Is Everything We Know About Joe Wilson’s Trip to Niger Wrong?

National Review ^ | Byron York

[misterrob]

Me either.

[Miss Marple]

Thanks! I thought I remembered commenting on that at the time, but I am TERRIBLE at looking up old articles.

Your effort is much appreciated!

[windchime]

You're welcome!

[Howlin]

Scooter ping!!

[Peach]

The headline should be: Is everything the MSM told you about Joe Wilson wrong. And the correct answer would be: Yes.

[TBP]

Sounds like some sort of offbeat Firesign Theatre album.

[STARWISE]

t's called "Shaping Policy".

And possibly contriving/planting intelligence?

[Howlin]

In that, Wilson wrote about a meeting with CIA officials — a meeting that took place on February 19, 2002 — at which “I was asked if I would be willing to travel to Niger to check out the report in question.” Perhaps Wilson was indeed asked to go to Niger at that meeting, but the newly-released CIA document suggests the agency settled on Wilson several days earlier.

You mean he was confused about when he heard he would go to Niger?

Indict him!

[Edgerunner]

BTTT

[Robert A Cook PE]

Hmmmn.

So Plame, before ANYTHING got "leaked" was already promoting her husband.

For the chance to earn lots of (taxpayer) money and (retain) power & influence among the DC lobbyists and special interests in the (future) DNC-controlled WH.......

[Howlin]

the VP did ask that SOMEONE be sent

No, he didn't; he asked his briefer for more detail and the CIA went into overdrive.

[Iwo Jima]

I have followed this story from afar, but not with the attention that you have. I have long thought that there was something missing in our understanding of what occurred. Something fundamental that we're just not getting.

What this information tells me is that the CIA was targeting Cheney for impeachment, and this was true even before the meeting in which he asked for information on the yellow cake rumor.

In fact, it looks like the CIA floated the yellow cake story, knowing that it could and would shoot down that story at the right time for maximum effect. Then they set a trap in which Cheney would naturally ask for confirmation. They had the "confirmation" results (discrediting the rumor) already planned before they ever enticed Cheney to request it.

Cheney was set up. Big time. But he still refused to buckle under and has fought them ever since. I greatly admire that.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

It hasn't stopped the MSM from suggesting Cheney leaked her name has it?

So why would this information, or any information change that?

[Howlin]

...that he "pressured" the intelligence community into submitting false information...Thiss would show it didnt happen

There was an actual investigation into whether Cheney pressured anybody and the Congressional panel found he didn't!

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

The entire premis of the Left is that Cheney "cooked the books" on the intelligence ...that he "pressured" the intelligence community into submitting false information...Thiss would show it didnt happen

That has previously been proven, yet it makes no differance.

[silverleaf]

Yes, it was NOT a clandestine mission.
Joe admitted to Nigerien officials why he was there and what he was looking for. I believe before he travle don this trip his CIA guidance was that his contacts were to be limited to retired or former Nigerien officials. That is why his discussions appear to have occurred over cups of sweet mint tea. Oh, and that is why Wilson's CIA "debriefing" occurred weeks after he returned, in his own living room back home.

Furthermore, as I recall, past documents indicate this boondoggle to Niger was one of 3 trips to Niger Joe made at CIA expense, no doubt with Valerie's help at getting him funded. Probably with first class airfare and 5 star hotels all the way. An ego stroker for guys like Joe who like to strut their own importance among 3rd world types and then come back here as poser-expert "africanist".

Joe was not looking out for US interests, he was looking to build his African "consulting" business and trading on his wife's connections and she was looking to get this garrulous lump of retired diplomat of the house as if he still had some play in "the community"

And by the way, all along it was British intelligence about Niger uranium dealings we were looking to validate, not US intelligence, and the Brits never backed down from their information.

[smoothsailing]

From NRO's "The Corner" blog:

JOE WILSON'S TRIP TO NIGER, CONT'D [Byron York]

A Washington veteran of the intelligence community adds a little perspective to my story about just how Joe Wilson's trip to Niger came about:

Let me add a bit of inside baseball to your Libby story: There is an intense and mutual rivalry between CIA and DIA. One time at a top secret meeting in Reagan I, I made the mistake of taking a chair between the CIA and DIA experts on a certain subject and they threw venom at each other across my nose for an hour and a half. Most unpleasant experience.

As I read your story, CIA [Val and pals] were reacting to a very important DIA story. In my experience, their gut reaction would have been to knock it down from the get-go. Hence the initial bureaucratic purpose of sending the husband out would have been to skewer DIA, not advance the issue. Obviously, they wouldn't have said this or put it in print but everyone in the system would know what the real game was.

[JayAr36]

Another dribble of truth coming from Washingtoon,CYA.

[smoothsailing]

Here's a link to the blog:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

the VP did ask that SOMEONE be sent

No, he didn't; he asked his briefer for more detail and the CIA went into overdrive.

When the VP asks for additional information you don't have that means just that. Not that it matters either way. The MSM will not notice.