Was Joe Wilson set up so that Plame (and Brewster-Jennings) could be outed?

[Junkdrawer]

During the hearing today, Plame wondered aloud why Joe Wilson was being sent, since the Niger intelligence was discredited from so many sources before his trip. But Cheney insisted....

Now we find that The Agency asked her if she would recommend Joe. When do you ask spouses for recommendations?

Something smells here....

[H2O Man]

1. No.

Cheney did not insist Wilson go.

[Junkdrawer]

2. She said something about Cheney insisting that the information...

be re-investigated.

So, who did recommend Wilson and did they have any ties to Cheney?

[emulatorloo]

4. Plame said one of her co-workers. I doubt there were ties to Cheney

Per Plame testimony today, The coworker said Joe WIlson has been on missions for us before, he knows NIger, we should get him.

[whistle]

7. Did he say that, that Wilson had been on CIA missions as an agent

...or in this same capacity as a diplomat? Anyway, it was the CIA handler who asked Joe Wilson to do this not Valerie Plame

[emulatorloo]

14. Dunno I do not work at the CIA EOM

[blm]

5. Cheney gave them the ASSIGNMENT to send someone and Plame was ASKED if

her husband would be a good choice - the question is WHO asked.

But I don't think there is any malice aforethought in the sending - just guys trying to fill an assignment.

[emulatorloo]

3. "The Agency asked her if she would recommend Joe" -- That's not what I heard in the testimony

She said that she did not recommend him. She said that somebody else came up with his name. After that her boss asked her if when she got home from work would she ask him if he was willing to meet with the CIA. That's it.

Then at some point after hearings a CIA guy came to her and said "They TWISTED MY TESTIMONY -- They made it sound like you recommended him. I am reallly upset!@!!" The CIA guy wrote a memo to his supervisor complaining about it.

Waxman said they would try to obtain this memo for the record.

[whistle]

6. The entire thing smells and has smelled from the beginning

....ahaaa, it is Richard Pearl's neoconservative rotting corpse which has occupied the Pentagon and Washington DC ever since BushCo moved into that town in late November 2000

[TahitiNut]

8. I've always felt that they outed Plame to destroy Brewster-Jennings.

I've never bought into the notion that such an outing would harm Wilson's credibility. If anything, having a wife working in the CPD of the CIA enhances Wilson's credibility. Nor have I bought the crap about 'nepotism' or 'junket.' That's just total nonsense. Niger isn't some luxury vacation spot and Plame obviously wasn't in a position ot designate him for the trip. In fact, he'd already done a similar trip in the late 90s.

On the other hand, Brewster-Jennings was as thorn in the side of the WHIG and, before that, the arms trade cronies of the BFEE. Furthermore, Halliburton/KBR would have to submit to examination and inspection of shipments of various oil field equipment to sensitive countries ... an examination and inspection that might expose sleazy deals.

I usually look at the results of such actions and ask "who benefited?" It's far more likely (imho) that the actual results of such acts are the intended consequences. I don't buy the 'inadvertent' bullshit for a minute.

[whistle]

9. Brewster Jennings and Associates front company for Valerie Plame's covert CIA activities

<snip>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 15, 2007 -- Former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Reza Asghari may be a further casualty of the outing by the Bush White House and its neo-con media allies of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson and her Brewster Jennings and Associates front company, according to knowledgeable Turkish sources. "Asghari may have been a CIA 'HVA' (high value asset)," according to one source close to the Turkish intelligence service, MIT.

Asghari was definitely a big fish for Western intelligence. Asghari was involved with Hezbollah in Lebanon as Iran's Syria-based liaison with the group. As Deputy Defense Minister, Asghari was also closely involved with Iran's short-range and long-range missiles, as well as nuclear materiel procurement. Asghari had traveled extensively to Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, and India. Once sidelined by corrupt Iranian government officials because he blew the whistle on graft within the Defense Ministry, Asghari was relieved of his defense ministry duties, jailed, and was likely tortured. After his charges against the corruption in the Defense Ministry were proven to be true, Asghari was rehabilitated and later put in charge of overseeing the Iranian-Syrian defense agreement. Asghari's arrest and imprisonment may have attracted the interest of U.S. intelligence, which hoped to turn him into an asset or an agent.

It is known that Asghari visited Istanbul on a few occasions -- and that city was also a nexus for the activities of Brewster Jennings. While on a trip to Damascus relating to his oversight of the Iran-Syria defense pact, Asghari was contacted by an "arms dealer" in Istanbul, with whom he was familiar from past trips. The arms dealer requested that Asghari come to Istanbul for a meeting. Asghari contacted Tehran and requested permission to travel to Istanbul. Tehran granted Asghari permission to go to Turkey and the Iranian consulate in Istanbul made his hotel reservations. On December 7, 2006, Asghari checked into the Ceyhan Hotel in Istanbul, favored by visiting Iranian officials. Asghari's reservations were for three days. On December 8, Asghari disappeared. Iran reported Asghari missing to Interpol on December 26 and informed the Turkish government about Asghari's missing status on February 4.

The Asghari Case: More fallout from the Brewster Jennings exposure?

Our sources report that Asghari's name may have been revealed after the roll up of Brewster Jennings. He may have had some contact, cursory or otherwise, with the front company and he subsequently became a target for White House neocons looking for smoking gun evidence to use against Iran in order to justify a military attack. However, Asghari may not have been a willing partner for the Bush White House and its Israeli allies. Some media reports suggested that Asghari willingly defected because he made sure his family left Tehran for the West before he defected. However, those reports turned out to be disinformation. After these false news reports made their way around the world, Asghari's wife, Sima Ahmadi, arrived at the Turkish embassy in Tehran to request its assistance in finding her husband.

It appears that Asghari may have been "renditioned" by CIA and Mossad agents. That is the contention of Asghari's wife. There are reports that Asghari was taken to two sites -- Incirlik Airbase in Turkey and Ramstein Air base in Germany -- used in the past by the CIA to transport and detain renditioned prisoners from various countries. If Asghari was renditioned, it is further evidence that the Bush White House and the Israelis are intent on creating a crisis with Iran.

<link> http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

[Junkdrawer]

10. I agree. Now, I admit my scenario is a long way around the block...

to get to the desired result, but I'll wait to see the transcripts of EXACTLY what she said. It just struck me as odd...

[Disturbed]

12. Waxman needs to call Tenet to testify under oath.

This event has barely scratched the surface of the Brewster Jennings exposing.

[magellan]

11. No

But I think once BushCo discovered Wilson's wife worked in counter-proliferation, they were happy to out her to further protect their war lies. Two birds, one stone.

[jaksavage]

13. didn't they break up a nuke deal

travelling through Turkey
was supposed to be "found" in Iraq

[Peace Patriot]

15. Yes, she said something to the effect that she opposed it, or questioned it--she didn't

see the point, since the Niger/Iraq nuke allegation was bogus. I caught that, too.

Please see my theory, laid out here

(post #9) http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x431125

I think it's possible that Wilson was enticed to write the NYT article (and was picked BECAUSE OF who he was married to), in a long term plot to destroy the CIA, when planted nukes were "found" in Iraq by the US troops who were searching for them. A CIA-connected person (Wilson) would have gone public with the "no nukes in Iraq" position, and, in the "triumph" of "finding" the nukes, they could then entirely discredit the CIA and purge them of honest professionals like Plame. We don't know that whoever picked Wilson for this largely unnecessary mission wasn't actually working against the interests of the country and at the Bush Junta's behest, to destroy the CIA counter-proliferation network. Plame's identity was revealed by someone in the CIA (many suspect Tenet) to Cheney and Rove.

[grasswire]

16. yes

The deeper story is related to weapons sales. The narrative regarding the Wilsons and the yellowcake memo is a fig leaf. The press buys this story, which conceals the deeper story.

Who forged the yellowcake memo? Pull on that string and see rats run.

[Jack Rabbit]

17. No

Dick Cheney wanted the CIA to "look into" Saddam's alleged attempt to buy uranium from Niger. It appears he was unaware who the CIA sent until after the fact. That's a pretty big hole in the theory right there.

If I have the matter right, she suggested her husband in a meeting. He had prior experience in such missions, was acting ambassador to Iraq during the run up to the 1991 war, and a recognized expert in the African uranium mining business. He was a good choice for the mission.

[Garbo 2004]

18. Cheney didn't insist that the CIA send Wilson to Niger. To date there's

no indication that Cheney asked or insisted that the CIA send anyone to Niger.

The CIA decided to send Wilson, possibly IMO as a CYA move. CIA didn't ask Valerie Wilson to recommend her husband; he had years before also done a trip for the CIA to check things out on the ground, so he had done this sort of thing before. Before Wilson went to Niger, the State Dept and the Ambassador to Niger had already reported that the Niger claims were bunk. A four star general had also been to Niger and also reported the same (to the DIA I think) at the request of the Ambassador to Niger IIRC.

Additionally, considering that Wilson was sent in Feb 2002, at a time when the State Dept and the Ambassador to Niger were saying the Niger yellowcake claims were crap, how would the OVP know or predict that over a year later Wilson would speak up about the Niger claims? Tenet had kept the Niger claims out of Bush speech in Fall 2002 but was overruled regarding the 2003 SOTU speech (note that in the SOTU Bush cited Brit intelligence, not American intelligence, regarding the Niger claims).

Transcript of Plame's testimony here: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Plame_hearing_transcript_0316.html

[Junkdrawer]

19. Ok, here's the transcript...

MS. PLAME WILSON: Thank you, Congressman. I'm delighted as well that I am under oath as I reply to you.

In February of 2002, a young junior officer who worked for me -- came to me very upset. She had just received a telephone call on her desk from someone -- I don't know who -- in the office of the vice- president asking about this report of this alleged sale of yellow cake uranium from Niger to Iraq. She came to me, and as she was telling me this -- what had just happened, someone passed by -- another officer heard this. He knew that Joe had already -- my husband -- had already gone on some CIA mission previously do deal with other nuclear matters. And he suggested, "Well why don't we send Joe?" He knew that Joe had many years of experience on the African continent. He also knew that he had served -- and served well and heroically in the Baghdad Embassy -- our embassy in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. And I will be honest. I had -- was somewhat ambivalent at the time. We had 2-year-old twins as home, and all I could envision was me by myself at bedtime with a couple of 2-year-olds. So I wasn't overjoyed with this idea. Nevertheless --

...
(much later in the testimony)
...

MS. PLAME WILSON: Congressman, I believe one of the pieces of evidence that was introduced in the Libby trial was an INR memo of that meeting, where it states, in fact, my husband was not particularly looking forward to -- he didn't think it was necessary. There had been, I believe, at least two other reports, one by a three- star general and one by the ambassador there on the ground, who said there really wasn't much to this allegation. And the INR folks that attended the meeting also said, "Well, we're not sure that this is really necessary." But it was ultimately decided that he would go, use his contacts, which were extensive in the government, to see if there was anything more to this. It was a serious question, asked by the office of the vice president, and it deserved a serious answer.

...



So, recapping:

1.) To say the CIA asked for her recommendation is, in fact, stretching a point. They did, however ask her "Why not send Joe?".

2.) It is VERY clear from the testimony that the heat for Wilson's mission came from the Office of the Vice President.

3.) Wilson was reluctant to go, but ultimately went.

[Garbo 2004]

20. The heat was for the CIA/CPD to respond to the OVP's question.

What's most interesting IMO is this again confirms the "unprecedented" degree of involvement of the OVP in micromanaging the intel community. One imagines it's not normal chain of command protocol for an OVP to directly call CIA junior officers (in the CPD?) with questions. This is not the same as Cheney asking Tenet or his CIA briefer a question that he wants the CIA to look into.

From Joe Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth," he was told that the OVP "had tasked the CIA to determine if there was any truth to the report." It was up to the CIA how to do it. The OVP didn't ask for him to be sent. Indeed, no indication from either Wilson that the OVP asked the CIA to send anyone.

If the OVP had asked/instructed the CIA to send someone to Niger there would have been no basis for State INR to try to dissuade the CIA from sending Wilson to Niger.