The Washington Post finds that Joe Wilson’s Congressional testimony was riddled with outright lies and distortions. For one, Wilson argued that Iraq never sought uranium from Africa, but as we all should know by now that claim was entirely untrue:
Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.
Wilson’s assertions — both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information — were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.
The panel found that Wilson’s report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson’s assertions and even the government’s previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush’s January 2003 State of the Union address.
If that weren’t enough, Wilson also lied about his wife not having been the one who recommended him for his wasteful trip to Niger:
The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him.
To put it bluntly, Wilson was completely full of shit. There’s more than enough evidence to put his ass in jail for lying to Congress. It’s clear that he was using false testimony for partisan purposes to pimp his anti-Bush book and get his face (and his wife’s) in the news.
Now, my guess is the Bush Administration won’t push the matter. They now can use Wilson’s perjury as leverage against the probe into who leaked the name of Wilson’s wife to reporter Robert Novak. Deliberately leaking a classified official’s identity is a crime – but doing so in order to prevent false intelligence from being spread is not. If the Democrats want to turn the issue into a partisan witch hunt (and they would like nothing more), they’ll have to face up to Wilson’s lies. Given that the DNC very publically called the President a liar for stating what has repeatedly been proven to have been true, I rather doubt they’ll do so now.
Deliberately leaking a classified official’s identity is a crime – but doing so in order to prevent false intelligence from being spread is not.
On what part of the law do you base that legal opinion?
RTFA:
Let’s not forget that Wilson has made a sizable donation to Kerry’s Kampaign, and is in fact part of the Kerry Kampaign to discredit Bush.
To charge anyone with a crime, prosecutors need evidence that exposure of a covert officer was intentional.
Again, on what part of the law is this legal opinion based?
Moreover, even if that’s exactly their intent, that’s still purposefully exposing a classified government operative. It’s still illegal. There’s no “intent” clause in the classified government operative laws.
Andrew Sullivan sums up Wilson best: he is a “complete, partisan fraud.”
…and it was all part of the Kerry Kampaign. Wilson’s fraud is Kerry’s fraud.
Funny, but I bet Wilson’s lies won’t get nearly as much press attention as did the original controversy he stirred up…
Of course, this is what the Kerry Kamp is counting upon…that the lies will do more damage to Bush than the corrections/retractions…
You believe anything Ken Starr’s whore, Susan Schmidt writes? More’s the pity. Josh Marshall actually bothered to read the report itself. He debunks her tendentious story here: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_07_04.php#003143
Schmidt is in such a hurry to carry water for the GOP that she can’t even distinguish Iraq from Iran. (See end of Marshall’s post.) Get a clue.
But don’t worry: the “liberal” media will dutifully report Schmidt’s bullshit story ad nauseam, just like they laid down for Bush on his desertion from the TANG.
TK: Your post is absurd…funny how you cite Josh Marshall as some objective source…what a hoot…
And as I recall the media gave the NG issue way too much coverage…it belonged only in a Michael Moore piece of propaganda…
This much cannot be disputed: Wilson lied…he lied about Iraq not seeking uranium, he lied about his wife not having anything to do him getting the assignment…
As to the legal issues of revealing his wife’s identity…that does not in any way absolve Wilson of his lies…
It’s interesting how the liberals try to turn the issue away from Wilson’s blatant lies to the legalistic issue of regarding the leak of the name of Wilson’s wife and exactly what, if any, laws were broken…
Let’s also remember that Wilson is an advisor to the Kerry campaign…
Interesting also how when libs are presented with the facts of Wilson’s deceit, what do they do…they go after Susan Schmidt, the WaPo reporter!
Interesting also how when libs are presented with the facts of Wilson’s deceit
What facts? We’ve got two intelligence services who corraborate each other’s claims – because they both read the same forged documents.
We’ve got another intelligence service who’s upcoming inquiry is set to rip them a new asshole for making claims about the uranium they couldn’t support.
The only way you can come to the conclusion that Wilson’s claims haven’t been supported is if you ignore the facts or, in the case of Schmidt, completely misconstrue the report.
Seriously AT if you’re going to discuss matters of intelligence, it might behoove you to employ a little intelligence yourself.
And as I recall the media gave the NG issue way too much coverage…
They should give it a little more, actually.
Or didn’t you hear from the Pentagon the other day? They “inadvertantly” destroyed the only copies of the records that would tell us where Bush was on those crucial three months of ANG non-service.
Sure. I’m certain that was totally a conincidence. Yeah, right.
And we have someone who can’t get it through their head that a set of forged documente have absolutely nothing to do with the British government’s report.
But no, obvious Chet the liberal is smarter than the intelligence analysts at MI6, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the British government. Obviously Chet knows that the forged documents that appeared in Rome and that the British never even saw were magically the basis for an estimate that was made long before they were produced.
Obviously we should bow down to Chet’s superior intellect, as he clearly knows what he’s talking about, while people who are trained analysts, the Senate, and the Financial Times reporting staff do not.
This becomes more and more pathetic by the day – when you even have to try and change the subject to avoid being caught in your own distortions you’re merely being pathetic.
And we have someone who can’t get it through their head that a set of forged documente have absolutely nothing to do with the British government’s report.
Actually we’ve got one Jay Reding who doesn’t seem to understand that I was referring to the French intel, not the British, in that sentence.
Do I need to spell it out for you? Uranium claims – based on French and British intel, plus the Italian forgeries.
French intel – based on Italian forgeries.
British intel – based on who-knows-what, but the upcoming Butler report is going to be devastating to your case.
You know, Jay, any time you cared to actually rebut my argument would be fine. I know that’s not something you or your lackey AT care to do very often but there’s a first time for everything, don’t you think?
Considering that those who have actually read the Butler report disagree, your pathetic attempts to flog this particular dead horse don’t even remotely match the facts.
Considering that those who have actually read the Butler report disagree
Apparently they agree, actually. The only people who seem to think the Butler report is going to be good news for Blair is your Financial Times article that nobody can read.
I’d try to dig up a few more sources – you know, ones we can actually read – before I got too fuckin’ smug, Jay.
Jay, since you have/will read the report, what do you think of “Operation Mass Appeal” led by the MI6? Do you think such an operation should be tolerated in a democracy?
Don’t you think that when secret services engage in propaganda, it’s: 1) a proof of a deliberate political lie on the real ambitions of the government?; 2) a soviet method?
And of course, now that the Butler Report has been released, says exactly what I said it would, and proves that the “Bush lied” claims are the bullshit I said they were from the beginning, I suppose you’ll admit you were wrong.
Oh wait, I believe the term “too fucking smug” hits it right on the head – the Butler Report, the US Senate, and Joe Wilson himself all admit that Hussein sought uranium from Africa – yet Chet keeps flogging that dead horse.
Utterly pathetic.
Vincent – “Operation Mass Appeal” is more than likely a crock of shit. The only evidence for it comes from Scott Ritter, who has already been identified as being a paid agent of Saddam Hussein (through a Lebanese-American backer). There is no evidence either in the Hutton Inquest or the Butler Report that corroborates anything of what Ritter was saying.
Arguing that there was such an operation is as credible as arguing that there are aliens on ice at Area 51 – it’s simple tinfoil hattery.
So what do we have here – one argument that’s proven bullshit and another that’s a paranoid fantasy. If this is what the antiwar left has come to, it’s pathetic.