Wilson-Plame Review
Jack Kelly wrote a great article about
Plamegate that's well worth reading.
It's also obvious that Mr. Fitzpatrick was out to make a name for himself because he knew who the leaker was within days of taking the job. Shame on him for starting this investigation.
UPDATE: The NY Times is running an article that says Armitage has admitted that he's the original leaker. My first reaction was "How nice of him after all these years." Mr. Armitage's image won't suffer in Washington but I'd doubt that he's held in high esteem outside the Beltway.
Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:04 AM
July 2006 Posts
No comments.
A new book by Michael Isikoff, an investigative reporter for Newsweek, and David Corn, who writes for the far left wing magazine The Nation, casts many powerful people in Washington in an unflattering light, but not the people who Mr. Isikoff and Mr. Corn wish to besmirch.As I said way back when, I didn't take Wilson's accusations, made in his now infamous NY Times op-ed, seriously because people that get sent on CIA junkets sign a nondisclosure agreement prior to their junket. The fact that Wilson leaked information about the trip and wasn't even investigated for wrongdoing was a bright red flag for anyone interested in the truth.
A brief review for those of you who have lives, and who consequently haven't been following closely the details of the Plame Name Game: In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
First in leaks to reporters, and then in his own op-ed in the New York Times, a retired diplomat, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, said the president was lying. His claim to speak with authority was that in the spring of 2002, the CIA had sent him to Niger to see if Saddam had tried to buy uranium there.
Mr. Wilson's charge was important because it marked the beginning of the "Bush lied" meme about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But investigations by the Senate Intelligence Committee; the Robb-Silberman Commission on prewar intelligence, and the British Butler Commission all concluded it was Mr. Wilson who was not telling the truth. Saddam had indeed tried to buy uranium in Africa, as even Mr. Wilson himself had acknowledged to the CIA officers who debriefed him after his Niger trip.I've written many times that the easiest way to tell if Joe Wilson was lying was to see if his lips were moving. He's that dishonest. These investigations bear witness to that.
Clarice Feldman, a Washington, D.C. lawyer, described Mr. Armitage's silence as "inexplicable and perfidious." "Had he spoken out publicly immediately, could there have been a reason for the press to have demanded the appointment of the feckless special prosecutor?" she asked.I'd like to know why Armitage hasn't been excoriated in the press like Rove, Libby and Cheney have been. It's likely that he hasn't been because he's considered a 'moderate' in a moderate-loving city. The other obvious explanation is that he isn't one of Bush's gunslingers.
It's also obvious that Mr. Fitzpatrick was out to make a name for himself because he knew who the leaker was within days of taking the job. Shame on him for starting this investigation.
UPDATE: The NY Times is running an article that says Armitage has admitted that he's the original leaker. My first reaction was "How nice of him after all these years." Mr. Armitage's image won't suffer in Washington but I'd doubt that he's held in high esteem outside the Beltway.
Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:04 AM
July 2006 Posts
No comments.
