Wash. Post's VandeHei wrongly reported as fact that Wilson was sent to Niger "at the suggestion of his wife"
In an October 13 Washington Post article, staff writer Jim VandeHei reported as fact an allegation in great dispute -- that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was sent to Niger in 2002 "at the suggestion of his wife," former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Wilson, a former diplomat specializing in Africa, was sent to Niger in 2002 by the CIA to investigate a reported sale of Nigerian yellowcake uranium to Iraq. The CIA, however, denied that Plame selected Wilson for the trip, and the Senate Intelligence Committee did not reach an official conclusion as to who made the decision to appoint Wilson to the mission.
As Media Matters for America noted, the CIA has disputed the allegation that Wilson received the assigment based on Plame's influence. A July 22, 2003, Newsday article quoted an unidentified senior intelligence official as saying: "They [the officers asking Wilson to check the uranium story] were aware of who she [Plame] was married to, which is not surprising. ... There are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up, for some reason." According to a July 21, 2004, USA Today article:
The [Senate Intelligence] committee also questioned Wilson's repeated denials that his wife had "anything to do" with his selection by the CIA to go to Niger. It quoted from a memo by Plame that lays out Wilson's qualifications for the assignment. Wilson and the CIA confirm that the agency, not Plame, selected him for the mission. He says the memo merely laid out his qualifications after he was picked.
The Senate Intelligence Committee's 2004 "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq" said that "interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicated that his [Wilson's] wife, a CPD [Counterproliferation Divison] employee, suggested his name for the trip." But CIA officials have disputed the accuracy of a State Department intelligence document that reportedly indicates that Plame "suggested" Wilson's name for the trip. Moreover, the bipartisan committee did not officially conclude that Plame suggested the trip. In a partisan addendum to the report, committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) wrote that Democrats opposed including the statement: "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee," in the full report.
Admit or Deny
All Media Matters or Vanderhei has to prove the point is unnamed CIA sources and a politicized committee that did not reach a conclusion.
The facts are still absent on this one.
"The facts are still absent on this one."
Then you agree that VandeHei shouldn't have made the assertion?
"At the suggestion of" is kind of vague. It sounds like she pushed for him but wasn't in a decision-making role.
If he had an accusation he should have been more specific.
I'll agree with both of you on this. To the point, VandeHei should not have reported this as fact in light of the supporting facts. However, I confess I didn't know about that CIA document disputing the State Department claim either. However, it's not far-fetched at all to say that Plame suggested her husband. And, why not? He had the experience and connections in Niger to find out what was going on. But nevertheless, the CIA document does even bring the "suggestion" in question.
I will however contest your allusion, Leather, that "suggest" makes it sound like she "pushed" for her husband to go. That's stealing a base big-time.
But I will also grant that Wilson's seeming dishonesty in his op-ed when compared to the Senate Intelligence report (agreed to by all the Democrats on that committee, mind you) blur this issue quite a bit.
It seems most plausible to me the Vice-President's office inquired about Niger's yellowcake, the CIA decided it would be a good idea to investigate, when deciding who to send Plame said her husband might be a good choice to send, her CIA superiors agreed, then the Wilson's visit to Niger resulted in no report to the Vice-President because it ended up producing no new information about Niger's yellowcake.
In fact, I've been able to glean a conclusion that while there was contact between Iraq and Niger regarding the yellowcake, there are so many entities involved in Niger's yellowcake distribution that there would have been no (or perhaps likely... since I generally don't like to use absoulutes on such issues) way to covertly transact any actual sale to Saddam.
bird - Friday October 14, 2005 08:51:51 AM EST
You claim there was contact between Iraq and Niger about Yellowcake, I have seen nothing indicating this is true. What I have seen is that there were trade talks between Iraq and Niger, the Niger delegate ASSUMED it was about Uranium but he also said Iraq NEVER brought Uranium up. What I have read was a piece by an economics and trade proffessor from I believe Georgetown who said at this time, in an attempt to isolate us on the sanction issue (since they dont know who will come up next on rotation to the Security counsel) Iraq was making trade agreements with every third world country they could. Thus tieing Iraq with thier economies and giving them a reason to vote against sanctions. If you have some information about talks between Iraq and Niger specifically about Yellowcake I would love to hear about that.
I heard that statement... and he tried to look so serious whilst uttering such nonsense
First off, sometime someone who raises the "suggested his name" business should be asked just exactly what they mean by the phrase. Here are four scenarios for possible Plame involvement in Wilson's being picked for the trip:
1 - CIA somebody: We want to send Joe Wilson to Niger. Draw up a list of his qualifications for approval. Plame: Will do.
2 - CIA somebody: We want to send Joe Wilson to Niger. Do you think he'd be good for that? Plame: Yes. Let me tell you why.
3 - CIA somebody: We want to send someone to Niger. Plame: How about Joe Wilson?
4 - Plame: Send Joe Wilson to Niger!
Certainly the latter two, and probably the latter three, could be construed as her in some way having "suggested" Wilson. But #2 has her endorsing a decision already made, #3 has her suggesting a name for a mission already decided on, and #4 has her actually proposing the mission. Clearly different - yet my impression is that the rightwingers want us to think of the term "suggested" as implying #4, that it was some kind of nepotism, a junket.
Which brings up the other point: Suppose, just suppose, she did "suggest his name" in whatever way you choose it to mean. So what? That doesn't change the fact that he was qualified for the trip and it doesn't change the fact that what he reported proved to be correct. What's more, it's completely irrelevant to the issue of the leaking of Plame's covert CIA role.
This whole business is so typical of how rightwingers argue when put on the spot: a mass of irrelevancies, red herrings, and changes of subject intended to swamp the actual issue at hand. It's truly shameful how often the media falls for it and truly depressing how often the left does the same.
I heard a man interviewed on NPR who supposedly had worked for the CIA and knew Plame personally. He said it was more like #3. The whole "Plame sent Joe Wilson" angle is a brazen attempt by Karl Rove to discredit Wilson, who dared to publicly disagree with W's prewar propaganda. That's how this whole thing started. What has been lost is the fact that the famous "16 words" were reinserted into the SOTU speech even after they had been determined to be highly questionable.
Wow!!! you mean the CIA sent somebody to Niger who had been an ambassador to African countries and had political contacts there.....the bastards!!! They should have sent the roommate of one of Bush's friends...oh nevermind he's working at FEMA...speculation about whether or not plame suggested him, is just that speculation so it shouldnt be put out as fact like Bill Krystol just did on FOX half an hour ago.
It looks like right wingers are commenting on this item to change the subject on the investigation that could bring down the Bush administration.
The more we learn about how we went to war, the worse it is. Joe Wilson in his trip to Niger found that no one believed that they had shipped yellow cake to Iraq. The WHIG group, the white house iraq group, along with Chenny's own spy agency, the OSP, were managing the story about WMD in Iraq. Even before Joe Wilson's article "What I didn't find in Africa" he was on the radar screen of the WHIG group including discussions between Judy Miller and Scooter Libby in June, the month before Wilson's July article.
There has been years of discussion on whether Joe Wilson's wife was the cause/effect of the trip to Niger and she was not. It is incredible that a Wash Post reporter would not get this right.
The tactic that the rightwing/govenment backed propaganda machine has perfected is working brilliantly here. Keep the waters sufficiently muddied so that the truth, whatever it might be, is impossible to see. Keep it up long enough and wait for the people to lose interest or focus their attention on the next scandal or crisis du jour. Allegations and innuendo are reported as factual by a lazy MSM who can't be bothered or have become to unscrupulous to bother with verification. A little tidbit from an 'undisclosed highly placed government source' (Karl, is that you?) is all it takes, when it is supported by the daily drumbeat of talking points. I'm just really, really hoping they aren't allowed to slither out of this one.