Senate Intelligence Report, yellowcake and Joseph Wilson's lies

There are several things about the Nigerian yellowcake story that are revealing. From the first, the State Department was convinced that nothing could be going on because [the French] "maintain[s] complete control over uranium mining and yellowcake production". But this isn't intelligence. It's opinion. The State Department's animosity toward conservatives in general and President Bush in particular means they are predisposed to providing contradictory information regarding intelligence reports that might buttress the President's case for action.

Now that we know of France's perfidy in the matter of the UN oil for food scandal and their willingness to circumvent the UN sanctions against Iraq, the State Department's confidence in French control of uranium production seems oddly naive.

With regard to Ambassador Wilson's and his wife's involvement, the report states:

"...interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that [Wilson's] wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador's wife 'offered up his name' and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from the former ambassador's wife says, 'my 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.' This was just one day before CPD sent a cable [some words blacked out] requesting concurrence with CPD's idea to send the former ambassador to Niger and requesting any additional information from the foreign government service on their uranium reports. The former ambassador's wife told Commmittee staff that when CPD decided it would like to send the former ambassador to Niger, she approached her husband on behalf of the CIA and told him 'there's this crazy report' on a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq."

The predisposition to discount the existence of a deal is apparent in both Ms. Plame's reference to "this crazy report" and the entire apparatus of the State Department's attitude that the French couldn't possibly be involved in circumventing UN sanctions (a predisposition we now know to be fatally flawed since we have proof of the French perfidy.)

So how did the State Department follow up? By asking the Nigerians and French directly, of course. And surprisingly, both denied it, ending any need for a further investigation - at least, in the insane world of the State Department, where taking the word of foreign leaders is acceptable as opposed to getting hard evidence.

Incredibly, the former ambassador's wife's involvement was even deeper than has been reported. Section (U) reads:

On February 19,2002, CPD hosted a meeting with the former ambassador, intelligence analysts from both the CIA and INR, and several individuals from DO's Africa and CPD divisions. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the merits of the former ambassador traveling to Niger. An INR anaylst's notes indicate that the meeting was 'apparently convened by [the former ambassador's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue.' The former ambassador's wife told Commmittee staff that she only attended the meeting to introduce her husband and left after about three minutes.

At least we now know that Wilson clearly lied about his wife's involvement. In his book, pompously (and ironically) titled "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir", he states, "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter" and "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." My goodness. What we have here is an outright contradiction of his previous assertions, in writing, by the ambassador himself. Here's what Wilson told Time in 2003 when asked of his wife's involvement - "That is bulls__t. That is absolutely not the case." I suppose he felt the truth would never come out, but now that it has, he has resorted to a Clintonian parsing of words, saying of her memo suggesting him for the trip, "I don't see it as a recommendation to send me." Really Joseph? Well normal people certainly will. And they will now see you as an opportunistic liar.

On February 26, 2002, Wilson arrived in Niger. He spoke only with former Nigerian officials (the former Prime Minister and the former Minister of Mines) and with the US Ambassador, Owens-Kirkpatrick, and on that limited "investigation" concluded that "there was nothing to the story'. The Ambassador recalls him saying, "[he] had reached the same conclusions that the embassy had reached, that it was highly unlikely that anything was going on." What Wilson did find out, which he revealed in a private meeting in his home, with his wife (who he insists was uninvolved) present, was that the former Prime Minister had revealed that a "businessman approached him and insisted [he] meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss 'expanding commercial relations' between Niger and Iraq. The former PM "interpreted [this] to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales." The PM also stated that the meeting took place but that he dropped the matter "due to UN sanctions on Iraq." The former Minister of Mines told Wilson that "an Iranian delegation was interested in purchasing 400 tons of yellowcake from Niger in 1998", but he claimed no contract was ever signed.

If nothing else, this proves the Iraqis were at least trying to obtain yellowcake in large quantities, and that should have been alarming to anyone who was aware of it. (Wilson, of course, dismissed it as "nothing".)

The report goes on to reveal that Wilson admitted to being the source for a Washington Post article, "CIA Did Not Share Doubt on Iraq Data; Bush Used Report of Uranium Bid". When questioned by the Committee about his knowledge of certain details which he could not possibly have known, Wilson told the Committee he may have "mispoken" to the reporter when he said the documents were forged.

So what we have with Joseph Wilson is a man who has lied for partisan reasons, created a controversy when there was none and written a book to profit from the mess. Will the press now hound Wilson as they hounded Bush about his "sixteen words"? Only time will tell, but past experience doesn't encourage us to think that the story will get anywhere near the same attention that Wilson's lies have gotten.