An excellent NPR report on the White House exposing a CIA agent.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I understand that they let each other use their programming, but it's difficult to call a CBC report "biased" when discussing its place in the American political spectrum.

True. That's why I never said it was.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Berzerker
Cheney reacted to the notion Wilson went with his blessing and the CoS of both Cheney and Bush then showed that his wife was involved with Wilson's appointment, not Cheney.

Funny, the NPR report specifically said that no one mentioned Wilson's wife was in any way involved with the appointment until after Wilson released his report denouncing the lie that Saddam was secretly trying to buy uranium from Niger then all the sudden several high ranking WH insiders began changing their stories. NPR was very specific on that point.

What is your source for the claim that Wilson's wife was involed? NPR seems to be a good source and they're saying that simply did not happen.

[Bosh]

Do they still have Terry Gross?

[DinoDoc]

Yes.

[Dinner]

Yes, she's the host of Fresh Air.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Berzerker
Seems Wilson was a bit inaccurate when he said he went to Niger on behalf of the WH/Cheney.

I thought I had already pointed out to you that Wilson never actually claimed this. He never said the White House or Cheney sent him, and clarified in subsequent interviews that wasn't what he was saying.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Yes, she's the host of Fresh Air.

Those were always great, she didn't pull any punches.
I especially loved her interviews with Lewinski and the KISS idiot

[Berzerker]

Funny, the NPR report specifically said that no one mentioned Wilson's wife was in any way involved with the appointment until after Wilson released his report denouncing the lie that Saddam was secretly trying to buy uranium from Niger then all the sudden several high ranking WH insiders began changing their stories. NPR was very specific on that point.

Of course, it was Wilson's suggestion that he was sent with the WH/Cheney's blessing that triggered all this. Why would they out his wife before they even knew about his report and the implication that Cheney had Wilson sent to Niger?

Why is that important? Well, partisan politics is nasty business and it helps your position if a critic is or can be portrayed as partisan. If Cheney had asked for Wilson to go, he would be stuck in the position of contradicting someone he deemed qualified to investigate the Niger claim. The Bushies didn't want to add to their critic's standing, they wanted to knock Wilson down and the first step is debunking the notion the WH was involved with selecting Wilson for the trip. That way he can thern be smeared as a partisan liar and more people will ignore his claims.

What is your source for the claim that Wilson's wife was involed? NPR seems to be a good source and they're saying that simply did not happen.

Wilson...he acknowledged she was involved and cleared up any confusion about the role of Cheney in his appointment. The GOP latched onto the mis-communication as proof Wilson was lying.

What I think happened is Wilson was selected after internal CIA discussions involving his wife. Wilson said she merely referred his name for consideration. The WH never really cared if the Niger claim was valid, so the last thing they were expecting was a CIA report going public. Thats why the WH ignored Wilson until he went public. If the WH actually did care if the Niger claim was valid, why weren't they really pressing the CIA to investigate before the Prez gave his big speech. It seems like it was the CIA who pressed the WH for an investigation into Niger once they found out the Prez was using it in his speech.

[Berzerker]

I thought I had already pointed out to you that Wilson never actually claimed this. He never said the White House or Cheney sent him, and clarified in subsequent interviews that wasn't what he was saying.

I know, but what exactly did he need to clarify? He
mis-communicated the level of involvement the WH and
Cheney had in his appointment. Sure, he was probably told the WH wants to know if the Niger claim was accurate but he initially led people to believe he was sent at the behest of the WH. The WH didn't choose him, thats what the whole thing was about. A mountain out of a molehill because of partisan politics...

[Dinner]

The NPR report said the WH kept adding in the Niger uranium claim and the CIA kept saying it wasn't true. After it was put in yet again the head of the CIA called the President and said such a claim couldn't be made because the CIA had already testified to Congress that it wasn't true and the claim was taken out. Right before the State of the Union address where Bush made his speech the claim suddenly reappeared AGAIN only this time the British were attributed with making it (the British deny ever saying anything remotely like it).

On the issue of who sent Wilson to Niger; NPR reports in the opening link that Cheney wanted the CIA to prove Saddam was buying uranium from Niger so the CIA sent Wilson since he had contacts in that country. I am unclear if Cheney was in on deciding who to send but it is clear the CIA didn't agree with the claim and Cheney personally told them to send someone to Niger to dig up something to back the claim.

[Dinner]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301028_2.html

BTW WaPo has finally confirmed that Novak has flipped and given Patrick everything he has on the leak case. This isn't new news but it is the first time a major newspaper has printed it without some disclaimer that it is a rumor. Novakula... er, Novak ( ) will no doubt be one of the star prosecution witnesses against his source. The rumor is that Novak got his dirt straight from Rove where as Miller’s source was Scouter Libby. I’ve also posted a link in a different thread where ABC quoted an unnamed White House source (I know unnamed means questionable) that both Cheney and Bush both attended a meeting where people discussed how to get even with Wilson for speaking out against the Niger Uranium claim.

Of course ABC backed away from that story the next day since their source didn’t want to come forward but it does show that there may be some interesting surprises when the final report on the leak is made public.

[Ramo]

Plame penned a letter to her boss that Wilson would be qualified for the job (which he was), and then recused herself from the decision making process when the time came. Plame wasn't involved in sending Wilson, rather her superiors were. Rove/Libby tried to smear Wilson with the hint of nepotism to discredit him. Par for course from this WH. And this dirty trick compromised intelligence operations, and possibly operatives' lives.

[Ramo]

Typically NPR has everyone from Tom Delay to Ted Kennedy on and even the current Bush installed director of NPR, who was famous for claiming NPR had a leftist bias, has been unable to document such a bias dispite spending millions keeping track of every guest on every program. That such an exhausted study came up clean, and funding for other programs were cut to pay for that four year study, shows that if there is a bias it is not very pronounced.

I believe you mean the head of the CPB rather than NPR, Ken Tomlinson. He paid some crackpot $14,000 to monitor Now W/ Bill Moyers for a year for "bias," who brought back a report that claimed that folks like Chuck Hagel and Bob Barr were "liberals."

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Oerdin


True. That's why I never said it was.

I know. I was making my point with regards to Harley's original post.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Berzerker
I know, but what exactly did he need to clarify? He
mis-communicated the level of involvement the WH and
Cheney had in his appointment. Sure, he was probably told the WH wants to know if the Niger claim was accurate but he initially led people to believe he was sent at the behest of the WH. The WH didn't choose him, thats what the whole thing was about. A mountain out of a molehill because of partisan politics...

Please quote the relevant part of his op-ed that suggests the White House chose him. I've read the op-ed several times, and it does not say that at all. So he didn't miscommunicate anything. The WH, however, attempted to distort what he said for the purposes of a cheap talking point. So Wilson had to further clarify that no, he didn't say that. Having to clarify another party's distortions does not make his initial statement wrong. And there's certainly no indication that Wilson was trying to mislead people into thinking the White House sent him, as he immediately said that was not the case when asked.