Please tell me.

[BCBud]

Who actually sent Joe wilson to Niger?

[Old and In the Way]

1. I think it was Cheney through one of his lackeys....

They want to spin this as a political revenge story and get us to focus on the "did...did not" aspect of the story. But it really IS about Valerie Plame.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x66773

[BCBud]

2. They're guilty either way but...

.... I'm a little worried that this point may be crucial. If his wife got him the assignment, Rush et all won't shut up about a plan to discredit our fine President(puke).

[Lex]

6. I *don't care* what drug boy Rush is going on about.

I just care what indictments Fitzgerald is getting ready.

I suspect it won't be for the original blowing of Plame's ID, but of the conspiracy to obstruct the investigation.

[BCBud]

11. Its actually interesting...

.... as an observer to guage this through those wackjobs reaction to this. Spewing the same things over and over. The "angry left" seems to be a popular expression.

[shraby]

7. Apparently the CIA needed someone

to go check out the Niger story because there were rumors that it was false. Joe Wilson had been an ambassador there and knew personally the people to ask. The people in the CIA asked Valerie if he was available and she said he was. The CIA decided to send him and he went. The CIA paid his fare and he didn't charge them for his services.
This is the way I understand the situation went down.

[Old and In the Way]

9. I suspect that they knew it was fabricated from the get go.

They most likely knew that the Niger Yellowcake evidence didn't support their case on WMD. They probably knew it was fake.

Think about it. If this was so important, why trust the validation of the evidence to an outsider? Why not send a guy like Bolton, Negreponte, Rice, or Abrahms or any other yes person to make sure the evidence fit?

No, I think they needed a way to get Valerie Plame out of the loop. She was in a position to hurt them, either for what she knew or what could/would find out. Somehow, it couldn't be done overtly, not sure why. So the assignment was pitched in a subtle way (maybe Tenet asked her for a recommendation with a casual "How about Joe?"). She went along with it...probably no documentation to that, so now they can say she was the initiator.

But once Joe came back and reported the truth, the word was spread, carefully including her CIA NUC status. It was crafted to look like simple political revenge, a motive easily understood and accepted in Washington. But the real motive was a pre-emptive strike to get her out of the assignment on tracking ME WMD.

Maybe this is tied to that $8BB and RDX explosives that has gone missing. Or maybe it was to clean the evidence/casefiles that she had accummulated on Iraq's lack of WMD. Or it could be that she had the goods on Dick Cheney. Remember the quality time Dick was spending at CIA in 2001/2? We are told it was all about the Iraqi WMD evidence....but I'll bet a lot of it was going over the CIA's files on Halliburton's business sales in the 90s.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Joseph Wilson Fights Back

Answers the Senate Intelligence Committee's Report And A N.Y. Times Journalist

http://www.yuricareport.com/Impeachment/WilsonDefendsHimselfInLtrToSenate.html

[LSK]

3. from Wilsons testimony at the DSM hearing:

In February 2002 I was asked by the CIA to
meet with the American intelligence community
officials charged with understanding Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction programs in order to discuss an
intelligence report that had caught the attention
of the Office of the Vice President. The report
concerned the alleged sale of a significant amount
of uranium yellow cake from the West African nation
of Niger to Iraq.

I was asked to attend this meeting because
of my extensive experience in Niger and with the
government that had been in power in that country
during the time the supposed sale had taken place.
Additionally, as the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence has reported, I have previously
traveled to Niger to look into other uranium-related
matters.

At this meeting I was briefed that
American intelligence had either seen or been
briefed by a foreign intelligence service about the
existence of documents purporting to be a
memorandum of sale between Niger and Iraq. I did
not see any documents as I have said and written
repeatedly. I understand they were not in the
possession of the U.S. government at the time of
the meeting.

At the meeting I was asked if I would
consider traveling to Niger to try to find answers
to lingering questions that analysts might have.
That was the first time the suggestion of traveling
to Niger was ever raised with me.

There have been assertions that my wife
Valerie, a CIA operations officer in the
counterproliferation area suggested or recommended
me for the trip. She did not. The CIA a week
after her identity was compromised by Robert Novak
told Knut Royce and Tim Phelps of Newsday that, She
did not recommend her husband to undertake the
Niger assignment. They, the officers who did ask
Wilson to check the uranium story, were aware of
who she was married to which is not surprising.
There are people elsewhere in government who were
trying to make her look like she was the one who
was cooking this up, he, the CIA spokesman said. I
can't understand why. The CIA has repeated this
denial to all who have asked since including
David Ensor of CNN and Doyle McManus of the Los
Angeles Times. She was not at the meeting where
the trip was first raised with me.


http://www.johnconyers.com/vertical/Sites/%7BEF00C507-612C-4BA3-84C0-446C97F7E413%7D/uploads/%7B195A8E9B-67A3-4245-95CD-D7743E3AF21A%7D.PDF

[Lex]

4. Please tell me why the fuck it matters. What he reported back was TRUE.

He reported by No Niger-yellowcake connection. Bush lied about that blatantly. He knew full well he was lying when he said it, imho.

[BurtWorm]

8. The crucial point is not who sent Wilson to Niger. It's who outed Plame.

And more to the point, was outing Plame a crime? It makes absolutely no difference what Wilson and his wife did before July 11, 2003. It matters only that someone in the WH used information about Valerie Wilson to attack her husband for criticizing the way the Bushists chose to go to war.

It's still not at all clear (to me, anyway) if Plame's position at CIA was protected by this law, or if outing her was in fact criminal. It's hard to get a straight answer about that from anyone. But it's very strange the way the Bushists chose to counterattack in this very underhanded back door kind of way.

[BCBud]

10. Yes yes, I agree...

I just really wanted to know the answer to that one. I feel better.