Posted on 07/12/2005 12:34:34 PM PDT by RWR8189
Contact: Tracey Schmitt
202-863-8614
"It's disappointing that once again, so many Democrat leaders are taking their political cues from the far-left, Moveon wing of the party. The bottom line is Karl Rove was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise and the Democrats are engaging in blatant partisan political attacks."
-RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman
Cooper’s Own Email Claims Rove Warned Of Potential Inaccuracies In Wilson Information:
“[Time Reporter Matt] Cooper Wrote That Rove Offered Him A ‘Big Warning’ Not To ‘Get Too Far Out On Wilson.’ Rove Told Cooper That Wilson’s Trip Had Not Been Authorized By ‘DCIA’ - CIA Director George Tenet - Or Vice President Dick Cheney.” (Michael Isikoff, "Matt Cooper’s Source," Newsweek, 7/18/05)
Wilson Falsely Claimed That It Was Vice President Cheney Who Sent Him To Niger, But The Vice President Has Said He Never Met Him And Didn’t Know Who Sent Him:
Wilson Says He Traveled To Niger At CIA Request To Help Provide Response To Vice President’s Office. “In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office had questions about a particular intelligence report. … The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office.” (Joseph C. Wilson, Op-Ed, “What I Didn’t Find In Africa,” The New York Times, 7/6/03)
Vice President Cheney: “I Don’t Know Joe Wilson. I’ve Never Met Joe Wilson. … And Joe Wilson - I Don’t [Know] Who Sent Joe Wilson. He Never Submitted A Report That I Ever Saw When He Came Back.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 9/14/03)
CIA Director George Tenet: “In An Effort To Inquire About Certain Reports Involving Niger, CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Experts, On Their Own Initiative, Asked An Individual With Ties To The Region To Make A Visit To See What He Could Learn.” (Central Intelligence Agency, “Statement By George J. Tenet, Director Of Central Intelligence,” Press Release, 7/11/03)
Wilson Denied His Wife Suggested He Travel To Niger, But Documentation Showed She Proposed His Name:
Wilson Claims His Wife Did Not Suggest He Travel To Niger To Investigate Reports Of Uranium Deal; Instead, Wilson Claims It Came Out Of Meeting With CIA To Discuss Report. CNN’S WOLF BLITZER: “Among other things, you had always said, always maintained, still maintain your wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA officer, had nothing to do with the decision to send to you Niger to inspect reports that uranium might be sold from Niger to Iraq. … Did Valerie Plame, your wife, come up with the idea to send you to Niger?” JOE WILSON: “No. My wife served as a conduit, as I put in my book. When her supervisors asked her to contact me for the purposes of coming into the CIA to discuss all the issues surrounding this allegation of Niger selling uranium to Iraq.” (CNN’s “Lade Edition,” 7/18/04)
Wilson’s Report On Niger Had “Thin” Evidence And Did Not Change Conclusions Of Analysts And Other Reports:
Officials Said Evidence Was “Thin” And His “Homework Was Shoddy.” “In the days after Wilson’s essay appeared, government officials began to steer reporters away from Wilson’s conclusions, raising questions about his veracity and the agency’s reasons for sending him in the first place. They told reporters that Wilson’s evidence was thin, said his homework was shoddy and suggested that he had been sent to Niger by the CIA only because his wife had nominated him for the job.” (Michael Duffy, “Leaking With A Vengeance,” Time, 10/13/03)
CIA Said Wilson’s Findings Did Not Resolve The Issue. “Because [Wilson’s] report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials. We also had to consider that the former Nigerien officials knew that what they were saying would reach the U.S. government and that this might have influenced what they said.” (Central Intelligence Agency, “Statement By George J. Tenet, Director Of Central Intelligence,” Press Release 7/11/03)
The Butler Report Claimed That The President’s State Of the Union Statement On Uranium From Africa, “Was Well-Founded.” “We conclude that, on the basis of the intelligence assessments at the time, covering both Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the statements on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa in the Government’s dossier, and by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, were well-founded. By extension, we conclude also that the statement in President Bush’s State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that: ‘The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.’ was well-founded.” (The Rt. Hon. The Lord Butler Of Brockwell, “Review Of Intelligence, On Weapons Of Mass Destruction,” 7/14/04)
Sens. Roberts, Bond And Hatch All Dismissed Wilson’s Claims:
Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS), Kit Bond (R-MO) And Orrin Hatch (R-UT) All Stated, “On At Least Two Occasions [Wilson] Admitted That He Had No Direct Knowledge To Support Some Of His Claims And That He Was Drawing On Either Unrelated Past Experiences Or No Information At All.” (Select Committee On Intelligence, “Additional Views Of Chairman Pat Roberts, Joined By Senator Christopher S. Bond And Senator Orrin G. Hatch; Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq,” U.S. Senate, 7/7/04)
Wilson Endorsed Kerry In October 2003. “Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq, endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president … In a conference call with New Hampshire reporters, Wilson said he and Kerry have shared the experience of challenging their government – Wilson when he questioned the ‘rush to war’ with Iraq, Kerry when he challenged America’s role in Vietnam.” (David Tirrell-Wysocki, “Former Ambassador Wilson Endorses Kerry In Presidential Race,” The Associated Press, 10/23/03)
“Wilson … Said He Has Long Been A Kerry Supporter And Has Contributed $2,000 To The Campaign This Year. He Said He Has Been Advising Kerry On Foreign Policy For About Five Months And Will Campaign For Kerry, Including A Trip To New Hampshire …” (David Tirrell-Wysocki, “Former Ambassador Wilson Endorses Kerry In Presidential Race,” The Associated Press, 10/23/03)
“In Mid-May, [Wilson] Began Talking To Kerry’s Advisers About Helping The Campaign; He Made His First Donation May 23. Kerry Himself Had Not Met Wilson Until Tuesday Night At A Campaign Fund-Raiser In Potomac, Md., A Kerry Aide Said …” (Patrick Healy and Wayne Washington, “In Probe Of CIA Leak, Two Sides See Politics,” The Boston Globe, 10/2/03)
“[Kerry Advisor Rand] Beers Said Wilson Communicates With Campaign Advisers At Least Once A Week.” (Patrick Healy and Wayne Washington, “In Probe Of CIA Leak, Two Sides See Politics,” The Boston Globe, 10/2/03)
I sincerely believe this tactic is used with many authors suffering from a sales slump or those attempting to show inflated figures. Copies of Johnny Cochran's book are housed in a local storage facility - in every unit of the warehouse but one - I'm renting that one and was asked to vacate as Mr. Cochran needed the additional space. Obviously this story is over a year old and I have no idea if his estate is still paying the fees.
I followed the link and signed the petition with a phony name under a stealth email that I use for such nefarious purposes. If anyone would like to know the name I used for it, FReepMail me and I'll tell ya.
but isnt suspicion of collusion at the heart of this, no matter what side of the fence youre on? isnt there a concern over corporate bias from "the other side?"
the liberals are looking to get a grip on something, and theyre going to keep grabbing until they do.
you can call me what you will, but ideologues are fallable, no matter which side you stand on
So far, there is no proof that Rove mentioned Plame by name, or that he was motivated by a sense to "punish" Wilson. He was merely setting the facts straight, countering false media reports that Dick Cheney had recruited Wilson for the Niger trip. If anyone in this scenario has repeatedly been found to be lying, it is Joseph Wilson.
It MAY be Rove??? The media is bending over backwards to parse everything to make it sound that way. That tells me that they know it ISN'T Rove.
It was mentioned on Fox News this morning that Rove's email to Cooper was dated after Novak's Plame/Wilson/Niger column was printed. The timing makes the Rove "controversy" and your consistency statements moot. Oh, and welcome to Free Republic.
The story you linked to had nothing to do with Plame. Or didn't you notice that? This is the kind of crap DU folks do all the time, refrence "evidence" that has nothing to do with what's being discussed. So please tell me and everyone here what your link has to do with Rove. Inquiring minds want to know.
Oh, nevermind, just STFU Troll.
As far as Rove is concerned, here is what seems to have happened: There were media reports that Dick Cheney had commissioned Joe Wilson's Niger trip, and that Cheney had disregarded Wilson's report because it undermined administration claims about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger. Cooper called Rove to ask about this, and Rove said it was false: Cheney had not authorized the trip - it was dreamed up by a CIA group who recruited Wilson at the suggestion of his wife, a CIA employee. Moreover, Cheney did not know Wilson, had never met him, and had never seen his report. Now, if you see criminal wrongdoing on the part of Rove in any of this, I'd like you to tell me what it was that he did wrong.
It was amazing to watch David Gregory go after Scott McClelland tooth and fang. He looked like a rabid dog. I understand why the dems are trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit, but the MSM should be capable of seeing the way the wind is blowing, yet they try to hold the party line. They will be made to look very, very foolish and will result in further marginalizing the MSM. Have they not heard of internet bloggers? They are the compass as the story gets directed off course. There is discussion and there are instantly thousands, tens of thousands of editors, some extremely well informed. Yet they keep up their trash talk.
What you didn't mention about minnesotared's link is that it pointed to a story describing how the New York Times had blown the cover of a CIA operative who was providng valuable information about Al Quaeda. That's quite a strange link for minnesotared to cite as an argument against Rove. lol
Don't forget Cooper.
To paraphrase the song, "The media has their story and they're sticking to it." They will not let facts get in the way of a good story - how did CBS put it? - "false but accurate"?
Go back to the DU troll.
youre now asking me to take the side of attempting to explain what Rove did wrong?
i aint gonna do that.
i think all the fury is trying to get at the false claims to go to war. i think that the fury is about wanting to hold the President to statements he made about how anyone in his admin connected to this - leaked this, would be fired. i also think there is a fury to make this heated and of the essence.
at the root, there isnt much to stand on.
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