Did Wilson's wife send him to Niger?

[southernleftylady]

I heard from a repug that "its pretty much common knowledge" ;) but i wanted to hear it from yall ...
so did she?
any links ?

[Straight Shooter]

1. No. CIA sent him.

Others will explain in more depth. "Common knowledge" seems to be tacked onto all their talking points lately.

[Disturbed]

2. No. She did not have the authority to do so,

These goddamn RWingers are blatant liars!

[CatWoman]

3. !

http://mediamatters.org/items/200507150005

Lie #1: Wilson falsely claimed Cheney sent him to Niger

In an attack on the credibility of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, Plame's husband, Mehlman twice claimed that it was Vice President Dick Cheney who sent him to Niger in 2002 to investigate a rumored sale of yellowcake uranium to Iraq. As Media Matters for America noted, Wilson claimed the CIA -- not Cheney -- sent him to Africa. In his July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed, and in an August 3, 2003, interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Wilson noted that the CIA sent him to Niger to investigate a question from Cheney's office about the uranium issue. The RNC cropped and twisted quotes from the Times op-ed and the CNN interview to back up this false talking point.

[Cassandra]

4. No, she didn't have that much power

She may have suggested him but higher-ups made that decision.

[Postman]

5. No. He wasn't sent by his wife.

http://airamericaplace.com/archive.php?mode=display&id=2117

The above is a link to "The Majority Report" radio program on Air America Radio for Thursday July 14, 2005.

CIA (ret.?) Larry Johnson appears 56 minutes into the program debunking all of the rightwing BS.

[LiviaOlivia]

17. Agreed. The Bushes should be the last people to bring this up.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Rove Unfit for Public Office
http://www.juancole.com/2005/07/rove-unfit-for-public-office-whether.html

The real question is whether we want a person to occupy a high office in the White House when that person has cynically endangered US national security to take a petty sort of revenge on a whistleblower.

~snip~

But Rove's revenge on Wilson was the ultimate. Plame was undercover as an employee of a phony energy company. She was actually investigating illegal proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. When Rove blew her cover to the US press, everyone who had ever been seen with her in Africa or Asia was put in extreme danger. It is said that some of her contacts may have been killed. Imagine the setback to the US struggle against weapons of mass destruction proliferation that this represents. Rove marched us off to Iraq, where there weren't any. But he disrupted a major effort by the CIA to fight WMD that really did exist.

Moreover, the whole thing only makes sense if Rove is a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist to begin with. Why would it matter that Valerie Plame suggested to the CIA that they send her husband Joe Wilson to Niger? Wilson had excellent credentials for the mission, which the CIA immediately recognized.

~snip~

Emphasis added by me.

[Oversea Visitor]

6. Do it matter?

Cover still blown
Crime still there

This distraction got no legs anyway.

[RoyGBiv]

13. This is my question ...

Whether true or false, why, exactly, does it matter *who* sent him. IMO, this is merely a distraction.

[Oversea Visitor]

22. Haha

Dont how many Idiots there are in US but all the spin just got no legs.
... didnt mention by name just say Wilson wife :rofl:
... Got leak from press :rofl:
... Plame not covert :rofl:
... Wilson lie :rofl:
... SOTU ? .... :rofl:
.... Those repug representatives :rofl: such high IQ :rofl:

[Bumblebee]

7. It's a red herring

She did not have the authority to do so and nepotism like that would have not been tolerated even if she did (but she did not!!!) End of story :)

[leesa]

23. Also, is it nepotism if he is the most qualified guy for the job?

He was the expert in the area with lots of Nigerian contacts. He would be anyone's first choice. I doubt she sent him, but so what if she did?

[rzemanfl]

8. Anything you hear from a Republican is a lie. Anyone who is

still a Republican after everything that has happened since 2000 either has shit for brains or is an evil motherfucker who would steal the gold out of your teeth if they had the chance.

[LSK]

9. No

All she did was suggest him and she brought him to meet with CIA officials.

[sojourner]

10. Have you ever seen people lie so much??

I mean...it's one thing to be mistaken. But the RW politicos and the stupid media whores just lie their asses off. Glad you're checking in so you can set record straight (if not for them, at least for you.)

[democracyindanger]

11. More like "common ignorance."

[IChing]

12. No but the CIA did send him, she is not an offical

but was an operative, big difference.
from Joe Wilson

In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.
After consulting with the State Department's African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.

http://www.patridiots.com/001742.html

[madrchsod]

14. she recommended him because of his experience

he was selected by the guys at the cia. at least i think that`s how it played out...it`s really hard to seperate facts from spin

[IChing]

21. do not state "she recommended him without link"

that is hear-say and as bad as "she sent him"

[kodi]

15. nope, read on

the claim arises from an addendum to the SIC main report, in it only three of the eighteeen senators on the committee allege Wilson lied.

From an appendix to the actual Report, entitled “Additional View” There are nine “Additional Views” sign by from one to six Senators. This one is signed by three Senators.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/13jul20041400/www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/pdf/s108-301/roberts.pdf

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html

"Despite our hard and successhl work to deliver a unanimous report, however,
there were two issues on which the Republicans and Democrats could not agree: 1)
whether the Committee should conclude that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s public
statements were not based on knowledge he actually possessed, and 2) whether the
Committee should conclude that it was the former ambassador’swife who recommended
him for his trip to Niger.
Niger
The Committee began its review of prewar intelligence on Iraq by examining the
Intelligence Community’s sharing of intelligence information with the UNMOVIC
inspection teams. (The Committee’s findings on that topic can be found in the section of
the report titled, “The Intelligence Community’s Sharing of Intelligence on Iraqi Suspect
WMD Sites with UN Inspectors.”) Shortly thereafter, we expanded the review when
former Ambassador Joseph Wilson began speaking publicly about his role in exploring
the possibility that Iraq was seeking or may have acquired uranium yellowcake from
- 442 -
Africa. Ambassador Wilson’s emergence was precipitated by a passage in President
Bush’s January 2003 State of the Union address which is now referred to as “the sixteen
words.” President Bush stated, “. . .the British government has learned that Saddam
Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” The details of the
Committee’s findings and conclusions on this issue can be found in the Niger section of
the report. What cannot be found, however, are two conclusions upon which the
Committee’s Democrats would not agree. While there was no dispute with the
underlying facts, my Democrat colleagues rehsed to allow the following conclusions to
appear in the report:
Conclusion: The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was
suggested by the former ambassador’s wife, a CIA employee.
The former ambassador’s wife suggested her husband for the trip
to Niger in February 2002. The former ambassador had traveled
previously to Niger on behalf of the CIA, also at the suggestion of his
wife, to look into another matter not related to Iraq. On February 12,
2002, the former ambassador’swife sent a memorandum to a Deputy
Chief of a division in the CIA’SDirectorate of Operations which said,
“ 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.’’ This was just
one day before the same Directorate of Operations division sent a cable to
one of its overseas stations requesting concurrence with the division’s idea
to send the former ambassador to Niger.


Wilson responded @

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/07/16/wilson_letter/index_np.htm

"July 15, 2004

The Hon. Pat Roberts, Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

The Hon. Jay Rockefeller, Vice Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Dear Sen. Roberts and Sen. Rockefeller,

I read with great surprise and consternation the Niger portion of Sens. Roberts, Bond and Hatch's additional comments to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Assessment on Iraq. I am taking this opportunity to clarify some of the issues raised in these comments.

First conclusion: "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee."

That is not true. The conclusion is apparently based on one anodyne quote from a memo Valerie Plame, my wife, sent to her superiors that says, "My husband has good relations with the PM 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." There is no suggestion or recommendation in that statement that I be sent on the trip. Indeed it is little more than a recitation of my contacts and bona fides. The conclusion is reinforced by comments in the body of the report that a CPD reports officer stated that "the former ambassador's wife 'offered up his name'" (page 39) and a State Department intelligence and research officer stated that the "meeting was 'apparently convened by wife who had the idea to dispatch him to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue."

In fact, Valerie was not in the meeting at which the subject of my trip was raised. Neither was the CPD reports officer. After having escorted me into the room, she departed the meeting to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. It was at that meeting where the question of my traveling to Niger was broached with me for the first time and came only after a thorough discussion of what the participants did and did not know about the subject. My bona fides justifying the invitation to the meeting were the trip I had previously taken to Niger to look at other uranium-related questions as well as 20 years living and working in Africa, and personal contacts throughout the Niger government. Neither the CPD reports officer nor the State analyst were in the chain of command to know who, or how, the decision was made. The interpretations attributed to them are not the full story. In fact, it is my understanding that the reports officer has a different conclusion about Valerie's role than the one offered in the "additional comments." I urge the committee to reinterview the officer and publicly publish his statement.

It is unfortunate that the report failed to include the CIA's position on this matter. If the staff had done so it would undoubtedly have been given the same evidence as provided to Newsday reporters Tim Phelps and Knut Royce in July 2003.

(linked @ http://foi.missouri.edu/voicesdissent/columnistnames.html)

They reported on July 22 that:

"A senior intelligence officer confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked 'alongside' the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger. But he said she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment. 'They were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising,' he said. '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,' he said. 'I can't figure out what it could be.' 'We paid his airfare. But to go to Niger is not exactly a benefit. Most people you'd have to pay big bucks to go there,' the senior intelligence official said. Wilson said he was reimbursed only for expenses." (Newsday article "Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover," dated July 22, 2003).

In fact, on July 13 of this year, David Ensor, the CNN correspondent, did call the CIA for a statement of its position and reported that a senior CIA official confirmed my account that Valerie did not propose me for the trip:

"'She did not propose me,' he said -- others at the CIA did so. A senior CIA official said that is his understanding too.""

[joemurphy]

16. The CIA Sent Him

January 2002 - Niger-Iraq yellowcake connection is first investigated (Wilson, Joseph. The Politics of Truth. (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004), 452).
Meeting at CIA headquarters occurs sometime in January. Intelligence experts at this meeting are uncertain about what further steps they could take to try to track down confirmation or rejection of the yellowcake allegations. The CIA has no station chief in Niger, and the U.S. ambassador there already had made her own inquiries. They are skeptical of the Italian and British White Paper reports. State Department officials, in particular, feel that 500 tons of uranium was such a large amount that there was no way it could secretly be transferred to Iraq


So Plame suggested her husband's name at the meeting, but she had no final decision-making authority on whether he would be sent or not. The decision to send Wilson came from higher-up in the CIA pecking order.

<http://www.cryptome.org/plame-memo.htm>

February 19, 2002 - The CIA Counterproliferation Division (CPD) holds a meeting at CIA headquarters with Joe Wilson. In attendance are intelligence analysts from both the CIA and the State Department's INR. Valerie Plame introduces Wilson at the beginning of the meeting, then leaves after three minutes. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the merits of sending Wilson to Niger to verify or negate the reports that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger. He is asked to attend because of his expertise on Africa and his knowledge of the African uranium trade, gained during his years at the Clinton White House. This meeting in a windowless conference room opens with a mention of Mr. Cheney's inquiry about the African connection to Iraq. During the course of that meeting, officials raised the possibility of his traveling to Niger and told him they would contact him with a decision.

February 20, 2002 - Wilson is asked and he accepts the mission to Niger. He is provided talking points for use in his inquiries in Niger.

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/senateiraqreport.pdf>

CIA Director George Tenet later acknowledged that it was elements of the CIA counterproliferation unit, and not Wilson's wife, that sent Wilson to Niger.

<http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2003/intell-030711-cia01.htm>

[lala_rawraw]

18. No, she did not have that type of authority

[karlrschneider]

19. The freeps want it both ways: One, that she was NOT an undercover

agent, just a peon 'desk jockey' and Two, that she somehow had the authority to dispatch an ambassador to check on the veracity of a serious policy issue. They can't even keep their own fantasies straight...

[CatWoman]

20. what pisses me off

is when they start yelling that Wilson is partisan, and voted for Kerry, yet they see nothing wrong with the SOS for Florida and Ohio were both his campaign managers for those states.

And the election went down to the wire in both those states: Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

[Raksha]

24. WHY the hell is it so damn important?

She recommended him, but she didn't have the authority to actually send him. But I just don't understand why the Repukes are making such a big deal about this. Even if she did "send" him, it wouldn't invalidate his findings.

Edited to add this:

"Why would it matter that Valerie Plame suggested to the CIA that they send her husband Joe Wilson to Niger? Wilson had excellent credentials for the mission, which the CIA immediately recognized."

I posted my original note before reading further down in the thread. It's good to know Juan Cole agrees with me! That whole "his wife sent him" bit is just another damn smokescreen with NO relevance whatsoever.