Joseph C. Wilson
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Joseph Charles Wilson IV (born November 61949) was a United States foreign service diplomat between 1976 and 1998. He has achieved his recent notoriety from an op-ed essay[link] published on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times in which he revealed his February 2002 trip investigating whether Iraq purchased or attempted to purchase yellowcake from Niger in the late 1990s. In his op-ed piece, published four months after the war began, he accused the Bush Administration of "exaggerating the Iraqi threat" in order to justify war. Shortly thereafter, while musing on the choice of Wilson for the Niger mission, columnist Robert Novak noted the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA. For information on this, see the Plame Affair. The information was published in a July 14, 2003, column[link] in which he said, "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report." Deputy Attorney General James Comey (the then-Attorney General John Ashcroft having recused himself from the case) named Patrick J. Fitzgerald as a special prosecutor to determine who was involved in disclosing the identity of a CIA operative. As of October 28th, 2005, this investigation has resulted in two indictments related to alleged misconduct that hindered the investigation. These indictments charge Lewis Libby with making false statements to investigators and a federal grand jury.
See: Plame affair and Plame scandal timeline.
Education
Wilson is a 1972 graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He joked that he majored in "history, volleyball, and surfing" [link], maintaining a "C" average, but became much more serious about his education after graduating. He learned to speak French fluently and entered the Foreign Service in 1976, specializing in African affairs.Career
Wilson was a member of the U.S. Foreign Service from 1976 through 1998. From 1988 to 1991, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. He was hailed as "truly inspiring" and "courageous" by George H. W. Bush after sheltering more than one hundred Americans at the embassy, despite Saddam Hussein's threats to execute anyone who refused to hand over foreigners. As a result, in 1990, he also became the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein (Wilson, 2003). When Saddam sent a note to Wilson (along with other embassy heads in Iraq) threatening to execute anyone sheltering foreigners in Iraq, Wilson publicly repudiated the dictator by appearing at a press conference wearing a homemade noose around his neck and saying "If the choice is to allow American citizens to be taken hostage or to be executed, I will bring my own fucking rope." Saddam offered a public apology for the diplomatic note.Wilson later served as U.S. ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe under President George H. W. Bush and helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton.
Wilson manages JCWilson International Ventures Corporation, a consulting firm specializing in strategic management and international business development.
Wilson is a speaker represented exclusively by [Greater Talent Network].
Political ties
In the mid-eighties, Wilson worked for Al Gore as a congressional staffer. In 2000, he donated both to Vice President Gore’s and to George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.[link] In 2003, he formally endorsed John Kerry for President and donated $2,000 to his campaign.[link] Wilson was a supporter and donor to the Kerry/Edwards campaign for the presidency and served as an advisor and speechwriter in a "prominent role" for the Kerry campaign in 2003 and 2004 [link]. He has made contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, such as Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Congressman Charles B. Rangel of New York, and to Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California.[link] He has also spoken to activist groups like Win Without War, a nonpartisan coalition of groups which oppose the war in Iraq. According to Scott Shane of The New York Times, "Despite conservatives' efforts to portray him as a left-wing extremist, [Wilson] insisted he remained a centrist at heart. But after his tangle with the current administration, he admits 'it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for a Republican, even for dog catcher.'"[link] In October 2003, according to The Boston Globe, "Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie said Wilson's work for Democrats may have motivated him to attack the administration." [link]The trip to Niger
In late February of 2002, Wilson had been sent to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate the possibility that Saddam Hussein had a deal to buy enriched uranium yellowcake. Wilson concluded then that there "was nothing to the story".But he also reported that, although former Nigerien prime minister Ibrahim Assane Mayaki was unaware of any pending sales contract with Iraq, an Iraqi delegation had approached him in June 1999, expressing an interest in "expanding commercial relations." Mayaki believed this may have meant that they wanted to purchase yellowcake uranium, one of Niger’s few exports. Mayaki claimed he refused to discuss any trade issues at all due to active UN sanctions on Iraq, and so steered the conversation in another direction. [link] An editorial in the Washington Post claimed that "Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report [to the CIA] supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium." The last time Iraq sought uranium from Niger, according to the Duelfer Report, was 1981. The editorial also claimed that "President Bush was right to approve the declassification of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons." [link] An editorial in the Wall Street Journal makes similar claims: "In short, Joe Wilson hadn't told the truth about what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission. The media and the Kerry campaign promptly abandoned him, though the former never did give as much prominence to his debunking as they did to his original accusations. But if anyone can remember another public figure so entirely and thoroughly discredited, let us know."[link]
However, a Washington Post news report by Dafna Linzer and Barton Gellman appearing in the same issue as the aforementioned editorial indicated that the White House's disclosure of certain portions of the October 2002 NIE may have misrepresented to reporters the actual level of confidence the intelligence community had regarding Saddam Hussein's seeking uranium. This news report stated that "At Cheney's instruction, Libby testified, he told [reporter] Miller that the uranium story was a "key judgment" of the intelligence estimate, a term of art indicating there was consensus on a question of central importance. In fact, the alleged effort to buy uranium was not among the estimate's key judgments, which were identified by a headline and bold type and set out in bullet form in the first five pages of the 96-page document." This report further noted that according to the NIE, "U.S. intelligence did not know the status of Iraq's procurement efforts, 'cannot confirm' any success and had 'inconclusive' evidence about Iraq's domestic uranium operations... The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, likewise, called the claim 'highly dubious.' For those reasons, the uranium story was relegated to a brief inside passage in the October estimate."[link]
A few days later Dafna Linzer wrote another Washington Post article describing a letter from Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald to Judge Reggie B. Walton correcting a sentence appearing in his recent filings describing Scooter Libby's testimony regarding his conversation with Judith Miller about the Ocotber 2002 NIE. That sentence said Libby "was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium." Instead, the sentence should have conveyed that Libby was to tell Miller some of the key judgments of the NIE "and that the NIE stated that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium." [link].
The Post's ombudsman, Deborah Howell, noted that Dafna Linzer's and Barton Gellman's reporting relied on Fitzgerald's representations in his legal filings, that the editorial was written before the front-page report and that although the writer had not read the report, it would not have changed his mind. She also noted that the basis for the editorial's claim that Wilson's report "supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium" was the fact that there was a meeting between Iraqi and Nigerien trade officials "because that's mostly what Niger has to export." She also noted that the editorial had inconsistently dealt with the report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which noted that "the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research analysts believed that [Wilson's] report supported their assessment that Niger was unlikely to be willing or able to sell uranium to Iraq." She also advised that "It would have been helpful if the editorial had put statements about Wilson in more context -- especially the controversy over his trip and what he said."[link]
An article in the 25 October 2005 edition of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica[link][link] indicates that some of Wilson's statements about Niger were correct.[link][link][link] The article states that Nicolo Pollari, head of the Italian Intelligence Service, SISMI, knew the Niger documents were forgeries, but tried to go around the CIA to get them into the public eye in the US. The documents contained several misspelled French words and contained signatures from Nigerien officials who hadn't even been in office at the time they were signed, although Wilson did not see any of these documents during his trip to Niger.
La Repubblica also claims that Pollari met with Stephen Hadley, previously the Deputy National Security Advisor, on 9 September, 2002, to discuss the documents without going to the CIA, who had reservation about the documents. That meeting was before President Bush gave his major speech on 7 October, 2002 saying, "The Iraqi regime.... possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons". An effort was made to include in that speech the specific claim that uranium was sought from Niger, but the CIA had that claim removed from the speech ([source]). President George W. Bush then included the 16 words in his January 2003 speech that uranium had been sought from Africa, even after the CIA had expressed reservations in October 2002. The National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002 said, "the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment, highly dubious".[link][link][link][link]
On 11 December 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported that French intelligence had warned the Bush Administration repeatedly that there was no evidence that Saddam sought uranium from Niger. The Times reported that "The French conclusions were reached after extensive on-the-ground investigations in Niger and other former French colonies, where the uranium mines are controlled by French companies, said Alain Chouet, the French former official. He said the French investigated at the CIA's request.... [T]he essence of Chouet's account — that the French repeatedly investigated the Niger claim, found no evidence to support it, and warned the CIA — was extensively corroborated by [a] former CIA official and a current French government official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity."[link]
The op-ed
The controversy surrounding Wilson began with President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address [link], in which he stated that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." The documents had been obtained by the U.S. Embassy in Rome on October 92002, and distributed throughout the U.S. intelligence community shortly thereafter, but not passed on to the IAEA until February 32003. Two months later, documents suggesting that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, were judged to be "obvious" forgeries by the IAEA.It is suggested the documents that the IAEA judged to be forgeries were not the same documents that the British based their original assessment on. Two British Parliamentary reports confirmed the original intelligence. One of these reports (the Butler Report) suggested that the forged documents were distributed with the knowing goal of being discovered as obvious forgeries so as to discredit the intelligence. The revelations in La Repubblica (above) seem to counter this allegation. Furthermore, although other sources for the uranium claim are mentioned, no evidence of their existence has been advanced. The IAEA released its report a month later, just weeks before the start of the Iraq war.
On July 62003, Wilson authored an op-ed essay in the New York Times[link] in which he accused the Bush administration of "exaggerating the Iraqi threat" in order to justify war. In the article, Wilson states: "The vice president's office asked a serious question. I was asked to help formulate the answer." Critics of Wilson have contended that he falsely claimed to have been sent by the vice president personally. However, in the quotation above and other instances Wilson has said only that he was sent by the CIA in response to questions asked by the vice president's office. Then CIA director George Tenet has said that the administration was not directly briefed on Wilson's report.
- "Because this report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution (within the intelligence community), but we did not brief it to the President, Vice-President or other senior Administration officials. "[link]
The administration still maintains that other intelligence that Iraq may have attempted to acquire uranium in Africa may have been correct. Many supporters of the theory point to the Butler Review, which found, without showing evidence for it, there was credible intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Niger in 1999, but not 2002, and less certain intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Critics of the theory view the evidence relating to the Democratic Republic of Congo as suspect, and point out that while the President's speech mentioned only Africa, press secretary Ari Fleischer explicitly affirmed that this was a reference to Niger.[link] In addition, nuclear expert Norman Dombey has pointed out that the information relied upon by the Butler Review on the Niger issue was incomplete; as he noted, "The Butler report says the claim was credible because an Iraqi diplomat visited Niger in 1999, and almost three-quarters of Niger's exports were uranium. But this is irrelevant, since France controls Niger's uranium mines."([Independent], 25 July 2004). And when asked by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss the conclusions of British intelligence, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin stated, "The one thing where I think they stretched a little bit beyond where we would stretch is on the points about Iraq seeking uranium from various African locations. We've looked at those reports and we don't think they are very credible. It doesn't diminish our conviction that he's going for nuclear weapons, but I think they reached a little bit on that one point."[link]
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report
A Senate Intelligence Committee report issued on July 7, 2004 challenged some of the statements made by Wilson.The report suggests that Wilson's wife was involved in his selection for the mission. As reported by the Washington Post:
- The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband "has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said. [link]
- ''A senior intelligence officer confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked ‘alongside’ the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger. “But he said she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment. ‘They (the officers who did ask Wilson to check the uranium story) were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising,’ he said. ‘There are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up, for some reason,’ he said. ‘I can’t figure out what it could be.’ 'We paid his (Wilson’s) airfare. But to go to Niger is not exactly a benefit. Most people you’d have to pay big bucks to go there,’ the senior intelligence official said. Wilson said he was reimbursed only for expenses. (July 22 2003)
- ''Another false claim is that Valerie sent her husband on the mission to Niger. According to the Senate Intelligence Committee Report issued in July 2004, it is clear that the Vice President himself requested that the CIA provide its views on a Defense Intelligence Agency report that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium from Niger. The Vice President's request was relayed through the CIA bureaucracy to the Director of the Counter Proliferation Division at the CIA. Valerie worked for a branch in that Division. The Senate Intelligence Report is frequently cited by Republican partisans as "proof" that Valerie sent her husband to Niger because she sent a memo describing her husband's qualifications to the Deputy Division Chief. Several news personalities, such as Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly, continue to repeat this nonsense as proof. What the Senate Intelligence Committee does not include in the report is the fact that Valerie's boss had asked her to write a memo outlining her husband's qualifications for the job. She did what any good employee does; she gave her boss what he asked for.[link]
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report criticized Wilson's report for inconsistency. As reported in the same Washington Post article:
- The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."
- "Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents—purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq—were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.
- The U.S. embassy in Niger issued a cable reporting that the alleged Iraq-Niger uranium deal warranted a hard look.
- Valerie Plame suggested her husband travel to Niger to look into it.
- A WINPAC analyst sent an email saying the results "from this source" will be suspect and not believable, but CIA decided to send Wilson anyway.
- In February 2002, Wilson arrived in Niger and met with former officials of Niger, no current officials.
- On March 1, 2002 the CIA published an intelligence assessment, Niger: Sale of Uranium to Iraq is Unlikely, unrelated to Wilson's trip. This assessment was not provided to Vice President Cheney.
- On March 8, 2002 an intelligence report based on Wilson's trip was disseminated. The report indicated the former Prime Minister of Niger had said no contracts to sell uranium to Iraq were signed during his tenure. However, an Iraqi delegation had approached him in June 1999 to discuss "expanding commercial relations." The Prime Minister took this to mean uranium yellowcake sales. The PM let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq.
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report also criticized Wilson because his description of the information provided to him by the CIA differed from the CIA's account. Wilson claimed the CIA told him about documents pertaining to an alleged uranium sale to Iraq; the CIA reports officer denied giving Wilson any such information and noted there were no "documents" circulating at the time. (Pages 44-45)
Many further details of the trip can be found in the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, which contains a 48-page section dealing with intelligence related to Niger.
Criticism of Wilson
In 2005, Wilson was accused of talking about his wife's CIA job prior to the column by Novak. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely said on the John Batchelor radio show that Wilson had spoken to him about his wife's role with the CIA while they were waiting together in the green room before appearing together on FOX News. He said this occurred on three to five occasions, first in February or March of 2002. Vallely also said Wilson was proud to routinely introduce his wife as a CIA employee at cocktail parties per a tabloid source.[link]Wilson has demanded that Vallely retract these allegations, calling them "patently false." Wilson wrote to his attorney in an email included in his demand for a retraction: "This is slanderous. I never appeared on TV before at least July 2002 and only saw him maybe twice in the green room at FOX. Vallely is a retired general and this is a bald faced lie.... I never laid eyes on [Vallely] till several months after he alleges I spoke to him about my wife."[link]
On November 7, 2005, Lt. General Tom McInerney (USAF Retired) said that Joe Wilson bragged to him about his wife's job with the CIA while waiting in the green room at FOX News. [link]
A [compendium] of the times that Wilson and Vallely appeared on FOX has revealed that there is only one possible date, September 12, 2002, during which the two would have been in the green room within hours of each other. According to Jeralyn Merritt, who went through the FOX transcripts to compile this information, "That date, Wilson's segment was over 15 minutes before Vallely's began. The Fox green room in New York is very small and contains an even smaller makeup room that only has one guest chair. Guests are by themselves in the makeup room. I assume Wilson would have been having his makeup done before his segment, so Vallely wouldn't have been with him then. Even if they did overlap in the green room for a couple of minutes, it strains credulity to think the topic of Wilson's wife's employment with the CIA would have come up. There likely would have only time (sic) for mere pleasantries."[link]
Former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson questions the credibility of both Generals, noting:
- "I too was a Fox News Contributor in 2002 and spent a lot of time in the Green Room with both Vallely and McInerney. I saw them but never saw Joe Wilson. What is really curious is that I know I spent more time with Vallely and McInerney than Joe Wilson ever did and the subject of my wife (or their wives) never came up."[link]
- "As someone who spent a fair amount of time at Fox News' Washington green room, I can say that Vallely is full of crap. When you are booked by Fox to appear, a car is sent around to pick you up. The car arrives with enough time to transport you to the studios at 400 North Capitol Street, usually 15 minutes before air time. However, most of that time is spent checking in and sitting for makeup. If you happen upon another guest in the green room before sitting for makeup, they are likely only minutes from air time -- certainly not enough time to engage in a biographical rendition about your family with a total stranger. If two guests appeared at the same time at Fox in Washington, they were taken to different studios."[link]
Book: The Politics of Truth
In 2004, Wilson published a book, The Politics of Truth, with the subtitle, "Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed my Wife's CIA Identity". The book, published by Carroll & Graf gives is an autobiographical account of over two decades of foreign service, in addition to giving his personal account of the events leading to his decision to go public with his criticisms of the Bush administration.White House Correspondents' Dinner
Joe Wilson was in the audience for the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner. He was pointed out by comedian Steven Colbert.See also
- Yellowcake forgery
- Downing Street memo
- Veterans for a Secure America (Wilson has endorsed the VSA)
External links and references
- Burns, John F. "Iraq Backs Off Its Threat to Execute Diplomats Who Hide Civilians." New York Times (28 September 1990) p. A6.
- Rupert, James. "Diplomats Struggle On In Saddam's Capital: Main Task Is Aiding U.S. Hostages." Washington Post (3 October 1990) p. A25.
- Bush, George W (January 28, 2003) [State of the Union Address] whitehouse.gov
- Wilson, Joseph (July 6, 2003). [What I didn't find in Africa]. New York Times reprinted at Common Dreams News Center
- Powell, Colin (July 7, 2003) [Press Conference in Africa] pbs.org
- Fleischer, Ari (July 7, 2003). [Press gaggle]. The White House.
- Wilson, Joseph (September 14, 2003). [Seeking honesty in U.S. policy]. San Jose Mercury News reprinted at Common Dreams News Center.
- Bedard, Paul (October 20, 2003). Wilson adds ammo to hit war credibility gap. USNews.com “Washington Whispers” [not found in on-line archive]
- Wilson, Joseph (May 2, 2004). ['Administration went after me and my wife']. Miami Herald reprinted at Common Dreams News Center.
- U.S. Senate Select Committee (July 7, 2004) [Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq] intelligence.senate.gov
- Roberts, Pat (July 9, 2004). [Press release]. Basis for the Susan Schmidt, Clifford May, Robert Novak, and Matthew Continetti articles below.
- Schmidt, Susan (July 9, 2004). [Plame's input is cited on Niger mission]. washingtonpost.com, p. A09 [registration required]
- May, Clifford D. (July 12, 2004). [Our man in Niger]. National Review Online.
- Hitchens, Christopher (July 13, 2004). ['Plames Lame Game']. "Slate"
- Novak, Robert (July 15, 2004). [Errant former ambassador]. Townhall.com
- Wilson, Joseph (July 19, 2004). [Response to Pat Roberts] Reprinted at Alternet.
- Wilson, Joseph (July 21, 2004). [A right-wing smear is gathering steam]. Los Angeles Times reprinted at Common Dreams News Center.
- [A Good Leak], Washington Post, April 9, 2006
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