Nov 03 2005
Fly By 11/03/05
Looks like Zell Miller is making a big splash come back. I noticed this interested Op-Ed due to traffic we were getting from Lucianne’s site. Miller comes out in the Atlanta Journal Constitution blasting the Wilsons and the media for what would be against the law if Valerie had spoken verses Joe. Personally, I think you can get them on conspiracy charges.
Something has to be done. We can’t let the CIA become the domestic dirty tricks shop, with Republican and Democratic agents each trying to pull down their opposing presidents.
We need a Plame rule. Any family member of a CIA agent tapped to help out must live by the same rules regarding information disclosure and domestic political manipulations as those imposed on the agent. If the family member fails to live by those rules, the agent is terminated.
Clearly this will restrict the flexibility of the CIA. But who ever thought that the flexibility given to CIA agents would be misused to destabilize a U.S. president? No one — until Valerie Plame.
Then there is this stunner that someone found from an old Boston Globe article (10/2/03). I posted earlier on all the people who could possible know about Valerie’s job at the CIA (her role in sending Joe to Niger is legally irrelevant for now). Once again tracking back traffic from Lucianne’s site, we find the John Kerry Campaign for President also knew about her CIA job:
Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who said a Bush aide disclosed that his wife is a CIA operative in retaliation for his criticism of the Iraq war, has worked since May as an unpaid adviser to Senator John F. Kerry, offering foreign policy advice and speechwriting tips to the Democratic presidential candidate from Massachusetts.
May 6th was the Kristof article in the NY Times. This is another media coordinated attack with a political campaign. Up until his work for Kerry, Wilson never once voiced concern about the 16 words in the SOTU speech or the rationale for going to war in Iraq. After this the Pincus article came out the very next month – all anonymously referring to a ‘former ambassador’. What a nice tease to set the stage for the partisan hit. Someone should check Kerry’s spin at the time.
There’s more:
Kerry’s advisers acknowledged yesterday that Wilson, who has also donated $2,000 to Kerry this year, told them about his allegations against the White House involving his wife before going public with them this summer. But Rand Beers, Kerry’s top adviser on foreign affairs, said the campaign has not played a role in coordinating Wilson’s charges.
Yeah right. Maybe they didn’t coordinate before they did. So the Kerry campaign also did due diligence on Wilson to see if his story would hold up. That is the same argument I made as to why the NY Times and Washington Post would have known since she is the only source who would have backed up his claims regarding the Niger Forgeries. And because she was his wife she would have to admit to her CIA job at a minimum to give her some credibility.
Beers said Wilson communicates with campaign advisers at least once a week. He is one of about 35 people contributing ideas to the campaign, Benander said.
Wasn’t Sandy Bergler one of the 35? 😉
UPDATE:
Powerline has a good post up on the CIA role attacking Bush and his policies here. And in case you missed it, I go through an analysis of Joe’s 1999 trip to Niger for Valerie and the CIA here.
END UPDATE
I got a kick out of this piece on Ronnie Earle – you might as well. Hat Tip Real Clear Politics.
Ronnie Earle, the district attorney from Travis County in Texas, finally has made his strongest case for removing a political operative from office — himself.
Yep, time to go, Ronnie
On a darker note, the week long rioting in Paris is not a good sign. EU governments have always crumpled in the face of these socialistic outbreaks. France could be in for some serious trouble.
Violence broke out for the seventh night running in poor Paris suburbs, while President Jacques Chirac tried to repair a split in his government over the crisis.
…
The rioting broke out last week after two black teenagers, thinking they were being chased by police, were electrocuted as they hid in an electricity substation. A third teenager of Turkish origin was badly injured in the incident.
This is not the kind of cause to create this kind of anger. There is a probably a more organized element behind this stking the flames. And, as the article focuses on, the politicians are only interested in positioning themselves for the next election. More here.
Some good news on Alito, regarding civil rights cases. At least he is does not believe the courts should crumple at every scream of racism. I agree there needs to be a pattern of intent or extreme behavior (violence, etc) instead of one isolated minor incident, with one individual, which could have been equally attributed to error before a racism charge should be allowed to go to trial. We trivialize serious problems and issues when we allow frivolous law suits to be seen as serious.
AJ –
great article by Miller!!
Miller’s well up to speed on the story,imo,
and not about to let the looney left get away with it.
(no wonder conservatives admire the guy: he can THINK).
hooboy,they must be angry at the man.
and great digging you and Mac have been doing!
Mac’s idea the the al Tuwaitha dump might have been used as
a “yellowcake laundry”(like cocaine in an evidence room)
…and your clipped quote about the
Brits over-hearing convo between NK and Libya about Iraqi
nuke scientists working in Libya(dates?) are BIG news.
and given Saddam’s anger at sanctions
and big war-chest to play with,
not at all that big a stretch of the imagination:
part out your nuke program(like AQ Khan,Pakistan and NK and Libya were already doing) to your neighboring Arab buddies’ facilities…
and keep on grinding your way to nukes.
i hope something solid comes up from it
to get ole Harry Reid back to productive work in the US Senate.
Al – First, if you look at the unemployment rate of Black French youth under 25 the riots start to look like Watts, not a Socialist plot.
Second – Check this out – “MIRROR, MIRROR….The Carpetbagger is unimpressed with faux Republican outrage over Harry Reid’s supposed violation of congressional tradition and Senatorial courtesy in calling for a closed session yesterday:
It’s more than a little amusing to hear congressional Republicans worrying about such niceties. Which party likes to hold open five-minute votes indefinitely until the get the results they want? Which party prevents the minority from offering amendments (.pdf) to legislation? Which party forbids the minority from participating in conference committees? Which party shuts down committee hearings when they start to become politically inconvenient? Which party decided that the Senate leader of one party could campaign against the Senate leader of the other party for the first time in American political history?
Republicans want to lecture Dems about decorum and polite floor tactics? Are they kidding?”
“As Washington Monthly editor Paul Glastris pointed out last year, it’s important to remember who started this. Republicans need to take a long look in the mirror before they crank up the outrage dial too far.
UPDATE: Kash has yet another list of traditional courtesies that Republicans have done away with over the past few years.”
Third – You are aware of the secret Soviet style prisons set up in Europe under the Bush administration? Cheney certainly is since he is mounting a massive effort to defeat McCain’s anti-torture legislation. I’d have to say the CIA have been doing their job.
Kerry’s foreign policy advisers would likely fit the profile of the source described by Cliff May.
Male, Democrat, former government official.
AJ,
“May 6th was the Kristof article in the NY Times.”
And don’t forget that Kristof met Joe Wilson at a Senate Democrat Policy Committee conference a few days before the May 6, 2003 article (see Matthew Continetti’s Weekly Standard article “A Little Literary Flair”, July 26, 2004):
“The first public mention of Joe Wilson’s February 2002 mission to Niger appeared in a May 6, 2003, column by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times. Shortly before, Wilson had met Kristof at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee conference in the capital. As Wilson later recounted to Vanity Fair, he told Kristof about his trip to Niger over breakfast the next morning, and said “Kristof could write about it, but not name him.”
AJ,
Don’t know if you’ve ever discussed the June 12, 2003 KnightRidder article by Jonathan S. Landay. Seems the article which gets all the attention these days is the one published that day by Washington Post’s Walter Pincus.
The Landay article sure was full of detailed claims…wonder who HIS “senior CIA official” source was:
“A senior CIA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the intelligence agency informed the White House on March 9, 2002 – 10 months before Bush’s nationally televised speech – that an agency source who had traveled to Niger couldn’t confirm European intelligence reports that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium from the West African country.â€
Even Walter Pincus didn’t stick his neck out this far…
The Landay article is here (sorry I don’t know how to hyperlink):
AJStrata: not to worry, I can take care of it easily.