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

[alwaysconservative]

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. . .

[Sacajaweau]

Excellent Observations

[terilyn]

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?
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A War on Wilson?
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A War On Wilson?
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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...

[William McKinley]

The print editions were checked. It wasn't in there. It was only on Time.com

[terilyn]

Thanks for that quick reply!

Rats!

[Howlin]

Bump!

[Southack]

Two year to the Day anniversary bump.

[FReethesheeples]

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.

[ThePythonicCow]

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.

[Jenya]

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. ;)

[Howlin]

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.

[FReethesheeples]

More than ten.

[FReethesheeples]

Message to Joe Wilson:

"Liar, liar pants on fire!"