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| 4/7 |
| 2004/7/13-14 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:32246 Activity:insanely high |
7/12 Joe Wilson's allegations were plastered over paper's front pages
for days and received extensive TV coverage. Wilson was identified
by NPR and the media as Kerry's de facto campaign spokesman. Now
that he's been proven a liar by the Senate and MI6 where is coverage?
\_ Proven a liar... You're pushing it a bit. Pat Robertson
\_ Proven a liar... You're pushing it a bit. Pat Roberts
opines in an appendix of the Senate Intelligence report,
and suddenly Wilson is a shameless liar. Never mind that
he was right.
\_ Ok you are right and MI6 and the senate are wrong. Any
other pontifications?
\_ MI6 is often wrong. Note that they just withdrew their
Iraqi WMD report because it was wrong.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10596
As for the Senate... -John
http://talonnews.com/news/2004/july/0713_wilson_plame_intel.shtml
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB62OSSGWD.html
\_ News flash! Anonymous motd crank doesn't like Kerry!
\_ Attack the man, not the message. Good way to prove your
point and disprove any allegations. How'd you do in
Rhetoric 1A?
\_ As opposed to the hatchet job on wilson?
\_ It isn't a hatchet job if it's true. The seriousness of
the charge can not be so easily dismissed.
\_ Sure it can.
\_ what did he allege, i am not paying attention.
\_ this is the guy who went to nigeria to investigate iraqi
attempts to acquire uranium ore and the same guy with the cia
wife that got her ID exposed. he then lied about his work in
nigeria, his wife's role in getting him, a partisan democrat,
the job in nigeria, and a whole bunch of other things.
\_ Niger, not nigeria. The rest of your charges are all
unsubstantiated Right Wing smears.
\_ Ok you are right and MI6 and the senate are wrong.
Any other pontifications?
http://talonnews.com/news/2004/july/0713_wilson_plame_intel.shtml
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB62OSSGWD.html
\_ I don't know his politics, but previous to this mess, he
gave (unapologetically, like most people playing the system)
to both parties. (e.g. he have $1000 to both bush and gore
in 2000) -phuqm
\_ Don't forget the press crucifying Novak for stating his wife's name.
Now that we know she suggested him for the job and all the denials
were partisan, where are the apologies to Novak?
\_ Not for stating his wife's name, but for identifying her as a
CIA agent. federal offences deserve a little crucifixion. |
| 4/7 |
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| www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10596 He is mired in leadership speculation again, says the Independent MI6 withdraws information about Iraq's WMD Tough week for British PM as Butler report on failings of British intelligence on Iraq looms. By Andrew Gully - LONDON British Prime Minister Tony Blair began a crucial week Monday, facing the findings of an inquiry into the failings of British intelligence on Iraq as well as two key by-elections. "The week of reckoning," said the headline in the leftist Independent newspaper. "He is mired in leadership speculation again, is braced for the Butler report on Iraq, and fears by-election wipe-out. Two days ahead of Lord Robin Butler's report, Blair's office refused to comment on claims that Britain's MI6 intelligence agency has withdrawn information that Iraq continued to produce weapons of mass destruction prior to the US-led invasion. With growing criticism from his own Labour party over the decision to support US President George W Bush and take Britain to war in March last year, Blair has fought off speculation that he might quit as prime minister. BBC television's investigative Panorama programme said on Sunday that spy chiefs have retracted a central plank of Blair's argument for the war - that Saddam Hussein had continued to produce biological and chemical arms. A controversial British government dossier at the heart of the current probe into intelligence failings stated in September 2002 that: "Iraq has continued to produce chemical and biological agents." But in a rare move MI6 have now withdrawn it, an unnamed senior intelligence source told Panorama. Last week Blair admitted that mass destruction weapons might never be found in Iraq. According to the Sun newspaper, Blair, after being close to stepping down in May, has vowed to serve a full third term as prime minister if he wins the next general election, pencilled in for early next year. This was described as a "crushing blow" for Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, viewed by many as the premier-in-waiting. Question marks over Blair's appetite for office resurfaced after the BBC reported Saturday that he had come close to resigning last month but was dissuaded from doing so by four senior cabinet members. Blair's allies quickly rubbished the report, insisting on Sunday he was keen to tough it out. "I believe Tony will stay as leader for a very, very long time," said Education Secretary Charles Clarke. "I think his position is very strong, has always been strong, has never been under threat, and will continue up to the election and beyond," he told BBC television. Another Blair loyalist, Health Secretary John Reid, said the prime minister "will lead us into the next general election and, God and the electorate willing, will be prime minister in this country for many years to come." Blair, who led his Labour Party to election victories in 1997 and 2001, has suffered a significant loss in popularity in opinion polls since the Iraq war. On Wednesday, Butler, a former civil service head, will deliver the conclusions of a five-month inquiry into whether Britain fought the Iraq war on the basis of false intelligence on Baghdad's weaponry. The report comes on the eve of by-elections in the central cities of Birmingham and Leicester which will provide a further test for Blair and his party's popularity. Raising the stakes further for Blair's government this week, Brown will map out the government's spending plans for the next three years later on Monday. British newspapers have reported that Blair will escape severe censure from the Butler inquiry. The premier would face some criticism for an over-presidential style of government, but would not be accused of urging spy chiefs to hype up the threat posed by Iraq's alleged WMD stocks, they said. Instead, a senior intelligence officer and Blair's chief political adviser will chiefly be in the firing line, according to media reports. |
| talonnews.com/news/2004/july/0713_wilson_plame_intel.shtml Senate Intel Report Discredits Wilson's Claims About Iraq, Niger By Jeff Gannon Talon News July 13, 2004 WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- While the report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday delivered stinging criticism of the CIA, it also refuted a number of claims made by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. The agency sent Wilson to Niger in 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium from the African nation. Both Wilson and his report received little notice until President Bush uttered the infamous "16 words" in his 2003 State of the Union Address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Wilson went public in early July 2003, writing an article for the New York Times in which he said that his investigation did not discover any evidence to substantiate Bush's assertion, even though the president cited British intelligence in his remarks. The ambassador's challenge resulted in the administration backing off from the claim and added pressure to Congress to look into the use of pre-war intelligence. British intelligence continues to maintain that Saddam Hussein sought uranium in Africa. The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that CIA analysts didn't brief Vice President Cheney about Wilson's report because they believed it didn't add any new information or clarify the Iraq-Niger uranium issue. Wilson was emphatic in his belief that any such deal was never consummated, but offered little proof that no overtures were made. Some documents provided to Italian intelligence about such a deal were later determined to be forgeries, but not all agencies based their assumptions on them. The Financial Times recently cited independent reports of intermediaries making inquiries on behalf of Iraq. "European intelligence officers have now revealed that three years before the fake documents became public, human and electronic intelligence sources from a number of countries picked up repeated discussion of an illicit trade in uranium from Niger," the Financial Times reported. "One of the customers discussed by the traders was Iraq." Wilson said he may have "misspoken" to the reporter when he said he concluded the documents were "forged." A week following the publication of Wilson's New York Times piece, Robert Novak wrote in his column that a member of the administration told him the ambassador was chosen for the Niger mission because his wife was a CIA employee. He identified Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, by name and referred to her as an "operative" specializing in weapons of mass destruction. The CIA requested an investigation into the source of the leak, suggesting that Plame was a covert agent and publication of her name blew her cover. The Justice Department began its inquiry last September, interviewing members of the administration and issuing subpoenas for White House communications with about a dozen journalists. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald questioned both Bush and Cheney about the leak. Wilson denied that his wife played a role in his selection for the mission when questioned by Talon News during an October 2003 interview. He repeated those denials in his book, "The Politics of Truth." But the Senate Intelligence Committee discovered a memo from Plame dated February 12, 2002 to the Deputy Chief of the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) that "offered up his name." It was also revealed that Wilson traveled to Niger for the CIA in 1999 on a mission whose details are redacted from the report. In October 2003, Talon News reported on an internal government memo prepared by US intelligence personnel that detailed a meeting where Plame suggested Wilson be sent to Niger. Wilson claimed to have never been in a meeting with his wife, but a State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) analyst's notes indicated that a meeting was "apparently convened" by Plame who had proposed her husband go on the mission. Plame told the committee that she only attended the meeting to introduce her husband and left after about three minutes. A CIA source told the Washington Post in December 2003 that the INR memo was still classified and disputed its contents. As a result of asking Wilson about the memo during an October 2003 interview, FBI agents questioned Talon News under the guise of the leak probe to discover the source of the memo that refuted the assertions of the agency and Wilson about the circumstances by which he was chosen for the trip. The Senate Intelligence Committee report may have a significant impact on the leak probe. Loss of confidence in the agency and its attempts to discredit evidence that suggests alternate motivations by sub-groups within it may serve to undermine the case. The INR memorandum may have revealed Plame's identity prior to Novak's column and therefore any statements by the administration might only qualify as simple gossip. Even if that is not the case, the federal statute requires that the exposure of Plame would have had to be deliberate and malicious, a threshold that may not be reached by the investigation, particularly in light of new information revealed by the Committee report. |
| ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB62OSSGWD.html WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate report criticizing false CIA claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the same time provides support for an assertion the White House repudiated: that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa. White House officials said last year it was a mistake for President Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union message, to refer to British reports that Saddam Hussein's government tried to buy uranium. The White House said the evidence for that claim was too shaky to have been included in such an important speech, and CIA Director George Tenet took the blame for failing to have the reference removed. A Friday report from the Senate Intelligence Committee offers new details supporting the claim. French and British intelligence separately told the United States about possible Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in the African nation of Niger, the report said. The report from France is significant not only because Paris opposed the Iraq war but also because Niger is a former French colony and French companies control uranium production there. Joseph Wilson, a retired US diplomat the CIA sent to investigate the Niger story, also found evidence of Iraqi contacts with Nigerien officials, the report said. Wilson told the committee that former Nigerien Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki reported meeting with Iraqi officials in 1999. Mayaki said a businessman helped set up the meeting, saying the Iraqis were interested in "expanding commercial relations" with Niger - which Mayaki interpreted as an overture to buy uranium, Wilson said. Mayaki told Wilson he met with the Iraqis but steered the discussion away from commercial activity because he did not want to deal with a country under United Nations sanctions. All of that information came to Washington long before an Italian journalist gave US officials copies of documents purporting to show an agreement from Niger to sell uranium to Baghdad. Even before the forged documents surfaced, US analysts cast doubt on the Niger story, the Senate report said. State Department analysts thought the uranium story was farfetched because such a deal would be detected easily and Iraq already had some 500 tons of lightly processed uranium "yellowcake." The CIA also made only "halfhearted" attempts to investigate a West African businessman's claim that Nigerien uranium bound for Iraq was being stored in a warehouse in the nearby African nation of Benin, the report said. The CIA never contacted the businessman, even though the US Navy gave the CIA his phone number, the report said. |