Posted on 02/07/2007 6:36:53 PM PST by Laverne
From the outset, Joseph Wilson IV has insisted he was sent to Niger at the Vice President's behest. As more facts about the trip became known and the Vice President vehemently denied this claim, the scenario appeared that the CIA sent him after Cheney raised a question in an intelligence report, and that the Vice President was utterly unaware of the Mission to Africa.
This notion was reinforced when the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) reported that the agency managed to act remarkably quickly, approving the trip so close in time after the inquiry. But we have just learned in the course of the Libby Trial that even that timeline is wrong:
(a) Plame recommended her husband for this trip before the vice president even asked about the report;
(b) the SSCI never knew this because the CIA never turned over her memorandum of recommendation to the committee.
Why did the agency hold back this information and allow this misstatement of fact to sit on the public record for so long?
Captain Ed and Byron York have the details. York writes:
The accepted version of events is that Vice President Dick Cheney got things started when he asked for information about possible Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium in Africa. After that request, CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson suggested sending her husband to look into the question, and after that, the CIA flew Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate. But the new documents suggest that Mrs. Wilson suggested her husband for the trip before the vice president made his request. In other words, Joseph Wilson's visit to Niger, which everyone believes was undertaken at the behest of the vice president, was actually in the works before Dick Cheney asked his now-famous question. And if that is true, our current understanding of the chronology of events is wrong. [...]
A CIA official told the committee that Mrs. Wilson "offered up [Joseph Wilson's] name" for the job, and the Senate report quoted the e-mail written by Mrs. Wilson saying, "my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity."
According to the Senate report, Valerie Plame Wilson sent her e-mail on February 12, 2002 - the day before the vice president was briefed on the African uranium matter. The discrepancy between the two dates seems glaring, but was not included in the Senate report. That is because, according to a source familiar with the committee's investigation, the CIA did not include the document in the materials it turned over to the committee. Senate investigators apparently never knew the exact date of the vice president's request, so they never knew it came after Plame's e-mail.
What does the new information mean? On February 12, 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency released - inside the government, not publicly - a report covering the Africa uranium issue; its title said that Niger had "signed an agreement to sell 500 tons of uranium a year to Baghdad." CIA officials told Senate investigators the report spurred requests for information from both the State Department and the Department of Defense. Knowledgeable sources speculate - and they stress, they are speculating - that those inquiries from State and Defense were made on the 12th, the day the Defense Intelligence Agency report was sent around, and that Valerie Plame Wilson, in suggesting her husband be sent to investigate, was reacting to those requests, and not to the vice president's question, which came the next day. In this new version of events, Dick Cheney was the last guy to request more information, not the first; the notion that his request started the whole affair seems wrong.
Captain Ed writes :
I've written at length about the lack of credibility Wilson has on this topic. He has misrepresented his own findings for political purposes, a conclusion that this trial has reinforced. Now it looks like he has lied about the nature of his assignment from the beginning. It did not come from a request by Cheney, but apparently as an independent initiative of his wife in reaction to intelligence developed outside of her discipline -- which calls into question the motives of both parties from the beginning.
Update: Do not miss A.J. Strata's take on the lies about the timing and careful consideration of what might have been going on.
Scooter Ping
mark
BBTT
I thought you might be interested in this.
BTTT !!!
Hmmmm, indeed.
It's no surprise that Wilson is a serial liar. But it's time that the traitors in the CIA were outed.
So, Val and Joe cooked the whole thing up? Who coulda' guessed, eh?!
I am sure that the MSM will go to any length to correct this misconsception as soon as they correct the misconceptions about Joe McCarthy.
And .. the sooner the better.
Well .. I've always believed that Hillary was in on Val and Joe's little scheme. In fact, I am easily convinced she might have even planned it. Bubba was eagerly travelling all over Europe trying to get other world leaders to NOT SUPPORT BUSH. My only reason for Bubba doing that was because he knew about the monetary connections between Saddam, France, Germany, and Russia .. thereby wanting to protect his friends.
My reason to directly connect Hillary is because of an incident which occurred just before the Wilson issue blew up. While Hillary and Bubba were in Europe hawking Hillary's book, Bubba and Tony Blair had a sort of public dust-up at a cocktail party. It was written about in one of the UK papers, but it never made the USA press. According to the UK journalist who overheard part of the conversation, Bubba was trying to convince Tony to dump Bush (and his war), and then Bubba warned Tony that Bush was going to be exposed, and if Tony didn't dump Bush .. then it was very possible that Tony was not going to win re-election.
Of course that's all a paraphrase, because I only read the article once - and of course it disappeared. I see a direct connection between what Bubba said to Tony and the Wilson story being made public. Maybe the timeline is off .. because I can't seem to find out when the London event took place .. but it still seems that it occurred prior to Wilson's claim that Bush had outed Val to punish him for the Niger report.
If my guess is correct .. I believe that event directly connects Hillary (and/or Bill) to the Wilson affair. And .. were you aware that Hillary was very close friends with the Wilsons - who did fund raisers for the Clintons ..??
I may never be able to prove Hillary or Bill's connection, but I'll always be suspicious.
I hate to say it but all this is meaningless at this point. The Libby/Plame/Wilson scandal has already achieved it's intended purpose..retaking the House and Senate for the dims. News of the trial will be relegated to the 10th page, with the exception of Chissy Mathews who seems to have something personal at stake.
Well, the house and the senate have passed hands, but the media still lies through its teeth on a daily basis. Now we have potential evidence of NBC, through Tim Russert, lieing to the court. That will have major impact on MSM, I believe. I may be wrong, but if this trial cleans up the absurdity of today's "News" reporters, then this case is not meaningless. Also, its high time to Free Scooter Libby. I have donated to his defense fund because I believe this whole thing has been a persecution of him. Fitz is the new Niphong.
I agree. To bad Wilson will not make it to the witness stand. His goose would be throughly cooked.
The only thing that will clean up todays reporters/media is about 100 tons of napalm.
All created by Plame and Wilson.
All supported by the liberal Democratics and the MSM.
All aimed at one thing...bring down a President in a time of war.
wow
This is a sign that he's telling lies.
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