This is what passes for a defense of Wilson's lies

The Ministry of Minor Perfidy attempts to defend, unsuccessfully, Wilson's lies. Here's what passes for solid argument:

"Valerie had nothing to do with the matter," Wilson wrote in a memoir published this year. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

So what did he actually write? Here's where you can see a fuller excerpt from his book: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E27%257E2163873,00.html.
"Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger's uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter. Though she worked on weapons of mass destruction issues, she was not at the meeting I attended where the subject of Niger's uranium was discussed, when the possibility of my actually traveling to the country was broached. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

Then he quotes an article in Talon.

TN: Did your wife suggest you for the mission?

Wilson: No. The decision to ask me to go out to Niger was taken in a meeting at which there were about a dozen analysts from both the CIA and the State Department. A couple of them came up and said to me when we're going through the introductory phase, "We have met at previous briefings that you have done on other subjects, Africa-related."

From this is developed the following argument:

This reporter talks about a meeting where Plame may have suggested Wilson's name; the Senate report speaks of a memo. The bottom line is that this is old news; in this interview Wilson clearly indicates that his wife was not part of the decision-making process. He also clearly acknowledgehat s that his wife knows what he does and about his background, that that they know of each other's activities.

Wilson is publicly acknowledging here that his wife may have contributed to his selection; he also is clearly indicating that she had nothing to do with the decision. Criticism of Wilson on this point is, to my mind, requiring of unfair precision on his part.

Unfair precision?

In Wilson's own words:

Wilson's book: "Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger's uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter.,,,,,,,She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

TN: Did your wife suggest you for the mission?

Wilson: "No."

Wilson: "The decision to ask me to go out to Niger was taken in a meeting at which there were about a dozen analysts from both the CIA and the State Department."

Of course his wife didn't make the decision. She wasn't his supervisor nor was she in a position to make such decisions. But that statement has nothing to do with Wilson's unequivocal denial that his wife suggested him for the mission.

SICR - Page 38 - "...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'

Wilson, when asked directly if his wife "suggested him" for the trip, answers "No." (When asked by Newsweek about the story of his wife's involvement he was quoted as saying it was "bullshit".) The SICR reveals that she did propose the trip. Except in the weird moral equivalency universe, this is known as a lie. Plain and simple.

But there's more.

Plame didn't just suggest her husband, she followed it up with a memo.

SICR - Page 38 - ...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.'

Yet Plame didn't just suggest Wilson, and she didn't just follow up with a memo, she convened the meeting where his trip was discussed.

SICR - Page 40 - "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."

Did your wife suggest you for this mission? "No." and "Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger's uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter.,,,,,,,She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

If you can't see that this is a lie, then no amount of evidence will convince you.

But there's even more.

SICR - Page 43 - Wilson was debriefed in his own home, with his wife present (acting as a hostess) and a report was generated as a result. The report indicated that in June 1999 a "businessman" approached Niger about "expanding commercial relations" with Iraq, and the Nigerian minister understood that to mean "uranium yellowcake sales."

In other words, Plame suggested Wilson for the trip. Plame followed it up with a memo explaining why he should be the one to go. Plame attended the meeting where his trip was discussed, and Plame attended the debriefing in his home.

Yet Wilson says, when asked by Talon, "Did your wife suggest you for this mission?" - "No." and "Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger's uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter.,,,,,,,She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

Now that's a lie, plain and simple. No amount of equivocation can escape that fact. No amount of parsing of words can change that fact, and no argument that too much "precision" is being demanded of Wilson can change that fact. He lied. It's time to acknowledge that fact and stop defending the indefensible.

I won't even address his other lies here. You can read those in my previous post on the SICR report.