Nailing Iraq lie

[norml]

Nailing Iraq lie
BY JONATHAN FREEDLAND

27 October 2005



NOW America has its own David Kelly affair. There is no corpse — unless you count the US troops killed in Iraq, whose number is now 2,000 — but all the other elements are in place. A complex saga, turning on the unwanted outing of a government servant; a media organisation rocked by accusations of sloppy editorial processes; and a judicial investigation zeroing in on the charge that the government cooked up the case on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. It will reach its climax any moment now.


It has become known, inevitably, as Plamegate — with CIA agent Valerie Plame the nominally central player. Nominal because, though she is very much alive, she, like Kelly, is a silent star. The details are just as arcane as they were in the British version, but a summary is possible.

In February 2002 the CIA dispatched Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador, to Niger to check claims that Saddam Hussein had been shopping in the country for nuclear material. He concluded that Saddam had not. Nevertheless, nearly a year after his mission, Wilson was alarmed to hear George Bush and others repeat the Niger claims as if they were true.

His patience stretched, the ex-diplomat finally wrote a trenchant piece in the New York Times headlined: WHAT I DIDN'T FIND IN AFRICA. He wrote that if his verdict had been "ignored because it did not fit certain preconceptions about Iraq, then a legitimate argument can be made that we went to war under false pretences".


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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2005/October/opinion_October59.xml§ion=opinion&col=

[Carolab]

1. You know what I find amazing about all of this?

The fact that the NYT printed Joe's piece in the first place. I mean, couldn't they have rejected it? Or, would he have then gone to the Washington Post with it instead?

[Athame]

2. along a similar line

If he was just trying to drum up business for his consulting firm, as accused by the talking heads, why would he bite the big hand that feeds all consultants in DC? He had to know he was destroying his own career, even if he never suspected what would happen to his wife.

[cassiepriam]

3. He had to know that he would be destroyed totally by the repugs.

It was a very grave risk for him to fight this battle.
Everything was against him.