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A Right-Wing Smear Is Gathering Steam (Joe Wilson)
The L.A. Daily Worker ^ | July 21, 2004 | Joe Wilson

Posted on 07/21/2004 7:42:29 AM PDT by BillyBonebrake

Ex-envoy says the GOP has targeted him and his wife. By Joseph C. Wilson IV July 21, 2004 For the last two weeks, I have been subjected — along with my wife, Valerie Plame — to a partisan Republican smear campaign. In right-wing blogs and on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and the National Review, I've been accused of being a liar and, worse, a traitor. This is the latest chapter in a saga that began in 2002 when I was asked by the CIA to investigate a report that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase several hundred tons of uranium yellowcake from the West African country of Niger in order to reconstruct Iraq's nuclear weapons program. I went to Niger, investigated and told the CIA that the report was unfounded. Then, in July 2003, I revealed some details of my investigation in a New York Times Op-Ed article. I did that because President Bush had used the Niger claim to support going to war in Iraq — to support his contention that we could not wait "for the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud" — even though the administration knew that evidence for it was all but nonexistent. Shortly after that article was published, the attacks began: Administration sources leaked to the media that my wife was an undercover CIA operative — an unprecedented betrayal of national security and a possible felony. In the last two weeks, since the Senate Intelligence Committee released its report on intelligence failures, the smear attacks have intensified. Based on distortions in the report, they appear to have three purposes: to sow confusion; to distract attention from the fact that the White House used the Niger claim even after CIA Director George Tenet told Bush that "the reporting was weak"; and to protect whoever it was who told the press about Valerie. The primary new charge from the Republicans is that I lied when I said Valerie had nothing to do with my being assigned to go to Niger. That's important to the administration because there's a criminal investigation underway, and if she did play a role, divulging her CIA status may be defendable. In fact, though the Senate committee cites a CIA source saying Valerie had a role in the assignment, it ignores what the agency told Newsday reporters as early as July 2003, long before I ever acknowledged Valerie's CIA employment. "A senior intelligence officer," the reporters wrote, "confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked 'alongside' the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger. "But he said she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment. 'They [the officers who did ask Wilson to check the uranium story] were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising,' he said. 'There are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up, for some reason,' he said. 'I can't figure out what it could be.' " Last week, a CIA source repeated this to CNN and the Los Angeles Times. On another front, my enemies claim I based my conclusions about the Niger claim on documents that the Senate report now suggests I couldn't have seen. But the truth is that I made it clear in the New York Times article that I had never seen the written documents concerning the alleged sale between Iraq and Niger. By then, however, as I wrote, news accounts had already "pointed out that the documents had glaring errors — they were signed, for example, by officials who were no longer in government — and were probably forged." Finally, it has been suggested that my work for the CIA, rather than debunking the Niger claim, supported it. Although some analysts continued to believe that the Iraqis were interested in purchasing Niger uranium, that is a far cry from Bush's claim in the State of the Union: "British intelligence has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." My report said there was no evidence that such a thing occurred in Niger. The attacks against me should not obscure the facts. The day after my article in the Times appeared in July 2003, the president's spokesman acknowledged that "the 16 words did not merit inclusion in the State of the Union address." The Senate report makes clear that senior leadership of the CIA tried repeatedly to keep this unsubstantiated claim out of presidential addresses. Three months before the State of the Union, on Oct. 6, 2002, the CIA sent a fax to the White House stating that "the Africa story is overblown." Tenet testified that on that day he told the deputy national security advisor the "president should not be a fact witness on this issue" because "the reporting was weak." The right-wing campaign against me and Valerie does not alter the reality that someone in the Bush administration exposed her identity and compromised national security. I believe it was a malicious act meant to keep others from crossing a vindictive administration. Most important, when it comes to the Niger claim — and so many other claims underlying the decision to go to war in Iraq — it is the Bush administration, not Joe Wilson, who spoke the words that have cost us more than 900 lives and billions of dollars and have left our international reputation in tatters.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraqwar; joewilson; niger; uranium; valerieplame; yellowcake
Previously posted with errors by yours truly, but worthy of discussion so I re-posted. I missed his appearance on the News Hour last night but hear that he didn't do too well.
1 posted on 07/21/2004 7:42:30 AM PDT by BillyBonebrake
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To: BillyBonebrake

Is it me or does "auto excerpt" undo the original artxile's formatting? In any case, I apologize.


2 posted on 07/21/2004 7:45:39 AM PDT by BillyBonebrake
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To: BillyBonebrake
appearance on the News Hour last night but hear that he didn't do too well.

hmmm...that's interesting. I heard he didn't even show.

Maybe I've got him confused with someone else.

3 posted on 07/21/2004 7:45:46 AM PDT by evad (Tax Man and Tort Boy..remolding America in their image)
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To: BillyBonebrake
I missed his appearance on the News Hour last night but hear that he didn't do too well.

I heard he didn't show.

4 posted on 07/21/2004 7:47:22 AM PDT by hobson
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To: Shermy

Ping.


5 posted on 07/21/2004 7:47:24 AM PDT by Fedora (Kerryman, Kerryman, does whatever a ketchup can/Spins a lie, any size, catches wives just like flies)
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To: BillyBonebrake

Joe Wilson is a Left-Wing Smear on the Underwear of Life...


6 posted on 07/21/2004 7:48:02 AM PDT by Chad Fairbanks (Q: What goes peck, peck, peck, boom? A: A chicken in a mine field.)
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To: BillyBonebrake

Put some Ice on it Joe!


7 posted on 07/21/2004 7:52:19 AM PDT by rllngrk33 (The fourth estate in this country has become a fifth column.)
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To: hobson

he did show up and got pummelled

http://silentrunning.tv/archives/004497.php

July 21, 2004
Wilson finally shows on the News Hour: Senator Kit Bond directly calls him a liar, suggests Wilson should apologize to President Bush and Vice President Cheney
And it was worth the wait.

Wilson did everything he could to avoid answering any of the direct charges and allegations, equivocating, changing the subject, and throwing up as many straw man distractions as his time allowed. The audio of the often outrageous, often hilarious and wholly pathetic performance may be found here.

Wilson was interviewed by Margaret Warner, who at one point was almost trying to help him out by throwing him a 'possible wording' but Wilson even discarded that and flailed away in the face of direct exposure from Senator Kit Bond. Senator Bond read almost directly from the Senate Intelligence report, and cited the Butler Inquiry conclusions. He summarized by stating that Wilson was a liar, and owed the President and Vice President an apology.

When confronted on the subject of his wife being the one to recommend him for the trip, Wilson went off on a tangent mentioning what unnamed CIA sources had mentioned to reporters a few days later - skipping, and not re-hashing his earlier vigorous assertions. Wilson's overall demeanor was that of a man that is still hawking the same old goods that he realizes everyone knows is a sham. His only rise from this was a feeble attempt at self-puffery when talking about his own bona fides after Margaret Warner asked him if his wife's glowing recommendation couldn't have been interpreted as a recommendation to send him on the trip. This immediately followed the biggest howler of the segment - when Wilson claimed "I haven't seen that" in reference to his wife's now famous e-mail.

Wilson went so far as to discredit his own early reporting about Iraq overtures to meet with Niger officials about expanded trade dealings when confronted with the conclusion that Wilson's reporting had increased, rather than decreased some analysts belief that Iraq was seeking Uranium from Africa. While Bond pointed out that Niger exports uranium, goats and peas, Wilson now asserts that even though the Niger official that told him of the contacts had assumed they would be to talk about Uranium, that he 'couldn't see' how that conclusion could be drawn.

Joe Wilson seems to be realizing that his 15 minutes are ticking down to the last few seconds. Joe, we hardly knew ya, but we're now sure you're full of crap.


8 posted on 07/21/2004 7:53:54 AM PDT by Pikamax
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To: BillyBonebrake
Right wing smear of 'Mayonnaise' Wilson.

He's thick, rich and oily.
and smells faintly of egg yolks

So9

9 posted on 07/21/2004 8:00:11 AM PDT by Servant of the 9 (Screwing the Inscrutable or is it Scruting the Inscrewable?)
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To: BillyBonebrake

The Bush team folded on the famous "16 words" when they didn't have too. They should have stuck it out. Wilson is a camera-seeking buffoon.


10 posted on 07/21/2004 8:01:28 AM PDT by Callahan
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To: Pikamax

Thanks. I'm sorry I missed his performance.


11 posted on 07/21/2004 8:02:06 AM PDT by hobson
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To: Callahan

I found that very troubling at the time. It's not like Bush to back down.


12 posted on 07/21/2004 8:12:52 AM PDT by sarasota
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To: BillyBonebrake

Just a few of his political contributions per opensecrets.org

WILSON, JOSEPH C
WASHINGTON,DC 20007
JC WILSON INTERNATIONAL VENTURES/BU
5/23/2003
$1,000
Kerry, John

WILSON, JOSEPH C
WASHINGTON,DC 20007
JC WILSON INTERNATIONAL VENTURES/CE
9/4/2003
$1,000
Kerry, John

WILSON, JOSEPH C IV
WASHINGTON,DC 20007
JC WILSON INT. VENTURE/FINANCE
2/13/2002
$1,000
HILLPAC

WILSON, JOSEPH
WASHINGTON,DC 20007
J C WILSON INT'L VEND
2/10/2000
$500
Rangel, Charles B

WILSON, JOSEPH
WASHINGTON,DC 20007
JC WILSON INTERNATIONAL VENTURES C
9/20/2002
$500
Blinken, Alan John

WILSON, JOSEPH C
WASHINGTON,DC 20007
J. C. WILSON INTL. VENTURES/STRATEG
3/26/1999
$2,000
Gore, Al


13 posted on 07/21/2004 8:48:03 AM PDT by Tamzee (Flush the Johns before they flood the White House!)
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To: BillyBonebrake
Most important, when it comes to the Niger claim — and so many other claims underlying the decision to go to war in Iraq — it is the Bush administration, not Joe Wilson, who spoke the words that have cost us more than 900 lives and billions of dollars and have left our international reputation in tatters.

I love how he talks in the third person. He reminds me of Leon, the football player in the Budweiser commercials.

14 posted on 07/21/2004 8:59:03 AM PDT by NYCVirago
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To: evad; hobson

He didn't show when scheduled, but showed up the next night.


15 posted on 07/21/2004 9:03:34 AM PDT by beckett
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To: Callahan; Fedora

"The Bush team folded on the famous "16 words" when they didn't have too."

Yep. Bush has incompetent PR people overreacting to whatever appears in the NYTimes.


16 posted on 07/21/2004 10:16:57 AM PDT by Shermy
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