An End to Ambassador Joseph Wilson
I am annoyed that the man has any credibility at all, and that people still use his statements regarding the Iraq war. But I'll quote a completely contradictory source: Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Here are some facts: Wilson was sent by the CIA (at the suggestion of his wife Valerie Plame) to Niger in 2002. (She'd done the same thing in 1999.) His objective was to confirm reports the intelligence community already had that Saddam Hussein had been trying to buy uranium ore from Niger.
He CONFIRMED that. (And the CIA already had evidence "from a very good source" of the 1999 Iraq/Niger uranium deal, which wasn't approved by Niger until two years later. We STILL don't know for sure if there was such a deal -- and when we were told of a shipment from it, we delayed the investigation until the shipment had departed.)
In January, President Bush gave his State of the Union address with these words:The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
Bush's statement was correct. Even the FactCheck.org thinks so.
The next month, February 2003, is crucial. Wilson had heard Bush's State of the Union speech. He had been to Niger. He was asked on national television about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and whether he would give them up to avoid war.
Here's what Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV said on PBS (Feb 6, 2003):[I]t's hard for me to believe that he is going to give up significant amounts of his weapons of mass destruction when he fundamentally believes that's not going to make any difference at all to his chances of survival.
Note -- Wilson wasn't saying that Hussein didn't have any -- or that rumors of them were false. He agreed with the premise that Hussein had WMDs. Wilson had been brought onto the PBS panel as an expert on Saddam Hussein. Lehrer asked him what Hussein was thinking -- he answered:Well, I think first of all I think he's trying to calculate how he can keep his weapons of mass destruction and not have war...
So what happened -- why, a few months later, did Wilson seem to completely change his mind? Simple. In May 2003, he'd gone to work for John Kerry's presidential campaign.
Wilson admitted to the US Senate investigators that he was "mistaken" -- and they determined he was not credible. This part of the full Senate report said:The former ambassador was speaking on the basis of what he believed should have happened based on his former government experience, but he had no knowledge that this did happen. These and other public comments from the former ambassador, such as comments that his report “debunked” the Niger-Iraq uranium story, were incorrect and have led to a distortion in the press and in the public’s understanding of the facts surrounding the Niger-Iraq uranium story. The Committee found that, for most analysts, the former ambassador’s report lent more credibility, not less, to the reported Niger-Iraq uranium deal.
You'd have to agree that Wilson is not credible, I would think. The CIA did -- even before they sent him to Niger (for the second time), they said of Wilson, "it appears that the results from this source will be suspect at best, and not believable under most scenarios.”
No kidding. But ... "it's hard for me to believe that he is going to give up significant amounts of his speaking career." He still makes money on speaking gigs -- some on the left don't care that he is lying, because they like the sound of his story.
His story was and is false:In an interview with [Senate] Committee staff, Mr. Wilson was asked how he knew some of the things he was stating publicly with such confidence. On at least two occasions he admitted that he had no direct knowledge to support some of his claims and that he was drawing on either unrelated past experiences or no information at all. For example, when asked how he “knew” that the Intelligence Community had rejected the possibility of a Niger-Iraq uranium deal, as he wrote in his book, he told Committee staff that his assertion may have involved “a little literary flair.” The former Ambassador, either by design or though ignorance, gave the American people and, for that matter, the world a version of events that was inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and misleading.
Now, do you still believe Ambassador Joseph Wilson?
===|==============/ Level Head
P.S. Yes, I'm keenly aware of Congressman Joseph Wilson from South Carolina, who inappropriately pointed out that President Obama was lying about illegal alien coverage. Not the same fellow, obviously.
Here are some facts: Wilson was sent by the CIA (at the suggestion of his wife Valerie Plame) to Niger in 2002. (She'd done the same thing in 1999.) His objective was to confirm reports the intelligence community already had that Saddam Hussein had been trying to buy uranium ore from Niger.
He CONFIRMED that. (And the CIA already had evidence "from a very good source" of the 1999 Iraq/Niger uranium deal, which wasn't approved by Niger until two years later. We STILL don't know for sure if there was such a deal -- and when we were told of a shipment from it, we delayed the investigation until the shipment had departed.)
In January, President Bush gave his State of the Union address with these words:The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
Bush's statement was correct. Even the FactCheck.org thinks so.
The next month, February 2003, is crucial. Wilson had heard Bush's State of the Union speech. He had been to Niger. He was asked on national television about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and whether he would give them up to avoid war.
Here's what Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV said on PBS (Feb 6, 2003):[I]t's hard for me to believe that he is going to give up significant amounts of his weapons of mass destruction when he fundamentally believes that's not going to make any difference at all to his chances of survival.
Note -- Wilson wasn't saying that Hussein didn't have any -- or that rumors of them were false. He agreed with the premise that Hussein had WMDs. Wilson had been brought onto the PBS panel as an expert on Saddam Hussein. Lehrer asked him what Hussein was thinking -- he answered:Well, I think first of all I think he's trying to calculate how he can keep his weapons of mass destruction and not have war...
So what happened -- why, a few months later, did Wilson seem to completely change his mind? Simple. In May 2003, he'd gone to work for John Kerry's presidential campaign.
Wilson admitted to the US Senate investigators that he was "mistaken" -- and they determined he was not credible. This part of the full Senate report said:The former ambassador was speaking on the basis of what he believed should have happened based on his former government experience, but he had no knowledge that this did happen. These and other public comments from the former ambassador, such as comments that his report “debunked” the Niger-Iraq uranium story, were incorrect and have led to a distortion in the press and in the public’s understanding of the facts surrounding the Niger-Iraq uranium story. The Committee found that, for most analysts, the former ambassador’s report lent more credibility, not less, to the reported Niger-Iraq uranium deal.
You'd have to agree that Wilson is not credible, I would think. The CIA did -- even before they sent him to Niger (for the second time), they said of Wilson, "it appears that the results from this source will be suspect at best, and not believable under most scenarios.”
No kidding. But ... "it's hard for me to believe that he is going to give up significant amounts of his speaking career." He still makes money on speaking gigs -- some on the left don't care that he is lying, because they like the sound of his story.
His story was and is false:In an interview with [Senate] Committee staff, Mr. Wilson was asked how he knew some of the things he was stating publicly with such confidence. On at least two occasions he admitted that he had no direct knowledge to support some of his claims and that he was drawing on either unrelated past experiences or no information at all. For example, when asked how he “knew” that the Intelligence Community had rejected the possibility of a Niger-Iraq uranium deal, as he wrote in his book, he told Committee staff that his assertion may have involved “a little literary flair.” The former Ambassador, either by design or though ignorance, gave the American people and, for that matter, the world a version of events that was inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and misleading.
Now, do you still believe Ambassador Joseph Wilson?
===|==============/ Level Head
P.S. Yes, I'm keenly aware of Congressman Joseph Wilson from South Carolina, who inappropriately pointed out that President Obama was lying about illegal alien coverage. Not the same fellow, obviously.