Wilson contradictions leave Democrat senators speechless

[OnTheUpandDown]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak15.html

Like Sherlock Holmes' dog that did not bark, the most remarkable aspect of last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is what its Democratic members did not say. They did not dissent from the committee's findings that Iraq apparently asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. They neither agreed to a conclusion that former diplomat Joseph Wilson was suggested for a mission to Niger by his CIA employee wife nor defended his statements to the contrary.

Wilson's activities constituted the only aspects of the yearlong investigation for which the committee's Republican chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, was unable to win unanimous agreement. According to committee sources, Roberts felt Wilson had been such a ''cause celebre'' for Democrats that they could not face the facts about him.

For a year, Democrats have been belaboring President Bush about 16 words in his 2003 State of the Union address in which he reported Saddam Hussein's attempt to buy uranium from Africa, based on British information. Wilson has been lionized in liberal circles for allegedly contradicting this information on a CIA mission and then being punished as a truth-teller. Now, for committee Democrats, it is as though the Niger question and Joe Wilson have vanished from the Earth.

[maddezmom]

1. hmmmm NOVAK?????

[Beearewhyain]

2. So, what will it be...

granite or marble?

[Mikimouse]

5. Nasty boy!!!!! LOL

n/t

[OnTheUpandDown]

10. Is the suntimes.com no longer allowed here?

I have read many LBN headlines from suntimes.com. Is it now taboo? What do you mean by the granite or marble comment? I'm new here and not up on all the insider codespeak.

[Shakespeare]

13. It's a Novak column. It's not news, it's an OPINION PIECE

Nice try, though.

[OnTheUpandDown]

15. It was linked under the Chicago NEWS section

Please don't blame me for the Sun Times mistake.

[maddezmom]

16. actually it's listed under opinions

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Editorials
Time for Wall Street to get bullish on diversity
Allison Schieffelin had a Cheshire Cat grin on her face this week. She had become a powerful cause celebre. The influential Wall Street investment firm, Morgan Stanley, agreed to pay her and about 340 other women a settlement of $54 million to end a sex discrimination case filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.







Letters to the Editor
Hyde bill aims to prevent illegal voting
The bill H.R. 4530 was recently introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to curb vote fraud by requiring voters to provide current and official photo identification when voting in federal elections. It would also require states to verify that potential voters are U.S. citizens before adding people to their voter rolls, in order to prevent federal elections from being manipulated by illegal voters.

Today's opinions
• Brown:
We had fun, until Da Coach took himself out of the game

• Foster:
Stella's column

• Mitchell:
Bootleg baby formula scam ends up hurting poor people

• Novak:
Wilson contradictions leave Democrat senators speechless

• Quick Takes:
At least we keep our priorities straight

• Sweet:
Parting thoughts from Fitzgerald


http://www.suntimes.com/index/commentary.html

[OnTheUpandDown]

24. I got it from a progressive site

Why all the fuss? Is everyone else here perfect? Do all new members get this treatment?

[Shakespeare]

26. When new members come in and do nothing but post flamebait....

....reactions are a bit guarded.

[maddezmom]

29. think it has to do with the rules for LBN

Thousands of people use the DU Latest Breaking News forum as their primary source for news. Please do not "dilute" the forum by starting threads that are not news.

Please be aware of the following restrictions when posting in Latest Breaking News:



1. NO opinion pieces, editorials, or other stories that are not news.

2. NO news that is more than 12 hours old.

3. NO duplicate posts of stories that have already been posted.

4. NO polls, petitions, or other action items.

5. All of our other rules for posting apply as well, including copyright rules.

6. When posting articles, please use the published title of the article as the title of the discussion thread.

7. Discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues is not permitted in the Latest Breaking News forum, and instead must be posted in the Israeli/Palestinian Affairs forum. If, however, the news item is primarily about U.S. policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, you may post it in the Latest Breaking News forum.
If your message is not Latest Breaking News, you should post it in the General Discussion Forum or in one of the other forums.

Be aware that we delete discussion threads from the Latest Breaking News Forum that do not fulfill these requirements. We will not move them to another forum. We will not send you a message explaining where your post went. Thank you for your understanding.

[IkeWarnedUs]

30. No, all new DU'ers are not treated this way

And I am sorry you have been.

Folks, lighten up here. The Chicago Sun Times is a major newspaper and the Novak piece was new. Granted, it should have been in Editorials, but that's been corrected and OnTheUpAndDown didn't deserve to get jumped on like this.

Maybe (s)he didn't realize Bob Novak was the guy who published Joe Wilson's wife's name in this very column - as he was ordered to by the White House.

No, OnTheUpAndDown, this is not how new DU'ers are normally treated. They generally get a big WELCOME and a wave.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

22. It's in Editorials...that's what the EDT stands for in your link

[havocmom]

11. pepperoni, perhaps?

:evilgrin:

[Mikimouse]

3. The source of this is highly questionable...

coming from No(ethics)vak, this is really a garbage piece.

[displacedtexan]

4. That's a Bob Novakula op ed. Not Breaking News.

Please warn readers when you post NoFacts op eds.

Thanks.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Please warn readers when you post NoFacts op eds.

Yeah... what the misplacedtexan said.

[MaineDem]

6. Definite conflict of interest

Novak - Wilson. No contest. This is bull shit.

[acmavm]

7. I'm getting real sick of the democratic party and the weasely wimps that

we have representing us in the Congress and the Senate. They are just using these positions to pad out their resumes, looking for the big job down the road. And to make sure that they get one, they roll over and play dead like a dog does to please his master. They're not representative of the democratic party, you hear this day in and day out right here. Complacency and a big paycheck makes them gutless. And the job that they see in a big corporation down the road makes them pathetic whores.

As much as I HATE to say it, at least the repukes are getting their money's worth out of their reps.

edit: I just read where some people think that this isn't true simply because Novak wrote the piece. But it is true. We are getting the kind of representation that we deserve from the democrats in the House and the Senate. Just because Novak gloatingly points out the truth of the matter, doesn't make it wrong. It makes it worse.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. What does this have to do with outing a CIA Agent

and blowing the cover for her whole operation?

What here husband says and does is irrelevant to the Grand Jury that is investigating the WH regarding this matter.

[w13rd0]

12. HOW DARE YOU...

...come here and post traitor Novakulas crap. You want to post that in the context of some commentary or a lame ass question? Novaks purely bullshit opinions and grousings have NOTHING to do with "Latest Breaking News".

[tom_paine]

14. Jeepers Creepers, where'd you get those

Sturmtruppen?

[OnTheUpandDown]

21. I don't have the secret handshake yet

What are you talking about?

[OnTheUpandDown]

20. Thanks for the warm welcome

and the polite correction. The Sun Times had it under the NEWS section. Why the rabid attack on a new poster?

[gristy]

27. DUers generally don't post RW editorials on DU

Anyone who wants to read rw slander has many choices on the net. You are no absolved of responsibility to post only LBN in the LBN thread. Did you read the instructions when you posted? It's all right there in black and white. Only LB NEWS, and not more than 12 hours old. Did you know you were posting an editorial? If not, why not? Did you read it first? Do you know who Robert Novak is? Are you aware that he is the man who "outted" Ms. Plame? Where are you from again?

So many questions. And 3 minutes of my life I'm not getting back.

[stickdog]

17. Novak should be behind bars.

No judgment of Wilson -- no matter how harsh -- can excuse outing his wife's position as a deep cover covert CIA agent.

That action was a felony. That action hurt our national security. That action was treason. Both Novak and whoever leaked the information to Novak belong behind bars. Yesterday.

[achtung_circus]

18. C'mon Mein Bruder

say something. I'm watching and haven't seen much more than pebbles tossed into ponds yet.

[Rebellious Republican]

19. Speaking of Novack, what ever happened to his Assault on one

of our DU'ers awhile back. Last I heard, that DU'er had filled assault charges and was pursuing legal action. Anyone remember what I am talking about, and know anymore? I hope this has not faded away!

[snippy]

23. Why would republicans (and Novak) abandon a lifetime of lying

and suddenly begin to tell the truth? The entire world knows that Bush is the most compulsive and incessant liar in the history of American politics. And Novak is a bigger liar than Bush.

FIRE THE LIAR

[punpirate]

25. I think some of the previously released information applies...

... here. It's already been established the Iraqis did not get any uranium from Niger, so that did not make them a greater threat. A second very clear point was the real production was controlled by French companies, which already had contracts for their annual production. Talk of outlaws stealing from closed mines is probably a red herring--one of the mines cited was, in fact, flooded.

The other known fact is that Iraq already had about 500 tons of uranium in its possession, obtained in the `70s and `80s from both external and internal sources (Iraq has a very small uranium mine in the northwest). Much of that uranium was enriched to a level of about 2% U-235, sufficient to run a reactor, but would be completely unsuitable for weapons without much more enrichment, a task for which Iraq had no equipment. For that reason alone, it would make no sense for Iraq to endanger its position (while in the midst of some rather Draconian sanctions) by seeking yet more uranium which it could not use for either a reactor or for weapons.

Finally, the defining documents, the "smoking gun" the administration said proved Hussein's intentions, were forged. Neither report addresses the who and the why of that known fact of forgery. If there was indisputable proof that Iraqis had attempted to buy yet more uranium from Niger, why did someone find it necessary to forge documents to say the same thing?

Wilson probably doesn't know the answer to that question, but the administration probably does, and that evidence isn't available. If it were, Wilson's assertions in his report to Cheney's office would probably be vindicated. It's already been established that someone in the CIA fabricated evidence concerning the much-touted aluminum tubes. Who's to say that the evidence cited in the Senate report about Iraq's Niger intentions isn't yet another fabrication which has not yet been shown to be so. After all, the SSCI was thoroughly bamboozled by the "evidence" before the vote to allow Bush to wage war as he saw fit.

[Zorra]

28. Freepers heads explode at new poll numbers. Desperation sinks in as

they frantically search for any little issue to bring up.

If they can't find anything they make it up and try to present it as fact.

[Qutzupalotl]

31. Debunked already

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_07_11.php#003162

Robert Novak today has a column crowing about the Senate intel committee report with respect to Joe Wilson and the Niger matter. Nonetheless, he still manages to misstate its findings.

At the head of Novak's column he says that committee Democrats "did not dissent from the committee's findings that Iraq apparently asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger."

Dissenting from this finding would admittedly have been a challenge since this is not in fact what the Report said.

[bushwakker]

32. That's Democrat-ic Senators pal

got it?

[Democat]

33. Anyone else notice a pattern developing with these threads?

That's all.

[w13rd0]

34. Yeah, someone keeps tracking dog shit...

...in my house, all over my carpet...smells like Bushit...

[Moderator]

35. Locking. Duplicate.

Please continue discussion here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x62623