A question about Valerie Plame ?

[kentuck]

If Joe Wilson went to Africa at her urging, why would she be interested in finding out if Saddam was getting uranium yellowcake from Niger? If she was a simple pencil pusher, why would she have any interest at all in this subject? It was the White House, not the CIA, that was pushing the story that Saddam was acquiring nuclear materials and it might be too late after we see the "mushroom" cloud? Plame was with the CIA - not the White House - right? Would she suggest her husband go to Africa on his own or did someone else recommend the idea and then maybe she suggested her husband??

[Sparkly]

1. Someone else was proposing it, and she suggested him

because he's familiar with Africa.

[napi21]

2. Cheney sent a letter to the CIA asking that they send someone

to Niger to check on the yellow cake story. some say that Valerie suggested her husband becaue he was an Ambassador to Africa, and had also worked with Iraq so he had the right connections . Some others say that the CIA thought about Joe and asked Valerie for her opinion. But the final decision to send Joe on this assignment was made by people at a much higher level at the CIA than Valerie ever was.

[Zen Democrat]

3. Don't be fooled. This "She sent her husband" is the hook used

by Rove, et al. to discredit Joe Wilson's attack on the "16 words". In order to use this little bit of misinfo they, as a matter of course, had to disclose her position in the CIA working on WMD matters.

They were a little too clever by half, it seems.

The story is not Wilson or his wife -- what he said one way or the other matters not, except that it triggered a very dangerous retaliation that Rove, Bush and the other plotters will rue for the rest of their days. Let's talk legacy here.

[Joy Anne]

5. not a junket

Whenever this trip is discussed, it sounds like she got him a 2-week vacation in Hawaii. Niger doesn't have a big tourist industry; she wasn't doing him any big favor.

It's sort of like when I tell my brother-in-law that my husband will help him with his computer virus.

[madeline_con]

8. "Let's talk legacy here"

Do impeached Prez's lose their pension?

[Sparkly]

4. See this, kentuck!!

http://www.buzzflash.com/index.php?story=Story3

[kentuck]

6. Thanks !

Joe clears it up pretty well there...

[madeline_con]

7. Wilson was interviewed by Blitzer today...

But I can't find an actual transcript. Here's an article Wolf wrote:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/08/wbr.iraq.claims/