Who sent Wilson?

[electron_blue]

I've lost track - who really sent Wilson to Niger?

Was it Plame? Was it CIA? Was it Cheney? (that last one makes no sense - why would Cheney risk sending someone suspect (i.e., not a total Bushie) to "look" for yellowcake.)

[maddezmom]

1. the CIA sent Wilson

[electron_blue]

2. Okay, but who in the CIA

I'm just curious - was this just the CIA doing its job in the "normal" course of events? I haven't heard the latest on this.

[Cocoa]

4. that's what the CIA does

they send people on missions.

What are you driving at?

[electron_blue]

22. Just trying to figure it out

I was under the assumption that Cheney et al. wanted war with Iraq no matter the costs. I still think this is the case. So it didn't make sense to me that they'd send Wilson. I would have thought they'd know Wilson was not on the team, kwim? But now it makes sense. Sounds like the CIA sent him, and *IF* Cheney (or Bush, etc.) knew he was going, they figured he'd find enough to support the home team. But he didn't. So they were pissed. Hence the outting of his wife. I think I get it. They never anticipated that Wilson would find the truth, much less that he'd come out with it.

Am I right?

[Frances]

6. Cheney's office had questions

about Iraq's search for uranium in Africa. The questions were referred to the CIA. After Cheney's many trips to pressure the CIA to "fix the intelligence," I'm sure Cheney's office thought the CIA would go along. Instead Valerie Plame Wilson suggested her husband had good credentials and her bosses sent Wilson. They didn't know that Wilson would give an honest report: Gabon was probably not asked to supply uranium to Iraq. No one foresaw that Wilson would challenge Bush's 16 words saying that Iraq had sought yellowcake. But Wilson did challenge Bush and Tenet fell on his sword admitting that Bush's 16 words were wrong and that Tenet should not have allowed Bush to use them in the SOTU.

[MadisonProgressive]

9. And then Tenet gets the medal of freedom!

[magnolia]

3. The CIA sent him.

Plame recommended him, which she had a right to do, because he was highly qualified.

The reason Wilson said that Cheney sent him is because indirectly it's true. It was Cheney who asked the CIA to check out the African deal. So, the trip happened at Cheney's request.

[Auntie Bush]

12. Since his wife was undercover...he COULDN'T say she sent him.

So he HAD to sort of stretch the truth.

[Toots]

17. BS

She had no authority to send anyone anywhere. she made a recommendation and the CIA decided it was a good recommendation and acted upon it. Wilson made no claims whatsoever as he hadf no way of knowing.

[Brotherjohn]

16. He never said Cheney sent him. He said the CIA sent him, and the trip...

... was initiated based on the Vice President's office expressing an interest in the alleged Niger-uranium deal to the CIA.

He has always been so clear on this that it's amazing that Rove/Bush defenders keep bringing it up as a talking point. It's so easily debunked, it's not funny. All you have to do it read his original editorial and everything he's ever written after it.

It really shows how pathetic and desperate they are that this is the type of straw they're grasping at.

[magnolia]

19. Thanks...

...for clearing that up. Even I thought he said that Cheney sent him!!!

[Liberal_Andy]

5. Dig deep in Wilson's book for the answer,......page 2

"As a former diplomat with years of experience in Africa, I had been asked by the Agency to go to Niger to investigate whether reports of a uranium deal that may have been made with Iraq were credible."

[magnolia]

7. BTW....

Wilson was not "suspect" until he came back with news that disagreed with what Cheney wanted to hear.

[MadisonProgressive]

8. Plame didn't have the authority to 'send' Wilson.

She may have recommended him, but the CIA higher ups decided to send him. And I still don't understand why right-wingers think this is some great talking point. Does who sent him somehow excuse Rove from the crime that he commited?

[rocktivity]

10. It had to have been the CIA

Otherwise we WOULD know whos sent them.

I don't doubt that Plame recommended her husband for the job. But I do doubt that Plame had the authority to send him, or that her superiors would have approved if she had.

:headbang:
rocknation

[eomer]

11. I think that Wilson said the decision to send him happened

at a meeting at CIA.

He said his wife walked in with him to the meeting, just to introduce him and then left. He said that the substantive meeting and the decision to send him occurred after Valerie left the room. He also said that those who are saying it was Valerie who sent him were not involved in the meeting and would have no direct knowledge.

That's from memory. I'll try to find when and where he said this.

[eomer]

14. Here is Wilson's detailed explanation about who sent him to Niger:

http://www.alternet.org/stories/19271

[ArkDem]

13. All of the close bush associates were out looking for

devils food cake.

[magnolia]

15. LOL....

...LOL!

[peacetalksforall]

18. He has said repeatedly that they, the CIA, wanted to send someone.

Plame was asked to invite him in to discuss the possibility of his going. She escorted him to the meeting he had with the CIA and then he went.

He was Ambassador to Niger and another country for many years and says he speaks 'near perfect' French. He was the Ambassador to Iraq during the period that Hussein moved into Kuwait and was praised by Bush, Sr. He had experience in yellowcake because Niger and a couple of other countries that he lived in or next to, had it. He admits that he is not a scientist but that yellowcake is not complex and that this was about the possible dealings between Hussein and Niger. He said he was told that Cheney wanted information.

No organization is going to have a wife be solely accountable for authorizing a spouse go on a trip at government expense. He has also said he worked pro-bono except for travel expenses.

He was a Republican. He said he didn't vote for Bush this last time -why would he vote for a person who attacked his wife and him.

He has written about it in a book. He has been interviewed countless times. He gave a lengthy interview on radio yesterday on the Ed Schultz Show which Schultz said would be on his website.

It IS very EASY to learn the Joe Wilson side of the story.

So now, why would Cheney be interested?

He had to justify a war. Combine that with the forged document relating to yellowcake and Hussein and Niger and look up the many threads where people claim that Michael PNAC Ledeen was involved. Then know that Cheney is not only a VP, but a PNAC leader and a war profiteer. Then combine that with the fact that Plame's work involved investigating wmd and that the CIA knows plenty about Cheney's previous involvement.

[kentuck]

20. Tenet....then he was asked to step down....

then he was given the Medal of Freedom...But he was probably asked to step down because they knew he was the one that agreed to send Wilson to Africa?

[Contrary1]

21. Interesting that the Repubs are saying

that Plame sent him. Quite a bit of power from a "desk jockey", don't you think?
Watching these morans implode is rather entertaining.