Juan Cole calls Rove a traitor , "Unfit"

[librechik]

also straightens out a few details in this twisted mess--worth saving and passing around to the unconvinced.

"Rove can only have thought it would discredit Wilson to associate his mission with the CIA if he viewed the CIA as the enemy. This is the Richard Perle line. If Wilson was sent to Niger on the recommendation of a CIA operative, then he was not an objective ex-ambassador but a CIA plant of some sort, attempting to undermine the Bush administration and the military occupation of Iraq.

This theory is that of a crackpot. The actions are those of a traitor. What is the difference between Robert Hanssen revealing key secret information for money to the Soviets and Karl Rove revealing it to the proliferators for political gain for the Republican Party and the Bush White House? Both are traitors who traded secrets for gain.

A man who would do what Rove did should not be in the White House in any capacity. And no person who tolerates a man like Rove in the White House should be commander in chief of American security...."

(more)

http://www.juancole.com/2005/07/rove-unfit-for-public-office-whether.html

[metisnation]

1. walking on the fighting side of me.

benidict arnold=karl rove.

[calimary]

2. Holy smokes - what a GREAT line!

"A man who would do what Rove did should not be in the White House in any capacity. And no person who tolerates a man like Rove in the White House should be commander in chief of American security...."

Mongo impressed!

[librechik]

3. Juan Cole is the best. n/t

[kodi]

4. oddly both State Dept and DoD reports corroborated Wilson's report

and the white house had those reports as well before they attacked wilson's credentials. this is what makes it worse, that the white house had three different reports that the presscake allegations were not true, the white house attacked wilson in part because he was the only one revealing to the public that undermined their accusations.

References to Ambassador (to Niger) Owens-Kirkpatrick and Marine General Carlton Fulford and their reports on niger uranium press cakes.

Found at http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/07/16/wilson_letter/index_np.htm

Wilson’s rebuttal to the allegations of lying made in “Additional View” Appendix signed by Senators Roberts, Burns, and Hatch…not from the actual unanimous report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. (linked below)

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html

“My article in the New York Times makes clear that I attributed to myself "a small role in the effort to verify information about Africa's suspected link to Iraq's nonconventional weapons programs." After it became public that there were then-Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick's report and the report from a four-star Marine Corps general, Carleton Fulford, in the files of the U.S. government, I went to great lengths to point out that mine was but one of three reports on the subject.”

Additionally @ Page 41 of the Niger section of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/13jul20041400/www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/pdf/s108-301/sec2.pdf

“On February 24,2002, the U.S. Embassy in Niamey disseminated a cable (NIAMEY
000262) describing a meeting between the U.S. Ambassador to Niger, Barbro Owens-
Kirkpatrick, Deputy Commander, European Command, General Carlton Fulford, Niger’s
President, Mamadou Tandja and Foreign Minister Kichatou Mindaoudou. General Fulford had previously scheduled a routine refueling stop and brief meeting with Nigerien officials at the request of Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick. Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick told Committee staff that she routinely encouraged visitors to Western Africa to make refueling stops in Niger.

“She said “when you are assigned to a place like Niger, which is not exactly the center of the universe . . .you take everything you can get. And I worked very hard to make Niger the best refueling stop in Africa.” When the Iraq-Niger uranium reporting surfaced in early February, Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick decided to ask General Fulford to use the previously scheduled meeting to raise the uranium issue with Nigerien officials. Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick prepared talking points for General Fulford to use during his visit and the CIA coordinated on the talking points.

Page 42 of the Niger section of the senate intelligence committee report.

“Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick told Committee staff she recalled
the former ambassador saying “he had reached the same conclusions that the embassy had reached, that it was highly unlikely that anything was going on.’’

Marine Gen. Carlton W. Fulford Jr

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A56336-2003Jul14¬Found=true

“A four-star general, who was asked to go to Niger last year to inquire about the security of Niger's uranium, told The Washington Post yesterday that he came away convinced the country's stocks were secure. The findings of Marine Gen. Carlton W. Fulford Jr. were passed up to Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- though it was unclear whether they reached officials in the White House.

“In an interview, Fulford said he came away "assured" that the supply of "yellowcake" was kept secure by a French consortium. Both Fulford, then deputy commander of the U.S. European Command and his commander, Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, said the issue did not surface again, although they were both routinely briefed on weapons proliferation in Africa. "I was convinced it was not an issue," Fulford said.

“Fulford was asked by the U.S. ambassador to Niger, BarbroOwens-Kirkpatrick, to join her at the meeting with Niger's President Mamadou Tandja on Feb. 24, 2002. "I was asked to impress upon the president the importance that the yellowcake in Niger be under control," Fulford said. "I did that. He assured me. He said the mining operations were handled through a French consortium" and therefore out of the Niger government's control. Owens-Kirkpatrick, reached by phone, declined to comment.

“Fulford's impressions, while not conclusive, were similar to those of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who traveled to Niger for the CIA in February 2002 to interview Niger officials about the uranium claim and came away convinced it was not true.”

so it wasn't just CIA who was questioning the presscake allegations. every government organization that investigated it said it was not true

[librechik]

6. thanks for the great links, kodi

it really burns me up when wingers say "EVERBODY thought Saddam had WMDs"

no, morons, not everybody thought that

[senseandsensibility]

5. kicked

and nominated