*** Special to The BRAD BLOG
*** by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns
One of the pettiest distortions connected with the CIA leak matter is simple: the flat-footed, bogus claim that Ambassador Joseph Wilson said he was ‘sent’ to Africa by Vice President Cheney.
Wilson did not make the assertion, but White House operatives and their media/think-tank allies continue, even today, to forward the fiction that he did.
This claim ““ that Wilson went around saying Cheney sent him to Niger ““ has been recycled by the rightwing echo chamber every time the radar screens registered some political fallout from the CIA leak case (many examples shown below). It has also arisen during testimony in the Libby trial.
However, the MSM (except Fox) have not parroted the same claim ““ with the interesting exception of NBC, mainly Chris Matthews.
Regrettably, this bogus claim is again given space in Sunday’s Washington Post, in an article by the hard Bush partisan and former Reagan Justice Department attorney, Victoria Toensing, called “Trial in Error.”
Here is Toensing’s version of the matter [emphasis added]:
Now here is the relevant paragraph of Joe Wilson’s now-infamous July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed [emphasis added]:
Far from saying, “Cheney sent me,” for the record, there is no documentation of Wilson’s ever saying that he had been sent to Niger by the Office of the Vice President.
On the day his op-ed appeared — July 6, 2003 — Wilson also appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell [emphasis added]:
AMB. WILSON: Andrea, when I was in the National Security Council, I was senior director for African affairs, and subsequent to that, when I wrote this article, I checked with members of the then-vice president’s staff, senior members, as well as other senior members of the NSC staff, to refresh my own memory. And standard operating procedure has always been if you are senior enough to ask the question, you will get a very specific response. And if you are in the vice president’s office, or you’re a senior director at the National Security Council, you are senior enough to ask the question, you will get a specific response, unless the operating procedures have changed, which would be a shame.
Wilson was also interviewed by the Washington Post (Bob Woodward not present) and appeared the next day, July 7, on CNN’s American Morning [emphasis added]:
This, Wilson’s only statement that even comes close to the neocon canard, in no way implies that he got a directive from Cheney; quite the reverse.
(BTW, Toensing makes an interesting criticism of Wilson and of the CIA: “Although Wilson has repeatedly claimed that neither his trip nor his oral report was classified, the CIA sent documents about the trip marked ‘classified’ to the vice president’s office and to date has not released the essence of the oral report.” Toensing also repeats the claim that Mrs. Wilson was not “covert.” About the latter claim, and much more from Toensing’s editorial, Valerie Wilson’s former CIA classmate, Larry C. Johnson, has more than a bit to say. He describes the less-than-honorable GOP operative Toensing as “delusional” and excoriates both her and WaPo’s questionable decision to run her piece in what both he and one of the core writers of the CIA Identities Law, Brent Budowsky, describe as little more than an attempt at “jury tampering” in the Libby case by Toensing.)
Meanwhile, the ‘Wilson said Cheney sent him’ claim has been pushed by the rightwing echo chamber with a perseverance worthy of a better cause. Here are a few typical examples:
- July 7, 2003 (after Wilson’s column) ““ Ari Fleischer in a White House press briefing “rebuts” Wilson’s purported claim about Cheney.
- July 12-22, 2003 (after the White House backpedals on its Niger uranium claims, and after Bob Novak’s much-criticized column outing Plame) ““ 18 examples on Fox programs of statement that Wilson said the VP sent him;
- July 12, 2005 ““ The O’Reilly Factor: “Visual – Joseph Wilson, who said Dick Cheney sent him to Africa.”
- July 12, 2005 ““ Fox Report: “allies claim that he was only warning Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper that he was about to publish incorrectly that Vice President Dick Cheney sent former diplomat Joe Wilson to Africa.”
- same date — O’Reilly again; Hannity & Colmes with Bill Press; ditto July 14 Fox & Friends; July 14: “HANNITY: The one person who has been consistently not honest here is Joe Wilson, the publicity hound. I mean, not being honest about the vice president’s office having sent him . . .”
- July 18, 2005 ““ Ralph Reed “rebuts” the purported Wilson statement.
- July 20, 2005 ““ the claim that Wilson said Cheney sent him is reported to be a talking point of GOP National Committee.
- Oct 27, 2005 (after word of impending indictments) ““ Sen. Lindsey Graham with Bob Woodward, David Gergen, Michael Isikoff, Christopher Dodd on Larry King Live, CNN: “GRAHAM: ” . . . I really do believe people were trying to rebut the idea he was sent there by the vice president and maybe this thing got out of hand.”
- Sunday Oct 30, 2005 (just after Oct 28 indictment of Libby) ““ Charles Krauthammer on ABC’s Inside Washington: “The person who lied here was Wilson. There was a response to the stories he leaked to The Post and The Times, implying, A, that the vice president had sent him . . .”
- Same day — on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer the next half-hour, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) also suggested that Wilson claimed to be sent on his Niger trip by Cheney.
- Same day ““ on CNN’s Market Call: “RAMESH PONNURU, SENIOR EDITOR, “NATIONAL REVIEW”: “Secondly, as for the pettiness, there is some evidence to support this view. But let’s think back to the context here. Mr. Wilson was encouraging the impression that Dick Cheney had sent him on this mission and then refused to listen to him afterwards.”
- Apr 7, 2006 (just after government filing in Libby case) ““ flurry of “inews” reports mentioning the line.
Et cetera.
There is still something puzzling about this line. Bending over backward, let’s assume for sake of argument that Wilson was a “publicity hound” and that he wanted to go on the Africa trip. His wife’s introduction could have helped him get the assignment. But even the neocons cannot say that Wilson got paid for the trip; it is conceded that he was previously an ambassador, had contacts in Niger and was an expert in African affairs; and some checking at various levels is usual, not atypical, dealing with foreign reports.
Indeed, it would have been acceptable if Cheney had sent Wilson — or anyone — to check those “mushroom cloud” rumors.
The false line is clearly bogus. But the sting in this purported claim still eludes me. Perhaps it is just one more way to divert attention from the fact that the main harm done in the CIA leak was to Mrs. Wilson (not to her husband) and to genuine WMD intelligence gathering, which was destroyed once the White House, of all groups, leaked the information.
“Delusional or just a liar?”
Both.
I find it funny that the right is paranoid about the appearance that Cheney asked Wilson to go check it out. Who cares? No matter how much they try to smear Wilson, this doesn’t change the material facts of going to war on false pretenses.
The manipulation tactics used by the right:
1) Diversion – this pointless discussion diverts attention away from the bigger, more important picture.
2) Lying – by stating as fact that Wilson’s intention is to lie about this frivolous matter, the right promotes their lie that Joe Wilson is a liar.
There’s more info on manipulation tactics here.
– Tom
Ah yes, same ol’ same ol’ –
“Oh look, over there, something shiny!!”
So..closing arguments are tomorrow. Any predictions?
I think Libby will be found guilty, and will try to make a deal.
And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rumors of sealed indictments are true.
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard of Victoria Toensing. She reminds me of a character you’d find in a game of Clue. Day after day on the Geraldo CNBC show trying to make Clinton look like satin, holding her head in exactly the same position every night, slightly turned to what she considered to be her good side. This woman and her despicable husband have no good side.
Have you thanked Brad with a donation this month?
Who cares who sent Wilson? That is irrelevant. What IS relevant is who committed treason in the intentional outing of a covert CIA operative? That’s what’s relevant!
As for Libby’s trial, it’s making clear to the american people that Dick Cheney is at the center of this treasonous affair and needs to be prosecuted next for his complicity in it.
As for Libby, what’s also becoming clear is that Dick Cheney, his boss, ordered him to do it – he complied – and now is his boss’s scapegoat. It’s clear that the “buck stops at the top” – something which this administration seems to believe it’s immune from but which the american people will press for and reinstate against their protests.
It’s time for the american people to take back control of their government….beginning with this reprehensible, treasonous & intentional outing of a covert operative by Dick Cheney. And, regardless of how many “other individuals” were involved, someone at the top HAD to initiate the outing order….my guess would be that it’s Dick Cheney and/or Bush himself – perhaps both. If so, they both need to be indicted since neither of them is above the law in this country (although in their delusional world they think so!).
Press for Cheney’s indictment and removal from office.
Another good one they always dredge up, is that they didn’t let Casey speak at the DNC in 1992 or 94, because he was against abortion. Totally FALSE!!!
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040013
I really notice THAT one, because I’m from Pa…and so is Casey. His son is now the senator that ousted Santorum (thank god)…
I’m on your side Margie (Brad), but there are two quotes in this column that I think confuse the whole issue. At one point, this column says
“there is no documentation of Wilson’s ever saying that he had been sent to Niger by the Office of the Vice President.”
Yet shortly thereafter, Wilson is quoted as saying
“I went … at the request I was told of the office of the vice president”
I don’t know if the case being made by the column is intended to rest on the words “I was told,” but that is a pretty subtle difference in wording between the two quotes – one that I think goes over the head of the average reader.
What I would emphasize is the difference between direct and indirect requests. Mr. Wilson never said he was personally and directly requested to go by Mr. Cheney himself, but rather that the CIA directly requested him to go. I think it is probably also accurate to say that Cheney never directly requested any single person to go, but rather that he (his office) was asking the CIA to doublecheck the story because he didn’t like the report he had seen. It was then the CIA that asked Wilson to go because they were getting this heat from Mr. Cheney (his office).