Man Behind the Furor (Wash. Post Puff Bio on Joseph Wilson)

The Washington Post ^ | Wednesday, October 1, 2003 | Richard Leiby

[kristinn]

Former diplomat Joseph Wilson used to tell reporters he felt certain how his obituary would read. It went: "Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was the last American diplomat to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, died . . . "

But "it seems to change," Wilson said yesterday, smiling across his desk in his Washington office. He has kept mentally revising the obituary to keep up with the political maelstrom over Iraq policy and White House leaks that is swirling around him.

A recent version began: "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the Bush I administration political appointee who did the most damage to the Bush II administration . . . "

The current version goes: "Joseph C. Wilson IV, the husband of the spy the White House outed, . . . "

SNIP

As the world now knows, Wilson is married to Valerie Wilson, nee Plame. She is his third wife. She is 40, slim, blonde and the mother of their 3-year-old twins. In the photos in his office, she has the looks of a film star.

"She is really quite amazing," Wilson said. "We were just discussing today who would play her in the movie," he cracked.

SNIP

Even though the White House has said Rove wasn't involved, Wilson made clear yesterday that he has no intention of backing off from his assertion that Rove at least condoned someone's making telephone calls to reporters about his wife. He said he took a call from a reporter who quoted Rove as saying: "Joe Wilson's wife is fair game."

Wilson said he and his wife have attended the same Episcopal church as Rove. Wilson quoted Valerie as saying, "Perhaps the next time we are taking communion I should introduce myself so he can see that I have a face and a name other than 'fair game.' "

[YaYa123]

I'm with you! I think Larry Johnson, the guy who was on PBSNewshour last night, who said he and Wilson's wife trained together... "were in the same class"... must have been bottom rung. Maybe the only person PBS could get to discuss Wilson's wife on the air. I didn't believe several things he said, he was too eager to "sell" himself.

Maybe Fred Mertz parsed the "three decades" thing correctly. He suggested that doesn't necessarily mean 30 years. As in, 1 year in the 80s, 10 in the 90s, 3 in 2000, that's just 14 years, but it covers 3 decades.

I think more interesting, the Wilson's have 3 year old twins. that has to mean she's been out of the dangerous "CIA operative" business for at least that long, safely nestled in her job as Langley analyst.

Last night on NIGHTLINE, Koppel made it clear. He said to Wilson, at one time your wife was a CIA operative, but now she's an analyst. Wilson looked uncomfortable but only said, "Ted, you should check your sources on that", but then dropped the matter without saying Koppel was wrong.

[Shermy]

#31

From later in that Telegraph story:

The scandal took off at the weekend after an unnamed senior administration official, reportedly close to Mr Tenet, told the Washington Post that two White House officials leaked Miss Plame's identity to selected journalists in an act of "revenge" on Mr Wilson.

If true, that would explain why the story took off over the weekend. I wonder who that senior administration official close to Tenet is. Vice President Cheney?

From what I can tell the Washington Post article made no mention the "senior administration official" was "reportedly close to Mr. Tenet.

Maybe the Telegraph knows something.

Interesting in light of today's events.