Stinger you are ignoring the facts and are blinded by your hatred to Wilson.
Do I trust Wilson in what he says.. hell no, there are too many inconsistancies in what HE is saying, but evidence dispite his words is there. He might not be totaly correct, but he was partly correct in his accusations. The ***** story was BOGUS, wrong, false and Bush should have been told or even worse knew and knowling used it as a justification for war. The senate intelligence report blames the CIA and intelligence community, but then again the report does not really go deep into the material. It also states there is no evidence that the White House pressured analysists to paint a certain picture, but that does not mean the analysists did not feel pressured... but hey thats another story.
There is evidence that the French and Italians warned the US about the whole ***** thing but they were ignored and the British version was accepted.. That the CIA did not even give Wilsons report to the White House is also baffling as it directly put in doubt the famous British report. But I guess that only shows how effective and narrowminded US intelligence was and maybe is even today.
And why did Wilson even become a story.. because some bonehead in the White House leaked the identity of his wife who was working in the CIA. If that bonehead had not done this, then the story would have died pretty quickly.
And there is no evidence that his trip was a reponse to any request by the Office of the VP and it is clear he did not report back to the offic of the VP.
Hey do you know what the CIA told Wilson when they asked him to go? I know the CIA will not tell the world (secretive bunch no?)... But then again it does not matter much if Wilson was lead to belive he was being sent based on a request for information coming from the VPs office.. Not that it matters much as the CIA works for the VP and President and they sent him soo..
All the evidence points to it. He had no experience in such missions and was clearly paristisan. He said she had nothing to do with it that was a lie.
“Some CPD, [CIA Counterproliferation Division] officials could not recall how the office decided to contact the former ambassador, however, interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’ and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from the former ambassador’s wife says, ‘my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’” (Select Committee On Intelligence, “Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq,” U.S. Senate, 7/7/04)
So its custom for employees to make memos to thier bosses out of the blue all of a sudden? Dont you think that her boss requested such a memo on her husbands qualifications? And there has never been any doubt that Palme suggested her husbands name. But the right wing claim is that she SENT him on the mission is false and there is no evidence to back this up.
And he had no experience in what kind of mission? It was not an undercover mission, but a fact finding mission. Does a fact finding mission all of a sudden require years of training and a stint at the CIA Farm? And he was qualified to go there. Not only did he know people there, he had been ambassador to the region during Bush Sr. and worked on African policy for Bill Clinton. What more qualifications do you want for a fact finding mission? Direct bloodline to the rulers or something? Maybe a dual nationality and familly in the country?
What is clear is that you are very partisan on this issue with Wilson. Are you just mad that he does not support Bush anymore and did once?
Oh I see, blatant lying is excuses as over doing it a bit. Spare me. He outright lied about them in his attempt to undermine our foriegn policy.
Your foriegn policy was being undermined pretty well by others and by the administration itself. Even if he had not come out, then the policy on this issue was pretty much dead and buried. His input was nothing more than a book selling attempt.. that is until someone outed his wife as a CIA agent/operative/worker.
There are no serious questions we know what Saddam was doing and no one cares about Plame.
Its all about Plame for christs sake. Do you think that Wilson would have been anything but a blip on the radar if it had not been for the outing of his wife? And dont start the usual right wing trash talk that Palme was not a "secret" agent but an anlayst... it dont freaking matter. Its the principle and that principle is important.. you do not out an intelligence agent to the world for political gain or any other gain. If it had been a real war we were in, the people involved in the outing would have been accused of treason.
And it was the CIA who requested an investigation, so they saw it as a threat.
As for knowing what Saddam was doing.. yea right.... found those WMD yet? Or those links between Saddam and Osama? Even the Senate Intelligence report clearly stated that the US intelligence community knew jackshit and were blinded either by partisan wishfull thinking or thier own incompetance.
Yes there is and why do you limit your statement to 2002, how about 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1995 etc etc
I dont, BUSH did.. he said recently. 2000 is not recent, thats 2 plus years ago.
No one has ever denied that Iraq actively attempted to gain nuclear material, not even Wilsons own report which acutally claims that Iraq most likely were attempting to get uranium. It was the IN thing to think back then. What has been denied is that they recently did so, as there was no proof other than the word of a former PM of ***** and even he could not be 100% sure. If you have any other evidence that in 2002 Iraq tried to get uranium from ***** or any where else, then by all means link it.. heck even late 2001. Before that is irrelevent when Bush said RECENT. The intelligence community blew on this case big time, dispite there being plenty of hints and evidence at the time , that the story was bogus.
If you are talking about Joe Wilson you are absolutely correct. For instance his whining all over the media that the Bush administration was out to get HIM, it was all about HIM that HE was a VICTEM. Which was all baloney, they went after what he SAID. That they attacked his wife, which they did not. But trying to paint the adminsitration as a bunch of dirty sneaky people attacking him got the sympathy of an unknowing public so that they believed the misinformation he was spreading hoping to ruin the administration and get Kerry elected and harm our foreign policy. And BTW who at the CIA authorized his disclosure of his trip and the release of any information from it?
No I am talking about the real story.. the outing of a CIA officer by the press for a political vendetta and of course the famous failed intelligence from *****. By focusing on Wilson as much as you do, you fail to even attempt to ask or answer the many questions that are unswered and you dont accept the findings that are out there already.
And are you saying that even after all the information coming out from the Libby thing, that the White House was not out to get him? Come on.. you even following the Libby thing?
As for his trip.. it was no secret for god sake!
There is no doubt that you have made up your mind about Wilson and anything remotely related to his accusations. So I will leave you with this..
The French knew the ***** story was dubious and told the US, The Italians knew it was dubious and told the US and any idiot can see that the documents were forged, yet the US chose to belive a British report. Btw do you know who controls the mines where the uranium is mined?.. it aint the Brits.
But enough of this, more will hopefully be learned during the Libby case and we all know now that the WMD stories, ***** story and moblie chemical labs were all bogus.
