JOSEPH C. WILSON
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:''This page is for the diplomat. For others of that name see Joseph Wilson.''
:''For more detail about the political scandal, see Plame affair''.
'Joseph Charles Wilson, IV' (born November 61949) is currently the Vice Chairman of Jarch Capital, LLC, a firm focused on African natural resources. He is a retired diplomat of the United States Foreign Service, who was posted to African nations and Iraq during the George H. W. Bush administration. During the George W. Bush administration, after his retirement from foreign service, Wilson became known to the general public as a result of his controversial op-ed "What I Didn't Find in Africa," published in the ''New York Times'' on July 6, 2003, four months after the 2003 invasion of Iraq began. In it Wilson documents his February 2002 mission to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate whether Iraq purchased or attempted to purchase yellowcake from Niger since the late 1990s, pertaining to the 2002–2003 Iraq disarmament crisis, and, based on that experience, he concludes that, in justifying the Iraq War, the Bush administration "twisted" at least "some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program ... to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."Joseph C. Wilson IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa", ''The New York Times'', July 6, 2003, accessed September 17, 2006.
The next week, on 14 July, 2003, Robert Novak identified "Wilson's wife" publicly as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction" named "Valerie Plame" in his syndicated column in ''The Washington Post''.Robert D. Novak, "Mission to Niger", ''The Washington Post'', July 14, 2003, A21, accessed 8 July, 2007. Novak's public disclosure of Mrs. Wilson's then-still-classified covert CIA identity as "Valerie Plame" led to the appointment of a Special Counsel, the CIA leak grand jury investigation, the indictment and successful prosecution of Lewis Libby in United States v. Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators, U.S. Congressional investigations in which both Wilsons have testified, political debate about the contexts of Wilson's Niger trip, and a civil lawsuit by the Wilsons against former and current officials of the Bush administration, Plame v. Cheney (dismissed on July 19, 2007 in U.S. District Court in a decision appealed the next day).
Wilson was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1949, to Joseph Charles Wilson III and Phyllis (Finnell) Wilson, and grew up in California and Europe (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 32-33)."Wilson: From Envoy to Accuser: Profile of the Diplomat at the Center of the CIA Leak Dispute", ''CBS News'', October 1, 2003, "Special Report: Iraq After Saddam", accessed July 27, 2007.
He was raised in a "proud Republican family" in which "there is a long tradition of politics and service to country" and for which "Politics was a staple around the table."[1] His mother's uncle James ("Sunny Jim") Rolph was mayor of San Francisco from 1912 to 1931, "the city's longest-serving mayor," and served as governor of California "until his death in office in 1934." For his mother's brothers, as they told their new brother-in-law (who was to become Wilson's father), Barry Goldwater was "a bit liberal." Military service was also a strong part of his family history: both his grandfathers had served in the two world wars, his paternal grandfather (the "Colonel") receiving both the British Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre "for his exploits in World War I,"[2] and his son, Wilson's father Joe, "was a Marine pilot in World War II and was among the last pilots to take off from the deck of the aircraft ''Franklin'' just before it was hit by two bombs dropped from a Japanese dive-bomber, one of which exploded amid planes waiting to take off," resulting in "the deaths of more than seven hundred American servicemen. . . . He never forgot how lucky he was to have survived––not to mention that my younger brother and I would never have been born."
In 1968, Wilson matriculated at the University of California, Santa Barbara, majoring, he onced joked, in "history, volleyball, and surfing," maintaining a "C" average, and working as a carpenter for five years after his graduation in 1971.Richard Leiby, "Man Behind the Furor: Wilson: Envoy With an Independent Streak" ''Washington Post'' October 1, 2003, A01; rpt. in ''u-r-next.com'', accessed September 26, 2006. He became more serious about his education, "won a graduate fellowship and studied public administration."Richard Leiby, "Man Behind the Furor: Wilson: Envoy With an Independent Streak", ''The Washington Post'', October 1, 2003, A01; rpt. in Wilson Bio, ''u-r-next.com'', accessed September 26, 2006.
The Vietnam protests of the late 1960s galvanized him along with much of his generation and "pitted parents against kids in [his] family just as it did in many households around the country."
Former Ambassador Wilson currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his third wife, Valerie E. Wilson (the former Valerie Elise Plame) and their two children, twins Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana, born in 2000.
He is also the father of another set of twins, also a boy and a girl, Sabrina Cecile and Joseph Charles, who were born in 1979, during his first marriage to his "college sweetheart," Susan Otchis, which ended amicably in the mid-80s, toward the end of his service in Burundi; they were divorced in 1986. For the next twelve years, Wilson was married to his second wife, Jacqueline, "a Frenchwoman who had been raised in Africa" (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 68-69).
Wilson met Plame in 1997, while working for President Bill Clinton; they married in 1998, after his divorce from Jacqueline, which had been "delayed because I was never in one place long enough to complete the process," though he and she had already been living separate lives since the mid-90s (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 242).
Among his hobbies are golf, bicycling, and fitness.[3]Vicky Ward, "Double Exposure", ''Vanity Fair'', January 2004, accessed September 23, 2006.
Having become fluent in French as a teenager, Wilson entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1976, as "a general services officer -- responsible for keeping the power on and the cars running, among other duties -- in Niamey, Niger."
Wilson served in the U.S. diplomatic corps from January 1976 through 1998, with postings in five different African nations between 1976 and 1988."Diplomatic Career of Ambassador Joseph Wilson", ''Politics of Truth'' 451.
From 1988 to 1991, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. In the wake of Iraq's 1990 Invasion of Kuwait, he became the last American diplomat to meet with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, telling him in very clear terms to "get out of Kuwait".[4] When Hussein sent a note to Wilson (along with other embassy heads in Baghdad) threatening to execute anyone sheltering foreigners in Iraq, Wilson publicly repudiated the dictator by appearing at a press conference wearing a homemade noose around his neck, and declaring, "If the choice is to allow American citizens to be taken hostage or to be executed, I will bring my own fucking rope."
Despite Hussein's threats, Wilson sheltered more than one hundred Americans at the embassy, and successfully evacuated several thousand people (Americans and other nationals) from the country. He was praised by President George H. W. Bush for his actions: "...when I arrived back in Washington on January 13, 1991, the very next day I was in the Oval Office ... The President introduced me to his War Cabinet as a true American hero."Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, "'He Has Subverted the Rule of Law and the System of Justice' -- Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson Reacts to Bush's Commutation of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Jail Sentence in Outing of Valerie Plame", "Rush Transcript" of interview with Joseph C. Wilson, IV, on ''Democracy Now!'', July 5, 2005, accessed July 23, 2007.
Wilson next served for three years as U.S. ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and PrÃncipe, and subsequently helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council during the administration of President Bill Clinton.[5]
'Diplomatic postings:'
★ 1976–1978: General Services Officer, Niamey, Niger
★ 1978–1979: Administrative Office, Lomé, Togo
★ 1979–1981: Administrative Officer, U.S. State Department, Washington, D.C.
★ 1981–1982: Administrative Officer, Pretoria, South Africa
★ 1982–1985: Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Bujumbura, Burundi
★ 1985–1986: Congressional Fellow, offices of Senator Al Gore and Representative Tom Foley
★ 1986–1988: DCM, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
★ 1988–1991: DCM, Baghdad, Iraq
★ 1992–1995: Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and PrÃncipe
★ 1995–1997: Political Adviser to Commander in Chief U.S. Armed Forces, Europe EUCOM, Stuttgart, Germany
★ 1997–1998: Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council, Washington, D.C.
Wilson manages JC Wilson International Ventures Corporation, a consulting firm specializing in strategic management and international business development."Joseph Wilson", biography at Greater Talent Network Inc. (Speakers Bureau), accessed July 26, 2007.
★ Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award
★ Department of State Superior Honor Award
★ Department of State Meritorious Honor Award[6]
★ University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award
★ American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award (1987)[7]
★ Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star (Government of Gabon)
★ Admiral in the El Paso Navy (El Paso County Commissioners)
★ BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award, shared with wife, Valerie Plame (2005)."Ambassador Joseph Wilson Updates BuzzFlash on the Bush Administration's Betrayal of Our National Security: A BuzzFlash Interview", ''buzzflash.com'' September 12, 2006, accessed September 19, 2006. (Extensive interview with Joseph C. Wilson on the occasion of the award.)
★ Ron Ridenhour Award for Truth-Telling (from the Fertel Foundation and The Nation Institute, Oct. 2003)Vicky Ward, "Double Exposure", ''Vanity Fair'', January 2004, accessed September 23, 2006.
At the midpoint of his career as a diplomat, Wilson served for a year (1985–1986) as a Congressional Fellow in the offices of Senator Al Gore and Representative Tom Foley; his working for Democrats was simply a matter of "happenstance." That experience helped him to achieve his position as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council, over a decade later, in 1997-1998, when he arranged the first trip of President Clinton to Africa (Chapter Thirteen: "Taking President Clinton to Africa," 261-73 in Wilson, ''Politics of Truth''). That was his final position when he retired from government service, in 1998, after "twenty-three years as an officer in the United States diplomatic corps" (Chapter Fourteen: "Private Citizen" in Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 274). It was as a "private citizen" with extensive knowledge and experience of Africa, and specifically of Niger, that he was tapped to travel there again on behalf of the CIA in February 2002; he returned in March 2002.
Also as a "private citizen," in 2000, Wilson had donated $2,000 to Vice President Gore’s presidential campaign and $1,000 to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, but he voted for Gore and Lieberman in the general election.[8] Of the 2000 election he writes:
In May 2002, "several months after [his] trip to Niger," Wilson writes, he "participated in the annual conference of the American Turkish Council," one of whose "keynote speakers was Richard Perle, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and one of the most virulent of the neoconservative war advocates. . . . In his speech at the conference, Perle spoke openly of a coming war with Iraq. His words, laden with the fire and brimstone of the true zealot, troubled me deeply. In a symposium that I cochaired the same afternoon with the former Turkish military commander, Cevik Bir, I voiced concerns. It was the first time in more than a decade that I'd spoken publicly about Iraq."[9]
In 2003 Wilson began to support and formally endorsed John Kerry for president, donated $2,000 to his campaign, and served as an advisor to and speechwriter for the campaign in 2003 and 2004.[10] He has made contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, such as Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Congressman Charles B. Rangel of New York, and to Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California.[11]
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Wilson supported activist groups like Win Without War, a nonpartisan coalition of groups united in opposition to the Iraq War, has been quoted in the organization's press releases, and has been attacked by conservatives for such anti-war activism.[12] Nevertheless, according to an article to which Scott Shane and Lynette Clemetson contributed, published in the ''New York Times'': "Despite conservatives' efforts to portray him as a left-wing extremist, [Wilson] insisted he remained a centrist at heart. But after his tangle with the current administration, he admits 'it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for a Republican, even for dog catcher.'"[13]
Wilson endorses Veterans for a Secure America (VSA).
On July 16, 2007, Wilson endorsed Democratic Senator from New York Hillary Clinton for President of the United States in 2008."Frm. Ambassador Joseph Wilson Endorses Clinton", press release, online posting, ''Hillary Clinton.com'' (official site), July 16, 2007, accessed July 23, 2007.
In 2004 Wilson published a political and personal memoir entitled ''The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir'' (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004; paperback ed., 2005).
Wilson's autobiographical account of over two decades of his life in foreign service includes detailed descriptions of his extensive diplomatic-career experiences, his first marriage and family, briefer references to his second marriage, his meeting of Valerie Plame, their courtship and marriage, and a detailed narrative of the events leading to his decision to go public with his criticisms of the George W. Bush administration and its aftermath, extended in appendices of chronological "timelines" and "Newspaper Commentaries Published by Ambassador Joseph Wilson Before and After the United States Invasion of Iraq in 2003" (461-86).
The 2005 paperback edition (See cover illustration), subtitled ''Inside the Lies that Put the White House on Trial and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity'', is "Updated with a New Preface by the Author ("Anatomy of a Smear" [li-lxix]) and an Investigative Report on the Niger Documents Affair by Russ Hoyle" ("The Niger Affair: The Investigation That Won't Go Away" [xiii-xlix]).
In late February of 2002, Wilson was sent to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate the possibility that Saddam Hussein had a deal to buy enriched uranium yellowcake. Wilson met with the current U.S. Ambassador to Niger, Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick (1999–) at the embassy and was informed that she had already debunked that story; however, they agreed that Wilson would interview dozens of officials who had been in the Niger government when the deal had supposedly taken place. He ultimately concluded: "it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place."Joseph C. Wilson IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," ''New York Times'' July 6, 2003, accessed September 17, 2006.See Wilson's "Timeline" entitled "Events surrounding the 'Sixteen Words' and the Disclosure of the Undercover Status of CIA Operative Valerie Plame, Wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson":
According to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ''Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq'' (2004), on the basis of his trip to Niger,
The controversy surrounding Wilson began with President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, containing his now-infamous "16 words" in which he stated that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."[14][15]
On March 7, 2003, just weeks before the start of the Iraq War, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its report, which determined that documents suggesting that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger are "obvious" forgeries."Transcript of El Baradei's U.N. Presentation", ''CNN.com'', March 7, 2003, accessed July 28, 2007. The Butler Report states that those forged documents were distributed with the knowing goal of being discovered as obvious forgeries so as to discredit the intelligence.[16]
In the July 62003 issue of ''The New York Times'', Wilson contributed an "Op-Ed" entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa," in which he states that on the basis of his "experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war," he has "little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."Joseph C. Wilson, IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa", ''The New York Times'', July 6, 2003, Op-Ed, accessed September 17, 2006.
In this account, often referred to later as his "''New York Times'' 'Op-Ed,'" Wilson describes the basis for his mission to Niger as follows: "The vice president's ''office'' asked a serious question [about the truth of allegations that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium yellowcake from Niger]. I was asked to help formulate the answer" (italics added).
In the last two paragraphs of his Op-Ed, Wilson relates his Op-Ed to the Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq War:
As the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel indictment of Lewis Libby states:
Critics contend that in "What I Didn't Find in Africa" Wilson falsely claims to have been sent by the vice president personally. Supporters counter that in his rationale for his trip in "What I Didn't Find in Africa," as on other occasions in print and in media interviews, Wilson states only that he was sent by the CIA in response to questions asked by the "office" of the vice president, not personally by Vice President Cheney himself. In his Meet the Press interview with Andrea Mitchell on July 6, 2003, former Ambassador Wilson states: "The question was asked of the CIA by the office of the vice president. The office of the vice president, I am absolutely convinced, received a very specific response to the question it asked and that response was based upon my trip out there.""Joe Wilson with Andrea Mitchell, July 6, 2003", online posting of transcript of ''Meet the Press'' for July 6, 2003, in "Footnotes", ''JustOneMinute'' (blog), July 20, 2004, accessed July 23, 2007. (Not accessible on the searchable transcripts site of ''Meet the Press''.)
On Monday, July 7, 2003, the day after the publication of "What I Didn't Find in Africa," the Bush administration admitted "that accusations included in the president's State of the Union address have turned out to be inaccurate."As reported in "Defending Claims," broadcast on ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'', ''Online NewsHour'', PBS, July 10, 2003, accessed September 18, 2006 (Both transcript and streaming video available online). In a press conference held in Africa, where he was then traveling with President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, "fielded questions about the faulty intelligence" and concluded: "There was sufficient evidence floating around at that time that such a statement was not totally outrageous or not to be believed or not to be appropriately used. It's that once we used the statement, and after further analysis, and looking at other estimates we had, and other information that was coming in, it turned out that the basis upon which that statement was made didn't hold up, and we said so, and we've acknowledged it, and we've moved on."
Nevertheless, as Colin Powell suggested at the time –– referring to "the case I put down on the 5th of February [2003], for an hour and 20 minutes, roughly, on terrorism, on weapons of mass destruction, and on the human rights case, a short section at the end, we stand behind" –– the Bush administration still maintains that other intelligence that Iraq may have attempted to acquire uranium in Africa may have been correct. Many supporters of the theory point to the Butler Review, which found, without giving evidence of such a claim, that there was credible intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Niger in 1999, but not in 2002, and that there was even less certain intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Critics of the theory view the evidence relating to the Democratic Republic of Congo as suspect and point out that, while President Bush mentioned "Africa" in his State of the Union Address, in fielding questions in a "press gaggle" about the President's statement, also on 7 July 2003, press secretary Ari Fleischer affirmed explicitly that President Bush's claim that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from "Africa" derived specificially from information pertaining only to Niger and that the "the President did not have that information [about other African nations from the NIE] prior to his giving the State of the Union."[17]
George Tenet, the director of the CIA during Wilson's trip, has said that the administration was not directly briefed on Wilson's report "because this report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution (within the intelligence community), but we did not brief it to the President, Vice-President or other senior Administration officials."Quoted from George Tenet, "Statement by George J. Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence," official press release, Central Intelligence Agency July 11, 2003. In his memoir, '', Tenet writes, "This unremarkable report was disseminated, but because it produced no solid answers, there wasn't any urgency to brief its results to senior officials such as the vice president ... As far as we could tell, the Wilson summary was never delivered to Cheney. In fact, I have no recollection myself of hearing about Wilson's trip at the time."George Tenet, '' (New York: HarperCollins, 2007) 454. ISBN 0061147788 (10); ISBN 978-0061147784 (13).
The July 11, 2003 CIA Statement by Director George Tenet states: "The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss 'expanding commercial relations' between Iraq and Niger. The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales."
When asked to respond to Tenet's July 11, 2003 statement on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on October 5, 2003, former Ambassador Wilson replied:
Although Russert cited then CIA officials and CIA Director George Tenet, Wilson addressed those points in the program, and Tenet's own accounts of the intelligence prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the rationale for the Iraq War in his 2007 memoir '' have been disputed by his critics.
An editorial in the ''Wall Street Journal'' published in mid-July 2004 gives excerpts from the British and American "investigations" pertaining to Wilson's trip to Niger, finding justification for his perspective presented in "What I Didn't Find in Africa," along with some qualifications and distinctions between some evidence of Iraq's ''attempts'' at acquiring uranium yellowcake from African nations such as Niger and its actual lack of following through on such attempts.[18]
But another editorial published in the July 13, 2005 ''Wall Street Journal'' asserts that Wilson had lied in his "What I Didn't Find in Africa" about "what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission." "Karl Rove, Whistleblower: He Told the Truth about Joe Wilson", ''The Wall Street Journal'' July 13, 2005, Review & Outlook: Editorial.
Nuclear expert Norman Dombey has pointed out that the information relied upon by the Butler Review on the Niger issue was incomplete; on 25 July 2004, he notes: "The Butler report says the claim was credible because an Iraqi diplomat visited Niger in 1999, and almost three-quarters of Niger's exports were uranium. But this is irrelevant, since France controls Niger's uranium mines."Raymond Whitaker, , ''The Independent on Sunday'' July 25, 2004, rpt. in ''SpinWatch'' July 28, 2004, accessed September 18, 2006. Moreover, when asked by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss the conclusions of British intelligence, Deputy Director of Intelligence John McLaughlin stated, "The one thing where I think they stretched a little bit beyond where we would stretch is on the points about Iraq seeking uranium from various African locations. We've looked at those reports and we don't think they are very credible. It doesn't diminish our conviction that he's going for nuclear weapons, but I think they reached a little bit on that one point."Raymond Whitaker, , London ''Independent on Sunday'' July 25, 2004, rpt. in ''SpinWatch'' (blog) July 28, 2004, accessed September 18, 2006.
An editorial headlined "A Good Leak" published in the April 9, 2006 ''Washington Post'' claims that "Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth and that, in fact, his report [to the CIA] supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.""A Good Leak: President Bush Declassified Some of the Intelligence He Used to Decide On War in Iraq. Is that a scandal?" ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006: B06, accessed September 18, 2006.
In their news report "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic", published in the same ''Washington Post'' issue as "A Good Leak", however, National Security Correspondent Dafna Linzer and Pulitzer-Prize winning National Correspondent Barton Gellman, conclude that the White House's disclosure of certain portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) seems to have misrepresented to reporters the actual level of confidence of the intelligence community in the proposition that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium.Dafna Linzer and Barton Gellman, with research contributed by Julie Tate, "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic: Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story", ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006: A01, accessed July 29, 2007. They state: "At Cheney's instruction, Libby testified, he [Libby] told [reporter] Miller that the uranium story was a 'key judgment' of the intelligence estimate, a term of art indicating there was consensus on a question of central importance. In fact, the alleged effort to buy uranium was not among the estimate's key judgments, which were identified by a headline and bold type and set out in bullet form in the first five pages of the 96-page document." Moreover, Linzer and Gellman observe that, according to the NIE, "U.S. intelligence 'did not know' the status of Iraq's procurement efforts, 'cannot confirm' any success and had 'inconclusive' evidence about Iraq's domestic uranium operations. ... The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, likewise, called the claim 'highly dubious.' For those reasons, the uranium story was relegated to a brief inside passage in the October estimate" (italics added).Dafna Linzer and Barton Gellman, "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic: Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story"], ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006: A01, accessed September 18, 2006.
A few days later Dafna Linzer published another article in the ''Washington Post'' describing a letter from Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald to Judge Reggie B. Walton correcting a sentence appearing in his recent filings describing Scooter Libby's testimony regarding his conversation with Judith Miller about the October 2002 NIE. Purportedly, that sentence states erroneously that Libby "was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium." Instead, the sentence should have conveyed that Libby was to tell Miller some of the key judgments of the NIE "and that the NIE stated that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium."Dafner Linzer, "Prosecutor in CIA Leak Case Corrects Part of Court Filing", ''The Washington Post'', April 12, 2006: A08, accessed September 18, 2006.
Replying to complaints from various readers, the ''Washington Post'' ombudsman, Deborah Howell, notes that in their front-page news report Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer relied on Fitzgerald's representations in his legal filings, that the editorial's writer wrote it before the front-page report and that although the writer had not read the report, it would not have changed his mind. Howell notes that the basis for the editorial's claim that Wilson's report "supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium" was the fact that there was a meeting between Iraqi and Nigerien trade officials "because that's mostly what Niger has to export." She observes that the editorial inconsistently deals with the 2004 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which notes that "the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research analysts believed that [Wilson's] report supported their assessment that Niger was unlikely to be willing or able to sell uranium to Iraq." Howell concludes:
According to Art Moore's post on the American conservative website ''WorldNetDaily'' founded by Joseph Farah in 1997, retired U.S. Army Major General Paul E. Vallely claimed on 3 November 2005 that former Ambassador Wilson "mentioned Plame's status as a CIA employee over the course of at least three, possibly five, conversations in 2002 [one year before she was allegedly "outed"] in the Fox News Channel's 'green room' in Washington, D.C., as they waited to appear on air as analysts," that Wilson "introduced Plame at cocktail parties and other social events around Washington as his CIA wife," and that her working at the CIA was "pretty common knowledge" because she had "been out there on the Washington scene many years." If Plame were a covert agent at the time, Vallely said, "he would not have paraded her around as he did."Art Moore, "The Plame Game: Analyst Says Wilson 'outed' Wife in 2002: Disclosed in Casual Conversations a Year Before Novak Column", ''WorldNetDaily'', November 5, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006; see also archived listing for ''The John Batchelor Show'' for November 3, 2005.Cf. "Two Years into Leak Investigation, Gen. Vallely Suddenly Claims, in Contradictory Statements, That Wilson Revealed Plame's Identity to Him", ''Media Matters for America'', November 9, 2005, accessed September 23, 2006 (incl. QuickTime video with audio voiceovers).
In subsequent media appearances and online posts in ''WorldNetDaily'', General Vallely revised the number of times that he claimed to have met and spoken with Wilson specifically about his wife's "employment" at the CIA (yet still not her specific status as a NOC) to only "one occasion."
According to John Batchelor's own post on the conservative political blog ''RedState'' on November 6, 2005, Lt. General Tom McInerney (USAF Retired) said that Joe Wilson also "boasted" about his wife's job with the CIA to him while they were waiting in the green room at FOX News.John Batchelor, "West Point Rallies Against Wilson," ''RedState'' (blog) November 6, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006.
Again following Vallely's lead, after being threatened with legal action by Wilson's lawyer, in his own various later media appearances, McInerney has also backed away from initial impressions that he gave that he himself also had experiences in conversations with Wilson that supported his friend Vallely's claims.
According to another "exclusive" posted by Joseph Farah and Art Moore on ''WorldNetDaily'', Wilson demanded through his lawyer that Vallely retract these allegations, calling them "patently false."Joseph Farah and Art Moore, "The Plame Game: Joe Wilson Fumes Over Vallely Charges in WND: Demands Retraction of Statements Alleging He 'Outed' Wife in Fox Studio," ''WorldNetDaily'', November 5, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006.
Wilson vigorously disputed the General's claims regarding any such conversation touching on his wife's "employment," according to Art Moore on ''WorldNetDaily''.Art Moore, "The Plame Game: General Wants Wilson Apology: Threatened Again with Lawsuit Over Claim of 'Outing' CIA Wife," ''WorldNetDaily'', November 8, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006. According to Moore, Wilson has also labeled these further claims "slanderous," while serving notice of possible legal repercussions on Vallely, McInerney, and ''WorldNetDaily''.
It is disputed whether there was an occasion for the alleged exchange to occur. According to Brit Hume of Fox News, "Vallely and Wilson appeared on the same day nine times in 2002, and on the same show twice — on September 8 and September 12, when both men appeared within 15 minutes of one another.""Special Report with Brit Hume," "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?" FoxNews, November 11,2005. A compendium of the appearances by Wilson and Vallely on FOX posted in the political blog Crooks and Liars reveals, however, that there is only one possible date, September 12, 2002, during which the two would have been in the green room within hours of each other."Vallely and Wilson Fox Appearances," ''Crooks and Liars'' (blog), November 8, 2005, updated April 2, 2006, accessed September 19, 2006.
Denver criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt, a legal analyst and frequent guest on Fox News and several other networks, who has personally been in their green rooms, asserts in her blog that September 12, 2006 is the only possibility, as well.Jeralyn Merritt, "Swift Boating Joseph Wilson Won't Work", ''TalkLeft'' (blog), November 8, 2005, updated November 9, 2006, accessed September 19, 2006.Merritt questions whether there would be an occasion for such discussion, even if they both appeared on the same day:
Former Naval intelligence officer and NSA analyst Wayne Madsen writes in ''Wayne Madsen Report'': "As someone who spent a fair amount of time at Fox News' Washington green room, I can say that . . . [w]hen you are booked by Fox to appear, a car is sent around to pick you up. The car arrives with enough time to transport you to the studios at 400 North Capitol Street, usually 15 minutes before air time. However, most of that time is spent checking in and sitting for makeup. If you happen upon another guest in the green room before sitting for makeup, they are likely only minutes from air time –– certainly not enough time to engage in a biographical rendition about your family with a total stranger. If two guests appeared at the same time at Fox in Washington, they were taken to different studios."Wayne Madsen, "When Lying Generals Lie," ''waynemadsenreport.com'' (column), November 15, 2005, accessed September 20, 2006.
According to the investigation by Media Matters for America, contradicting such allegations by Batchelor on his radio show, it has become clear that he did not have any such firsthand experience of his own pertaining to Wilson's wife's "employment".
Former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson strongly questions the credibility of both Generals, posting on his own blog ''No Quarter'':
Moreover, the claims of both Vallely and McInerney that Valerie Wilson's classified affiliation with the CIA was generally well known outside the intelligence community in Washington, D.C., is contradicted by the 28 Oct. 2005 Office of the Special Counsel indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, as already cited above:
In their recent book ''Hubris'', Michael Isikoff and David Corn assert that it was Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, who first revealed that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA to Robert Novak sometime before July 8, 2003.[19] In late August 2006, along with advance publicity for the book, news accounts and editorials began focusing on that public revelation:
An editorial published in the Washington Post on September 1, 2006 headlined "End of an Affair" proclaims "It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband," opining further:
Wilson and his wife amended their lawsuit to add Armitage as a defendant along with Vice President Dick Cheney and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. According to their complaint, "Armitage acted independently of his White House colleagues, but nonetheless violated Plame's right to privacy.""Richard Armitage Admits to Name-Dropping Incident", ''Legal News TV'', September 14, 2006, accessed September 21, 2006.
In a column posted in TownHall.com on 14 September 2006, however, Novak disputes details of Armitage's recent media accounts of their conversations, offering a politically-charged reinterpretation of their past and present contexts:
Despite Robert Novak's own conclusion that the identification of Armitage is "devastating news" for "the Left" in its attempts to corroborate what Novak calls the "left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson," former Ambassador Wilson continues to enjoy support among investigative journalists and others in both the mainstream media and the alternative media who believe that such a "conspiracy" did exist and that its cover up may still exist, such as Frank Rich (''The Greatest Story Ever Sold'') and Robert Parry ("U.S. Press Bigwigs Screw Up, Again" and "How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?").
In the "October/November Preview" published in the ''American Journalism Review'' (Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park), AJR's editor and senior vice president Rem Rieder argued that the disclosure that Richard Armitage was Robert Novak's "primary source" in "Plamegate" was insufficiently covered in the media.Rem Rieder, "October/November Preview: Whatever": "After Months of Saturation Plamegate Coverage, the Media Couldn’t Work Up Much Excitement When the Person Who Revealed Valerie Plame’s CIA Role Was Identified", ''American Journalism Review'' (Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park), Aug./Sept. 2006, accessed September 19, 2006.
Debate as to the merits of Joe Wilson's claims in ''The Politics of Truth'' appears to remain ongoing, and the Wilsons' civil lawsuit against past and present officials of the Bush administration is still unresolved as it moves through the U.S. legal justice system.
In "A White House Smear," based in part on an interview with Ambassador Wilson and published in ''The Nation'' on 15 July 2003, David Corn asks:
Like Isikoff and Corn, later journalists in the mainstream media, independent journalists, interviewed CIA agents, and other skeptics of the George W. Bush administration still vigorously dispute its frequently-repeated claims and earlier testimony of some CIA agents that the purchase of the aluminum tubes by Iraq constitutes ''proof'' of a renewed nuclear enrichment program for the eventual production of weapons of mass destruction. Such ongoing questioning of these controversial and hotly-debated claims tends to support Wilson's arguments about such rationales for the 2003 invasion of Iraq being part of a "fabric of lies, distortions, and misinformation that it [the administration] had woven and fed the world to justify its war" in his 2004 book ''The Politics of Truth'' (414-15).[21]
As Robert Parry observes:
In response to the verdict on March 6, 2007, finding Lewis Libby guilty of four of the five charges in the Fitzgerald grand jury indictment against him, the Wilsons issued a statement in a press release posted on the website of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. They stated that they respected the jury's verdict and believed justice was done, as well as affirming their commitment to pursuing their civil suit."Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby", press release, online posting, ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), March 6, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007.
Wilson harshly criticized President George W. Bush's July 2, 2007 commutation of Lewis Libby's prison sentence, calling it "a cover-up of the Vice President's role in this matter and quite possibly the role of the President and/or some of his senior White House advisers."For Wilson's full published statement in response to the commutation and the press conference about it by President Bush's press spokesman Tony Snow, see Joseph C. Wilson, "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing", online posting, ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), 3 July, 2007, accessed 4 July, 2007; online posting, "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", ''Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust'' (Home page), n.d., accessed 8 July, 2007. Wilson also complained that the President's action and others' actions leading to President Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence could seriously damage United States national security by harming its intelligence capability.Keith Olbermann, interview of Joseph C. Wilson, Video clip, ''YouTube'', ''Countdown'', MSNBC, 2 July, 2007, accessed 3 July, 2007.
According to Michael Currie Schaffer of ''The New Republic'' (TNR), "anti-Wilson sniping extends beyond those who buy the right-wing spin that he's a liar." Schaffer noted that he was called a "'blowhard'" in an editorial by ''The Washington Post'' in March 2007, that ''The Village Voice'' objected to Wilson's "pompous-ass style," and that TNR Editor-in-Chief Martin Peretz claimed he "wasn't much of an ambassador either" because he "served in puny Sao Tome and Principe."Michael Currie Schaffer, "Joseph Wilson’s Selfless Self-Promotion: Hot Air", ''The New Republic'' July 19, 2007, accessed August 4, 2007. (3 pages.) (Posted at ''TNR Online''; subscribers-only access notice, though otherwise accessible.) But after acknowledging, "So, just for the sake of argument, let's stipulate that Joe Wilson is a Beltway mediocrity who has shamelessly gone from blowing the whistle to blowing his own horn," Schaffer concludes: "Well, thank God for that."
In Wilson's defense, Schaffer points out that although "The real Wilson ... turned out to be more Bonfire of the Vanities than Smiley's People--willing, in fact, eager for the sort of camera-hogging, ad hominem bomb-throwing, and below-the-belt punching that grabs a distracted country's attention," we should actually "appreciate him for that, not in spite of it," because:
Moreover, whereas a true power-broker who "hewed to the behavioral standards of the Washington elite," former Secretary of State Colin Powell, "one of the few people in the world who might have stopped the Iraq train wreck," is now "just an ex-secretary of State who confers decorously with fellow has-beens in Aspen," Schaffer concludes finally, "There's a reason a nobody like Joe Wilson is the one pitching his story to Hollywood": "the blowhard, it turns out, is the one who mattered."
On the evening of the verdict in the Libby trial, Joseph C. Wilson appeared on ''Larry King Live'', during which he announced that he and his wife had "signed a deal with Warner Bros of Hollywood to offer their consulting services - or maybe more - in the making of the forthcoming movie about the Libby trial," their lives and the CIA leak scandal.Matt Frei"Washington diary: Libby, the Movie", ''BBC News'' (Washington) March 7, 2007, accessed March 18,2007; cf. transcript of Larry King interview with Joseph C. Wilson, "Ex-Cheney Aide Found Guilty", ''Larry King Live'', CNN, broadcast March 6, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007. According to an article by Michael Fleming published in ''Variety'' earlier in the week, the feature film, a co-production between Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Productions with a screenplay by Jez and John Butterworth to be based in part on Valerie Wilson's forthcoming book "Fair Game" (contingent on CIA clearances), is scheduled for release in August 2007.Michael Fleming, "Plame Film in Works at Warner Bros.: Studio Sets Movie about CIA Leak Scandal", ''Variety'', March 1, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007.
On July 13, 2006, a civil suit was filed by Joseph and Valerie Wilson against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top Presidential advisor Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage), for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status.[22]
On September 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson amended their original lawsuit, adding Richard Armitage as a fourth defendant."Armitage Added to Plame Law Suit", ''CBS News'', September 13, 2006, accessed September 25, 2006; includes PDF. Cf. Amended complaint at ''FindLaw.com''. Unlike their charges against Rove, Cheney, and Libby, "claiming that they had violated her constitutional rights and discredited her by disclosing that she was an undercover CIA operative," the Wilsons sued Armitage "for violating the 'Wilsons' constitutional right to privacy, Mrs. Wilson's constitutional right to property, and for committing the tort of publication of private facts.'"Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), press release, as qtd. in "Armitage Added to Plame Law Suit", ''CBS News'', September 13, 2006, accessed September 25, 2006
United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilson's lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007, stating that the Wilsons had not shown that the case belonged in federal court.Associated Press, "Valerie Plame's Lawsuit Dismissed", ''USA Today'', July 19, 2007, accessed 19 July, 2007.[23]Carol D. Leonnig, "Plame's Lawsuit Against Top Officials Dismissed", ''The Washington Post'', 20 July, 2007, accessed 20 July, 2007."Memorandum Opinon", in "Valerie Wilson, et al., Plaintiffs, v. I. Lewis Libby, Jr., et al., Defendants", "Civil Action No. 06-1258 (JDB)", ''United States District Court for the District of Columbia'', 19 July, 2007, accessed 20 July, 2007. Bates also ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction over the claim because the couple had not yet exhausted their administrative remedies. Bates, a Bush appointee, stated that the lawsuit raised "important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials" but also noted that "there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials," even if "the alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility" were perhaps "highly unsavory."Qtd. in Matt Apuzzo (Associated Press), ""Plame Lawsuit Dismissed in CIA Leak Case", ''The Denver Post'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007.
On July 20, 2007, Ms. Sloan and the Wilsons announced publicly that they had filed an appeal of the U.S. District Court's decision to dismiss their law suit.Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust Home Page, [July 20, 2007], accessed July 27, 2007. Cf. "Statement on Ambassador Joseph and Valerie Wilsons' Appeal Filed on July 20", ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), July 20, 2007, accessed July 27, 2007.
★ Downing Street memo
★ Iraqi aluminum tubes
★ Lewis Libby
★ Niger uranium forgeries
★ Plame affair
★ Plame affair timeline
★ Plame v. Cheney
★ September Dossier (''Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government'')
★ Valerie Plame Wilson
1. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 31.
2. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 32.
3. See entry on Joseph C. Wilson in ''Marquis Who's Who''.
4. See Chapter Five, "How to Shake Hands with a Dictator," 107-27 in the 2005 paperback ed. of Wilson,''The Politics of Truth''.
5. See Chapter Eight: "Watching the War from a Distance", Chapter Nine: "All in a Diplomat's Life––from Gabon to Albania", Chapter Ten: "Diplomats and Generals", and Chapter Eleven: "Coming Home for Good", 182-210 in the 2005 paperback ed. of Wilson, ''Politics of Truth''.
6. .
7. Past Award Winners
8. Wilson, ''The Politics of Truth'' 278-80, 282; cf. Newsmeat: Campaign Contributions Search.
9. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 291.
10. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 410-12; cf. ''Newsmeat''. See also Joseph Curl, "Spouse of Outed CIA Officer Signs On with Kerry," ''Washington Times'' February 14, 2004.
11. Joseph C. Wilson search at ''opensecrets.org'', n.d., accessed September 17, 2006.
12. See Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 381 and press release, ''winwithoutwarus.org'', September 24, 2003; cf. Joseph Curl, "Spouse of Outed CIA Officer Signs On with Kerry", ''The Washington Times'', February 14, 2004.
13. Qtd. by Scott Shane and Lynette Clemetson, contributors to "Private Spy and Public Spouse Live At Center of Leak Case", ''The New York Times'', July 5, 2005, National Desk: A1, col. 2 (Late Ed. - Final).
14. "President Delivers "State of the Union: The U.S. Capitol", press release, ''The White House'', January 28, 2003, accessed July 23, 2007. (Full transcript of the speech.)
15. See, e.g, "16 Words" and "previous" link as provided by ''CNN.com'', March 7, 2003, accessed July 23, 2007.
16. , July 14, 2004, accessed September 18, 2006.
17. See the official White House transcript of "Press Gaggle by Ari Fleischer", held in The James S. Brady Briefing Room, The White House, Washington, D.C., July 7, 2003, accessed September 18, 2006.
18. "On the Record: Saddam, Uranium and Africa: What Two Investigations Say about Bush's Statements on Iraq, Yellowcake and Niger"], ''The Wall Street Journal'', July 15, 2004, accessed September 22, 2006.
19. Michael Isikoff and David Corn, ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War'' (New York: Crown, [Sept. 8] 2006). ISBN 0-307-34681-1.
20. Robert Novak, "Armitage's Leak", ''TownHall.com'', September 14, 2006, accessed September 17, 2006.
21. See, e.g., Robert Parry, "U.S. Press Bigwigs Screw Up, Again", ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 14, 2006 and "How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?" ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 3, 2006, both accessed September 17, 2006; cf. Frank Rich, ''The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina'' (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), as cited in book rev. by Ian Buruma, "Theater of War," ''New York Times'' September 17, 2006, sec. 7 (Book Rev.): 10, cols. 2-3.
22. Proskauer Rose LLP, "Valerie Plame Wilson and Ambassador Joseph Wilson Initiate a Civil Action Against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby for Violations of their Constitutional and Other Legal Rights", ''Yahoo Business Wire'' (Press Release), July 13, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006; cf. , rpt. in ''How Appealing'' (blog), July 13, 2006, accessed July 15. 2006.
23. "Judge Tosses Out Ex-Spy's Lawsuit Against Cheney in CIA Leak Case", ''CNN.com'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007.
★ "Action Alert: Intelligence Manipulation at the Washington Post: Paper's Editorial Page Ignores Facts to Back Bush". ''Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting'', April 13, 2006.
★ "Activism Update: Washington Post Responds to Critics: 'Two Views' of the Truth?" ''Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting'', April 19, 2006.
★ "A Bad Leak". ''The New York Times'', April 16, 2006, Editorial. Accessed November 18, 2006.
★ Bedard, Paul. "Washington Whispers: Wilson Adds Ammo to Hit War Credibility Gap". ''US News & World Reports'', October 20, 2003. Accessed November 19, 2006.
★ Burns, John F. "Confrontation in the Gulf: Iraq Backs Off Its Threat to Execute Diplomats Who Hide Civilians". ''The New York Times'', September 28, 1990: A6. Accessed November 19, 2006. (TimesSelect subscription required.)
★ Bush, George W. State of the Union Address. Press release and transcript. ''whitehouse.gov'', January 28, 2003.
★ Duelfer, Charles. ''Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction'' (aka ''Duelfer Report''). ''cia.gov'', September 30, 2004. Accessed September 22, 2006.
★ Continetti, Matthew. "'A Little Literary Flair': Joe Wilson Wasn't a Truth-teller". ''The Weekly Standard'', July 26, 2004.
★ Cooper, Matthew, Massimo Calabresi, and John F. Dickerson. "A War on Wilson?" ''Time'', July 17, 2003. Accessed July 23, 2007.
★ Corn, David. "Novak vs. Armitage: Was the Plame Leak Deliberate?" ''The Nation'', September 13, 2006. Accessed September 19, 2006.
★ –––. "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA". ''The Nation'', September 18, 2006 (''Web Only''). Accessed September 24, 2006.
★ –––. "A White House Smear". ''The Nation'', July 15, 2003. Accessed September 23, 2006.
★ –––, and Michael Isikoff. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006.
★ Diamond, John. "Scandal Grew from Dispute Over Uranium". ''USA Today'', October 30, 2005. Accessed February 8, 2007. [Inc. "2003 photograph for the opening spread of Vanity Fair. Jonas Karlsson, Vanity Fair," by Ward, as listed below.]
★ Ehrenreich, Ben. "Unfair Game: Joseph Wilson on the Cost of Telling the Truth in Washington". Interview with Joseph C. Wilson. ''LA Weekly'', October 30, 2003. Accessed November 18, 2006.
★ "End of an Affair: It Turns Out That the Person Who Exposed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Was Not Out to Punish Her Husband". ''The Washington Post'', September 1, 2006, Editorial. Accessed September 23, 2006.
★ Fleischer, Ari. Press gaggle news release. ''whitehouse.gov'', July 7, 2003.
★ "A Good Leak: President Bush declassified some of the intelligence he used to decide on war in Iraq. Is that a scandal?" ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006, Editorial.
★ Hitchens, Christopher. "Plame's Lame Game: What Ambassador Joseph Wilson and His Wife Forgot to Tell Us about the Yellow-cake Scandal". ''Slate'', July 13, 2004.
★ Isikoff, Michael, and David Corn. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006. ISBN 0-307-34681-1.
★ Kennedy, Ted. "The Neverending Saga of Phase II" ''kennedy.senate.gov''. Rpt. from ''The Nation'', August 9, 2006.
★ Johnson, Larry C., "Plame Update". ''No Quarter'' (blog), October 5, 2005. Accessed September 28, 2005. [Incl. timeline.]
★ –––. "Trying to Smear Joe Wilson". ''No Quarter'' (blog), November 8, 2005. Accessed September 19, 2006.
★ Leiby, Richard. "Man Behind the Furor: Wilson: Envoy with an Independent Streak". ''Washington Post'', October 1, 2003, A01. Rpt. in Wilson Bio. ''u-r-next.com'' n.d. Accessed September 26, 2006.
★ May, Clifford D. "Our Man in Niger: Exposed and Discredited, Joe Wilson Might Consider Going Back". ''National Review Online'', July 12, 2004. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ Novak, Robert. "Armitage's Leak". ''TownHall.com'', September 14, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Errant Former Ambassador". ''CNN'', July 15, 2004. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Mission to Niger". ''Washington Post'', July 14, 2003:A21. Posted online October 20, 2005. Accessed September 20, 2006.
★ Parry, Robert. "How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?" ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 3, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "U.S. Press Bigwigs Screw Up, Again." ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 14, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ Powell, Colin. "Defending Claims". Transcript from the Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS,July 7, 2003. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ Rich, Frank. ''The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina''. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. ISBN 1-59420-098-X. Rev. by Ian Buruma, "Theater of War." ''New York Times'' September 17, 2006, sec. 7. (Book Rev.): 1, 10.
★ Roberts, Pat. "Additional Views of Chairman Pat Roberts joined by Senator Christopher S. Bond, Senator Orrin G. Hatch" on the Senate Intelligence Report. July 9, 2004. Rpt. on ''GlobalSecurity.org''. (No longer archived at original location on Roberts' Senate website. Such press releases are posted on the website of the Senate Intelligence Committee.) Related press releases rpt. on UK site Acronym. [See comments by Matthew Continetti, Susan Schmidt, Clifford May, Robert Novak, and Joseph Wilson also listed herein.]
★ –––. "Statement on Niger". Press release of July 11, 2003.
★ Rupert, James. "Diplomats Struggle On In Saddam's Capital: Main Task Is Aiding U.S. Hostages". ''[The Washington Post]]'' October 3, 1990: A25.
★ Schaffer, Michael Currie. "Joseph Wilson’s Selfless Self-Promotion: Hot Air". ''The New Republic'' July 19, 2007. Accessed August 4, 2007. (Posted at ''TNR Online''; subscribers-only access notice, though otherwise accessible.)
★ Schmidt, Susan. "Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mssion". ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2004: A09. [Online registration required.]
★ United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. , July 9, 2004 (rev. and expanded version of July 7, 2004 report). Accessed September 13, 2006.
★ Ward, Vicky. "Double Exposure: As White House Powerhouse Karl Rove Becomes Increasingly Entangled in the C.I.A. Officer-outing Affair, VF.com Reprises This January 2004 Article on the Iraq-weapons Controversy That Embroiled Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and His Wife, Valerie Plame—Both of Whom Opened Up to Vanity Fair". ''Vanity Fair'', January 2004. Rpt. ''vanityfair.com''. Accessed February 16, 2007. (11 pages.) Also accessible as "Double Exposure: Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and His Wife, C.I.A. Operative Valerie Plame, Are at the Center of Controversy Over President Bush's Bogus Claim, in Last Year's State of the Union Address, That Saddam Had Tried to Buy Uranium in Africa". ''accessmylibrary.com'', January 1, 2004. Accessed May 5, 2007 (original text). (See Diamond, as listed above, for photo.)
★ Washington Post Editorial Board. "The Libby Verdict: The Serious Consequences of a Pointless Washington Scandal". ''The Washington Post'', March 7, 2007. Accessed May 5, 2007.
★ Wheeler, Marcy. ''Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy''. Berkeley: Vaster Books (Dist. by Publishers Group West), 2007. ISBN 0-979-17610-7 (10). ISBN 978-0979-17610-4 (13).
★ Wilson, Joseph C., IV. "'Administration Went After Me and My Wife'". ''Miami Herald'', [May 2]], 2004. Rpt. in the ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''.
★ –––. "A Conversation with Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV". Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, November 9, 2005. Video clip. (1 hr., 21 mins., 46 secs.) Uploaded on September 25, 2006 via Google Video/UC Berkeley, Educational Technology Services. Accessed February 14, 2007.
★ –––. "Debunking Distortions about My Trip to Niger". ''Washington Post'', July 17, 2004. Accessed September 19, 2006.
★ –––. "Joseph Wilson's Letter to the Senate: The former Ambassador Responds to Allegations by Republican Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report Challenging His Credibility". ''AlterNet'', July 19, 2004. [Reply to Senators Roberts, Bond, and Hatch.]
★ –––. ''The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies That Put the White House On Trial and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir''. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004. Paperback ed., 2005. ISBN 0-7867-1551-0.
★ –––. "A Right-Wing Smear Is Gathering Steam: Ex-envoy Says the GOP Has Targeted Him and His Wife". ''The Los Angeles Times'', July 21, 2004. Rpt. in the ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Seeking Honesty in U.S. policy". ''The San Jose Mercury News'', September 14, 2003. Rpt. in the ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''.
★ –––. "We Will Beat Bush - Archives: Transcript of Chat with Ambassador Joe Wilson. ''JohnKerry.com'' (Blog), October 29, 2003. Archived in the The Internet Archive:Wayback Machine. Accessed August 14, 2007. ("Unedited transcript recorded live.")
★ –––. "What I Didn't Find in Africa". ''New York Times'', July 6, 2003, Op-Ed. Accessed July 23, 2007. (TimesSelect subscription required). Rpt. "What I Didn't Find in Africa". ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Press release. Online posting. ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), 6 March, 2007. Accessed 6 March, 2007.
★ Wilson, Valerie Plame. "". New York: Simon and Schuster, forthcoming October 22, 2007. (Release date subject to change.) ISBN 1416537619 (10). ISBN 978-1416537618 (13).
★ "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV" biography at ''PBS.org'', February 28, 2003. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "Bill Moyers Talks to Joseph C. Wilson, IV". Transcript of interview. ''PBS.org'', February 28, 2003. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "CNN Larry King Live Interview With Joseph Wilson". "Rush Transcript". ''Larry King Live'', May 3, 2004. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ ''Interactive Graphic: Timeline of a Leak'' in ''The New York Times'' online (NYTimes.com). Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ ''Joseph C. Wilson 4th'' from ''Times Topics'' (NYTimes.com). Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "Joseph Wilson". Biography at Greater Talent Network Inc. (Speakers Bureau). Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ ''Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home)''. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ Office of Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "Profile: Joseph C. Wilson IV" at ''SourceWatch'' (A Project of the Center for Media & Democracy). Updated March 7, 2007. Accessed August 14, 2007.
:''For more detail about the political scandal, see Plame affair''.
'Joseph Charles Wilson, IV' (born November 61949) is currently the Vice Chairman of Jarch Capital, LLC, a firm focused on African natural resources. He is a retired diplomat of the United States Foreign Service, who was posted to African nations and Iraq during the George H. W. Bush administration. During the George W. Bush administration, after his retirement from foreign service, Wilson became known to the general public as a result of his controversial op-ed "What I Didn't Find in Africa," published in the ''New York Times'' on July 6, 2003, four months after the 2003 invasion of Iraq began. In it Wilson documents his February 2002 mission to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate whether Iraq purchased or attempted to purchase yellowcake from Niger since the late 1990s, pertaining to the 2002–2003 Iraq disarmament crisis, and, based on that experience, he concludes that, in justifying the Iraq War, the Bush administration "twisted" at least "some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program ... to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."Joseph C. Wilson IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa", ''The New York Times'', July 6, 2003, accessed September 17, 2006.
The next week, on 14 July, 2003, Robert Novak identified "Wilson's wife" publicly as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction" named "Valerie Plame" in his syndicated column in ''The Washington Post''.Robert D. Novak, "Mission to Niger", ''The Washington Post'', July 14, 2003, A21, accessed 8 July, 2007. Novak's public disclosure of Mrs. Wilson's then-still-classified covert CIA identity as "Valerie Plame" led to the appointment of a Special Counsel, the CIA leak grand jury investigation, the indictment and successful prosecution of Lewis Libby in United States v. Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators, U.S. Congressional investigations in which both Wilsons have testified, political debate about the contexts of Wilson's Niger trip, and a civil lawsuit by the Wilsons against former and current officials of the Bush administration, Plame v. Cheney (dismissed on July 19, 2007 in U.S. District Court in a decision appealed the next day).
Personal history and family background
Wilson was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1949, to Joseph Charles Wilson III and Phyllis (Finnell) Wilson, and grew up in California and Europe (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 32-33)."Wilson: From Envoy to Accuser: Profile of the Diplomat at the Center of the CIA Leak Dispute", ''CBS News'', October 1, 2003, "Special Report: Iraq After Saddam", accessed July 27, 2007.
He was raised in a "proud Republican family" in which "there is a long tradition of politics and service to country" and for which "Politics was a staple around the table."[1] His mother's uncle James ("Sunny Jim") Rolph was mayor of San Francisco from 1912 to 1931, "the city's longest-serving mayor," and served as governor of California "until his death in office in 1934." For his mother's brothers, as they told their new brother-in-law (who was to become Wilson's father), Barry Goldwater was "a bit liberal." Military service was also a strong part of his family history: both his grandfathers had served in the two world wars, his paternal grandfather (the "Colonel") receiving both the British Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre "for his exploits in World War I,"[2] and his son, Wilson's father Joe, "was a Marine pilot in World War II and was among the last pilots to take off from the deck of the aircraft ''Franklin'' just before it was hit by two bombs dropped from a Japanese dive-bomber, one of which exploded amid planes waiting to take off," resulting in "the deaths of more than seven hundred American servicemen. . . . He never forgot how lucky he was to have survived––not to mention that my younger brother and I would never have been born."
Education
In 1968, Wilson matriculated at the University of California, Santa Barbara, majoring, he onced joked, in "history, volleyball, and surfing," maintaining a "C" average, and working as a carpenter for five years after his graduation in 1971.Richard Leiby, "Man Behind the Furor: Wilson: Envoy With an Independent Streak" ''Washington Post'' October 1, 2003, A01; rpt. in ''u-r-next.com'', accessed September 26, 2006. He became more serious about his education, "won a graduate fellowship and studied public administration."Richard Leiby, "Man Behind the Furor: Wilson: Envoy With an Independent Streak", ''The Washington Post'', October 1, 2003, A01; rpt. in Wilson Bio, ''u-r-next.com'', accessed September 26, 2006.
The Vietnam protests of the late 1960s galvanized him along with much of his generation and "pitted parents against kids in [his] family just as it did in many households around the country."
Subsequent personal life and family
Former Ambassador Wilson currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his third wife, Valerie E. Wilson (the former Valerie Elise Plame) and their two children, twins Trevor Rolph and Samantha Finnell Diana, born in 2000.
He is also the father of another set of twins, also a boy and a girl, Sabrina Cecile and Joseph Charles, who were born in 1979, during his first marriage to his "college sweetheart," Susan Otchis, which ended amicably in the mid-80s, toward the end of his service in Burundi; they were divorced in 1986. For the next twelve years, Wilson was married to his second wife, Jacqueline, "a Frenchwoman who had been raised in Africa" (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 68-69).
Wilson met Plame in 1997, while working for President Bill Clinton; they married in 1998, after his divorce from Jacqueline, which had been "delayed because I was never in one place long enough to complete the process," though he and she had already been living separate lives since the mid-90s (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 242).
Among his hobbies are golf, bicycling, and fitness.[3]Vicky Ward, "Double Exposure", ''Vanity Fair'', January 2004, accessed September 23, 2006.
Diplomatic career
Having become fluent in French as a teenager, Wilson entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1976, as "a general services officer -- responsible for keeping the power on and the cars running, among other duties -- in Niamey, Niger."
Wilson served in the U.S. diplomatic corps from January 1976 through 1998, with postings in five different African nations between 1976 and 1988."Diplomatic Career of Ambassador Joseph Wilson", ''Politics of Truth'' 451.
From 1988 to 1991, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. In the wake of Iraq's 1990 Invasion of Kuwait, he became the last American diplomat to meet with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, telling him in very clear terms to "get out of Kuwait".[4] When Hussein sent a note to Wilson (along with other embassy heads in Baghdad) threatening to execute anyone sheltering foreigners in Iraq, Wilson publicly repudiated the dictator by appearing at a press conference wearing a homemade noose around his neck, and declaring, "If the choice is to allow American citizens to be taken hostage or to be executed, I will bring my own fucking rope."
Despite Hussein's threats, Wilson sheltered more than one hundred Americans at the embassy, and successfully evacuated several thousand people (Americans and other nationals) from the country. He was praised by President George H. W. Bush for his actions: "...when I arrived back in Washington on January 13, 1991, the very next day I was in the Oval Office ... The President introduced me to his War Cabinet as a true American hero."Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, "'He Has Subverted the Rule of Law and the System of Justice' -- Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson Reacts to Bush's Commutation of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Jail Sentence in Outing of Valerie Plame", "Rush Transcript" of interview with Joseph C. Wilson, IV, on ''Democracy Now!'', July 5, 2005, accessed July 23, 2007.
Wilson next served for three years as U.S. ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and PrÃncipe, and subsequently helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council during the administration of President Bill Clinton.[5]
'Diplomatic postings:'
★ 1976–1978: General Services Officer, Niamey, Niger
★ 1978–1979: Administrative Office, Lomé, Togo
★ 1979–1981: Administrative Officer, U.S. State Department, Washington, D.C.
★ 1981–1982: Administrative Officer, Pretoria, South Africa
★ 1982–1985: Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Bujumbura, Burundi
★ 1985–1986: Congressional Fellow, offices of Senator Al Gore and Representative Tom Foley
★ 1986–1988: DCM, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
★ 1988–1991: DCM, Baghdad, Iraq
★ 1992–1995: Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and PrÃncipe
★ 1995–1997: Political Adviser to Commander in Chief U.S. Armed Forces, Europe EUCOM, Stuttgart, Germany
★ 1997–1998: Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council, Washington, D.C.
Professional activities after retirement from foreign service
Wilson manages JC Wilson International Ventures Corporation, a consulting firm specializing in strategic management and international business development."Joseph Wilson", biography at Greater Talent Network Inc. (Speakers Bureau), accessed July 26, 2007.
Honors
Public service awards
★ Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award
★ Department of State Superior Honor Award
★ Department of State Meritorious Honor Award[6]
★ University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award
★ American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award (1987)[7]
Decorations
★ Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star (Government of Gabon)
★ Admiral in the El Paso Navy (El Paso County Commissioners)
Other awards
★ BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award, shared with wife, Valerie Plame (2005)."Ambassador Joseph Wilson Updates BuzzFlash on the Bush Administration's Betrayal of Our National Security: A BuzzFlash Interview", ''buzzflash.com'' September 12, 2006, accessed September 19, 2006. (Extensive interview with Joseph C. Wilson on the occasion of the award.)
★ Ron Ridenhour Award for Truth-Telling (from the Fertel Foundation and The Nation Institute, Oct. 2003)Vicky Ward, "Double Exposure", ''Vanity Fair'', January 2004, accessed September 23, 2006.
Political history and views
At the midpoint of his career as a diplomat, Wilson served for a year (1985–1986) as a Congressional Fellow in the offices of Senator Al Gore and Representative Tom Foley; his working for Democrats was simply a matter of "happenstance." That experience helped him to achieve his position as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council, over a decade later, in 1997-1998, when he arranged the first trip of President Clinton to Africa (Chapter Thirteen: "Taking President Clinton to Africa," 261-73 in Wilson, ''Politics of Truth''). That was his final position when he retired from government service, in 1998, after "twenty-three years as an officer in the United States diplomatic corps" (Chapter Fourteen: "Private Citizen" in Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 274). It was as a "private citizen" with extensive knowledge and experience of Africa, and specifically of Niger, that he was tapped to travel there again on behalf of the CIA in February 2002; he returned in March 2002.
Also as a "private citizen," in 2000, Wilson had donated $2,000 to Vice President Gore’s presidential campaign and $1,000 to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, but he voted for Gore and Lieberman in the general election.[8] Of the 2000 election he writes:
In retrospect, I was naïve in thinking that a mature democracy like ours would naturally embrace the rule of law and engage in polite discourse instead of the law of tooth and claw I had seen operate abroad. In this case, the shameless lust for power, and the genuine hatred among the right wing for Bill Clinton, just overwhelmed the Democrats. I was appalled by the gutter tactics of the out-of-state rabble that bullied public servants and intimidated them into stopping the recount of ballots in Miami-Dade County. I had railed against such conduct in flawed elections in Africa, and disliked it just as much in my own country.
Although I had voted for the candidate who ultimately lost the election, I assumed hopefully, and naïvely again, that once in office George W. Bush and his experienced team would curb the excesses of the extremists, and that the country would be in good hands. Valerie and I even attended a swank inauguration reception on Pennsylvania Avenue where we looked down on the president's parade route and celebrated with Bush supporters the peaceful transition of power that is the hallmark of our democracy.
In May 2002, "several months after [his] trip to Niger," Wilson writes, he "participated in the annual conference of the American Turkish Council," one of whose "keynote speakers was Richard Perle, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and one of the most virulent of the neoconservative war advocates. . . . In his speech at the conference, Perle spoke openly of a coming war with Iraq. His words, laden with the fire and brimstone of the true zealot, troubled me deeply. In a symposium that I cochaired the same afternoon with the former Turkish military commander, Cevik Bir, I voiced concerns. It was the first time in more than a decade that I'd spoken publicly about Iraq."[9]
In 2003 Wilson began to support and formally endorsed John Kerry for president, donated $2,000 to his campaign, and served as an advisor to and speechwriter for the campaign in 2003 and 2004.[10] He has made contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, such as Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Congressman Charles B. Rangel of New York, and to Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California.[11]
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Wilson supported activist groups like Win Without War, a nonpartisan coalition of groups united in opposition to the Iraq War, has been quoted in the organization's press releases, and has been attacked by conservatives for such anti-war activism.[12] Nevertheless, according to an article to which Scott Shane and Lynette Clemetson contributed, published in the ''New York Times'': "Despite conservatives' efforts to portray him as a left-wing extremist, [Wilson] insisted he remained a centrist at heart. But after his tangle with the current administration, he admits 'it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for a Republican, even for dog catcher.'"[13]
Wilson endorses Veterans for a Secure America (VSA).
On July 16, 2007, Wilson endorsed Democratic Senator from New York Hillary Clinton for President of the United States in 2008."Frm. Ambassador Joseph Wilson Endorses Clinton", press release, online posting, ''Hillary Clinton.com'' (official site), July 16, 2007, accessed July 23, 2007.
'''The Politics of Truth''', by Ambassador Joseph Wilson
(New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005.)
In 2004 Wilson published a political and personal memoir entitled ''The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir'' (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004; paperback ed., 2005).
Wilson's autobiographical account of over two decades of his life in foreign service includes detailed descriptions of his extensive diplomatic-career experiences, his first marriage and family, briefer references to his second marriage, his meeting of Valerie Plame, their courtship and marriage, and a detailed narrative of the events leading to his decision to go public with his criticisms of the George W. Bush administration and its aftermath, extended in appendices of chronological "timelines" and "Newspaper Commentaries Published by Ambassador Joseph Wilson Before and After the United States Invasion of Iraq in 2003" (461-86).
The 2005 paperback edition (See cover illustration), subtitled ''Inside the Lies that Put the White House on Trial and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity'', is "Updated with a New Preface by the Author ("Anatomy of a Smear" [li-lxix]) and an Investigative Report on the Niger Documents Affair by Russ Hoyle" ("The Niger Affair: The Investigation That Won't Go Away" [xiii-xlix]).
Wilson's trip to Niger
In late February of 2002, Wilson was sent to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate the possibility that Saddam Hussein had a deal to buy enriched uranium yellowcake. Wilson met with the current U.S. Ambassador to Niger, Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick (1999–) at the embassy and was informed that she had already debunked that story; however, they agreed that Wilson would interview dozens of officials who had been in the Niger government when the deal had supposedly taken place. He ultimately concluded: "it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place."Joseph C. Wilson IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," ''New York Times'' July 6, 2003, accessed September 17, 2006.See Wilson's "Timeline" entitled "Events surrounding the 'Sixteen Words' and the Disclosure of the Undercover Status of CIA Operative Valerie Plame, Wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson":
Cf. Plame affair timeline.September 2002: First public mention of Niger-Iraq uranium connection is made in British White paper.
January 28, 2003: The sixteen words are spoken by President Bush in his State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
March 7, 2003: International Atomic Energy Agency announces that documents provided by U.S. about Niger-Iraq uranium claim are forgeries.
March 8, 2003: State Department spokesman says of forged documents: 'We fell for it'; shortly thereafter, Wilson tells CNN that the U.S. government has more information on this matter than the State Department spokesmen acknowledged.
:Sources have informed Wilson that soon after the CNN interview, a decision was made at a meeting in the Office of the Vice President––possibly attended by Dick Cheney, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Newt Gingrich, and other senior Republicans––to produce a workup on Wilson to discredit him.
June 8, 2003: On ''Meet the Press'' Condoleezza Rice denies knowledge of how dubious the uranium claim was and dissembles: "Maybe somebody down in the bowels of the Agency knew about this, but nobody in my circles."
July 6, 2003: Wilson's op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," is published in the ''New York Times''; Wilson appears on ''Meet the Press'', describes his trip and why he came away convinced that no attempt by Iraq to purchase uranium from Niger had taken place.
July 8, 2003: Columnist Robert Novak encounters Wilson's friend on Washington, D.C., street and blurts out Valerie Plame's CIA employment.
July 14, 2003: Novak publishes column revealing Plame's status.
July 16, 2003: In ''The Nation'' David Corn publishes "A White House Smear," explaining that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act may have been violated by leak.
July 20, 2003: NBC's Andrea Mitchell tells Wilson that "senior White House sources" had phoned her to stress "the real story here is not the sixteen words . . . but Wilson and his wife."
July 21, 2003: NBC's Chris Matthews tells Wilson: "I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He says and I quote, 'Wilson's wife is fair game.' I will confirm that if asked."
September 28, 2003: MSNBC announces that Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into the leak. (Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 452-54)
According to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ''Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq'' (2004), on the basis of his trip to Niger,
In an interview with Committee staff, the former ambassador [Wilson] was able to provide more information about the meeting between former [Nigerien] Prime Minister Mayaki and the Iraqi delegation. ... [Wilson] said that Mayaki did meet with the Iraqi delegation but never discussed what was meant by [the two countries] "expanding commercial relations" [being suggested by the Iraqis]. ... [Wilson] said that because Mayaki was wary of discussing any trade issues with a country under United Nations (UN) sanctions, he made a successful effort to steer the conversation away from a discussion of trade with the Iraqi delegation.See particularly Part B ("Former Ambassador") of Sec. II: "Niger" in United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, , July 7, 2004, revised July 9, 2004, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 2004) 36-83, accessed July 29, 2007. Cf. ''Congressional Reports: Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Together with Additional Views'', online posting, ''gpoaccess.gov'', July 7, 2004, rev. July 9, 2004, accessed July 29, 2007. (Provides PDF links to full texts in "Table of Contents".)Cf. II.B.: "Niger": "Former Ambassador", rpt. ''globalsecurity.org'', accessed July 29, 2007.Cf. "Full Text: Conclusions of Senate's Iraq Report: Report on the Prewar Intelligence Assessments", ''MSNBC'', July 9, 2004, accessed July 23, 2007.
The controversy surrounding Wilson began with President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, containing his now-infamous "16 words" in which he stated that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."[14][15]
On March 7, 2003, just weeks before the start of the Iraq War, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its report, which determined that documents suggesting that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger are "obvious" forgeries."Transcript of El Baradei's U.N. Presentation", ''CNN.com'', March 7, 2003, accessed July 28, 2007. The Butler Report states that those forged documents were distributed with the knowing goal of being discovered as obvious forgeries so as to discredit the intelligence.[16]
"What I Didn't Find in Africa," by Joseph C. Wilson IV
In the July 62003 issue of ''The New York Times'', Wilson contributed an "Op-Ed" entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa," in which he states that on the basis of his "experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war," he has "little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."Joseph C. Wilson, IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa", ''The New York Times'', July 6, 2003, Op-Ed, accessed September 17, 2006.
In this account, often referred to later as his "''New York Times'' 'Op-Ed,'" Wilson describes the basis for his mission to Niger as follows: "The vice president's ''office'' asked a serious question [about the truth of allegations that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium yellowcake from Niger]. I was asked to help formulate the answer" (italics added).
In the last two paragraphs of his Op-Ed, Wilson relates his Op-Ed to the Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq War:
I was convinced before the war that the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein required a vigorous and sustained international response to disarm him. Iraq possessed and had used chemical weapons; it had an active biological weapons program and quite possibly a nuclear research program — all of which were in violation of United Nations resolutions. Having encountered Mr. Hussein and his thugs in the run-up to the Persian Gulf war of 1991, I was only too aware of the dangers he posed.
But were these dangers the same ones the administration told us about? We have to find out. America's foreign policy depends on the sanctity of its information. For this reason, questioning the selective use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq is neither idle sniping nor "revisionist history," as Mr. Bush has suggested. The act of war is the last option of a democracy, taken when there is a grave threat to our national security. More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already. We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons.
Commentaries on Wilson's accounts of his Niger trip and his Op-Ed
As the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel indictment of Lewis Libby states:
On July 6, 2003, the New York Times published an Op-Ed article by Wilson entitled "What I Didn’t Find in Africa." Also on July 6, 2003, the Washington Post published an article about Wilson’s 2002 trip to Niger, which article was based in part upon an interview of Wilson. Also on July 6, Wilson appeared as a guest on the television interview show "Meet the Press."
In "What I Didn't Find in Africa" and interviews in print and on television, Wilson asserted, among other things, that he had taken a trip to Niger at the request of the CIA in February 2002 to investigate allegations that Iraq had sought or obtained uranium yellowcake from Niger, and that he doubted Iraq had obtained uranium from Niger recently, for a number of reasons. Wilson stated that he believed, based on his understanding of government procedures, that the Office of the Vice President was advised of the results of his trip.
Critics contend that in "What I Didn't Find in Africa" Wilson falsely claims to have been sent by the vice president personally. Supporters counter that in his rationale for his trip in "What I Didn't Find in Africa," as on other occasions in print and in media interviews, Wilson states only that he was sent by the CIA in response to questions asked by the "office" of the vice president, not personally by Vice President Cheney himself. In his Meet the Press interview with Andrea Mitchell on July 6, 2003, former Ambassador Wilson states: "The question was asked of the CIA by the office of the vice president. The office of the vice president, I am absolutely convinced, received a very specific response to the question it asked and that response was based upon my trip out there.""Joe Wilson with Andrea Mitchell, July 6, 2003", online posting of transcript of ''Meet the Press'' for July 6, 2003, in "Footnotes", ''JustOneMinute'' (blog), July 20, 2004, accessed July 23, 2007. (Not accessible on the searchable transcripts site of ''Meet the Press''.)
On Monday, July 7, 2003, the day after the publication of "What I Didn't Find in Africa," the Bush administration admitted "that accusations included in the president's State of the Union address have turned out to be inaccurate."As reported in "Defending Claims," broadcast on ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'', ''Online NewsHour'', PBS, July 10, 2003, accessed September 18, 2006 (Both transcript and streaming video available online). In a press conference held in Africa, where he was then traveling with President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, "fielded questions about the faulty intelligence" and concluded: "There was sufficient evidence floating around at that time that such a statement was not totally outrageous or not to be believed or not to be appropriately used. It's that once we used the statement, and after further analysis, and looking at other estimates we had, and other information that was coming in, it turned out that the basis upon which that statement was made didn't hold up, and we said so, and we've acknowledged it, and we've moved on."
Nevertheless, as Colin Powell suggested at the time –– referring to "the case I put down on the 5th of February [2003], for an hour and 20 minutes, roughly, on terrorism, on weapons of mass destruction, and on the human rights case, a short section at the end, we stand behind" –– the Bush administration still maintains that other intelligence that Iraq may have attempted to acquire uranium in Africa may have been correct. Many supporters of the theory point to the Butler Review, which found, without giving evidence of such a claim, that there was credible intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Niger in 1999, but not in 2002, and that there was even less certain intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Critics of the theory view the evidence relating to the Democratic Republic of Congo as suspect and point out that, while President Bush mentioned "Africa" in his State of the Union Address, in fielding questions in a "press gaggle" about the President's statement, also on 7 July 2003, press secretary Ari Fleischer affirmed explicitly that President Bush's claim that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from "Africa" derived specificially from information pertaining only to Niger and that the "the President did not have that information [about other African nations from the NIE] prior to his giving the State of the Union."[17]
George Tenet, the director of the CIA during Wilson's trip, has said that the administration was not directly briefed on Wilson's report "because this report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution (within the intelligence community), but we did not brief it to the President, Vice-President or other senior Administration officials."Quoted from George Tenet, "Statement by George J. Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence," official press release, Central Intelligence Agency July 11, 2003. In his memoir, '', Tenet writes, "This unremarkable report was disseminated, but because it produced no solid answers, there wasn't any urgency to brief its results to senior officials such as the vice president ... As far as we could tell, the Wilson summary was never delivered to Cheney. In fact, I have no recollection myself of hearing about Wilson's trip at the time."George Tenet, '' (New York: HarperCollins, 2007) 454. ISBN 0061147788 (10); ISBN 978-0061147784 (13).
The July 11, 2003 CIA Statement by Director George Tenet states: "The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss 'expanding commercial relations' between Iraq and Niger. The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales."
When asked to respond to Tenet's July 11, 2003 statement on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on October 5, 2003, former Ambassador Wilson replied:
An intermediary came to this official, and said, "I want you to meet with these guys. They’re interested in talking about expanding commercial relations." The person who talked to me said, "Red flags went up immediately, I thought of U.N. Security Council sanctions, I thought of all sorts of other reasons why we didn’t want to have any meeting. I declined the meeting," and this was out of the country, on the margins of an OIC meeting. So it was a meeting that did not take place. And at one point during the conversation, this official kind of looked up in the sky and plumbing his conscience, looked back and said, "You know, maybe they might have wanted to talk about uranium.""Transcript of October 5", ''Meet the Press'', ''MSNBC'', October 6, 2003, accessed July 23, 2007. ("Guests: Joseph Wilson, Former Acting Ambassador to Iraq & CIA Envoy to Niger; Robert Novak, Syndicated Columnist; David Broder, Washington Post; Ron Brownstein, Los Angeles Times; Dana Priest, Washington Post Moderator: Tim Russert - NBC News").
Although Russert cited then CIA officials and CIA Director George Tenet, Wilson addressed those points in the program, and Tenet's own accounts of the intelligence prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the rationale for the Iraq War in his 2007 memoir '' have been disputed by his critics.
An editorial in the ''Wall Street Journal'' published in mid-July 2004 gives excerpts from the British and American "investigations" pertaining to Wilson's trip to Niger, finding justification for his perspective presented in "What I Didn't Find in Africa," along with some qualifications and distinctions between some evidence of Iraq's ''attempts'' at acquiring uranium yellowcake from African nations such as Niger and its actual lack of following through on such attempts.[18]
But another editorial published in the July 13, 2005 ''Wall Street Journal'' asserts that Wilson had lied in his "What I Didn't Find in Africa" about "what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission." "Karl Rove, Whistleblower: He Told the Truth about Joe Wilson", ''The Wall Street Journal'' July 13, 2005, Review & Outlook: Editorial.
Nuclear expert Norman Dombey has pointed out that the information relied upon by the Butler Review on the Niger issue was incomplete; on 25 July 2004, he notes: "The Butler report says the claim was credible because an Iraqi diplomat visited Niger in 1999, and almost three-quarters of Niger's exports were uranium. But this is irrelevant, since France controls Niger's uranium mines."Raymond Whitaker, , ''The Independent on Sunday'' July 25, 2004, rpt. in ''SpinWatch'' July 28, 2004, accessed September 18, 2006. Moreover, when asked by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss the conclusions of British intelligence, Deputy Director of Intelligence John McLaughlin stated, "The one thing where I think they stretched a little bit beyond where we would stretch is on the points about Iraq seeking uranium from various African locations. We've looked at those reports and we don't think they are very credible. It doesn't diminish our conviction that he's going for nuclear weapons, but I think they reached a little bit on that one point."Raymond Whitaker, , London ''Independent on Sunday'' July 25, 2004, rpt. in ''SpinWatch'' (blog) July 28, 2004, accessed September 18, 2006.
An editorial headlined "A Good Leak" published in the April 9, 2006 ''Washington Post'' claims that "Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth and that, in fact, his report [to the CIA] supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.""A Good Leak: President Bush Declassified Some of the Intelligence He Used to Decide On War in Iraq. Is that a scandal?" ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006: B06, accessed September 18, 2006.
In their news report "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic", published in the same ''Washington Post'' issue as "A Good Leak", however, National Security Correspondent Dafna Linzer and Pulitzer-Prize winning National Correspondent Barton Gellman, conclude that the White House's disclosure of certain portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) seems to have misrepresented to reporters the actual level of confidence of the intelligence community in the proposition that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium.Dafna Linzer and Barton Gellman, with research contributed by Julie Tate, "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic: Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story", ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006: A01, accessed July 29, 2007. They state: "At Cheney's instruction, Libby testified, he [Libby] told [reporter] Miller that the uranium story was a 'key judgment' of the intelligence estimate, a term of art indicating there was consensus on a question of central importance. In fact, the alleged effort to buy uranium was not among the estimate's key judgments, which were identified by a headline and bold type and set out in bullet form in the first five pages of the 96-page document." Moreover, Linzer and Gellman observe that, according to the NIE, "U.S. intelligence 'did not know' the status of Iraq's procurement efforts, 'cannot confirm' any success and had 'inconclusive' evidence about Iraq's domestic uranium operations. ... The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, likewise, called the claim 'highly dubious.' For those reasons, the uranium story was relegated to a brief inside passage in the October estimate" (italics added).Dafna Linzer and Barton Gellman, "A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic: Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story"], ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006: A01, accessed September 18, 2006.
A few days later Dafna Linzer published another article in the ''Washington Post'' describing a letter from Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald to Judge Reggie B. Walton correcting a sentence appearing in his recent filings describing Scooter Libby's testimony regarding his conversation with Judith Miller about the October 2002 NIE. Purportedly, that sentence states erroneously that Libby "was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium." Instead, the sentence should have conveyed that Libby was to tell Miller some of the key judgments of the NIE "and that the NIE stated that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium."Dafner Linzer, "Prosecutor in CIA Leak Case Corrects Part of Court Filing", ''The Washington Post'', April 12, 2006: A08, accessed September 18, 2006.
Replying to complaints from various readers, the ''Washington Post'' ombudsman, Deborah Howell, notes that in their front-page news report Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer relied on Fitzgerald's representations in his legal filings, that the editorial's writer wrote it before the front-page report and that although the writer had not read the report, it would not have changed his mind. Howell notes that the basis for the editorial's claim that Wilson's report "supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium" was the fact that there was a meeting between Iraqi and Nigerien trade officials "because that's mostly what Niger has to export." She observes that the editorial inconsistently deals with the 2004 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which notes that "the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research analysts believed that [Wilson's] report supported their assessment that Niger was unlikely to be willing or able to sell uranium to Iraq." Howell concludes:
It would have been helpful if the editorial had put statements about Wilson in more context –– especially the controversy over his trip and what he said. It also could have used a sentence to say what is known in every newsroom: Leaks are good for journalism.
On the Gellman/Linzer story, it would have been good to quote more from the WMD commission's and Iraq Survey Group's reports and specifically their conclusions.
Both pieces demonstrate the high wall between editorial and news. While editorial writers read reporters' stories, Executive Editor Len Downie doesn't regularly read editorials (although he read this one) lest it make a mark on how he runs the news pages.
Some readers think it's a scandal when two parts of the newspaper appear to be in conflict with each other, but it's not that unusual that reporting –– particularly in news and editorial –– will depend on different sources. It happened again last week when an editorial and a story gave different estimates for how long it might take Iran to build a nuclear bomb.
Reporting about national security and intelligence gathering is always fraught with fraught [sic]; it is a subject I will write about again.Deborah Howell, "Two Views of the Libby Leak Case", ''Washington Post'', April 16, 2006: B06, accessed September 19, 2006. Howell also states: "Gellman said the commission and the ISG found no evidence that Iraq sought uranium abroad after 1991." That explicit statement is not reported in the Gellman/Linzer article to which she refers, however; it is in the government reports cited by Gellman and Linzer and by Linzer in their articles.
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Reports relating to Wilson's Niger trip
Related media controversies involving Wilson
Claims made by retired generals Vallely and McInerney and ''WorldNetDaily''
According to Art Moore's post on the American conservative website ''WorldNetDaily'' founded by Joseph Farah in 1997, retired U.S. Army Major General Paul E. Vallely claimed on 3 November 2005 that former Ambassador Wilson "mentioned Plame's status as a CIA employee over the course of at least three, possibly five, conversations in 2002 [one year before she was allegedly "outed"] in the Fox News Channel's 'green room' in Washington, D.C., as they waited to appear on air as analysts," that Wilson "introduced Plame at cocktail parties and other social events around Washington as his CIA wife," and that her working at the CIA was "pretty common knowledge" because she had "been out there on the Washington scene many years." If Plame were a covert agent at the time, Vallely said, "he would not have paraded her around as he did."Art Moore, "The Plame Game: Analyst Says Wilson 'outed' Wife in 2002: Disclosed in Casual Conversations a Year Before Novak Column", ''WorldNetDaily'', November 5, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006; see also archived listing for ''The John Batchelor Show'' for November 3, 2005.Cf. "Two Years into Leak Investigation, Gen. Vallely Suddenly Claims, in Contradictory Statements, That Wilson Revealed Plame's Identity to Him", ''Media Matters for America'', November 9, 2005, accessed September 23, 2006 (incl. QuickTime video with audio voiceovers).
In subsequent media appearances and online posts in ''WorldNetDaily'', General Vallely revised the number of times that he claimed to have met and spoken with Wilson specifically about his wife's "employment" at the CIA (yet still not her specific status as a NOC) to only "one occasion."
According to John Batchelor's own post on the conservative political blog ''RedState'' on November 6, 2005, Lt. General Tom McInerney (USAF Retired) said that Joe Wilson also "boasted" about his wife's job with the CIA to him while they were waiting in the green room at FOX News.John Batchelor, "West Point Rallies Against Wilson," ''RedState'' (blog) November 6, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006.
Again following Vallely's lead, after being threatened with legal action by Wilson's lawyer, in his own various later media appearances, McInerney has also backed away from initial impressions that he gave that he himself also had experiences in conversations with Wilson that supported his friend Vallely's claims.
Wilson's response to the claims
According to another "exclusive" posted by Joseph Farah and Art Moore on ''WorldNetDaily'', Wilson demanded through his lawyer that Vallely retract these allegations, calling them "patently false."Joseph Farah and Art Moore, "The Plame Game: Joe Wilson Fumes Over Vallely Charges in WND: Demands Retraction of Statements Alleging He 'Outed' Wife in Fox Studio," ''WorldNetDaily'', November 5, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006.
Wilson vigorously disputed the General's claims regarding any such conversation touching on his wife's "employment," according to Art Moore on ''WorldNetDaily''.Art Moore, "The Plame Game: General Wants Wilson Apology: Threatened Again with Lawsuit Over Claim of 'Outing' CIA Wife," ''WorldNetDaily'', November 8, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006. According to Moore, Wilson has also labeled these further claims "slanderous," while serving notice of possible legal repercussions on Vallely, McInerney, and ''WorldNetDaily''.
Others' responses to the claims
It is disputed whether there was an occasion for the alleged exchange to occur. According to Brit Hume of Fox News, "Vallely and Wilson appeared on the same day nine times in 2002, and on the same show twice — on September 8 and September 12, when both men appeared within 15 minutes of one another.""Special Report with Brit Hume," "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?" FoxNews, November 11,2005. A compendium of the appearances by Wilson and Vallely on FOX posted in the political blog Crooks and Liars reveals, however, that there is only one possible date, September 12, 2002, during which the two would have been in the green room within hours of each other."Vallely and Wilson Fox Appearances," ''Crooks and Liars'' (blog), November 8, 2005, updated April 2, 2006, accessed September 19, 2006.
Denver criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt, a legal analyst and frequent guest on Fox News and several other networks, who has personally been in their green rooms, asserts in her blog that September 12, 2006 is the only possibility, as well.Jeralyn Merritt, "Swift Boating Joseph Wilson Won't Work", ''TalkLeft'' (blog), November 8, 2005, updated November 9, 2006, accessed September 19, 2006.Merritt questions whether there would be an occasion for such discussion, even if they both appeared on the same day:
My conclusion: Only September 12 is a possibility. That date, Wilson's segment was over 15 minutes before Vallely's began. The Fox green room in New York is very small and contains an even smaller makeup room that only has one guest chair. Guests are by themselves in the makeup room. I assume Wilson would have been having his makeup done before his segment, so Vallely wouldn't have been with him then. Even if they did overlap in the green room for a couple of minutes, it strains credulity to think the topic of Wilson's wife's employment with the CIA would have come up. There likely would have only time for mere pleasantries. [Add: If they were in D.C. instead of New York, ignore this last sentence.]"
Former Naval intelligence officer and NSA analyst Wayne Madsen writes in ''Wayne Madsen Report'': "As someone who spent a fair amount of time at Fox News' Washington green room, I can say that . . . [w]hen you are booked by Fox to appear, a car is sent around to pick you up. The car arrives with enough time to transport you to the studios at 400 North Capitol Street, usually 15 minutes before air time. However, most of that time is spent checking in and sitting for makeup. If you happen upon another guest in the green room before sitting for makeup, they are likely only minutes from air time –– certainly not enough time to engage in a biographical rendition about your family with a total stranger. If two guests appeared at the same time at Fox in Washington, they were taken to different studios."Wayne Madsen, "When Lying Generals Lie," ''waynemadsenreport.com'' (column), November 15, 2005, accessed September 20, 2006.
According to the investigation by Media Matters for America, contradicting such allegations by Batchelor on his radio show, it has become clear that he did not have any such firsthand experience of his own pertaining to Wilson's wife's "employment".
Former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson strongly questions the credibility of both Generals, posting on his own blog ''No Quarter'':
I too was a Fox News Contributor in 2002 and spent a lot of time in the Green Room with both Vallely and McInerney. I saw them but never saw Joe Wilson. What is really curious is that I know I spent more time with Vallely and McInerney than Joe Wilson ever did and the subject of my wife (or their wives) never came up.Larry C. Johnson, "Trying to Smear Joe Wilson," ''No Quarter'' (blog) November 8, 2005, accessed September 19, 2006. Cf. Larry C. Johnson, "Plame Update," ''No Quarter'' (blog) October 5, 2005, accessed September 28, 2005.
Moreover, the claims of both Vallely and McInerney that Valerie Wilson's classified affiliation with the CIA was generally well known outside the intelligence community in Washington, D.C., is contradicted by the 28 Oct. 2005 Office of the Special Counsel indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, as already cited above:
''At all relevant times from January 1, 2002 through July 2003'', Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and ''her employment status was classified''. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was ''not common knowledge outside the intelligence community''. ("Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson" 3; italics added).
Pertinent consequences of Armitage acknowledging his role in leak
In their recent book ''Hubris'', Michael Isikoff and David Corn assert that it was Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, who first revealed that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA to Robert Novak sometime before July 8, 2003.[19] In late August 2006, along with advance publicity for the book, news accounts and editorials began focusing on that public revelation:
Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday [August 29, 2006].Neil A. Lewis, "Source of C.I.A. Leak Said to Admit Role", ''The New York Times'', August 30, 2006.
An editorial published in the Washington Post on September 1, 2006 headlined "End of an Affair" proclaims "It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband," opining further:
It now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming — falsely, as it turned out — that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously."End of an Affair: It Turns Out That the Person Who Exposed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Was Not Out to Punish Her Husband", ''The Washington Post'', September 1, 2006: A20.
Wilson and his wife amended their lawsuit to add Armitage as a defendant along with Vice President Dick Cheney and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. According to their complaint, "Armitage acted independently of his White House colleagues, but nonetheless violated Plame's right to privacy.""Richard Armitage Admits to Name-Dropping Incident", ''Legal News TV'', September 14, 2006, accessed September 21, 2006.
In a column posted in TownHall.com on 14 September 2006, however, Novak disputes details of Armitage's recent media accounts of their conversations, offering a politically-charged reinterpretation of their past and present contexts:
When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, the former deputy secretary of state's interviews obscured what he really did. I want to set the record straight based on firsthand knowledge.
First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he "thought" might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.
An accurate depiction of what Armitage actually said deepens the irony of him being my source. He was a foremost internal skeptic of the administration's war policy, and I long had opposed military intervention in Iraq. Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me improbably into the president's lapdog. But they cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson. The news that he and not Karl Rove was the leaker was devastating news for the Left.[20]
Despite Robert Novak's own conclusion that the identification of Armitage is "devastating news" for "the Left" in its attempts to corroborate what Novak calls the "left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson," former Ambassador Wilson continues to enjoy support among investigative journalists and others in both the mainstream media and the alternative media who believe that such a "conspiracy" did exist and that its cover up may still exist, such as Frank Rich (''The Greatest Story Ever Sold'') and Robert Parry ("U.S. Press Bigwigs Screw Up, Again" and "How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?").
In the "October/November Preview" published in the ''American Journalism Review'' (Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park), AJR's editor and senior vice president Rem Rieder argued that the disclosure that Richard Armitage was Robert Novak's "primary source" in "Plamegate" was insufficiently covered in the media.Rem Rieder, "October/November Preview: Whatever": "After Months of Saturation Plamegate Coverage, the Media Couldn’t Work Up Much Excitement When the Person Who Revealed Valerie Plame’s CIA Role Was Identified", ''American Journalism Review'' (Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park), Aug./Sept. 2006, accessed September 19, 2006.
Debate as to the merits of Joe Wilson's claims in ''The Politics of Truth'' appears to remain ongoing, and the Wilsons' civil lawsuit against past and present officials of the Bush administration is still unresolved as it moves through the U.S. legal justice system.
Support for Wilson
In "A White House Smear," based in part on an interview with Ambassador Wilson and published in ''The Nation'' on 15 July 2003, David Corn asks:
Is it relevant that Wilson's wife might have suggested him for the unpaid gig [to Niger]? Not really. And Wilson notes, with a laugh, that at that point their twins were two years old, and it would not have been much in his wife's interest to encourage him to head off to Africa. What matters is that Wilson returned with the right answer and dutifully reported his conclusions. (In March 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that the documents upon which the Niger allegation was based were amateurish forgeries.) His wife's role—if she had one—has nothing but anecdotal value. And Novak's sources could have mentioned it without providing her name. Instead, they were quite generous.
. . . .
The Wilson smear was a thuggish act. Bush and his crew abused and misused intelligence to make their case for war. Now there is evidence Bushies used classified information and put the nation's counter-proliferation efforts at risk merely to settle a score. It is a sign that with this gang politics trumps national security.David Corn, "A White House Smear", ''The Nation'', July 15, 2003, accessed September 23, 2006.
Like Isikoff and Corn, later journalists in the mainstream media, independent journalists, interviewed CIA agents, and other skeptics of the George W. Bush administration still vigorously dispute its frequently-repeated claims and earlier testimony of some CIA agents that the purchase of the aluminum tubes by Iraq constitutes ''proof'' of a renewed nuclear enrichment program for the eventual production of weapons of mass destruction. Such ongoing questioning of these controversial and hotly-debated claims tends to support Wilson's arguments about such rationales for the 2003 invasion of Iraq being part of a "fabric of lies, distortions, and misinformation that it [the administration] had woven and fed the world to justify its war" in his 2004 book ''The Politics of Truth'' (414-15).[21]
As Robert Parry observes:
Now, based on a new report about Armitage’s role in leaking Plame’s identity, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other leading U.S. news organizations are joining in a new campaign to disparage those who harbored suspicions about the Bush administration’s actions – from special prosecutor Fitzgerald to former Ambassador Wilson.
For these national journalists who act as if they are oblivious to all the evidence of a long-running White House smear campaign and cover-up, it might be time to pose the "Shawshank Redemption" question: "How can you be so obtuse?"
Of course, in the movie, the warden really wasn’t "obtuse." He just wanted to keep benefiting from [his prisoner] [Andy] Dufrense’s financial skills and, most importantly, to protect his corrupt schemes. The motives of the Washington news media may be more of a mystery. ("How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?")
Wilson's reactions to the Libby trial and commutation
In response to the verdict on March 6, 2007, finding Lewis Libby guilty of four of the five charges in the Fitzgerald grand jury indictment against him, the Wilsons issued a statement in a press release posted on the website of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. They stated that they respected the jury's verdict and believed justice was done, as well as affirming their commitment to pursuing their civil suit."Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby", press release, online posting, ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), March 6, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007.
Wilson harshly criticized President George W. Bush's July 2, 2007 commutation of Lewis Libby's prison sentence, calling it "a cover-up of the Vice President's role in this matter and quite possibly the role of the President and/or some of his senior White House advisers."For Wilson's full published statement in response to the commutation and the press conference about it by President Bush's press spokesman Tony Snow, see Joseph C. Wilson, "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing", online posting, ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), 3 July, 2007, accessed 4 July, 2007; online posting, "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", ''Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust'' (Home page), n.d., accessed 8 July, 2007. Wilson also complained that the President's action and others' actions leading to President Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence could seriously damage United States national security by harming its intelligence capability.Keith Olbermann, interview of Joseph C. Wilson, Video clip, ''YouTube'', ''Countdown'', MSNBC, 2 July, 2007, accessed 3 July, 2007.
Perspective on some other recent media criticism of Wilson
According to Michael Currie Schaffer of ''The New Republic'' (TNR), "anti-Wilson sniping extends beyond those who buy the right-wing spin that he's a liar." Schaffer noted that he was called a "'blowhard'" in an editorial by ''The Washington Post'' in March 2007, that ''The Village Voice'' objected to Wilson's "pompous-ass style," and that TNR Editor-in-Chief Martin Peretz claimed he "wasn't much of an ambassador either" because he "served in puny Sao Tome and Principe."Michael Currie Schaffer, "Joseph Wilson’s Selfless Self-Promotion: Hot Air", ''The New Republic'' July 19, 2007, accessed August 4, 2007. (3 pages.) (Posted at ''TNR Online''; subscribers-only access notice, though otherwise accessible.) But after acknowledging, "So, just for the sake of argument, let's stipulate that Joe Wilson is a Beltway mediocrity who has shamelessly gone from blowing the whistle to blowing his own horn," Schaffer concludes: "Well, thank God for that."
In Wilson's defense, Schaffer points out that although "The real Wilson ... turned out to be more Bonfire of the Vanities than Smiley's People--willing, in fact, eager for the sort of camera-hogging, ad hominem bomb-throwing, and below-the-belt punching that grabs a distracted country's attention," we should actually "appreciate him for that, not in spite of it," because:
However self-interested he may have been, the flames Wilson fanned were more than just a partisan victory for people who thrill at seeing Bush get singed. It's hard to remember now, but when Wilson began his media run, there was little talk about the selling of the war, few questions about official mendacity, and not much of a narrative about the way the administration deals with dissent. Lord knows that most of the establishment types who sneer at Wilson weren't talking about such things. There are plenty of other reasons, some more important than Wilson, why we talk about them now. But not many have resulted from the low-key pose we seem to wish on him.
Moreover, whereas a true power-broker who "hewed to the behavioral standards of the Washington elite," former Secretary of State Colin Powell, "one of the few people in the world who might have stopped the Iraq train wreck," is now "just an ex-secretary of State who confers decorously with fellow has-beens in Aspen," Schaffer concludes finally, "There's a reason a nobody like Joe Wilson is the one pitching his story to Hollywood": "the blowhard, it turns out, is the one who mattered."
Warner Bros. feature film
On the evening of the verdict in the Libby trial, Joseph C. Wilson appeared on ''Larry King Live'', during which he announced that he and his wife had "signed a deal with Warner Bros of Hollywood to offer their consulting services - or maybe more - in the making of the forthcoming movie about the Libby trial," their lives and the CIA leak scandal.Matt Frei"Washington diary: Libby, the Movie", ''BBC News'' (Washington) March 7, 2007, accessed March 18,2007; cf. transcript of Larry King interview with Joseph C. Wilson, "Ex-Cheney Aide Found Guilty", ''Larry King Live'', CNN, broadcast March 6, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007. According to an article by Michael Fleming published in ''Variety'' earlier in the week, the feature film, a co-production between Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Productions with a screenplay by Jez and John Butterworth to be based in part on Valerie Wilson's forthcoming book "Fair Game" (contingent on CIA clearances), is scheduled for release in August 2007.Michael Fleming, "Plame Film in Works at Warner Bros.: Studio Sets Movie about CIA Leak Scandal", ''Variety'', March 1, 2007, accessed March 18, 2007.
The Wilsons' civil suit
On July 13, 2006, a civil suit was filed by Joseph and Valerie Wilson against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top Presidential advisor Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage), for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status.[22]
On September 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson amended their original lawsuit, adding Richard Armitage as a fourth defendant."Armitage Added to Plame Law Suit", ''CBS News'', September 13, 2006, accessed September 25, 2006; includes PDF. Cf. Amended complaint at ''FindLaw.com''. Unlike their charges against Rove, Cheney, and Libby, "claiming that they had violated her constitutional rights and discredited her by disclosing that she was an undercover CIA operative," the Wilsons sued Armitage "for violating the 'Wilsons' constitutional right to privacy, Mrs. Wilson's constitutional right to property, and for committing the tort of publication of private facts.'"Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), press release, as qtd. in "Armitage Added to Plame Law Suit", ''CBS News'', September 13, 2006, accessed September 25, 2006
Dismissal
United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilson's lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007, stating that the Wilsons had not shown that the case belonged in federal court.Associated Press, "Valerie Plame's Lawsuit Dismissed", ''USA Today'', July 19, 2007, accessed 19 July, 2007.[23]Carol D. Leonnig, "Plame's Lawsuit Against Top Officials Dismissed", ''The Washington Post'', 20 July, 2007, accessed 20 July, 2007."Memorandum Opinon", in "Valerie Wilson, et al., Plaintiffs, v. I. Lewis Libby, Jr., et al., Defendants", "Civil Action No. 06-1258 (JDB)", ''United States District Court for the District of Columbia'', 19 July, 2007, accessed 20 July, 2007. Bates also ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction over the claim because the couple had not yet exhausted their administrative remedies. Bates, a Bush appointee, stated that the lawsuit raised "important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials" but also noted that "there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials," even if "the alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility" were perhaps "highly unsavory."Qtd. in Matt Apuzzo (Associated Press), ""Plame Lawsuit Dismissed in CIA Leak Case", ''The Denver Post'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007.
Appeal
On July 20, 2007, Ms. Sloan and the Wilsons announced publicly that they had filed an appeal of the U.S. District Court's decision to dismiss their law suit.Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust Home Page, [July 20, 2007], accessed July 27, 2007. Cf. "Statement on Ambassador Joseph and Valerie Wilsons' Appeal Filed on July 20", ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), July 20, 2007, accessed July 27, 2007.
See also
★ Downing Street memo
★ Iraqi aluminum tubes
★ Lewis Libby
★ Niger uranium forgeries
★ Plame affair
★ Plame affair timeline
★ Plame v. Cheney
★ September Dossier (''Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government'')
★ Valerie Plame Wilson
Notes
1. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 31.
2. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 32.
3. See entry on Joseph C. Wilson in ''Marquis Who's Who''.
4. See Chapter Five, "How to Shake Hands with a Dictator," 107-27 in the 2005 paperback ed. of Wilson,''The Politics of Truth''.
5. See Chapter Eight: "Watching the War from a Distance", Chapter Nine: "All in a Diplomat's Life––from Gabon to Albania", Chapter Ten: "Diplomats and Generals", and Chapter Eleven: "Coming Home for Good", 182-210 in the 2005 paperback ed. of Wilson, ''Politics of Truth''.
6. .
7. Past Award Winners
8. Wilson, ''The Politics of Truth'' 278-80, 282; cf. Newsmeat: Campaign Contributions Search.
9. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 291.
10. Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 410-12; cf. ''Newsmeat''. See also Joseph Curl, "Spouse of Outed CIA Officer Signs On with Kerry," ''Washington Times'' February 14, 2004.
11. Joseph C. Wilson search at ''opensecrets.org'', n.d., accessed September 17, 2006.
12. See Wilson, ''Politics of Truth'' 381 and press release, ''winwithoutwarus.org'', September 24, 2003; cf. Joseph Curl, "Spouse of Outed CIA Officer Signs On with Kerry", ''The Washington Times'', February 14, 2004.
13. Qtd. by Scott Shane and Lynette Clemetson, contributors to "Private Spy and Public Spouse Live At Center of Leak Case", ''The New York Times'', July 5, 2005, National Desk: A1, col. 2 (Late Ed. - Final).
14. "President Delivers "State of the Union: The U.S. Capitol", press release, ''The White House'', January 28, 2003, accessed July 23, 2007. (Full transcript of the speech.)
15. See, e.g, "16 Words" and "previous" link as provided by ''CNN.com'', March 7, 2003, accessed July 23, 2007.
16. , July 14, 2004, accessed September 18, 2006.
17. See the official White House transcript of "Press Gaggle by Ari Fleischer", held in The James S. Brady Briefing Room, The White House, Washington, D.C., July 7, 2003, accessed September 18, 2006.
18. "On the Record: Saddam, Uranium and Africa: What Two Investigations Say about Bush's Statements on Iraq, Yellowcake and Niger"], ''The Wall Street Journal'', July 15, 2004, accessed September 22, 2006.
19. Michael Isikoff and David Corn, ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War'' (New York: Crown, [Sept. 8] 2006). ISBN 0-307-34681-1.
20. Robert Novak, "Armitage's Leak", ''TownHall.com'', September 14, 2006, accessed September 17, 2006.
21. See, e.g., Robert Parry, "U.S. Press Bigwigs Screw Up, Again", ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 14, 2006 and "How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?" ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 3, 2006, both accessed September 17, 2006; cf. Frank Rich, ''The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina'' (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), as cited in book rev. by Ian Buruma, "Theater of War," ''New York Times'' September 17, 2006, sec. 7 (Book Rev.): 10, cols. 2-3.
22. Proskauer Rose LLP, "Valerie Plame Wilson and Ambassador Joseph Wilson Initiate a Civil Action Against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby for Violations of their Constitutional and Other Legal Rights", ''Yahoo Business Wire'' (Press Release), July 13, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006; cf. , rpt. in ''How Appealing'' (blog), July 13, 2006, accessed July 15. 2006.
23. "Judge Tosses Out Ex-Spy's Lawsuit Against Cheney in CIA Leak Case", ''CNN.com'', July 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2007.
References
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★ "Activism Update: Washington Post Responds to Critics: 'Two Views' of the Truth?" ''Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting'', April 19, 2006.
★ "A Bad Leak". ''The New York Times'', April 16, 2006, Editorial. Accessed November 18, 2006.
★ Bedard, Paul. "Washington Whispers: Wilson Adds Ammo to Hit War Credibility Gap". ''US News & World Reports'', October 20, 2003. Accessed November 19, 2006.
★ Burns, John F. "Confrontation in the Gulf: Iraq Backs Off Its Threat to Execute Diplomats Who Hide Civilians". ''The New York Times'', September 28, 1990: A6. Accessed November 19, 2006. (TimesSelect subscription required.)
★ Bush, George W. State of the Union Address. Press release and transcript. ''whitehouse.gov'', January 28, 2003.
★ Duelfer, Charles. ''Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction'' (aka ''Duelfer Report''). ''cia.gov'', September 30, 2004. Accessed September 22, 2006.
★ Continetti, Matthew. "'A Little Literary Flair': Joe Wilson Wasn't a Truth-teller". ''The Weekly Standard'', July 26, 2004.
★ Cooper, Matthew, Massimo Calabresi, and John F. Dickerson. "A War on Wilson?" ''Time'', July 17, 2003. Accessed July 23, 2007.
★ Corn, David. "Novak vs. Armitage: Was the Plame Leak Deliberate?" ''The Nation'', September 13, 2006. Accessed September 19, 2006.
★ –––. "What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA". ''The Nation'', September 18, 2006 (''Web Only''). Accessed September 24, 2006.
★ –––. "A White House Smear". ''The Nation'', July 15, 2003. Accessed September 23, 2006.
★ –––, and Michael Isikoff. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006.
★ Diamond, John. "Scandal Grew from Dispute Over Uranium". ''USA Today'', October 30, 2005. Accessed February 8, 2007. [Inc. "2003 photograph for the opening spread of Vanity Fair. Jonas Karlsson, Vanity Fair," by Ward, as listed below.]
★ Ehrenreich, Ben. "Unfair Game: Joseph Wilson on the Cost of Telling the Truth in Washington". Interview with Joseph C. Wilson. ''LA Weekly'', October 30, 2003. Accessed November 18, 2006.
★ "End of an Affair: It Turns Out That the Person Who Exposed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Was Not Out to Punish Her Husband". ''The Washington Post'', September 1, 2006, Editorial. Accessed September 23, 2006.
★ Fleischer, Ari. Press gaggle news release. ''whitehouse.gov'', July 7, 2003.
★ "A Good Leak: President Bush declassified some of the intelligence he used to decide on war in Iraq. Is that a scandal?" ''The Washington Post'', April 9, 2006, Editorial.
★ Hitchens, Christopher. "Plame's Lame Game: What Ambassador Joseph Wilson and His Wife Forgot to Tell Us about the Yellow-cake Scandal". ''Slate'', July 13, 2004.
★ Isikoff, Michael, and David Corn. ''Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War''. New York: Crown, 2006. ISBN 0-307-34681-1.
★ Kennedy, Ted. "The Neverending Saga of Phase II" ''kennedy.senate.gov''. Rpt. from ''The Nation'', August 9, 2006.
★ Johnson, Larry C., "Plame Update". ''No Quarter'' (blog), October 5, 2005. Accessed September 28, 2005. [Incl. timeline.]
★ –––. "Trying to Smear Joe Wilson". ''No Quarter'' (blog), November 8, 2005. Accessed September 19, 2006.
★ Leiby, Richard. "Man Behind the Furor: Wilson: Envoy with an Independent Streak". ''Washington Post'', October 1, 2003, A01. Rpt. in Wilson Bio. ''u-r-next.com'' n.d. Accessed September 26, 2006.
★ May, Clifford D. "Our Man in Niger: Exposed and Discredited, Joe Wilson Might Consider Going Back". ''National Review Online'', July 12, 2004. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ Novak, Robert. "Armitage's Leak". ''TownHall.com'', September 14, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Errant Former Ambassador". ''CNN'', July 15, 2004. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Mission to Niger". ''Washington Post'', July 14, 2003:A21. Posted online October 20, 2005. Accessed September 20, 2006.
★ Parry, Robert. "How Obtuse Is the U.S. Press?" ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 3, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "U.S. Press Bigwigs Screw Up, Again." ''ConsortiumNews.com'' (The Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc), September 14, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ Powell, Colin. "Defending Claims". Transcript from the Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS,July 7, 2003. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ Rich, Frank. ''The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina''. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. ISBN 1-59420-098-X. Rev. by Ian Buruma, "Theater of War." ''New York Times'' September 17, 2006, sec. 7. (Book Rev.): 1, 10.
★ Roberts, Pat. "Additional Views of Chairman Pat Roberts joined by Senator Christopher S. Bond, Senator Orrin G. Hatch" on the Senate Intelligence Report. July 9, 2004. Rpt. on ''GlobalSecurity.org''. (No longer archived at original location on Roberts' Senate website. Such press releases are posted on the website of the Senate Intelligence Committee.) Related press releases rpt. on UK site Acronym. [See comments by Matthew Continetti, Susan Schmidt, Clifford May, Robert Novak, and Joseph Wilson also listed herein.]
★ –––. "Statement on Niger". Press release of July 11, 2003.
★ Rupert, James. "Diplomats Struggle On In Saddam's Capital: Main Task Is Aiding U.S. Hostages". ''[The Washington Post]]'' October 3, 1990: A25.
★ Schaffer, Michael Currie. "Joseph Wilson’s Selfless Self-Promotion: Hot Air". ''The New Republic'' July 19, 2007. Accessed August 4, 2007. (Posted at ''TNR Online''; subscribers-only access notice, though otherwise accessible.)
★ Schmidt, Susan. "Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mssion". ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2004: A09. [Online registration required.]
★ United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. , July 9, 2004 (rev. and expanded version of July 7, 2004 report). Accessed September 13, 2006.
★ Ward, Vicky. "Double Exposure: As White House Powerhouse Karl Rove Becomes Increasingly Entangled in the C.I.A. Officer-outing Affair, VF.com Reprises This January 2004 Article on the Iraq-weapons Controversy That Embroiled Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and His Wife, Valerie Plame—Both of Whom Opened Up to Vanity Fair". ''Vanity Fair'', January 2004. Rpt. ''vanityfair.com''. Accessed February 16, 2007. (11 pages.) Also accessible as "Double Exposure: Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and His Wife, C.I.A. Operative Valerie Plame, Are at the Center of Controversy Over President Bush's Bogus Claim, in Last Year's State of the Union Address, That Saddam Had Tried to Buy Uranium in Africa". ''accessmylibrary.com'', January 1, 2004. Accessed May 5, 2007 (original text). (See Diamond, as listed above, for photo.)
★ Washington Post Editorial Board. "The Libby Verdict: The Serious Consequences of a Pointless Washington Scandal". ''The Washington Post'', March 7, 2007. Accessed May 5, 2007.
★ Wheeler, Marcy. ''Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy''. Berkeley: Vaster Books (Dist. by Publishers Group West), 2007. ISBN 0-979-17610-7 (10). ISBN 978-0979-17610-4 (13).
★ Wilson, Joseph C., IV. "'Administration Went After Me and My Wife'". ''Miami Herald'', [May 2]], 2004. Rpt. in the ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''.
★ –––. "A Conversation with Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV". Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, November 9, 2005. Video clip. (1 hr., 21 mins., 46 secs.) Uploaded on September 25, 2006 via Google Video/UC Berkeley, Educational Technology Services. Accessed February 14, 2007.
★ –––. "Debunking Distortions about My Trip to Niger". ''Washington Post'', July 17, 2004. Accessed September 19, 2006.
★ –––. "Joseph Wilson's Letter to the Senate: The former Ambassador Responds to Allegations by Republican Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report Challenging His Credibility". ''AlterNet'', July 19, 2004. [Reply to Senators Roberts, Bond, and Hatch.]
★ –––. ''The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies That Put the White House On Trial and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir''. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004. Paperback ed., 2005. ISBN 0-7867-1551-0.
★ –––. "A Right-Wing Smear Is Gathering Steam: Ex-envoy Says the GOP Has Targeted Him and His Wife". ''The Los Angeles Times'', July 21, 2004. Rpt. in the ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Seeking Honesty in U.S. policy". ''The San Jose Mercury News'', September 14, 2003. Rpt. in the ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''.
★ –––. "We Will Beat Bush - Archives: Transcript of Chat with Ambassador Joe Wilson. ''JohnKerry.com'' (Blog), October 29, 2003. Archived in the The Internet Archive:Wayback Machine. Accessed August 14, 2007. ("Unedited transcript recorded live.")
★ –––. "What I Didn't Find in Africa". ''New York Times'', July 6, 2003, Op-Ed. Accessed July 23, 2007. (TimesSelect subscription required). Rpt. "What I Didn't Find in Africa". ''Common Dreams NewsCenter''. Accessed September 17, 2006.
★ –––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Press release. Online posting. ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington'' (CREW), 6 March, 2007. Accessed 6 March, 2007.
★ Wilson, Valerie Plame. "". New York: Simon and Schuster, forthcoming October 22, 2007. (Release date subject to change.) ISBN 1416537619 (10). ISBN 978-1416537618 (13).
External links
★ "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV" biography at ''PBS.org'', February 28, 2003. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "Bill Moyers Talks to Joseph C. Wilson, IV". Transcript of interview. ''PBS.org'', February 28, 2003. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "CNN Larry King Live Interview With Joseph Wilson". "Rush Transcript". ''Larry King Live'', May 3, 2004. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ ''Interactive Graphic: Timeline of a Leak'' in ''The New York Times'' online (NYTimes.com). Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ ''Joseph C. Wilson 4th'' from ''Times Topics'' (NYTimes.com). Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "Joseph Wilson". Biography at Greater Talent Network Inc. (Speakers Bureau). Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ ''Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home)''. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ Office of Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Accessed August 14, 2007.
★ "Profile: Joseph C. Wilson IV" at ''SourceWatch'' (A Project of the Center for Media & Democracy). Updated March 7, 2007. Accessed August 14, 2007.
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