Nov 30 2005
Scowcroft Told Wilson To Go Public?
The readers on this site are some of the most amazing I have seen anywhere. I am truly humbled by their collective curiousity and diligence. Reader Mary Mapes has uncovered an interesting set of data points developed by another blogger which, when connected, point to the strong possibility Brent Scowcroft told Wilson to go public with his story. You can see Mapes’ complete comment on this previous post. From the Next Hurrah we have this theory:
That’s because Scowcroft was involved in the Plame Affair from the start.
Scowcroft and Wilson first met when Poppy Bush was declaring Wilson a “true American hero” after Wilson got back from Baghdad in 1991. But they grew to know each other better through their mutual involvement in the American-Turkish Council. They discussed the rising push for war, but Scowcroft assured Wilson that the “right-wing nuts” would not “win the policy.” (Wilson 290) In Fall 2002, as both Scowcroft and Wilson started publishing op-eds against regime change, Scowcroft was at least partially responsible for bringing Wilson to the attention of the Administration. Scowcroft brought a copy of Wilson’s San Jose Mercury News column to show some people in the White House.
I sent my article to Scowcroft, Baker, and the president’s father out of courtesy, because I referred to the lessons learned in the diplomacy of the first Gulf War.
[snip]
Brent called me when he received the article. He kindly asked if he could “take it over to the White House,” only about two blocks from his downtown office. He said that he thought senior officials ought to read the views of somebody who actually had experience in Iraq and with Saddam’s government. By this, I took him to mean that he intended to share it with the national security adviser, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, or her deputy, Stephen Hadley. (Wilson 295-6)
So Scowcroft is–at the very least–witness to the fact that someone in the Administration knew about Wilson well before his July 6 2003 article.
But I don’t think that’s where Scowcroft’s involvement in this affair ends. In his description of how he made up his mind to write his op-ed, Wilson says the following.
The last straw came when Dr. Rice, in a June 8 appearance on Meet the Press, told Tim Russert: “Maybe somebody in the bowels of the Agency knew something about this, but nobody in my circles.” That was a lie, and I knew it. She had to have known it as well. The next day, I called a former government official who knew Dr. Rice and expressed my disgust at her continuing refusal to tell the truth. He replied that the interview had not been one of her finest moments. (Wilson 332)
I don’t think it’s too wild a guess to imagine this former government official is Scowcroft. After all, he was probably responsible for introducing Wilson’s writing to Condi.
Very interesting and compelling reasoning. Now this is supposed to tie Condi to Scowcroft to Valerie’s outing or some such conspiracy. But like a stopped watch is right twice a day, this logic could be sound and the rest fantasy. It is the speculation the logic leads to which is off. FWIW, the blogger is referring to this blistering (or is that back stabbing) speech by Scowcroft (who seems upset no one listens to him anymore – wonder why?).
That would be truly amazing in any event. The only question now is Wilson alluding to Brent because he talks too much and let out to many hints, or did Wilson allude to Scowcroft to sead mistrust on the right? Or did Wilson even allude to Scowcroft at all? If he did he will have earned the title of ‘Benedict Arnold of the Modern Age’. I am holding judegment, mainly because it doesn’t make sense with the other angle on le Affaire Plame: African uranium trade. But it is a fascinating idea!
Wow AJ– you give us much to much credit. You are the one!
I think you are right about Scowcroft. The way I see it he actually more a victim in a sense (in that he took Wilson too seriously).
I think Wilson was honest when he said he finally decided to write the OP-ED and put his name to the story BECAUSE like he said his name (and his wife’s role) were making there way around gossip channels in Govt. –making there way because Wilson started it when he was calling all there people all over the place (Beers, Scowcroft and others)
See I think the plan, or the campaign planners thought and tried to make, these forgeries into a big deal…and Wilson thought he would remain somewhat outside of the story but still with all the media love. The story would be the forgeries, not the envoys trip that debunked them and when Bush was defeated by this scandal Wilson would be appointed UN Ambassador . Like Tenet told Bush the intelligence was a “slam dunk” Wilson told Kerry the forgeries were a “slam dunk”
The only problem? In order for the story to take grip with reporters was if some HIGH level Admin. had ARRANGED to get info on these niger docs and then that same high level admin. IGNORED the fact that these documents had “wrong names and dates”.
Wilson had NO choice but to out himself in an OP-ED, he knew his falsehoods about the story were about to railroad his ass out of good Kerry graces…the plan did NOT work according to plan…the story was not so much about the forgeries but the media was trying to square his claim that Cheney sent him. (You can hear Wilson whining to himself “NO it is the forgeries, the forgeries! Who cares how I got to Niger, it is the Forgeries you are supposed to be pounding”
That is why all the phone calls to various Admin. Officials. Wilson plan was to get friendlies like Beers repeating and naive believers like Scowcroft repeating this to enough people that when the forgery info was leaked to the papers there would be lots of Admin who would be so embarrassed (because they were in the know because of Wilson’s spreading it around) and would be admitting it and then a juicy scandal would ensue (and then OTHER pre planned scandals would come out ahem – tang memos– ahem) and Kerry would win in a cakewalk.
Wilson mouth and arrogance got him where he is today, like Pincus said he loved the limelight.And people like Armitage who heard the gossip around State didn’t see it Scowcrafts way, saw Wilson’s trip for what it was …”boondoggle”
I think was part 2 and 3 of the bite at the apple with forgeries.
to the above
Wilson:
“Still, I hesitated, in the hope that pressure from journalists would force the hand of the administration. But two weeks after the Rice remark on Meet the Press, with my name now openly circulating among the press, it was clear that sooner or later my anonymity was going to be sacrificed on the altar of the story. (Politics of Truth 332)â€
Yep you did. You waited because at this point you knew Condi was no longer correct about the info only known in the bowels of the Agency because you called people to TELL them. But when reporter pressure on Admin was actually pressuring them to narc your WIFES role out you had to blunt the hurt.
Oh my goodness.
World Net Cashill
“After being chastised by Pat Roberts and his Senate colleagues in the summer of 2004, Wilson turned to the most authoritative of his backers, the New York Times, and its always reliable, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Nicholas Kristof. Wilson secured an e-mail from Kristof to help firm up his account.
Kristof claims to have been “driving through red states” when he received Wilson’s e-mail in Salt Lake City. This presumably accounts for the faulty punctuation that Wilson insists on capturing in Kristof’s response:
don’t worry, i remember you saying that you had not seen the documents. my recollection is that we had some information about the documents at that time – e.g. the names of the people in them – but i do clearly remember you saying that you had not been shown them.
If this particular detail was so critical that Kristof could remember it “clearly” more than a year later, why did he not qualify Wilson’s comments in his original op-ed piece? In fact, he did just the opposite. In writing that the Niger yellowcake information was “unequivocally wrong” and that “the documents had been forged,” Kristof leaves the distinct impression that Wilson must have seen them. His use of the word “recollection” here should be something of a red flag. In providing an alibi for Wilson, he allows a legal escape clause for himself.”
Things just keep getting wierder and wierder by the minute.Your mention of Poppie Bush reminded me of something I had come across a while back and saved for further analysis. Is it possible that the former CIA President Bush is involved in this whole mess somehow? The following little paragraph makes you wonder just what is going on here??
BUSH VISITS PEPSI-COLA MAHMOUD SAID PLANT MIDDLE EAST NEWS ITEMS November 17, 1999
LENGTH: 98 words
HEADLINE: BUSH VISITS PEPSI-COLA MAHMOUD SAID PLANT
BODY:
According to Al-Jazirah newspaper (November 16, 1999), on October 26, Mr. Marvin Bush, son of the former American President George Bush, who is also a board member of the Winston Partners Company, visited the Saudi fruit juice and beverage plant (Pepsi-Cola Mahmoud Said) at the Jeddah Industrial Estate. Accompanied by Mr. Elias Abu Rdein, director general of the American Rock Creek Corporation, Mr. Bush met with the deputy chairman of the board of the Pepsi-Cola Mahmoud Said Company, Sheikh Abdulk-Khalek Said, and the director general of the Company, Mr. Tayseer Tamleya.
LOAD-DATE: November 17, 1999
So, the son we know nothing about is traveling with someone who works with Joe Wilson at Rock Creek Corp??
SBD
The American-Turkish Council didn’t want a war with Iraq. The Turkish government didn’t want the US to go to war with Iraq.
I wasn’t aware that Joe Wilson sat on the board of the ATC, but Scowcroft is on almost every chamber of commerce type board in the caucus region, so is James Baker.
The Turks were against the war because of their Kurdish and Armenian problems. The last thing the Turks were looking to do is to give the Kurds and Shiites a means of expressing real frustrations with Turkey.
Super Spook: ATC is the organization that made offers to FBI translator Sibel Edmunds to pass translations from Armenian, Farsi and Turkish transcripts.
wilson…
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