[restornu]

Mission to Niger
TownHall.com ^ | 7/14/03 | Robert Novak
Posted on 07/14/2003 4:23 AM EDT by kattracks

Media Review Conduct After Leak CIA Inquiry Leads to Questions About What Should Be

[restornu]

White House Denies Leaking CIA Identity ^

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/991481/posts

[Shermy]

Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me.

This statement does not say the "Two senior administration officials" said she was a CIA agent. That distinction is not irrelevant, and Novak is a wordsmith - which should be taken into consideration.

Novak might know from another source.

Maybe the "White House" told Novak, maybe this is another "imminent danger" rewriting of history.

[Williams]

Seems like a blatantly stupid thing for Novak to report. Further, it certainly sounds like he heard or confirmed this from two administration sources. Certainly not clear they thought he would write it. Novak should have just said Wilson was recommended by someone at CIA, not identified the operative. As with most things the media decides to turn into stories, this sounds like a minor one from the standpoint of wrongdoing.

[Wolverine]

What's not to like about Wilson and his lie...among other things...

 

Excerpt from NationalReview

 

Wilson was affiliated with the pro-Saudi Middle East Institute and he had recently been the keynote speaker for the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, a far-Left group that opposed not only the U.S. military intervention in Iraq but also the sanctions and the no-fly zones that protected Iraqi Kurds and Shias from being slaughtered by Saddam.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bttt

[Ditto]

"All this was forgotten until reporter Walter Pincus revealed in the Washington Post June 12 that an unnamed retired diplomat had given the CIA a negative report. Not until Wilson went public on July 6, however, did his finding ignite the firestorm."

I wonder who told Pinkus about the "report"? Wilson maybe?

[Shermy]

True, Wilson does not say that Iraq did not try to buy uranium - just that the completion of a sale was unlikely.