Wilson remarks from encounter on Saturday

[Rose Siding]

from a Kos diary

Ambassador Wilson confident re Plame investigation

Yesterday it was my privilege to encounter Ambassador Joe Wilson again, at US Rep. Jay Inslee's campaign kick-off. Jay is both an energy scam hero and an antiwar hero, and looks to have an easy cruise to re-election ... making his Seattle-Northside campaign organization a natural service center for coordinated efforts around the state.

A few points of note (some from public remarks, some from direct conversation):

Wilson is in continuing contact with federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of his wife's outing as a CIA operative. Recent contact gives Joe no cause for pessimism with respect to aggressive pursuit and favorable disposition.

Regarding the recent spate of rumors, leaks and smears, Wilson interprets this less as expectation-setting or muddying the political waters, and more as an orchestrated effort to intimidate and/or discourage cooperating witnesses. Put simply, it's overt tampering with an ongoing criminal investigation ... and he specifically implicates the controversial SSIC "additional views" addendum demanded by Senators Roberts, Hatch and Bond.

We discussed the long odds that any federal prosecutor would hand down any bombshell indictment so close to an election. Wilson acknowledged the concern, and was otherwise noncommittal on this score.

As expressed elsewhere, Wilson expects further testimony to clarify and quell recent nit-picks and diversions.
For the (pro bono) Niger assignment, his bona fides were in good order (including a previous mission quite properly undisclosed until revealed in the SSIC report).
For all of the agency's secrets, it was no secret to Valerie Plame Wilson's counter-proliferation colleagues that Ambassador Wilson was her spouse, and it would have raised eyebrows if she had not cooperated in his recruitment to the task.

In substance, the forged Niger documents were public knowledge before Wilson discussed them (first on background and then on record).
We briefly discussed the SSIC assertion -- and associated GOP spin -- that Wilson's findings reinforced prior assessments of the yellowcake caper. The report language itself is unfortunately ambiguous. It can be read as asserting that his trip report reinforced the prevailing suspicion, or that his report reinforced prevailing informed opinion (that the suspected yellowcake transaction was highly unlikely).

As to the current status of the notorious sixteen words in W's 2003 State of the Union address (post-SSIC, post-Butler, and post-Wurlitzer), Wilson made note of repeated US intelligence community rejections of the language, and the SSIC report quoting an NSC member to the effect that we'd leave the Brit's "flapping in the wind" unless we gave public endorsement to their (overblown) intel.
We parted with agreement that the phrase "unindicted co-conspirator" has a nice ring to it.

I did not raise the Karl Rove "frog-march" issue Wilson inaugurated in comments here last year.

My view is that Rove either originated the Plame identification (frog march), or approved and orchestrated its dissemination (frog march), or that Rove would have had a Texas-size shit fit if anyone (even the VP) "went rogue" and orchestrated such leaks without Rove's express knowledge, direction and plausible deniability.

In the latter case, heads would roll or Rove would oversee an internal castration and cover-up ... either of which spells "frog march".

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/25/212157/057

[havocmom]

1. thank you and a

:kick:
Cuz we need to keep this one in the public eye.

[never cry wolf]

2. Thanks, some interesting stuff

I hope you don't mind that I referenced this on the Plame indictment thread #13. The comments thread from Kos offered this:

e-mail exchange (4.00 / 2)

I exchanged e-mails with William Madson, the author of that somewhat extreme article on the Plame affair. I figured why not, he has been right on some things. He told me his sources told him the Judge in the case extended the Grand Jury for 6 months in June, though he doesn't think Fitzgerald will need that much time and the results will be in before the election. Also, he said one member of Team Dubya, someone within the White House, flipped for the Prosecutors to avoid prosecution himself and ratted a whole crew of people out and this will be very powerful evidence leading to big indictments of higher ups in the White House. According to him, he has good sources, though we'll just have to see.

If the White House knows this as well, it would explain the recent Joe Wilson ad-hominem attacks and the Washington Times article as to previous examples of Plame's blown cover. These seem to me to be leaks coming from the suspects lawyers, in one way or another, in attempt to lay the ground work for defenses.

GDoyle

http://nodissentallowed.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/24/94834/8476

[LeftHander]

3. ANother Kick....nt

[TacticalPeek]

4. GIMME EAT!!!

Kick.

:kick:

[robertpaulsen]

5. Kick! Thanks party_line!