New Evidence Cheney Swayed Reaction to Leak (Obama still hunting)

Washington Post ^ | 7-3-09 | R. Jefferey Smith

[STARWISE]

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations.

The administration's discussion of Wilson's link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial.

*snip*

He mentioned in particular Cheney's discussion of his conversation with then-CIA Director George J. Tenet about "the decision to send Ambassador Joseph Wilson on a fact-finding mission to Niger in 2002." Wilson is the former CIA operative's husband, and a report he filed after the trip cast doubt on claims that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger for a nuclear weapons program.

[Wuli]

Is the author THAT ignorant of the basic facts in the case.

“Wilson is the former CIA operative’s husband, and a report he filed after the trip cast doubt on claims that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger for a nuclear weapons program.”

Wilson was NOT a “CIA operative”.

The CIA and the State Department discussed the idea of sending someone to Africa to look into the claims that Saddam had ATTEMPTED to acquire nuclear material from Niger.

The CIA did not have human resources in Niger. Joe Wilson was a former ambassador with experience in Niger and in Iraq. His wife, whose department was part of the CIA group looking into the claims offered his name as someone who knew the region, knew Niger officials, past and present.

The only “CIA operative” aspect about the trip was that the Africans he met did not know that the CIA paid for the trip. When Wilson returned he reported back to both the State Department and the CIA.

Lastly, and factually, Wilson “cast doubt” on the claims - which was no more than the doubt he and his wife had before the trip; but “the trip” did not cast doubt on the claims. After Wilson, finally, belatedly, had a formal debriefing from the CIA (because Cheney asked if had been done and it had not), the CIA’s analysis of what Wilson said was told to him in Niger was that the claim was valid - the attempt had been made.

Let’s also not forget that Wilson’s total “investigation” consisted of sitting at a hotel bar and chatting with current and former Niger officials and acquaintances, many of whom would have been liable for international sanctions if they did have involvement with facilitating nuclear aid to Saddam and those facts were known.

[tobyhill]

This is the MSM trying to get everyone looking at this old nothing news while Obama continues the government takeover of everything.

[lonestar]

Wonder how much the Wilsons had to pay for that story.

Who's having the dinner party and issuing the invitations?!

[BlueAngel]

Wash. Post, OMG, drop it already. No one cares!!

[denydenydeny]

So “steering” is now some sort of crime.

This is hilarious. Everyone knows the complicity of Armitage and Novak in all this, but the moonbats who are now running our country need to ignore it and go after felonious....”steering.”

[STARWISE]

;)

[STARWISE]

As I recall, he was debriefed by them, in the
presence of job procurer wife first. Least,
that’s my memory.

[Fedora]

From the article:

The nonprofit group pushing for disclosure, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, responded yesterday with a statement that the Justice Department has subpoenaed such officials without difficulty in the past. "It is astonishing that a top Department of Justice political appointee is suggesting other high-level appointees are unlikely to cooperate with legitimate law enforcement investigations. What is wrong with this picture?" said Melanie Sloan, head of the group."

A little searching reveals that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) provides legal counsel for the Wilsons, and its funding traces back to this group:

Democracy Alliance was founded by former Clinton Treasury official Rob Stein, Erica Payne and various donors in 2005. . ."At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades," The Washington Post reported in August, 2005.. .The Democracy Alliance tries to keep a low profile and its wealthy donors prefer anonymity. According to published reports, organizations funded by Democracy Alliance are asked not to reveal the funding. In 2006 a San Francisco, CA, office was established by the Democracy Alliance at the Presidio in the Tides Center, where Alliance member Drummond Pike has his offce. Rob McKay of the McKay Foundation and Anna Burger of SEIU are the elected chair and vice chair of the board of directors of the Democracy Alliance. [2] "Members of the Democracy Alliance include billionaires like George Soros and his son Jonathan Soros, former Rockefeller Family Fund president Anne Bartley, San Francisco Bay Area donors Susie Tompkins Buell and Mark Buell, Hollywood director Rob Reiner, Taco Bell heir Rob McKay ... as well as New York financiers like Steven Gluckstern." [3]

Quite a "nonprofit" group.

[jettester]

What about a “Palin/Cheney” ticket? Talk about getting Ratheads to explode!

[kcvl]

R. Jefferey Smith

Joe Wilson & his super secret, gun weilding, so-called undercover CIA agent, ugly *ss wife, Valerie Plame should be in jail themselves.

They are the figment of the media's imagination.

[STARWISE]

Hi there ... long time no see.

CREW is infamous for their relentless
tearing down of Pres. Bush and anything
righteously American .. and one of
Soros’ pet funding projects, as I recall.

[Brad from Tennessee]

FROM WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL March 7, 2007:

[. . .A bipartisan investigation by the Senate intelligence committee subsequently established that all of these (Wilson's) claims were false — and that Mr. Wilson was recommended for the Niger trip by Ms. Plame, his wife. . .Mr. Wilson's case has besmirched nearly everyone it touched. The former ambassador will be remembered as a blowhard. . .]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030602020.html

[Mr. Peabody]

So what?

[chris_bdba]

Hey WP no one cares about this but the far far left! It is the economy people care about quit beating a long dead horse!

[STARWISE]

Too true . . thanks. Never saw that.

[PA-RIVER]

It’s offical. Being a republican is now a crime.

[piasa]

That kind of backside-covering secrecy and conflict of interest cover-up are government failings that American Oversight senior advisor Melanie Sloan might have once protested. But the ethics watchdog who formerly helmed Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington abandoned nonpartisanship eons ago. Under her leadership, CREW occasionally targeted corrupt Democrats, including Maxine Waters and William "Cold Cash" Jefferson. But in the end, her radical funders -- George Soros, the Tides Foundation and the Democracy Alliance -- traded her in for rabid attack dog David Brock. Sloan then got mired in her own apparent pay-for-play scandal. After forming a consulting business, she reportedly solicited a $40,000 donation from one of her clients, Herbalife, to CREW, which published a website attacking an investor who called the company a pyramid scheme. Sloan now heads a crisis management outfit called Triumph Strategy with Michael Huttner, a far-left operative and founder of ProgressNow. That's the Democrat group of nonprofit satellites funded with startup money from billionaire George Soros and the Democracy Alliance, whose board members include former SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger and ACORN embezzlement cover-upper Drummond Pike. American Oversight ain't about cleaning up corruption. It's about disruption for the sake of disruption. ------ The Dirty Dem Dogs of Disruption, Townhall.com ^ | March 15, 2017 | Michelle Malkin Posted on 3/15/2017, 8:18:50 AM by Kaslin

[piasa]

So now we add a new front group linked to CREW called American Oversight that is acting as a disruptive force against Trump and Giuliani

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I think this has more to do with Valarie Plame is running for Congress in New Mexico.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

My bad. I didn’t realize this was from back in 2009.