Basically it goes lke this, "Wilson never said Cheney sent him to Niger".
To prove it they use his hilariously titled, "What I didn't Find in Africa" out of the WAPO from June 6th, 2003.
'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."
Now the arguement is, 'See! He never said that!". Well, not technically, Wilson might not have said it directly, but he DID make the implication. One writer I know noted, "Thus the defense of Wilson's credibility boils down to skilled parsing".
The fact is that Cheney's office did make an inquiry, but the REAL story is that in fact the VP didn't sent Joe. His wife took care of that, and please let's not play semantics about whether she "offered him up", yeah, she also "played hostess". It didn't matter whether she wrote a memo or painted it on a billboard outside Langley - she got him the job - not once but twice.
Which by the way is an inescapble fact that Wilson outright lied about and for which the SSCI nailed him on, and for which he has tried to wiggle from under ever since.
However, even more funny is that Johnson and other "Wilsonites" completely screw themselves as they gloss over Joe's words, "I never saw the report", referring to the forged Niger documents, which he unequivacoably stated were forged because "The dates were wrong and the names were wrong", when there was NO way he could have possibly known that - again Wilson wiggles:
"Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June (Op Ed.). He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."
"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.
Yeah Joe, how did you know?
Suffice to say, Johnson, Corn and others like to shall we say, "parse". They especially don't like this Washinton Post Article which nails Wilson (Oh, I guess they're lying too?).
It's interesting to note that Johnson cites the very SSCI report he called biased. Hmmmm, only when it fits eh Larry?
So they can play this little "Joe didn't say..., the White House/Right Wing/ McChimpy Bushhitlers are smearing poor Joe!"all they want. The fact is that Wilson's a liar and by the way, so are his Knights of Deception.
UPDATE: Just like I said before. When they bury Joe Wilson, his headstone will say, "Hear lies Bigmouth!" The story references Joe speaking Tuesday night at San Francisco State's McKenna Theatre. Again, the repeat "parsing":
"Wilson, a former ambassador to Iraq and 23-year veteran in foreign diplomacy, told how he had been called a hero by the first President Bush. He was subsequently asked by the Bush administration in 2002 to check intelligence reports that Niger had sold uranium to Iraq for use in nuclear weapons. Wilson's investigation into those allegations showed they were false, a conclusion that other high-intelligence investigators also came to."
Again, the press in San Francisco repeating that "lie" that the White House sent him. Do we see a retraction from Wilson today? Nope. Also this "Wilson's investigation into those allegations showed they were false, a conclusion that other high-intelligence investigators also came to." The SSCI didn't come to that conclusion and in fact said the opposite, and the Butler Report still stands by their intel.
This quote doesn't bother me, but it's telling nonetheless. "Some in the audience urged him to run for political office. But Wilson said he'd been a true child of the 1960s and had "too many wives and taken too many drugs. And, yes, I did inhale."
Used narcotics? Hmmmmm,
Really? Did you include that disclosure on your Standard Form 86?
UPDATE II: Commenter Critical Rhetoric notes that Ray McGovern of VIPS used the "Cheney sent Wilson" quip himself in a interview here. Excerpt:
"We know that it was Dick Cheney who sent the former US ambassador to Niger to investigate. We know he was told in early March of last year that the documents were forgeries.... To have global reporters like Walter Pincus quoting senior administration officials that Vice President Cheney was not told by CIA about the findings of this former US ambassador strains credulity well beyond the breaking point. Cheney commissioned this trip, and when the fellow came back, he said, "Don't tell me, I don't want to know what happened." That's just ridiculous."
You see? The more they talk, the more the story crumbles, the plot more exposed as they stumble over one another. It always happens to the bad guys.
Filed under: judith miller valerie plame karl rove Valerie Plame PlameGate john hannah
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