Salon- Joseph Wilson vs. the right-wing conspiracy, with Wilson's rebuttal

[TacticalPeek]

Salon article, Joseph Wilson vs. the right-wing conspiracy (click on 'Powells Books' for free pass to see full article): http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/16/wilson



AND, Amb Wilson's 'Cheney Yourself' letter to the Intel Committee:

Dear Sen. Roberts and Sen. Rockefeller,

I read with great surprise and consternation the Niger portion of Sens. Roberts, Bond and Hatch's additional comments to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Assessment on Iraq. I am taking this opportunity to clarify some of the issues raised in these comments.

snip

In fact, Valerie was not in the meeting at which the subject of my trip was raised. Neither was the CPD reports officer. After having escorted me into the room, she departed the meeting to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. It was at that meeting where the question of my traveling to Niger was broached with me for the first time and came only after a thorough discussion of what the participants did and did not know about the subject. My bona fides justifying the invitation to the meeting were the trip I had previously taken to Niger to look at other uranium-related questions as well as 20 years living and working in Africa, and personal contacts throughout the Niger government. Neither the CPD reports officer nor the State analyst were in the chain of command to know who, or how, the decision was made. The interpretations attributed to them are not the full story. In fact, it is my understanding that the reports officer has a different conclusion about Valerie's role than the one offered in the "additional comments." I urge the committee to reinterview the officer and publicly publish his statement.

snip

It is essential that the errors and distortions in the additional comments be corrected for the public record. Nothing could be more important for the American people than to have an accurate picture of the events that led to the decision to bring the United States into war in Iraq. The Senate Intelligence Committee has an obligation to present to the American people the factual basis of that process. I hope that this letter is helpful in that effort. I look forward to your further "additional comments." (ed., Bwaaahahahaha!)

Sincerely,

Joseph C. Wilson IV, Washington, D.C.



Beaucoup more:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/07/16/wilson_letter

A VERY complete letter.


Thank God for Joe Wilson!


(Incidentally, "Sens. Roberts, Bond and Hatch" should be forced to resign their seats on the Intel Committee, if there is ANY integrity left in the R Party - holds breath, turning blue - especially Hatch; others have done so for far less grievous offense.)

:evilgrin:

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Thanks for posting TP -- and, go, Joe!

[TacticalPeek]

2. My indubitable pleasure, DeepModem!

This man will help us redeem our country.

:)

[Tellurian]

12. Thanks as well, TP for posting the article..

The word needs to get out!

[Born Free]

7. Where are the spineless democrats on this?

Where are the spineless democrats, why did they remain silent, who are they afraid of? who are they representing? They sat back and refused to question the Iraq war, now they sit back and refuse to question the record. Every registered democrat should be extremely angry at this, we elected these bozos to represent America, not to sit back and do nothing. Howard Dean showed America a fighting democrat is acceptable, it's time we make our elected people stand up for America.

Wilson should not have to be fighting this alone! Every elected democrat should be supporting him to get the record straight!

[Mel]

8. did you read this part?

the Democrats refused to sign. Here's a snip as you can see the usual players are working on spinning their Boy *Bush out of a mess. It's not going away someone in their boys WH outed a CIA Agent!

<snip>Based on Plame's internal memo and other evidence, three Republicans -- Roberts and Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Kit Bond of Missouri -- wrote additional views appended to the report, concluding that "the plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested" by Plame. The three GOP senators criticized their Democratic counterparts on the panel for refusing to endorse this conclusion. </snip>

[Beam Me Up]

18. We all need to be supporting Wilson/Plame. Here's how:

It is important that a lot of people mail REAL LETTERS and make phone calls to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, our representatives and local media. We need to let them know that we are FOLLOWING this story very closely and will not allow them to just "gloss it over." The outing of a CIA agent, especially a high level one like Mrs. Plame, is treasonous. There are people within this administration who are a threat to our National Security and they should be removed from office immediately.

As posted by Pallas180 in the 8th Plame thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1999438

Misc. Contact Congress
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/search.html

1 (800) 839 - 5276 - TOLL FREE Capitol Hill Switchboard number! They'll transfer you to any House/Senate office you name!
---------------

H20's SUGGESTED LETTER TO MEDIA & CONGRESS
for you to copy or use as a guide to send:


Dear _________;

I am writing to express my concerns about on-going efforts to discredit Ambassador Joseph Wilson. In his NYT Op-Ed article "What I Didn't Find In Africa," Wilson exposed a claim by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address to be untrue. Since that time, the White House has been involved in an effort to destroy Wilson's reputation, which included exposing his wife as a CIA operative.

In John Dean's review of Wilson's book (NYT Book Review; 5-23-04; pg9) he documents that two days after the op-ed article ran, journalist Robert Novak was telling people that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIS "weapons of mass destruction specialist."

Novak exposed Plame's identity in a 7-14-03 column. He sourced his story to two "senior administration officials." These two senior White House officials had lobbied at least six journalists to expose Plame in what Dean calls a "you-hurt-us-we-will-hurt-you warning" to those tempted to expose administration "misinformation."

When Wilson appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown," host Keith Olbermann held up three identical e-mails from the White House. Olbermann explained their intent was to discredit Wilson with their "talking points."

Wilson has noted that Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security advisor pointed out that since the Bush people never back down, the fact that they had admitted an error after the op-ed article indicated "they must have something more important to protect." (The Politics of Truth, by Wilson; pg4)
Joseph Klein's 7-5-04 article in Time (Plenty More to Swear About; pg 21) reveals that Plame was "active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components" when her identity was exposed by the White House. "Only a high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge that Plame was on the pay-roll," an intelligence source told Klein.

There is clearly more to this story than the White House and senate republicans are willing to tell the public. What investigation by Plame needed to be derailed by the White House? I hope that national leaders and the media will focus attention on this important issue.

Sincerely,

____________________________________________________________________

KOHO'S SHORT & SWEET SUGGESTED LETTER TO SEND

Dear_________;

I am writing about the outing of CIA Agent Valerie Plame. It seems that the Grand jury Investigation has wrapped up or will soon, but little has been mentioned of late. What may have been political payback to Joe Wilson for refuting the Niger yellowcake claims in the State of the Union address could have actually made this country a great deal less safe. According to Joseph Klein (Time 7-5-04--Plenty More to Swear About), Plame may have been "active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components." If this is true (or even a possibility, those responsible must be brought to justice. I submit that underground trafficking of WMD components presents a far more imminent threat to our country than Saddam Hussein did. In my mind this certainly achieves the status of "High Crimes," and I urge you to not let this issue fall by the wayside. The security of our country may have been irretrievably harmed by a few high ranking officials and they must be brought to task.

Sincerely,

_____________________________________________________________________

PALLAS' 'GIVE EM HELL' SUGGESTED LETTER

Dear ____________

Concerning Time magazine's Joe Klein's July 5 article, page 21 revealed that Valerie Plame was "active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of Weapons of Mass Destruction components"" when her identity was exposed by the White House. It also said" Only a high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge" that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent.

1) Our study group has found that Vice President Cheney since 1995 as CEO of Halliburton was fined 1.2 milion dollars for illegal sales of similar components to Libya. Shortly before becoming Vice President he bitterly assailed US policy against selling such components to Syrria and Iran, which apparently hurt Halliburton's bottom line.

2) Our study group has also found that there is an investigation of Vice President Cheney in other countries for illegal bribery and various other offenses connected to Halliburton as well as paying amounts to secret Swiss bank accounts

3)The Atomic Energy Commission has said a North American company is one of 20 being investigated for black market sales of WMD materials.

Our study group suspects there is more to the White House revealing Valerie Plame's covert CIA status since the Republicans refuse to hold investigations on the matter.

Frankly, it would appear to us that possibly Valerie Plame was stopped in her tracks and the CIA sting operation was exposed because it was coming close to discovering another violation of the laws by our own Vice President and the Hallibuton company he has awarded billions of US taxpayer dollars to in non-bid contracts.

There is a question of where the Vice President's and President's loyalty lies: to their Corporate friends and company's bottom line or to the security and wellbeing of the America.n people?
In any case, the exposure of Valerie Plame by the White House was and is treasonous.

The responsibility of the Media and Congress is to expose these wrong doings, investigate and safeguard against this type of occurrence for the American people.

WHY are you not fulfilling your role to me, to my study group, and the rest of the American people in this country and WHEN will you start ?
Sincerely

___________________________________________________________________

Arbustochupa's lettter

Dear _________;

I am writing to express my concerns about on-going efforts to discredit Ambassador Joseph Wilson. In his NYT Op-Ed article "What I Didn't Find In Africa," Wilson exposed a claim by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address to be untrue. Since that time, the White House has been involved in an effort to destroy Wilson's reputation, which included exposing his wife as a CIA operative.

In John Dean's review of Wilson's book (NYT Book Review; 5-23-04; pg9) he documents that two days after the op-ed article ran, journalist Robert Novak was telling people that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIS "weapons of mass destruction specialist."

Novak exposed Plame's identity in a 7-14-03 column. He sourced his story to two "senior administration officials." These two senior White House officials had lobbied at least six journalists to expose Plame in what Dean calls a "you-hurt-us-we-will-hurt-you warning" to those tempted to expose administration "misinformation."

When Wilson appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown," host Keith Olbermann held up three identical e-mails from the White House. Olbermann explained their intent was to discredit Wilson with their "talking points."

Wilson has noted that Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security advisor pointed out that since the Bush people never back down, the fact that they had admitted an error after the op-ed article indicated "they must have something more important to protect." (The Politics of Truth, by Wilson; pg4)

Joseph Klein's 7-5-04 article in Time (Plenty More to Swear About; pg 21) reveals that Plame was "active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components" when her identity was exposed by the White House. "Only a high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge that Plame was on the pay-roll," an intelligence source told Klein.

There is clearly more to this story than the White House and senate republicans are willing to tell the public. What investigation by Plame needed to be derailed by the White House? I hope that national leaders and the media will focus attention on this important issue.

Sincerely,

__________________________________________________

[hang a left]

3. Mr. Wilson is obviously gonna fight back.

I bet they are wishing they would have iced him now. They most likey wanted to use him as the fall guy for the decision to invade Iraq. That is probably the only reason he is still alive.

[Tellurian]

14. It was Plame, they wanted to have iced..

whoever concocted this plan, (Rove) was trying to showoff his prowess in cleverness. Leaving no discernible fingerprints or dna as evidence for backtracking to the source.

Ambassador Wilson role has been spun and repositioned to his designated role as scapegoat, as they had planned.. They have ( been forced to involve many more people than planned in the conspiracy due to Wilson decrying the 16 words and publishing a full account of events in his book) successfully earmarked certain stooge reporters and the NYT to propagate the lie, blaming Wilson's report as the key deciding factor of going to war with Iraq.

[liveoaktx]

4. Maybe this is on one of the long Plame threads but

Joe also mentions that someone in the admin wanted it to be true that Plame had recommended Wilson. And it seems to be part of a new smear campaign as well. Why?????

<snip>
"A senior intelligence officer confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked 'alongside' the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger. But he said she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment. 'They were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising,' he said. 'There are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up, for some reason,' he said. 'I can't figure out what it could be.'
</snip>

[Beam Me Up]

15. Read the PLAME Threads to get a sense of the depth of the issues:

They can be found here:

http://www.aeschatech.com/dumpster/

This is being updated as time allows. The MSWord docs are the easiest to download but the PDF files have the external links in tact for further reference.

Very briefly, according to a July 5 article in TIME, Plame may have been overseeing a WMD sting operation. There is speculation that that, not geting back at Wilson, was the underlying reason she was outed. In other words, she was getting to close to something beyond "embarrassing" to members of this administration.

[Seabiscuit]

5. If only we had someone of Joe

Wilson's unabashed integrity running for President!

[Qutzupalotl]

20. We do.

[Algomas]

36. We do-Dennis Kucinich

[sound head]

6. Name Problems

I notice the sleazey neoconstipated rabid Likudniks at that distorto-trash rag the weakly standard have a piece where they call his wife "Victoria Plame."

Of course, this is on purpose.

[TacticalPeek]

9. Some day, the neocons must pay.

Community service in Houston?

:evilgrin:

[Mel]

10. No no make them do

community service in Iraq and they can stay there when they are done! :evilgrin:

[burrowowl]

32. Excellent idea, Mel!

Love it, make them repair the sewage systems. It would be right up their alley!:evilgrin:

[AngryAmish]

11. Joe Wilson - American Hero

This article incontrovertibly proves that all this is a vast smear job of Joe Wilson and his wife. Joe Wilson has proven to be the greatest product the American Diplomatic Corp has ever produced. This man, of a singular moral voice, has proven what a liar our so-called-president is. Bush is Nazi scum.

[Tellurian]

13. Maybe it's time Joe starts speculating on his own..(or with proof)

who and what would be the motivations for the smear campaign against him and his wife..

Running a parallel counter campaign against the conspiracy might just draw them out of the bushes...(no pun intended)

There really needs to be an open trial to get to the bottom of the conspiracy.. Risky though..unless the GJ comes down with something concrete against the WH-

[bagnana]

16. SUSAN SCHMIDT

That crappy journalist with the WP. She was such an a-hole during the Clinton years. I despise her: (from Salon)

The Washington Post story, meanwhile, took the disputed Senate report conclusions even further. It stated in its lead that Wilson was "specifically recommended for the mission by his wife ... contrary to what he has said publicly." In the interview, Wilson argued that the Post story failed to make clear that only the intelligence panel's Republicans, and not its Democrats, came to that conclusion. He said he has written a letter of protest to the Post.

She LIED in order to make her story juicy and to discredit Wilson. What a bitch.

[Tellurian]

27. Hey, she's getting paid to do a job...

It's not our fault she's sold herself so cheaply...

Send her an email and ask her what her price is (I'm sure she can pick a number) to print the Truth..

[Frances]

31. Don't write Schmidt from work

Someone sent her an email from work. Schmidt called the CEO of the company and tried to get the guy fired. Luckily, he got to keep his job.

I read about this episode on DU and wrote the ombudsman in protest. I wrote a couple of other people at the Post as well. I did not get a single response to any of my letters.

[Beetwasher]

17. So Roberts, Bond and Hatch Alone

are responsible for the lie about Plame suggesting Wilson. They have nothing to corroborate their assertion, but he has the reports officer to corroborate his version. Interesting...

[Tellurian]

19. If you take the association of the Republican trio a step further..

they are spinning, weaving and bobbing and are complicit in the cover up for Bush. Their corruption knows no bounds. I'm beginning to think every Republican member of congress should be summarily thrown out of office by the seat of their pants and prosecuted for their criminality in subverting the Constitution of our country..

[UTUSN]

21. Need the Highlighting for My Wingnut

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/16/wilson/

Choreographed editorials and Op-Ed pieces on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal and National Review and by conservative columnist Robert Novak signaled the revving up of a Republican campaign to discredit former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his claims that President Bush trumpeted flimsy intelligence in the drive to invade Iraq. ....

...The report, amplified by Washington Post reporter Susan Schmidt and right-wing opinion writers, prompted the retired diplomat on Thursday to send a six-page rebuttal to the panel's chairman ....

The Washington Post story, meanwhile, took the disputed Senate report conclusions even further. It stated in its lead that Wilson was "specifically recommended for the mission by his wife ... contrary to what he has said publicly." In the interview, Wilson argued that the Post story failed to make clear that only the intelligence panel's Republicans, and not its Democrats, came to that conclusion. He said he has written a letter of protest to the Post. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[Tellurian]

25. Kool! The highlighted text would send Poppy into apoplexy...

Anyone ever profile Poppy?

He is the nexus of this insanity, you know..

I feel really badly for the CiA chumps following this man...he's certifiably insane and still living in cold war days of thunder. The pnac plan is an outdated plan designed to circumvent world powers like the soviet union, consolidating power through a monopoly on energy..oil, coal, water eg. hydrogen etc...Poppy is a madman, bent on tricking the world into genuflecting on their knees at his superiority..

*****

what html code do you use for highlighting?

[yowzayowzayowza]

28. Use View Source

Replace {} with GT and LT
{span style="background:yellow"}came to that conclusion{/span}

[0007]

37. Use [ ] brakets not { }

came to that conclusion

[kohodog]

22. Did anyone see McClellan yesterday?

I heard a snip on CSPAN where a reporter(?) said some thih=ng to the effect of: Now that the Butler report has absolutely proven that Joe Wilson lied, do you think he owes the President an appology?" In the background I heard applause.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THE MEDIA?

Have you ever heard applause at a press briefing? I wanted to puke. If this is the group or profession that needs to keep polititions honest we are in deep, deep trouble. The corporate media is doing their part for their owners, GE, Disney, etc.

Thank God for the internet, but we must speak out hand hold their feet to the fire.

[Tellurian]

26. But you know what, kohodog...

you have to think of it as publicity..any publicity good or bad keeps the name and the message out there..giving Amb Wilson an opportunity to respond..

[LisaM]

23. Isn't this good? Now, the well-spoken and sensible

Joe Wilson can be all over the news again.

I think the American public is going to see through, and tire of, this "shoot the messenger" bs.

[Spazito]

24. I can't wait for the Plame indictments to come out...

the newest smear against Wilson is an obvious attempt to blur the facts yet again.

[iamjoy]

29. Another Missed Point

I haven't seen any one else bring this up, but when I first heard the fuss that the Senate Intelligence Committee said the Niger claim was true & Joe Wilson was the liar, I said, it doesn't matter, Bush still decceived us.

stick with me for a minute - I know this is a long thread.

British intelligence indicated Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson said no. Now, hypothetically - let's say Wilson WAS lying, the uranium claim was true but he just wanted to say it wasn't (because he's a liberal and all liberals hate America <sarcasm off>.) At that point, Bush had conflicting information. Maybe true, maybe not. He chose to take the scenario which best suited his agenda before the nation. Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee later "confirmed" that version.

(Interestingly enough, isn't the Prime Minister of Niger saying he has no recollection of a meeting with Hussein to sell uranium? Of course, Reagan had no recollection of ordering those weapons sold to Iran to get money to fund the Contras in Central America.)

But my point is, why hasn't any one brought up this point?

[jimbot]

30. I think we are being trapped.

Let’s remember, they are attempting to discredit Wilson as a straw man. The current main threat to the administration, uranium claims aside, is the fact that they exposed Plame. I don't think Wilson is helping the cause immensely by stating that the following memo (quoted below) is NOT a recommendation (it does indeed sound like a recommendation to me).

"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."

So whether or not we want to praise Joe or vilify Joe, IMHO is incidental. The real issue is that some person or persons in this administration directly broke the law by exposing a covert agent. Whether or not someone in the Iraqi government asked for a price quote for uranium from Niger given all we know about the lack of WMD and the failure to support ANY ties between Iraq and AQ is inconsequential in the administrations case for war.

--JT

[DinahMoeHum]

33. Eyes on the bottom line: The neocons outed a CIA agent

out of sheer spite; and for that, they should be strung up by their thumbs.

:nuke:

[Pallas180]

34. Joe Wilson has just put up his own website at

http://www.restorehonesty.com /

[Pachamama]

35. Actually, its Johnkerry.com with info from Joe Wilson he approved

Just wanted to make sure it was clear what the site was and wasn't...

[SayitAintSo]

38. Anyone afraid Wilson will become Cryptonite for the Kerry folks?

I fear that the RW spin will stick (unjustly), it's starting to - just do a google search on Joe Wilson - Will the Kerry folks distance themselves? I'm starting to worry. Hope Fitzgerald gets on with those indictments !!!!