Wilson's got some splainin' to do!

[Guest Cerebus]

It turns out the guy who revealed that the Niger thing was a faud was, in fact, a fraud himself and the Intelligence Committee has resolved Bush to a certain extent.

 

Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission

Report Disputes Wilson's Claims on Trip, Wife's Role

By Susan Schmidt

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, July 10, 2004; Page A09

 

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

 

Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.

 

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

 

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

 

Yesterday's report said that whether Iraq sought to buy lightly enriched "yellowcake" uranium from Niger is one of the few bits of prewar intelligence that remains an open question. Much of the rest of the intelligence suggesting a buildup of weapons of mass destruction was unfounded, the report said.

 

The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him.

 

Plame's role could be significant in an ongoing investigation into whether a crime was committed when her name and employment were disclosed to reporters last summer.

 

Administration officials told columnist Robert D. Novak then that Wilson, a partisan critic of Bush's foreign policy, was sent to Niger at the suggestion of Plame, who worked in the nonproliferation unit at CIA. The disclosure of Plame's identity, which was classified, led to an investigation into who leaked her name.

 

The report may bolster the rationale that administration officials provided the information not to intentionally expose an undercover CIA employee, but to call into question Wilson's bona fides as an investigator into trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. To charge anyone with a crime, prosecutors need evidence that exposure of a covert officer was intentional.

 

The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her 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." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said.

 

Wilson has asserted that his wife was not involved in the decision to send him to Niger.

 

"Valerie had nothing to do with the matter," Wilson wrote in a memoir published this year. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

 

Wilson stood by his assertion in an interview yesterday, saying Plame was not the person who made the decision to send him. Of her memo, he said: "I don't see it as a recommendation to send me."

 

The report said Plame told committee staffers that she relayed the CIA's request to her husband, saying, "there's this crazy report" about a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq. The committee found Wilson had made an earlier trip to Niger in 1999 for the CIA, also at his wife's suggestion.

 

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

 

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

 

Wilson's reports to the CIA added to the evidence that Iraq may have tried to buy uranium in Niger, although officials at the State Department remained highly skeptical, the report said.

 

Wilson said that a former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, was unaware of any sales contract with Iraq, but said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him, insisting that he meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq -- which Mayaki interpreted to mean they wanted to discuss yellowcake sales. A report CIA officials drafted after debriefing Wilson said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq."

 

According to the former Niger mining minister, Wilson told his CIA contacts, Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998.

 

Still, it was the CIA that bore the brunt of the criticism of the Niger intelligence. The panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.

 

The agency did not examine forged documents that have been widely cited as a reason to dismiss the purported effort by Iraq until months after it obtained them. The panel said it still has "not published an assessment to clarify or correct its position on whether or not Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Africa."

 

The fact that all this crap and incompetance could have happened in the CIA is frustrating but not surprising in the least. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Our civillian intelligence agencies need a complete overhaul. Not just replacing the quarterback (i.e. Tenet) but a complete restructure of the 1947 National Security Act.

[Guest MikeSC]

You mean Bush DIDN'T leak out Plame's name to damage her to a reporter who doesn't get along with the White House?

 

May I tell you how SHOCKED I am?

-=Mike

[BX 0]

Yeah, it was Rove.

 

See Tyler, I told you he was smart.

[Guest MikeSC]

*considers suggesting that you actually read the column*

*realizes it's not worth the headache and resumes ignoring you*

-=Mike

[BX 0]

If you ignoring me in the first place, why the response?

 

The report may bolster the rationale that administration officials provided the information not to intentionally expose an undercover CIA employee, but to call into question Wilson's bona fides as an investigator into trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. To charge anyone with a crime, prosecutors need evidence that exposure of a covert officer was intentional.

 

The paragraph you're referring to. From what I've read, I can assume two things;

 

A. Administration officials (plural, two of them) provided the information to Robert Novak that Valerie Plume, an alledgedly undercover CIA employee (And don't give me that shit about "All of Washington knew she worked for the CIA." Well God, I hope all the seedy underworld types she was investigating inside the Beltline won't kill her now for meddling!) had suggested her husband go to Niger to investigate the Yellow Cake stuff.

 

B. Revealing the identity of an undercover agent is a federal crime. According to an article, this would be illegal had the exposure by said "administration officals" been intentional. As I cannot see how such an exposure would be accidential...

 

Super Sekret Administration Offical #1: So Rob, we know Wilson's wife, Valarie Plame, who is an undercover CIA Agent, reco.... oh my, did I just say that? God, I'm soo bad! Uhh, what is wrong with me?

 

SSAO #2, aka Karl Rove: You silly fumble lips!

 

Robert Novak:...

 

I am left to conclude that A + B = Administration officals (plural, as in two or more) committed a federal crime when they told Robert Novak that Valarie Plume recommended her husband go and investigate the Yellow Cake rumors in Niger, breaking her cover as a CIA operative in the process.

 

Okay, you can go back to ignoring me now.

[Guest MikeSC]

Wow, a post without flaming me. I knew you could pull it off eventually.

The report may bolster the rationale that administration officials provided the information not to intentionally expose an undercover CIA employee, but to call into question Wilson's bona fides as an investigator into trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. To charge anyone with a crime, prosecutors need evidence that exposure of a covert officer was intentional.

The paragraph you're referring to. From what I've read, I can assume two things;

 

A. Administration officials (plural, two of them) provided the information to Robert Novak that Valerie Plume, an alledgedly undercover CIA employee (And don't give me that shit about "All of Washington knew she worked for the CIA." Well God, I hope all the seedy underworld types she was investigating inside the Beltline won't kill her now for meddling!) had suggested her husband go to Niger to investigate the Yellow Cake stuff.

Most of Washington was aware she was in the CIA.

 

Not many politicos KNEW she was undercover (for obvious reasons) --- and unless they KNOW she's undercover, there is no felony there.

 

Her name was mentioned to explain why he was even there in the first place (the reason being she recommended him --- they even have the letter where she did so --- and he denied this charge quite vehemently). There were questions as to why such a partisan would be sent to do this mission and the "sources" told Novak why.

 

And even the Butler report --- which has not been terribly kind to British intel to date --- is prepared to state that British intel was CORRECT in claiming that Saddam was seeking yellowcake from Africa. Thus, Bush hardly made it up.

B. Revealing the identity of an undercover agent is a federal crime. According to an article, this would be illegal had the exposure by said "administration officals" been intentional. As I cannot see how such an exposure would be accidential...

That assumes the "source" knew she was undercover. Outside of the President and, possibly, the nat'l security team, nobody else would be privy to that kind of information. If the "source" is unaware of her being undercover, then the "source" didn't intentionally expose an undercover agent.

I am left to conclude that A + B = Administration officals (plural, as in two or more) committed a federal crime when they told Robert Novak that Valarie Plume  recommended her husband go and investigate the Yellow Cake rumors in Niger, breaking her cover as a CIA operative in the process.

But you assume they knew she was undercover. That is not common knowledge, nor even ACCESSIBLE knowledge to the vast majority of officials in an administration. They can be fully aware she works for them and have no clue, whatsoever, what she did.

 

They mentioned her to explain why somebody like Wilson was even there "investigating" this.

Okay, you can go back to ignoring me now.

If you'd post more intelligent pieces like this instead of the usual mindless flame-baiting, I wouldn't have to ignore you.

-=Mike