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The Perplexing Case of Joe Wilson and the CIA Leak

by Marinka Peschmann, Special to Canada Free Press

August 5, 2004

July 6, 2003, Ambassador Joseph Wilson became a household name by his pen. After writing, What I Didn't Find in Africa, an op-ed in the New York Times, Wilson ‘in a simple act of civic duty’ accused the Bush White House of ‘selective use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.’ According to Wilson, the CIA paid his expenses to send him to Niger, although his ‘time was offered pro bono,’ to verify Africa's alleged trade to ‘Iraq’s non-conventional weapons program.’ After eight days in Niger, he concluded the answer was no. Saddam Hussein had not tried to obtain yellowcake uranium. As he wrote, ‘in short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired.’ Then Wilson claimed members of the Bush Administration retaliated by outing his wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak as the person whose recommendation helped garner him the mission and subsequently launched an ongoing criminal investigation that led directly into the White House West Wing--who illegally leaked Wilson’s wife name?

A whirlwind of media appearances followed. Wilson appeared on the international stage making his case, including a photograph taken with his wife camouflaged in a scarf and sunglasses in Vanity Fair, followed by the May release of his book: The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity. President Bush called for a thorough investigation and both the President and Vice President Cheney have been questioned. The year-long criminal investigation is pending.

But things have changed, and in the world of politics perception and reality are not always as they appear. Not everyone and their views fit nicely in one box.

The bipartisan Senate Select Committee Intelligence Report challenged the veracity of Wilson’s claims finding instead that Plame had ‘offered up’ her husband’s name for the Niger trip. In an interview with CFP, Wilson remained definite, ‘she was not in the decision-making loop.’ Although the Bush Administration conceded that the 16 words involving Iraq’s attempts to obtain uranium delivered in the State of the Union Address should not have been included, the British uphold that their intelligence was not based on forged documents, as Wilson claims. Still Wilson maintains, ‘They [the British] are saying that they had separate intelligence, that they were comfortable with before the document came to light.’

Has this become an issue of semantics interwoven within the serious reality of war? He said? She said? They said? Political views assorted with facts? Wilson is confident, ‘we’re getting the facts out.’

Last Wednesday, during the Democratic National Convention, at a 'Take Back America Debate,' Joe Wilson with Dennis Kucinich, Gary Hart and Barbara Lee took their seats facing a room with a smattering of scattered empty seats, including three rows reserved for the press. The day before Howard Dean and Michael Moore appeared on the same second floor dais where it was standing room only, with a hopeful crowd in a line winding outside the Royal Sonesta Hotel. Their hopes were dashed when the scheduled room ultimately couldn't accommodate them all.

Minutes before the speeches and debate began, former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, who resigned from the British House of Commons in objection to Prime Minister Tony Blair's role in the Iraq war was singled out and he rose within the audience to a standing ovation. Yells of ‘Bravo’ abounded.

When Wilson took the microphone minutes into his speech he declared, 'On my road to Boston I was ambushed, I was ambushed by the Republican National Committee… You’ve seen it in the Wall Street Journal… right wing blogs… I’ve been accused of betraying my country and of being a liar.'

It's no secret that Wilson, self-described as ‘Center Left,’ has taken an active role supporting John Kerry’s presidential bid. Wilson met Kerry once when he was ‘invited in March of 2003 to sit on the newly formed foreign policy advisory committee.’ These committees are formed in part to determine policies that one would pursue if ‘the candidate were to win the election.’ This Presidential election is unique, as foreign policy will play a major role. Yet Wilson ‘never anticipated’ that he ‘would have an overtly political role.'

Wilson says his ‘views’ are his ‘views’ and the ongoing criminal probe has ‘nothing to do’ with his position on the war. "It was never, ‘No Force, No How.’ It was always if you needed to use force, use force for the right reasons, but don't do anything stupid. But I always understood that the only way you were going to get Saddam’s attention was by the credible threat of force. Words in themselves were not going to do it.’ On July 31, 2003, The UK Telegraph reported one of Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday’s, last conversations, ‘This time I think the Americans are serious. Bush is not like Clinton. I think this is the end.’ And Wilson concurred, "In fact it did [serve U.S. interests]. In fact when we got the UN Security Council Resolution and we began to mobilize, we got exactly what we needed. We got free access to the sites.’

Although Wilson does not see himself as a Whistleblower ‘in the classic sense’ because he ‘was not an employee of the U.S. government,’ why are some whistleblowers revered, while others are reviled, as evidenced during the Clinton years?

Wilson agreed, ‘it’s certainly I think a charge that has often been made. It’s not more acceptable in a Democratic Administration than it is in a Republican Administration.’ ‘It makes people fearful of their government and I don’t think it’s very healthy for the long-term survival of the greatest system of governance that the world has ever seen.’

Michael Isikoff and Eve Conant in Newsweek’s August 9^th Issue report, ‘Colin Powell recently testified before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA covert officer Valerie Plame…. sources say [Prosecutor] Fitzgerald has recently asked witnesses before the grand jury--apparently to ask about issues raised by a new Senate intelligence committee report that seemed to contradict some of Wilson’s public statements about Plame’s role in his trip to Niger.’

In a quote Wilson attributed to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, "You can take your humiliation now, or take your humiliation later." As the facts emerge, and the criminal probe continues, history will decide.