Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

In July Time Magazine Interview, Joe Wilson Said His Wife Had Nothing To Do With Niger Trip
Time Magazine ^ | Thursday, Jul. 17, 2003 | By MATTHEW COOPER, MASSIMO CALABRESI AND JOHN F. DICKERSON

Posted on 09/30/2003 12:38:37 PM PDT by Pubbie

Has the Bush Administration declared war on a former ambassador who conducted a fact-finding mission to probe possible Iraqi interest in African uranium? Perhaps.

Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson raised the Administration's ire with an op-ed piece in The New York Times on July 6 saying that the Administration had "twisted" intelligence to "exaggerate" the Iraqi threat. Since then Administration officials have taken public and private whacks at Wilson, charging that his 2002 report, made at the behest of U.S. intelligence, was faulty and that his mission was a scheme cooked up by mid-level operatives. George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, took a shot at Wilson last week as did ex-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. Both contended that Wilson's report on an alleged Iraqi effort to purchase uranium from Niger, far from undermining the president's claim in his State of the Union address that Iraq sought uranium in Africa, as Wilson had said, actually strengthened it. And some government officials have noted to TIME in interviews, (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's government had sought to purchase large quantities of uranium ore, sometimes referred to as yellow cake, which is used to build nuclear devices.

In an interview with TIME, Wilson, who served as an ambassador to Gabon and as a senior American diplomat in Baghdad under the current president's father, angrily said that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Africa. "That is bulls__t. That is absolutely not the case," Wilson told TIME. "I met with between six and eight analysts and operators from CIA and elsewhere [before the Feb 2002 trip]. None of the people in that meeting did I know, and they took the decision to send me. This is a smear job."

Government officials are not only privately disputing the genesis of Wilson's trip, but publicly contesting what he found. Last week Bush Administration officials said that Wilson's report reinforced the president's claim that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa. They say that when Wilson returned from Africa in Feb. 2002, he included in his report to the CIA an encounter with a former Nigerien government official who told him that Iraq had approached him in June 1999, expressing interest in expanding commercial relations between Iraq and Niger. The Administration claims Wilson reported that the former Nigerien official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales.

"This is in Wilson's report back to the CIA," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters last week, a few days before he left his post to join the private sector. "Wilson's own report, the very man who was on television saying Niger denies it...reports himself that officials in Niger said that Iraq was seeking to contact officials in Niger about sales."

Wilson tells the story differently and in a crucial respect. He says the official in question was contacted by an Algerian-Nigerien intermediary who inquired if the official would meet with an Iraqi about "commercial" sales — an offer he declined. Wilson dismisses CIA Director George Tenet's suggestion in his own mea culpa last week that the meeting validates the President's State of the Union claim: "That then translates into an Iraqi effort to import a significant quantity of uranium as the president alleged? These guys really need to get serious."

Government officials also chide Wilson for not delving into the details of the now infamous forged papers that pointed to a sale of uranium to Iraq. When Tenet issued his I-take-the-blame statement on the alleged Iraq-Niger uranium connection last week, he took a none-too-subtle jab at Wilson's report. "There was no mention in the report of forged documents — or any suggestion of the existence of documents at all," Tenet wrote. For his part Wilson says he did not deal with the forgeries explicitly in his report because he never saw them. However, Wilson says he refuted the forgeries' central allegation that Niger had been negotiating a sale of uranium to Iraq. Wilson says he explained in the report that several Nigerien government signatures would be required to permit such a sale — signatures that were either absent or clearly botched in the forged documents.

Administration officials also claim that Wilson took at face value the claims of Nigerien officials that they had not sold uranium ore to Saddam Hussein. (Such sales would have been forbidden under then-existing United Nations sanctions on Iraq.) "He spent eight days in Niger and he concluded that Niger denied the allegation." Fleischer told reporters last week. "Well, typically nations don't admit to going around nuclear nonproliferation,"

For his part, Wilson says that the Administration conflated the prior report of the American ambassador to Niger with his own. Wilson says a report by Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the American ambassador to Niger, addresses the issue of Nigerien government officials disputing the allegation. Wilson says that he never made the naïve argument that if Nigerien officials denied the sales, then their claims must be believed.

A source close to the matter says that Wilson was dispatched to Niger because Vice President Dick Cheney had questions about an intelligence report about Iraq seeking uranium and that he asked that the CIA get back to him with answers. Cheney's staff has adamantly denied and Tenet has reinforced the claim that the Vice President had anything to do with initiating the Wilson mission. They say the Vice President merely asked routine questions at an intelligence briefing and that mid-level CIA officials, on their own, chose to dispatch Wilson.

In an exclusive interview Lewis Libby, the Vice President's Chief of Staff, told TIME: "The Vice President heard about the possibility of Iraq trying to acquire uranium from Niger in February 2002. As part of his regular intelligence briefing, the Vice President asked a question about the implication of the report. During the course of a year, the Vice President asked many such questions and the agency responded within a day or two saying that they had reporting suggesting the possibility of such a transaction. But the agency noted that the reporting lacked detail. The agency pointed out that Iraq already had 500 tons of uranium, portions of which came from Niger, according to the International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA). The Vice President was unaware of the trip by Ambassador Wilson and didn't know about it until this year when it became public in the last month or so. " Other senior Administration officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, have also claimed that they had not heard of Wilson's report until recently.

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cialeak; joewilson; josephwilson; niger; wilson; yellowcake
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-113 last
To: Neets
From Time.com:

In an interview with TIME, Wilson, who served as an ambassador to Gabon and as a senior American diplomat in Baghdad under the current president's father, angrily said that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Africa. "That is bulls__t. That is absolutely not the case," Wilson told TIME. "I met with between six and eight analysts and operators from CIA and elsewhere [before the Feb 2002 trip]. None of the people in that meeting did I know, and they took the decision to send me. This is a smear job."

So Wilson himself was talking about his wife's involvement (or lack thereof) in his interview with Time on July 17, and no mention of the supposed "scandal" of Novak's using his wife's name just a mere three days before this was published. That IMHO definitely suggests that this "interview" preceded Novak's reporting of the alleged "leak", (because why wouldn't TIME follow up on that juicy scandal?) or that, like we know now, it was not a big deal to "out" an analyst who is not an undercover operative, since he did it himself! Geez, these people are just trash. It would be interesting to get the notes of the TIMES writers of when they interviewed Wilson for their story. . .

101 posted on 09/30/2003 8:36:06 PM PDT by alwaysconservative ("If you can't change your mind, are you sure you still have one?" Maxine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: alwaysconservative
Excellent Observations
102 posted on 09/30/2003 9:23:10 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: William McKinley
Were you ever able to get ahold of a hard copy of that Time Magazine?

I went to TIME.com and checked their archives. They have this article there and dated July 17. Interestingly enough, they also have a duplicate article dated July 16. It has the same title, but it's dated one day earlier, and has fewer words in the article. When you click on the link it says it's a bad URL.

Did TIME have the article even as early as the 16th and pulled it?

http://www.time.com/time/searchresults?search_date_range=range&query=wilson&daterange=1&from_month=07&from_day=10&from_year=2003&to_month=08&to_day=01&to_year=2003&x=17&y=8

A War on Wilson?
Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection
1298 words - similar articles Jul. 17, 2003

A War on Wilson?
Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection
1298 words - similar articles Jul. 17, 2003

A War On Wilson?
Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection
1214 words - similar articles Jul. 16, 2003

A War On Wilson?
Inside the Bush Administration's feud with the diplomat who poured cold water on the Iraq-uranium connection
1214 words - similar articles Jul. 16, 2003

If somebody does have that hard copy, and it was in the issue of the 14th or the 21st, while I doubt we could get the info to the White House, I'll bet a few phone calls to some friendly Senators might help. One of them could surely get the info to the DOJ.

The Matthew Cooper/Mandy Grunwald connection is too important not to at least follow up. That many coincidences I have a hard time believing...
103 posted on 10/04/2003 4:36:09 PM PDT by terilyn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: terilyn
The print editions were checked. It wasn't in there. It was only on Time.com
104 posted on 10/04/2003 4:39:07 PM PDT by William McKinley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: William McKinley
Thanks for that quick reply!

Rats!
105 posted on 10/04/2003 4:40:36 PM PDT by terilyn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: William McKinley

Bump!


106 posted on 07/17/2005 9:39:37 PM PDT by Howlin (Is Valerie Plame a mute?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: Howlin

Two year to the Day anniversary bump.

107 posted on 07/17/2005 9:43:11 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: Pubbie

Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's "cover" (even if she had not been a covert CIA agent at the time of the alleged "leaks")?

It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press.

Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a year ago:

He certainly bragged about it per a famous and highly reliable source's (named below) account of his own face-to-face encounter with Amb. Joe Wilson prior to Valerie Plame's "outing" as a CIA agent/employee.

Based upon a personal conversation (we were in a small group eating; it was NOT an "off the record") I had with eminent historian Victor Davis Hanson (we were at a luncheon table together during a trip to Europe), it appeared entirely possible that Joe Wilson himself was the (or one source, if not the original one) possible source in revealing his own wife's status as a CIA agent or employee.

Victor Davis Hanson (Wilson presumably knew Victor Davis Hanson wrote regularly for NRO (National Review Online), had done OpEds for the Wall street Journal, and other publications, and had his own Website with a widespread following) said he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were both in the same "Green Room" before a televised debate-discussion on Iraq, etc. and Joe first warned the TV make-up person not to get powder on his $14,000 Rolex watch, then he bragged to Victor about several things (possessions and trips to Aspen, etc.), like his expensive car (I think it was a Mercedes), and then bragged about his beautiful ("hot") wife who, Joe Wilson said (braggingly) was a CIA operative.

I asked Victor Davis Hanson Why he didn't write up this account.(?) He replied that Joe Wilson would probably simply deny it, since only he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were in the Green Room together before the broadcast.

However, it is now easy to surmise that Joe Wilson is a crass, materialistic, self-promoting, vain, egotistical, bragaddocio-opportunist, so this account is perfectly consistent with Valerie Plame's TWO photo shoots in Vanity Fair.


108 posted on 07/17/2005 9:45:16 PM PDT by FReethesheeples (Gonzales appears to be quite WEAK on Property rights!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FReethesheeples
Good grief, FReethesheeples. I know you are enamored of that post, but that's about 10 times you've posted it on various threads.

Please cut it out. It clutters things up.

109 posted on 07/17/2005 9:48:26 PM PDT by ThePythonicCow (To err is human; to moo is bovine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: Pubbie
This whole thing is starting to sound like a 'Who's On First?' routine. I'm not the dullest knife in the drawer, but this story has my head spinning. Too many players, too many dates, articles, etc.

I think the Dan Rather hoax was more fun than this one. ;)

110 posted on 07/17/2005 9:50:58 PM PDT by Jenya (Terrorism. Bush gets it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Southack

Going back through and reading all these articles, I had never noticed that Joe Wilson has honestly been publicly humiliated about this story almost right from the beginning.


111 posted on 07/17/2005 9:51:50 PM PDT by Howlin (Is Valerie Plame a mute?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: ThePythonicCow

More than ten.


112 posted on 07/17/2005 10:09:18 PM PDT by FReethesheeples (Gonzales appears to be quite WEAK on Property rights!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: Pubbie

Message to Joe Wilson:

"Liar, liar pants on fire!"


113 posted on 07/18/2005 6:37:50 AM PDT by FReethesheeples (Gonzales appears to be quite WEAK on Property rights!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-113 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson