Did Valerie have a hand in sending Joe to Africa?

[napi21]

I heard an argument on TV last night (Hardball I think) where the Pub guest stated "Valerie was responsible for sending her husband to Africa, and we now know that's true."

No one on the show refuted that statement. I thought, even though she did work for the CIA, others made the decision to send Joe to Africa bacause he had worked with people there in the past and had some contacts. Was that statement another line of BS from the Pubs?

[Zenlitened]

1. When a puke says it's true, assume it's a lie.

Republican = liar. That's just the way it is.

[olacan]

2. As I

understand it she recommend that he go based on his experience.

[underpants]

9. Exactly-this is a complete BS argument

Was the document fake? YES
Could anyone of us been able to tell that in about 5 mintues of googling? YES
Was this document considered a complete joke in DC for years?YES
Did the British investigation only really clear W of using the word "sought"? YES

Does her recommending (but not having the authority to make the call) him having anything whatsoever to do with this? NO

OH! Welcome to DU olacan :hi:

[Just Me]

28. That is simply NOT true. She did not recommend or suggest him.

The RW assertion is a damned lie!!!!

[dogday]

3. Yes it its but let them spin

this trial is not being held in the court of public opinion, this trial is being held in a Grand Jury. The issue is not why Joe went to Niger but Rove exposing Valerie Plame....

[two gun sid]

4. I think all she did was recommend him...

she didn't make the decision. No matter what any one says Joe Wilson was well qualified to make that trip. Any other spin is just bullshit.

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

27. And he did a great job! He got the story right! That's why they're mad!

[trumad]

5. My understanding is that Val made the suggestion

because Joe was experienced and knew Niger. She did not make the final decision though to send him.

[H2O Man]

13. Nope.

She did not make a suggestion to send him. Others did, then approached her to get in touch with him. She responded to their inquiry, nothing more.

[trumad]

18. Didn't she introduce Joe to her superiors

and then leave the Conference room? Thanks for refreshing my memory.

[H2O Man]

23. Well, if she did,

would it not make sense that they had arranged to have him brought in to discuss the situation? The republicans would like us to skip that tiny detail, and assume that there was a meeting at CI, and Valerie just knocked on the door, brought her husband in to the surprise of those involved, and said, "Use Joe for this. Though he's not qualified, he needs to get out of the house for a couple weeks. And he loves the mint tea in Niger." (grin)

How have you been? I think that things are catching up to the good old boys in that there White House! Dang! Didn't they learn?

[trumad]

31. Yeah

This is the loudest the drums have banged since dubya's been in office. I've been great thanks....

[Beaver Tail]

6. From earlier post i have read I get the idea that

Valerie SUGGESTED her husband based on is credentials and experience. She did not have the power to send him. She just made a suggestion to those who could send him.

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

26. If so, it was a sound recommendation. Wilson knew Niger intimately

[Just Me]

29. That's simply not true. She was not involved in his selection.

Please, avoid repeating the lies proferred by the RW.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. So what?

Wilson was certainly qualified for the job.

Did Colin Powell's son run the FCC? What qualified him other then a well connected daddy?

[H2O Man]

8. No.

Anyone familiar with CI knows that this is simply not possible. It could not, would not, and absolutely did not happen.

Further, why would she even want to send her "retired" husband to one of the poorest countries in the world, for no pay? Doesn't add up to a great vacation, does it?

The Agency uses the people who serve as ambassadors all the time. It's not rare at all. But Wilson and his supporters can't come out and say, "Hey, Joe has worked for the CIA numerous times in the past, and did enough work in Africa that he was considered the 'go to' man for this particular job!'"

After those who do make the decisions had determined he was that "go-to" man, they simply got in touch with him through his wife.

[NewJeffCT]

14. If the RW is selling vacations at Gitmo...

They can probably make a week in Niger sound like the equivalent to spending a week at the Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii...

[H2O Man]

19. The RW are indeed capable in the science

known as scatology: they can turn hard facts into soft shit faster than a herd of bovine can digest hay.

[bushisanidiot]

10. That's a freeptard talking point and as usual, has no basis in fact.

another talking point they use is that if valerie plame didn't want her name and occupation to be known then she shouldn't have had that information put in the magazine and newspaper stories that came out about her outing.

these morons are blaming valerie plame for the story on her own outing.

it's typical 2 + 2 = 5893492 freeptard logic.

[emulatorloo]

20. Rove's Lawyer is repeating, AP is buying it

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBRWILR1BE.html

see last paragraphs where lawyer is given free reign w/o question:

<snip>

It said "Wilson's wife" - not CIA Director George Tenet or Vice President Dick Cheney - authorized a trip by Wilson to Africa. The purpose was to check out reports that Iraq had tried to obtain yellowcake uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Plame's husband suggested in a New York Times op-ed piece that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq. Wilson's trip to Africa provided the basis for his criticism.

Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, said his client did not disclose Plame's name. Luskin declined to say how Rove found out that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and refused to say how Rove came across the information that it was Wilson's wife who authorized his trip to Africa.

"In the conversation, Karl is warning Cooper not to get too far out in front of the story," Luskin said. "There were false allegations out there that Vice President Cheney sent Wilson to Niger and that Wilson had reported back to Cheney about his trip to Niger. Neither was true."

Luskin added, "A fair-minded reading of Cooper's e-mail is that Rove was trying to discourage Time magazine from circulating false allegations about Cheney, not trying to encourage them by saying anything about Wilson or his wife."

<snip>

[Lochloosa]

11. And the reply to this should be:

And that justifies the ratting out of a CIA agent?

[valniel]

12. It is not relevant!!

:shrug: It is just another red herring, to divert attention from the real issues!!

[quiet.american]

15. The real question is -- So?

Even if Valerie Plame logged into Expedia.com and bought Joe Wilson the ticket to Africa, it does not change the truth one bit, and that is that Bush lied about Niger seeking to obtain yellowcake from Saddam Hussein. Bush lied even after he was warned by George Tenet that this information was unreliable and should be removed from the State of the Union address.

Now, as to whether it can be proved that Bush "knowingly" lied is another matter. But even if Plame piloted the plane that flew Wilson into Niger, it does not change the FACT that Niger did not seek nor receive yellowcake from Iraq and that Bush lied about it in the State of the Union address.

[Hamlette]

34. another response would be, if she did, she was very powerful

to be sending people on state missions. Makes outing her more nefarious.

[quiet.american]

40. Indeed, that is another good point. n/t

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

16. What does it matter? It doesn't change the facts.

The Niger-Uranium fiasco wasn't true.
Karl Rove revealed the identity of a CIA agent.

Case closed. Plame sending her husband to Africa doesn't change those two most important facts.

[leftchick]

17. He went at "the request of cheney's office"...

This is probably why you don't see the one person on TV right now talking about rove's lies in the emails. Joe Wilson....

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=6924&fcategory_desc=Dick%20Cheney%20and%20Halliburton

~snip~

His struggle with the White House dates to a mission in early 2002, at the request of Mr Cheney's office. He was sent to the west African state of Niger, where he was once ambassador, to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium to develop nuclear weapons. The claims were based on a document obtained by Italian intelligence services, which had passed the information to Washington.

In less than a week Mr Wilson proved that the claim was false and that the document must be a fake. Returning to Washington, he reported this to a debriefer from the CIA. Later, experts from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed the document was a crude forgery. But when Mr Bush and his senior officials continued to make the claim - first publicised in the British Government's September 2002 dossier on Iraq - he felt it was his duty to speak out. In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, in which he asked that he not be identified, and subsequently in a signed piece in The New York Times, Mr Wilson pointed out that it was inconceivable that senior US and British officials were not aware of his findings.

[seabeyond]

21. way back when, i heard, she recommended and they acknowledge

with his experience as ambassador to iraq during first gulf war a good idea

she didnt make the decision and do it behind alls back. you think cheney went to her and said valerie, this is your job. you make the decisions.........not

[peace frog]

22. In a word...

No.

[brainshrub]

24. That is exactly what got the Cons in trouble in the first place.

The reason Novak was ordered to leak Plame's identity was to imply that she was guilty of nepotism by having her husband selected for an easy, plumb job to Africa.

The reason Wilson was sent to Africa was because the question of whether or not Uranium was sold to the Iraqis was not a WMD issue, but a mining and political issue.

Wilson had worked in Africa for years, and had close ties to the leaders in charge of the Uranium process. That's why he was sent; it had nothing to do with who his wife was.

[oasis]

25. "Wilson's wife is the culprit" may fly in the deepest depths of Koolaidom

but nowhere else.

[G_j]

30. damn, we need some good links to refute this

not that I have seen anything concrete to back up their spin.
Another post asks us to set AP straight, but it will help to have some backup. I would be glad to write them but I doubt if they would just take my word that she didn't have a part in 'sending' him to Africa.

[Galley_Queen]

32. Here's a Link from Joseph Wilson Himself

regarding this issue. His wife had basically nothing to do with him going to Niger, and according to Wilson, wasn't all that keen on him going anyway as she was pregnant at the time...

Debunking Distortions...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56501-2004Jul16.html

"...The decision to send me to Niger was not made, and could not be made, by Valerie. At the conclusion of a meeting that she did not attend, I was asked by CIA officials whether I would be willing to travel to Niger. While a CIA reports officer and a State Department analyst, both cited in the report, speculate about what happened, neither of them was in the chain of command that made the decision to send me."

[G_j]

33. thank you

a very clear and concise quote from Wilson.

[Dawgs]

35. It doesn't matter what they think, we think, etc...

Also, the courts will not care about this information. It's irrelevant.

Those on the right, and left, will spin anything they can to get public opinion on their side. We just have to live with it.

[Norquist Nemesis]

36. Here's a good piece on the details

published almost exactly one year ago today.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=1558

Has all of the details about did she/didn't she, did he/didn't he, etc.

:hi:

[blogslut]

37. Jimmy Dale Guckert

...tried to pass this one off.

JD interviewed Wilson for Talon. In the interview, Guckert claimed to a have a "secret memo" that spoke of the CIA meeting centering on the recommendation of Wilson. Guckert said the memo stated that Plame was at that meeting. The CIA came out later and said Mrs. Wilson was never at any such meeting.

I knew this would be the talking point. It's pretty weak but they sure keep spinning it.

[Toots]

38. How would Rove have known that if it is indeed true?

Wouldn't that information be classified? Rove had no Classified Clearence. How did Rove know so much classified information? Bush* is the one who is guilty of releasing classified Information when he talked to Rove and Rove will have a hard time finding someone to fill in for Bush* as the main leaker.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

39. The WH will make sure this ends up like a rape trial

"Ms. Plame, despite the photos of Mr. Roves handprints and the noose he tied around your neck, can you tell us what you may have done to incite the poor man?"