Smoothsailing: Click hereLYING JOE'S BIO. He "outed" her himself at least as early as 2002.The site was apparently pulled down today, because it gave the names of their children and the city they lived in. They have been placed under a police watch. As when FOX gave the home number of the Oklahoma judge and Tucker Carlson, all three incidents have led to non-stop death threats to families of the people affected. We forget sometimes that controversial people in the news sometimes have children who shouldn't be terrorized because their parents. But the bio was reprinted in some U.S. newspapers today. His wife wasn't "outed" on the site. I have looked at it twice in the last week, including this morning. His bio merely included her name as well as the names of their children, no CIA affiliation.Timesink: Either you typed in the URL wrong, or that Wilson's bio has been pulled down.
Meanwhile, however you feel about Novak, you need to be aware that he is spinning this story wildly as he becomes more of the target. He unfortunately has quite a paper trail and thousands of TV apperances and interviews, so he can't walk away from some of his statements where he spoke in detail about the leak. This one is especially troublesome, from the newspaper, Newsday, on July 22, eight days after his original column. It is almost opposite of the spin he gave today while appearing to defend the president:
Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."The reporter apparently has the tape recording. This will not help the case of either Novak or the White House.
Well...
1) The site is there. It appears smoothsailing just mistyped the URL the first time.
2) Where have you heard or read that Wilson is now under a police watch?
3) I don't know anything about the Oklahoma judge story (what judge?), but have you actually heard or read anything about Tucker Carlson getting DEATH THREATS? I know he certainly got a boatload of phone calls, many of which were probably nasty (though he asked for it), but I haven't seen anyone report that he was getting death threats.
Here's a pervious version
AMBASSADOR JOSEPH C. WILSON, IV
Ambassador Wilson is CEO of JCWilson International Ventures, Corp., a firm specializing in Strategic Management and International Business Development.
Ambassador Wilson served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998. In that capacity he was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He was one of the principal architects of President Clinton’s historic trip to Africa in March 1998.
Ambassador Wilson was the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe, 1995-1997. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1988 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During “Desert Shield” he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of “Desert Storm.”
Ambassador Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger, 1976-1978; Lome, Togo, 1978-79; the State Department Bureau of African Affairs, 1979-1981; and Pretoria, South Africa, 1981-1982.
In 1982, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission in Bujumbura, Burundi. In 1985-1986, he served in the offices of Senator Albert Gore and the House Majority Whip, Representative Thomas Foley, as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville, Congo, 1986-88, prior to his assignment to Baghdad.
Ambassador Wilson was raised in California and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He is a graduate of the Senior Seminar (1992), the most advanced International Affairs training offered by the U.S. Government. He speaks fluent French.
Ambassador Wilson holds the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, the University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award. Additionally, he has been decorated as a Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star by the Government of Gabon and as an Admiral in the El Paso Navy by the El Paso County Commissioners.
He is married to the former Valerie Plame and has two sons and two daughters.
Actually, if you notice the placement of the quotation marks, you will see that the section that says that Novak said that his sources had come to him with the information is a characterization of what the reporter wants to believe. What the actual quote says is, "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."
That fits in with what Novak said yesterday, that they didn't call him, but rather he contacted them. It's certainly possible for Novak to have contacted them and for them to have thought that the info was significant and to offer it up to him in the course of the interview.
Wilson's claim was that the WH aggressively contacted journalists trying to get this story out. Novak debunks this by explaining that his source did give him this info, but it was not something that they sought him out specifically to discuss, but rather it came up during an interview which Novak instigated.
Novak won't release the tape willingly. And if it is released, it may or may not help Novak, but it won't hurt the White House, and it certainly won't hurt Rove. In fact, it will probably bolster the White House's case because it will be clear that Wilson's version of events is a lie.
Perhaps not, but in one of Wilson's tirades, he complained that the "outers" had even released her maiden name. Which, of course, he had already done via his bio.