question re: Joseph Wilson

[oustemnow]

Does anyone know here if, prior to his NYT editorial in 7/03, Wilson had criticized Bush's Iraq plan? Particularly, before his trip to Niger?

In one of his ass-covering columns, Novak claimed that he'd originally been curious about why Wilson was chosen for the Niger trip because, in part, "Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one." It seems like this is a sneaky rearrangement of chronology. For one thing, obviously his contri to Gore would have had nothing to do with his criticism of Bush's Iraq policy because, duh, Bush hadn't taken the White House yet and hadn't publicly offered any Iraq policy.

More troubling, Novak leaves the impression that it would've been odd for Wilson to have been chosen for the Niger trip, in February 2002, because he'd already been critical of Bush's Iraq policy. However, given how long ago that was and that Bush at that point was still a ways off from publicly declaring a planned invasion of Iraq (the "Axis of Evil" speech notwithstanding), it would have been unlikely for Wilson to already have been criticizing the policy.

[oustemnow]

1. kick in self-interest

damn, this is sinking quick! NE1?

[displacedtexan]

2. i sat next to ambassador wilson

at a DC policy forum on the wednesday before his op ed the following sunday. even then, surrounded by colleen rowley, ray mcgovern, jim hightower, jamie galbraith and amy goodman and several others, wilson never criticized the freak monkey or said anything at all against the administration. in fact, i was shocked the following sunday, when i read his op ed (or letter... i forget the format).

ray mcgovern was the one dissing the resident, and he was the one who said joe wilson would finally tell the world something important 'next week.' that 'something' was the first public statement joe wilson made concerning the shrub.

unless asskkkroft has been bugging wilson's home and feeding his private converstions to novakula, there is no way that bobblehead's verb 'had become' could be accurate.

[Must_B_Free]

3. well, he came back with the wrong answer

so he was a problem to the admin as soon as he delivered his findings.

[many a good man]

4. He never spoke out

I'm sure I read an article or heard an interview where he said he had never spoken publicly against the decision to go to war. He said that he was surprised about the mention of uranium from Africa in the SOTU, but figured there must have been some other country involved.

He said something about hearing a weekend State Department press conference where the #1 spokesman was out and the #2 spokesman filling in confirmed that African country was indeed Niger. I think this was either right before the the war started or during the combat phase. He said he waited until the war over before speaking out. That's when the NYT op-ed came out.

[w13rd0]

5. Novak is a liar...

...Lexus-Nexus...nada on Wilson prior to the yellowcake dustup...

[alcuno]

6. He traveled to Niger in February 2002.

I don't believe he began speaking out until last fall. There was nothing to speak out about until the administration "rolled out" its new policy.