 6:56:20 AM PST by Howlin (Honk if you like Fred Thompson!!!)
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To: woofie
The entire premis of the Left is that Cheney "cooked the books" on the intelligence ...that he "pressured" the intelligence community into submitting false information...Thiss would show it didnt happen

That has previously been proven, yet it makes no differance.

55 posted on 02/07/2007 6:57:48 AM PST by ItsTheMediaStupid
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To: Sacajaweau
Yes, it was NOT a clandestine mission.
Joe admitted to Nigerien officials why he was there and what he was looking for. I believe before he travle don this trip his CIA guidance was that his contacts were to be limited to retired or former Nigerien officials. That is why his discussions appear to have occurred over cups of sweet mint tea. Oh, and that is why Wilson's CIA "debriefing" occurred weeks after he returned, in his own living room back home.

Furthermore, as I recall, past documents indicate this boondoggle to Niger was one of 3 trips to Niger Joe made at CIA expense, no doubt with Valerie's help at getting him funded. Probably with first class airfare and 5 star hotels all the way. An ego stroker for guys like Joe who like to strut their own importance among 3rd world types and then come back here as poser-expert "africanist".

Joe was not looking out for US interests, he was looking to build his African "consulting" business and trading on his wife's connections and she was looking to get this garrulous lump of retired diplomat of the house as if he still had some play in "the community"

And by the way, all along it was British intelligence about Niger uranium dealings we were looking to validate, not US intelligence, and the Brits never backed down from their information.
56 posted on 02/07/2007 6:59:43 AM PST by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: Howlin; slowhand520
From NRO's "The Corner" blog:

JOE WILSON'S TRIP TO NIGER, CONT'D [Byron York]

A Washington veteran of the intelligence community adds a little perspective to my story about just how Joe Wilson's trip to Niger came about:

Let me add a bit of inside baseball to your Libby story: There is an intense and mutual rivalry between CIA and DIA. One time at a top secret meeting in Reagan I, I made the mistake of taking a chair between the CIA and DIA experts on a certain subject and they threw venom at each other across my nose for an hour and a half. Most unpleasant experience.

As I read your story, CIA [Val and pals] were reacting to a very important DIA story. In my experience, their gut reaction would have been to knock it down from the get-go. Hence the initial bureaucratic purpose of sending the husband out would have been to skewer DIA, not advance the issue. Obviously, they wouldn't have said this or put it in print but everyone in the system would know what the real game was.

57 posted on 02/07/2007 7:00:04 AM PST by smoothsailing
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To: slowhand520

Another dribble of truth coming from Washingtoon,CYA.


58 posted on 02/07/2007 7:01:27 AM PST by JayAr36
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To: Howlin
Here's a link to the blog:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/

59 posted on 02/07/2007 7:04:03 AM PST by smoothsailing
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To: Howlin
the VP did ask that SOMEONE be sent

No, he didn't; he asked his briefer for more detail and the CIA went into overdrive.

When the VP asks for additional information you don't have that means just that. Not that it matters either way. The MSM will not notice.

60 posted on 02/07/2007 7:05:03 AM PST by ItsTheMediaStupid
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