Fact twisting alleged in U.S. Senate probe

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: UPI

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Former CIA operative Valerie Plame accused U.S. Senate Republicans of twisting the facts about the selection of her husband for a mission to Niger.

In an interview with USA Today to mark the Monday publication of her book, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House," Plame singled out three GOP members of the Senate Intelligence Committee for criticism.

She accused Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; and Sen. Kit Bond,m R-Mo., of misstating her role in the CIA's choice of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to investigate reports that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger.

"They took a fairly straightforward thing and obscenely twisted it into a political version of events," Plame told USA Today.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/10/22/fact_twisting_alleged_in_us_senate_probe/7751

---

USA Today article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-21-plame-book_N.htm

[msongs]

1. maybe helpless Harry will do something about it....or not nt

[KansDem]

12. That's SENATOR Helpless Harry to you!

Let's at least maintain a modicum of respect, shall we? ;)

[robinlynne]

13. good one.

[rodeodance]

2. good for the USA Today

[rodeodance]

8. actually headline in USAtoday is rather bland:

Ex-CIA spy's account unveiled
Updated 9h 51m ago

By Richard Willing, USA TODAY

Senate Republicans "obscenely twisted" facts and testimony from other CIA officers to falsely accuse Valerie Plame Wilson of sending her husband on a fact-finding trip to Africa that produced strong criticism of the Bush administration's basis for attacking Iraq, Plame Wilson told USA TODAY.

It was the first time Plame Wilson has publicly accused Sens. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Kit Bond of Missouri of misstating her role in the Africa trip in a Senate report widely cited by her critics. The ex-spy, whose cover was effectively blown in a 2003 newspaper column, said the idea to send her husband, Joseph, to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq was buying uranium originated with a CIA colleague and was not part of a "conspiracy" to undermine the administration.

Joseph Wilson's conclusion — that the uranium report was false — and his subsequent charge that the Bush administration ignored his findings led to his wife's CIA identity being disclosed. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former aide to Vice President Cheney, was convicted last March of obstructing a federal investigation into the disclosure. President Bush commuted Libby's sentence.

"They took a fairly straightforward thing and obscenely twisted it into a political version of events," Plame Wilson said. "It's the reason this continues to be such a highly charged partisan issue."

[yellowcanine]

3. Orrin Hatch, the pious Morman, may have "twisted facts"? Shocking.

But he always acts so rightous.

[EFerrari]

20. He's been practicing sleight of hand for a long time. n/t

[yellowcanine]

21. Ah yes, just as he did when he was always braying about judges getting an "upperdown" vote

in the Senate. As if THAT was the issue and as if it EVER has been the issue. The Senate CAN choose not to act on a nominee and often did when Bill Clinton was appointing judges, with the blessing if not outright participation by the Hatchet man. There is nothing in the Constitution that suggests otherwise.

[rodeodance]

4. Topic subject Cheney Knew-Plame Was GettingToo Close To The Truth Re: Nuke Smuggling

Forum Name General Discussion
Topic subject Cheney Knew-Plame Was GettingToo Close To The Truth Re: Nuke Smuggling
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2100977#2100977
2100977, Cheney Knew-Plame Was GettingToo Close To The Truth Re: Nuke Smuggling
Posted by kpete on Sun Oct-21-07 10:13 AM

So why did the Office of the Vice President target Valerie? The standard theory holds that they were angry at her husband Joe Wilson for his exposure of the Niger fraud which kick-started the Iraq war. An alternative theory holds that they wanted to shut down Brewster-Jennings, the CIA front company used by Valerie Plame as she and her team attempted to track black market nukes.

Let's reduce it to a few strokes of the brush: Turkey was a key hub of underground nuclear smuggling. That's why Valerie was there. A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's nuke expert, was a leading figure within this trade. Cheney knew all about Khan.

Last year, the blog Anything They Say published a terrific piece which deserves a revisit:

But the speculation goes further than just Plame's Iranian work, with connections spanning large swaths of the Middle East. Chris Deliso relates that the Turkish paper, Hurriyet, reported that Plame had been in Turkey on several occasions, where she conducted meetings with various dignitaries and with scientists in Turkey. Disenfranchised FBI translator and 9/11 whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, confirmed that Plame, working under her CIA front company, Brewster Jennings & Associates, was very active in Turkey up through the time of her outing, tracking a multinational network of nuclear technology trafficking that involved not only Turkey but Pakistan, Dubai, Spain, South Africa and others.

In the year 2001, 104 attempts to smuggle nuclear materials into Turkey were recorded by the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority. It was this network, centered in Turkey, that Plame was investigating.

The notion that Iran would be a target of White House aggression has always been "on the table" ever since Bush declared Iran to be part of the "axis of evil" in 2002. The problem here was that not only was the CIA tracking nuclear materials through Turkey under Plame's CIA front, the FBI was investigating this as well, as one of the players, Gizi Technologies, was based in Secaucus, N.J. But this investigation would cause havoc because it was suspected that the US ambassador to Turkey, Marc Grossman, was deeply involved in this nuclear arms network, possibly with a direction of covertly or passively arming Turkey with nuclear weapons while providing diplomatic cover as an incentive to join with the US in support of the nascent efforts against Iran.


more at:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/10/nukes-to-iran.html

[rodeodance]

5. rec

[BridgeTheGap]

6. Repubs twisting the truth! Now there's a shocker!

Liars, murderers and thieves - what can you expect?

[rodeodance]

7. Recall it was Roberts as Chair who did NOTHING about Phase II (neither is Jay

Rockerfeller now).

In an interview with USA Today to mark the Monday publication of her book, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House," Plame singled out three GOP members of the Senate Intelligence Committee for criticism.

She accused Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; and Sen. Kit Bond,m R-Mo., of misstating her role in the CIA's choice of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to investigate reports that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger.

[rodeodance]

9. Topic subject CBS confirms 2006 Raw Story scoop: Plame's job was to keep nukes from Iran

Forum Name General Discussion
Topic subject CBS confirms 2006 Raw Story scoop: Plame's job was to keep nukes from Iran
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2096028#2096028
2096028, CBS confirms 2006 Raw Story scoop: Plame's job was to keep nukes from Iran
Posted by lala_rawraw on Sat Oct-20-07 12:32 PM

Mods, I have permission to copy the article in full (just not the video footage, which I don't include in the post)
##

CBS confirms 2006 Raw Story scoop: Plame's job was to keep nukes from Iran
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CBS_confirms_2006_Raw_Story_scoop_1020.html
By Muriel Kane and Dave Edwards

CBS News has confirmed, in advance of a 60 Minutes interview with outed CIA agent Valerie Plame to be run this Sunday, that Plame "was involved in operations to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons."

"Our mission was to make sure that the bad guys, basically, did not get nuclear weapons," Plame told 60 Minutes. Plame also indicated that her outing in 2003 had caused grave damage to CIA operations, saying, "All the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databases" to see where she had gone and who she had met with.

RAW STORY first revealed Plame's Iran mission and the damage done to CIA operations by her outing in a February 13, 2006 story by Raw investigative editor Larisa Alexandrovna, titled "Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say." In that article, Alexandrovna wrote:

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program. ...

Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation. ...

Three intelligence officers confirmed that other CIA non-official cover officers were compromised, but did not indicate the number of people operating under non-official cover that were affected or the way in which these individuals were impaired. None of the sources would say whether there were American or foreign casualties as a result of the leak.

A few months following Alexandrovna's groundbreaking revelations, MSNBC's David Shuster reported that he had also been told by his own sources of Plame's involvement in an Iran operation and the damage done by her outing.

CBS states further that Plame "was involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran. It was called Operation Merlin, and it was first revealed in a book by investigative reporter James Risen."

Risen's book, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, was published in October 2006, eight months after Alexandrovna's initial reporting. Risen discussed Project Merlin in the book but did not mention that Plame had been part of it.

Reached on Saturday morning, Alexandrovna said she had known of Project Merlin when she wrote her 2006 article but was not allowed to discuss the operation, as per her agreement with sources, just the country involved. "I cannot confirm or deny that Plame was connected with Project Merlin, only that I was aware of it," Alexandrovna told Raw.

[rockybelt]

10. Senator Bond

Senator Bond is a complete freaking idiot who is at the beck and call of the head fascist in charge.:grr:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Welcome to DU, rockybelt!

:hi:

[sabra]

14. Ex-CIA (Plame/Wilson) spy's account unveiled today

Source: USA Today

Senate Republicans "obscenely twisted" facts and testimony from other CIA officers to falsely accuse Valerie Plame Wilson of sending her husband on a fact-finding trip to Africa that produced strong criticism of the Bush administration's basis for attacking Iraq, Plame Wilson told USA TODAY.

It was the first time Plame Wilson has publicly accused Sens. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Kit Bond of Missouri of misstating her role in the Africa trip in a Senate report widely cited by her critics. The ex-spy, whose cover was effectively blown in a 2003 newspaper column, said the idea to send her husband, Joseph, to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq was buying uranium originated with a CIA colleague and was not part of a "conspiracy" to undermine the administration.

...

"They took a fairly straightforward thing and obscenely twisted it into a political version of events," Plame Wilson said. "It's the reason this continues to be such a highly charged partisan issue."

...

She said she has been unable to learn but "would dearly like to know" which CIA official leaked her name to Cheney in June 2003. Testimony from Libby's trial showed that the leak began with a conversation between Cheney and an unnamed CIA representative.

"The motto at the CIA has always been 'need to know,' and there was no need here," she said. "It surprised me, and it should be deeply disappointing to anyone" working at the CIA.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071022/a_plame22x.art.htm

[BOSSHOG]

15. Its a shame

that per American Law, conservatives can not be held responsible for anything they do including treason. I think a gallows equipped to hang six at a time would be appropriate right in front of the U. S. Capitol about right now. Or we might wait until a beautiful Spring 2008 afternoon when the Cherry Blossoms are blooming.

[Auntie Bush]

16. It's horrifying that all those treasonous bastards Have another

15 Months to conflict damage on the US and it's citizens plus other citizens of the world.

[cain_7777]

19. Repuke zoo

It would be much more beneficial for the nation to put these traitorous bastards behind bars in a prison designed like a zoo in which people can walk through, taunt and tease the poo flingin' Republickers. Instead of paying 50 cents to feed the beasts we get to taser them. All the Repuke felons; from money launderers like Tom Delay to the homophobic gay sex illicitor larry Craig. Capital Punishment is never the answer. It lets them off too easy.

[Ilsa]

17. I think she said about 10% of her writing was redacted by the CIA.

It shows up as blackouts on the pages. She doesn't even get to tell her whole story, it was, and remians, so sensitive.

And those assholes called her a "glorified secretary."

[still_one]

18. It is sad that Congress cannot do anything about this. Why isn't Rove up before them? /nt

[jbnow]

22. Roberts, Hatch and Bond put

their twisted about Wilson/Plame in the the Senate Intelligence Report. It was not in the body of the report because no one else on the committee agreed with them. It was in the "Additional Views" section and signed by the 3 of them.

I don't know how many times I heard a republican on some TV show using that as proof that the lies were true...and that further the Wilsons were lying.
For example when someone would say that the Wilson's said she isn't the person who sent him the republican spinner would say they aren't telling the truth, that the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Report had found that she had sent him and that they were less than honest.

I'd want to scream. Do TV pundits do their homework? I never heard anyone call them on that. What is more bipartisan than the opinion of the three most partisan committee members?