Wilson is the Original Source of the “Leak”

It is time for the Darling of the Left-wing Press, Joseph C. Wilson 4th and wife Valerie Plame/Wilson to be called to appear, under oath, for comprehensive testimony before the Senate Committee on Intelligence. It is time for them to face questions about the events surrounding the trip by Wilson to Niger and the press coverage it received.

On May 6, 2003 Nicholas Kristof published an article in the New York Times which took issue with the assertion in the Presidents State of the Union Speech earlier in January that:

“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

This is a claim, incidentally, that the British, to this day, do not back away from. In his article, Nicholas Kristof stated the following:

“I'm told by a person involved in the Niger caper that more than a year ago the vice president's office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former U.S. ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger. In February 2002, according to someone present at the meetings, that envoy reported to the C.I.A. and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong and that the documents had been forged.”

This revelation by Kristof occurred two months prior to the now infamous article by Robert Novak which mentioned the fact that Valerie Plame/Wilson worked for the CIA. This presents a really big problem for Joe Wilson, because he was, in fact, one of the sources for Kristof’s article. Once word got out that “a former U.S. ambassador to Africa” had been dispatched to Niger, it would not take very sophisticated detective work to find out who this “former U.S. ambassador to Africa” was. In essence Joe Wilson, IV outed himself. As an anti-war, anti-President Bush activist, he just couldn’t control his desire to be acknowledged by his Democrat friends as a hero of the anti-war movement. As an active member of the Al Gore, and later Kerry campaigns, he was determined to sabotage the President's re-election bid. Once Wilson’s name was known, the rest was easy. A quick visit to Who’s Who in America yields a complete summary of who his family is and where he was assigned:

Wilson, Joseph Charles, IV, ambassador; b. Bridgeport,Conn., Nov. 6, 1949; s. Joseph Charles III and Phyllis(Finnell)W.; m. Susan Dale Otchis, Apr. 27, 1973 (div. 1986); m. Valerie Elise Plame, Apr. 3, 1998; children: Sabrina Cecile, Joseph Charles, Trevor Rolph, Samantha Finnell Diana; BA in History, U. Calif., Santa Barbara, 1972. Fgn. svc. officer Dept.of State, Washington, 1976-98; congl. fellow Am. Polit. Sci.Assn., 1985-86; dep. chief of mission Am. Embassy, Bujumbura,Burundi, 1982-85, Brazzaville, Congo, 1986-88, Baghdad, Iraq,1988-91; amb. Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, 1992-95; polit.adv.to Commdr. in Chief U.S. Armed Forces Europe, 1995-97,spl. ass.sr.dir. for African affairs Nat. Security Coun.,Washinton, 1997-98; pres. JC Wilson Internet Ventures, 1998-;Recipient Alumni award U. Calif. Santa Barbara, 1991,Comdr. Order of Equatorial Star govt. Gabon award, 1995 Disting. Def. Dept Civilian award, 1997; named...

As to the “outing” of a “covert agent,” that did not occur in any of the alleged leaks to the press by members of the Bush administration, nor did it occur in Mr. Novak’s Chicago Sun Times article. Quite the opposite, as it was well known that Valerie Plame routinely drove her own automobile to work and made no attempt to disguise the fact, it was, by definition, public knowledge that she was employed by the C.I.A. On Oct. 3, 2003, Mitchell was a guest on CNBC's "Capital Report," where she was asked by host Alan Murray:

"Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA?"

Andrea Mitchell replied:

"It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that."

Thus when Mr. Novak stated:

“Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.”

He was only restating public knowledge. As a matter of fact, on September 28th, 2003 Robert Novak in an appearance on CNN’s Crossfire reported:

"According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives,"

So we have pretty much destroyed the myth that anyone other than Joe Wilson actually identified Valerie Plame/Wilson as a former (or for that matter current) covert operative. Joe Wilson in his eagerness to play the “darling of the Left-wing press” was the source albeit indirectly.

Joseph C. Wilson, 4th Liar Extrordinaire

Wilson has said in a number of diferent venues, that he definitively disproved the statement by Presdent Bush in his State of the Union Address, January 2003. Far from it, as I have previously stated, British Intelligence stands by their claim as cited by the President. In addition, nobody cared much for Wilson’s report. Novak in his article on July 14th 2003 (the “now infamous article”) went on to report from sources within the C.I.A. that:

“After eight days in the Niger capital of Niamey (where he once served), Wilson made an oral report in Langley that an Iraqi uranium purchase was "highly unlikely," though he also mentioned in passing that a 1988 Iraqi delegation tried to establish commercial contacts. CIA officials did not regard Wilson's intelligence as definitive, being based primarily on what the Niger officials told him and probably would have claimed under any circumstances.”

Not only did the C.I.A. not regard Wilson’s report as definitive, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, in their final report, stated that rather than diminishing the likelihood of the report being true, it indicated that it was more likely to have happened.

Wilson, this beacon of truth, claimed to have spotted the Italian document as a forgery. This is of particular interest since no American even saw this document until after his trip and report were long past. As reported by Kristof, Wilson informed him:

“The envoy reported, for example, that a Niger minister whose signature was on one of the documents had in fact been out of office for more than a decade.”

Wilson is indeed prescient to have been able to spot a forged document months prior to its being revealed to America. Stand aside “Amazing Kreskin,” Throw away your Edgar Cayce books America; we’ve got a new mentalist to predict the future and read your minds. Well that’s at least half-right, he is “mental.”

To this day, Joseph C. Wilson, 4th continues to deny that his wife had anything to do with his being sent on the mission to Niger; in spite of the findings by the 9/11 Commission that Valerie Plame/Wilson initiated the idea of sending him. He also denies that he, at the very least, was guilty of implying that he was sent at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney. As to the “report” he made, he did not even make a written report. He only gave an oral report. That in itself is apparently unusual.

His claim that his and his wife’s lives have been dramatically affected by her cover being blown is really laughable. They've been running around Washington like Agents 86 and 99 ("Would you believe..."). Perhaps if he hadn’t sought so desperately to be the celebrity of the day, basking in the glow of the camera lights side by side with Chuck Schumer, appearing in the sham committee hearing concocted by John Conyers along side the other celebrity of the day Cindy Sheehan, and doing the talk show rounds they wouldn’t have to sneak around at night wearing disguises and shunning public appearances...Oh, that’s right they aren’t doing that...Joe is touring the nation making public appearances in front of college audiences and just this week before the National Press Club.

Questions to be Asked of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame/Wilson

1. Is it true that Valerie Plame “recommended” Joe Wilson for the job, citing the fact that "my husband has good relations with both the PM and the former Minister of Mines [of Niger] (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity [my emphasis].”
2. Is it true that the forged document was conceived of by the French and executed by the Italians in an effort to embarrass the Bush administration and counter their call for intervention in Iraq.
3. Did former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, “friend of the French” and known anti-war campaigner, and/or his wife, Valerie Plame/Wilson, world famous Vanity Fair model and part-time secret agent, have any involvement with the forging of this document?
4. Why wasn't Joe Wilson required to sign a non-disclosure agreement as everyone else is routinely required to do?
5. Why wasn't there a written report of his investigation?
6. Is there a cabal of left-wing agents and former agents like Ray McGovern and Philip Geraldi actively working against the Bush administration and its policies?
7. Was there a Democrat conspiracy to, in collusion with the French, trick the Bush administration into using this document to warn of the yellow-cake inquiries by the Iraqis, in order to embarrass the President and prevent an attack against Saddam Hussein?

Okay, I admit that last is a major stretch, especially considering the complete incompetence of the Democrat party and their leadership, but sometimes even blind pigs can find an acorn.

What do you think?

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