Joe Wilson In A Bind

American Spectator ^ | 10-31-05 | Clinton W. Taylor

[potlatch]

BUMP and thanks for the ping bitt!

[driftless]

I'm lousy at linking, but if you go to Frontpagemag and hit their archives icon or whatever they all them, located at the top of the screen, for Oct. 31, the article titled "A spooked white house" by Hayes will be one of the first articles listed.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

There should be at least one peice of documentation of Joe's trip. Somewhere in my stack of stuff, I have a quote from Joe saying he was reimbursed for his expenses by the CIA.

He must have submitted an expense report. There must be a check stub.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

This may have some answers re: the 1999 trip and maybe raise a few more questions.

Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV
“A Conversation between a Military Strategist and a U.S. Ambassador on Post-War Developments in Iraq”
October 31, 2003
http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmakers/newsmakers/wilson.html

....I went and undertook this trip in February of 2002, just to refresh everyone’s memory. It was long before I ever contributed to John Kerry’s campaign....

Perhaps, but these are the contributions he did make prior to his trip. Pay attention to who got money in Feb., 2002:

RANGEL, CHARLES B VIA RANGEL FOR CONGRESS 02/10/2000 500.00
ROYCE, ED MR VIA ED ROYCE FOR CONGRESS 06/25/2000 500.00 (R)
KENNEDY, EDWARD MOORE SENATOR VIA KENNEDY FOR SENATE 2000 05/13/1999 1000.00
BUSH, GEORGE W VIA BUSH FOR PRESIDENT INC. 05/20/1999 1000.00
GORE, AL VIA GORE 2000 INC 03/26/1999 2000.00
HILL PAC 02/13/2002 1000.00
GORE, AL VIA GORE 2000 INC 04/22/1999 -1000.00
ROYCE, ED MR VIA ED ROYCE FOR CONGRESS 06/28/2001 500.00
NADER, RALPH VIA NADER 2000 PRIMARY COMMITTEE INC 06/05/2000 250.00

...In fact after the President [of Niger], the military dictator had been assassinated*[April 1999; see footnote], I went to see his successor and at the request of some of my friends there and some of the colleagues with whom I had been working, I went to see the new military dictator and I told him in no uncertain terms, that the only way he was going to get out of this mess, not just alive, but perhaps with a chance to restore his own personal honor, and the honor of his organization, the Presidential guard that had been responsible for the assassination of his predecessor. The only chance he had was to get out and effect a change back to democratic rule as quickly as possible. I told him, I said, that you need to understand from my experience in Africa that your successor president probably will not be very comfortable with you standing watching his back after you have effected the transition. After all, your organization was responsible for the assassination of your predecessor shooting him in the back. Therefore, I said to him, I think that you probably ought to leave the country for a while. Those are pretty strong words to walk into a military barracks and tell a guy who has assassinated his predecessor and has assumed responsibility for his country....

More

....I came back a year later [2000;see footnote] during the course of the transition and the president met me at the airport. He was on his way to Nigeria. He was still present as the transition had not taken place although the elections had taken place. He called me into the Presidential Suite while all the other diplomats were out there having their canopies and cocktails. He called me into the Presidential Suite which made the hair on the neck of the Liberian Ambassador stand up. He said to me, “Remember that conversation we had last year?” I said, you bet, sure do. He told me that he had done everything that I had suggested that he do. I told him yes and that I was proud of him for having done it. Then he told me that he was off to Nigeria on this official visit, but he wanted me to know that he was also picking up the keys to his new house down there because ["]I will be moving there for that decent interval to allow my new successor to get established and get his new regime established, his administration established without fear that somehow my presidential guard organization with me at the head of it will come back and do to him what happened to his predecessor.["]

So he made a total of 3 trips? 1999 and 2000 Is this the trip that Who are the friends that asked him to go? Was the first at the request of the CIA (IIRC recommended by his wife)?

...So, that is the level of confidence that I enjoyed with the group of people who were accused of having signed this document which was purported to be the sale of uranium to Iraq. ...

..Now, I went out there and I spent eight days out there and I talked to everybody who knows anything about the business. I looked at two pieces of this. I looked at how the uranium business operates. Could it happen? I found that there is a consortium of international partners. The managing partner of this is the French and that means the French own the product from the time that it is in the ground until the time that it gets to the consumer. Nothing could happen in this regard without the French knowing and abetting it. ....

...There were two other reports that were done at the same time as mine. One was the Ambassadors on the scene report and one was a report made by a fourth star marine corps general who made his way down to Niger and had taken a look at it. All three of us had concluded the same thing. It did not happen. We have information to the contrary. It cannot be authentic unless it contains three signatures. None of which were on those documents....

Do we know who the Four Star MArine Corps General is? Have these 2 other reports been verified? Do they exsist? Were they written reports?

===============================

[Footnote Niger History 1987-2004
Timeline for 1999 trip

http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/niger_history.asp

...Kountché died in 1987 and was succeeded by Gen. Ali Seybou as head of state. Seybou vowed to dismantle the ruling Supreme Military Council and introduce civilian rule. In 1991, a 1,204-member national conference suspended the constitution and dissolved the government. A transitional civilian government ruled until 1993, when Mahamane Ousmane was elected president in free elections. However, an opposition coalition subsequently won control of the legislature, leading to a protracted stalemate. Conflict between the government and the Tuareg in the early 1990s subsided with the signing of a peace accord in 1995....

In Jan., 1996, the government was ousted in a coup led by Col. Ibrahim Baré Mainassara. Presidential elections held in July, 1996, were won by Mainassara, who replaced the independent electoral commission with a handpicked one during the two-day poll. Mainassara was assassinated by members of his presidential guard in Apr., 1999, and Maj. Daouda Malam Wanké became head of state. France, the country's major aid donor, suspended aid following the coup. In Nov., 1999, elections were held for a new president and parliament; a retired colonel, Tandja Mamadou, was elected president. Tandja, whose first term was marked by relative stability, was reelected in Dec., 2004.... ]