Lies, Lies, Lies

[osaMABUSh]

This just in: email from Ed Gillespie, RNC

"Subject: The Weekly Team Leader: Lies, Lies, Lies

Dear John,

As last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report and this week's British government inquiry into their intelligence have shown, President Bush was correct when, in his State of the Union address, he said, "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

For more than a year, former Ambassador Joe Wilson led Democrats to make allegations against the President--that he lied about African uranium--that have now been proven false. Senator Kerry embraced
and repeated these false charges.

Every television network and all major newspapers played up the accusations, and yet you may not have heard about this recent development because only NBC and The Washington Post have reported the latest revelation: It is Joe Wilson who lied.

"All of this matters," the Wall Street Journal noted yesterday, "because Mr. Wilson's disinformation became the vanguard of a year-long assault on Mr. Bush's credibility. The political goal was to portray the President as a 'liar,' regardless of the facts. Now that we know those facts, Americans can decide who the real liars are."

The Democratic Party for the past year has tried to discredit the President for steps he took to protect our country and now it is clear the President was right all along. The Democrats' plan to play politics
with National Security has backfired.

Even today, Joe Wilson's claim continues to appear on John Kerry's campaign website.

Perhaps John Kerry is as proud of his repudiated national steering committee member who has been exposed as a liar as he is of his vote against funding our troops in the field.

Sincerely,

Ed Gillespie

P.S. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement about our activities during the Democratic National Convention in Boston."

[obelus]

1. 9/11 Commission Report An Omission Report

The report is not fully credible. In looking at the "revelation" from the 9/11 Commission, they only add to the mess that is the Niger uranium imbroglio. Far from being a slam dunk, the story only gets murkier. The forgeries that Wilson uncovered are still forgeries. The intelligence that the UK and the US followed up on are still faulty. Wilson correctly exposed the forgeries and correctly reported to his superiors that the whole thing was a red herring. Question: even if Iraq was in the market, what could they expect to accomplish without a working reactor?

Meanwhile, there is still an unanswered inquiry into the leak that propelled Wilson to an ignominous fame. It's OK. Even after the election the charge will still have to be answered to by the perpetrators. The clock doesn't necessarily run out on a criminal probe of this sort.

There is no basis, from what has been released thus far, to accept the 9/11 Commission's report as the final finding of fact. They are 60 days away from being thoroughly discredited. They blew it.

[newyawker99]

3. Hi obelus!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Renew Deal]

2. If they want to fuck around at the convention.

Payback's a bitch.

[nostamj]

4. Wilson's answer:

Dear Sen. Roberts and Sen. Rockefeller,

I read with great surprise and consternation the Niger portion of Sens. Roberts, Bond and Hatch's additional comments to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Assessment on Iraq. I am taking this opportunity to clarify some of the issues raised in these comments.

First conclusion: "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee."

That is not true. The conclusion is apparently based on one anodyne quote from a memo Valerie Plame, my wife, sent to her superiors that says, "My husband has good relations with the PM 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." There is no suggestion or recommendation in that statement that I be sent on the trip. Indeed it is little more than a recitation of my contacts and bona fides. The conclusion is reinforced by comments in the body of the report that a CPD reports officer stated that "the former ambassador's wife 'offered up his name'" (page 39) and a State Department intelligence and research officer stated that the "meeting was 'apparently convened by wife who had the idea to dispatch him to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue."

In fact, Valerie was not in the meeting at which the subject of my trip was raised.
more:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/07/16/wilson_letter/index.html