Did Rove spread a lie, claiming Wilson's WIFE authorized his trip?

[BurtWorm]

The Left Coaster points this out, upon a reading of Michael Issikoff's story about Cooper's notes. Granted, Cooper may have misread Rove, but his notes state flatly that Rove fed him an untruth. Valerie Wilson did not authorize Wilson's trip.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/page/2/

Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd <weapons of mass destruction> issues who authorized the trip." Wilson's wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an suspect but so is the report. he implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro Niger ... "

[Cocoa]

1. Rove said McCain had an illegitimate black child

who cares, at this point, if something Rove said turned out not to be true?

[BurtWorm]

4. Don't you want to know if Rove was caught lying about a critic of the war

to the press? Isn't that kind of central to this case? That would explain his motive in outing Plame, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it seem that Rove (and the admin) were trying to make Wilson look like an America-hating milquetoast doing his wife's bidding and who was trying to make it look like Cheney sent him?

[Cocoa]

6. who cares who sent Wilson?

to find relevance in that question, then or now, you really have to twist yourself into mental knots.

And if Rove lied, or if Wilson lied, about such an irrelevant question, who cares?

[BurtWorm]

8. What mental knots? The RNC is claiming Rove was trying to correct

an untruth or misimpression Wilson was spreading. If so, then why did he do it by feeding Cooper a lie? Why didn't he give Cooper "the truth?"

Of course this question is a red herring. Rove, it seems, was using it (and using Cooper and possibly Novak and Miller to boot) to distract from the real issue behind Wilson's 7/6 editorial, which is that the Bush administration based its rush to war on lies about weapons of mass distruction. Rove apparently was trying to make it personal. The RNC is continuing to try to make it personal. But this is a dangerous tactic, given what lousy personalities they're trying to defend, and given that the more we know about what those lousy personalities did, the more we know about the lies that led to the war.

[LSK]

21. but Wilson was not spreading any untruth

He has repeatedly said the CIA sent him, NOT CHENEY.

[BurtWorm]

24. No shit.

;)

I wonder why I'm having a hard time communicating today.

I know Wilson did not make the claim Rove and the RNC are now desperately trying to claim he made, i.e., that Cheney sent him. I am trying to point out that Rove's relationship with Cooper suggests he (or "they"--i.e., the Bushists) created this phony spin (about Wilson claiming to have been sent by Cheney) back in July 2003.

If Cooper's notes are accurate, it shows what Rove was up to: he was trying to tell Cooper (and who knows who else) that Wilson may say he was sent by Cheney*, but he was actually sent by his DemonCRAP wife to make Bush look bad. He was lying, in other words. He was trying to switch the focus from the political to the personal. That's what these fuckers always try to do.

* I repeat, I know Wilson never said Cheney sent him.

[Beaverhausen]

26. I too have been wondering about this aspect of the case

*I* know what you are talking about.

and on edit:

If you go to this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4101732

you will see that the freepers are trying to say that Plame sent Wilson to Niger and THAT was the crime here and that outing Plame is the real reason this all happened.

[BurtWorm]

27. I saw that. See how pliable those freepers are?

Like putty in Karl's hands. :eyes:

(Your link doesn't go to that thread, by the way, but to the GD board's first page.)

[Beaverhausen]

29. I fixed the link

And apparantly even Repub congresspeople are smearing Wilson now.

[BurtWorm]

30. They're all on the same page.

Automatons!

[LSK]

31. dont worry, Fitzgerald knows exactly who sent who and why

Im sure he has access to CIA documents and officials have testified the truth.

The freeps can only speculate and spin and in the end that is meaningless.

[BurtWorm]

32. He at least has access to the Senate Intelligence Committee report

on Niger. Freepers have access to that too, but of course we can't expect THEM to read it. :eyes:

http://yuricareport.com/OverSight/SenateReportOnIntellOnNiger.pdf

[Beaver Tail]

5. illegitimate black child

So if he adopted a black child who was born "illegitimate" (I hate that word when refering to a child) than Rove did not actually lie because he did HAVE an illegitimate black child he just was not the biological FATHER!!!!!!!

Parsing words again

Nice how people so qucikly RELATE words before understand what was actually ment. Rove KNOWS this and is using it to his advantage wiht a perverted sense of enjoyment.....:rant:

[Citizen Jane]

19. Details on the McCain story for those interested

from http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/

...snip

"Thus, the "pollsters" asked McCain supporters if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black. In the conservative, race-conscious South, that's not a minor charge. We had no idea who made the phone calls, who paid for them, or how many calls were made. Effective and anonymous: the perfect smear campaign.

Some aspects of this smear were hardly so subtle. Bob Jones University professor Richard Hand sent an e-mail to "fellow South Carolinians" stating that McCain had "chosen to sire children without marriage." It didn't take long for mainstream media to carry the charge. CNN interviewed Hand and put him on the spot: "Professor, you say that this man had children out of wedlock. He did not have children out of wedlock." Hand replied, "Wait a minute, that's a universal negative. Can you prove that there aren't any?""

...snip

I guess it depends on how you mentally interpret "fathering a child" and, for that matter, black (since his daughter is Bangladeshi and from Mother Teresa's orphanage).

[stopbush]

2. Yes, he did. Plame suggested Wilson for the trip but lacked the

authority to authorize the trip or his inclusion.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Of course he lied. Here you go:

Media repeated false GOP talking point on authorization for Wilson trip to Niger

Numerous media figures have repeated, or failed to question, a Republican National Committee (RNC) talking point asserting that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney "sent him" on a 2002 CIA mission to Niger, as well as White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove's reported assertion that "Wilson's wife" authorized the trip. The RNC has accused Wilson of misrepresenting the Niger trip in its effort to explain and justify Rove's alleged involvement in leaking the identity of Wilson's wife, former clandestine CIA officer Valerie Plame. Specifically, according to the RNC talking point, Rove told Time magazine writer Matthew Cooper that "Wilson's wife," who worked at the CIA, had authorized Wilson's trip because Rove was trying to prevent Cooper from writing inaccurately that Cheney had sent Wilson on the mission. As the RNC alleged: "The bottom line is Karl Rove was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise and the Democrats are engaging in blatant partisan political attacks."

In fact, both of the claims underpinning the RNC's defense of Rove are false: Wilson never claimed he was sent to Niger at Cheney's request, and it was the CIA's Directorate of Operations, Counterproliferation Division (CPD), that authorized the trip, not Plame.

much more at http://mediamatters.org/items/200507140001

[dogday]

7. He never claimed that---

Wilson's wife who worked in WMD's at the CIA was asked if she knew of anybody who was qualified for this assignment, which btw Cheney is the one who asked the CIA to do this in the first place.

She introduced Joe to her superiors and they directed Joe to go to Niger. VP did not have the authority to authorize the trip....


BTW are you really buying this right wing trash?

[BurtWorm]

9. What right wing trash do you think I'm buying?

:wtf:

Are you really reading the original post correctly? It says that *Karl Rove* seems to have fed Matthew Cooper with the lie that *Plame* authorized the trip.

[dogday]

13. I am just saying if you know this is crap

why post it in the first place... It is the RW talking points...

[BurtWorm]

16. I'm really baffled by your posts.

If I know what Rove says is crap why post it? The point of my post is that what Rove said to Cooper is crap! How can I not cite the crap if I want to show it's crap? I really don't understand what you're getting at.

That is English you're writing in, right? :wtf:

[dogday]

17. It's ok

I don't understand yours either, but that is the fun of it, now.. I think I understand you are trying to point out the flaws of the story and I am tired of hearing them.. Not your fault, not mine.....

[BurtWorm]

22. The flaws of what story?

The flaws of Rove's story? Who isn't tired of hearing Rove's story?

The point is, if Cooper is reporting accurately, then Rove led him to believe Plame had the authority to send Wilson. She did not. That's a fact. Was Rove mistaken or did he deliberately lie? We all believe he lied, don't we? So catching him in this lie is kind of heartening to those of us who would like to see justice, isn't it? It suggests that Rove might get in some kind of legal trouble for spreading deliberate lies to the media as an agent of the administration. Right? We're on the same page now?

[dogday]

25. Again It's ok

yes we are, we have been, may this be the last post on this please?

[BurtWorm]

28. One more.

Why did you think I was "buying" right wing crap? That's what I really don't get. Right wingers don't think Rove lied.

[NewJeffCT]

14. and, everybody knows a trip to Niger is a plum assignment

I mean, the list for best places to be an ambassador is topped by Niger ahead of places like Tahiti, Bermuda, & Curacao. What's that old saying about Niger, "Every day is like a vacation"?

:sarcasm:

[Garbo 2004]

10. Yes, but also leads to the likely source of the info, a classified

report that had that incorrect info. See this blog for more info and links:

How the White House knew Plame was CIA.
by pollyusa
Wed Jul 13th, 2005 at 11:12:46 PDT

An INR (State Department) analyist wrote a classified report detailing a meeting that took place in early 2002. This document was leaked, by the administration, well before sections of the document became public in the 2004 Senate Report on Prewar Intelligence.

The information contained in this 2002 State Department classified document, that Plame was CIA and that she dispatched him, was exactly what was leaked in 2003 to Cooper by Rove and to Novak.

In the 2002 classified report the INR analyst states that the meeting was "apparently convened by < the former Ambassador's wife > wife who had the idea to dispatch < him >" . The Senate Report includes Plame's statement that "she only attended the meeting to introduce her husband and left after about three minutes".
http://dailykos.com/story/2005/7/13/141246/050

[BurtWorm]

11. I saw that and didn't make the connection.

So that's the document that Cloud referred to in his Oct. 8 (I think) 2003 WSJ article!

Man, this is a twisted story. What if it was Bolton who was at that meeting?

[Peregrine]

12. She probably did authorize it

When a person is directed to make a trip that is related to intelligence, it probably requires someone at the CIA to sign of on it (AKA authorize).

Even if Condi orders Joe Schmoe to France for the purpose of gathering information on the French Olympic bid, the trip probably has to be "authorized" by someone in the CIA, probably the French desk officer.

Hell Wilson's trip probably had to be "authorized" by the CIA, State, NSC, ...

[Zodiak]

15. She didn't authorize it. There is no "probably" n/t

[Just Me]

18. She COULDN'T "authorize" it,...for crying out loud!!!!

:eyes:

Anyhoots, I would be greatly satisfied to witness Rove et al. personally sued for everything those f*ckers have as a result of their malignant behavior!!!

[BurtWorm]

20. No. Wilson's trip was authorized by a committee in the WMD group

at CIA. Wilson's wife was not involved in the plans of the trip. She only introduced Wilson to it.

This is all according to the report on intelligence leading to the war in Iraq by the Senate Committee on Intelligence. I highly recommend everyone interested in the case read it. It answers a lot of questions.

[LSK]

23. thanks for the link

GREAT RESOURCE!