Joseph C. Wilson
Joseph C. Wilson IV (born November 61949) was a United States career foreign service officer and diplomat between 1976 and 1998. He achieved wide notoriety with an op-ed essay[1] published on July 62003, in the New York Times in which he revealed his role investigating the Iraq Yellowcake uranium WMD assertions of the Bush administration and accused Bush of "exaggerating the Iraqi threat" in order to justify war. Shortly thereafter, while musing on the choice of Wilson for the Niger mission, columnist Robert Novak noted the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA operative; such a disclosure is a potentially criminal offense. The information was published in a July 142003 column[2] in which he said, "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report." Deputy Attorney General James Comey (then Attorney General John Ashcroft having recused himself from the case) named Patrick J. Fitzgerald as a special prosecutor to determine who was involved with the leak.
See: CIA leak grand jury investigation Valerie Plame, Plame affair, Plame scandal timeline for articles with more information on this incident.
Foreign service career
Wilson served as U.S. ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe under President George H. W. Bush and helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. He was hailed as "truly inspiring" and "courageous" by George H. W. Bush after sheltering more than one hundred Americans at the US embassy in Baghdad, and mocking Saddam Hussein's threats to execute anyone who refused to hand over foreigners. As a result, in 1990, he also became the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein (Wilson, 2003).
Political ties
Wilson was a supporter and donor to the Kerry/Edwards campaign for the presidency. In 2000, he donated to Vice President Gore’s campaign. In the mid-eighties, Wilson worked for Gore as a congressional staffer. He has made contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy. He has in the recent past spoken to activist groups like Win Without War, which is a part of MoveOn.org.
However, he also donated $1,000 to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and $1,500 to Rep. Ed Royce's (R-CA) 2000 reelection campaign.
The op-ed
The controversy surrounding Wilson really begins with President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address [3], in which he stated that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Two months later, documents suggesting that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, were judged to be "obvious" forgeries by the IAEA.However the documents that the IAEA judged to be forgeries were not the same documents that the British based their original assessment on. Two British Parliamentary reports confirmed the original intelligence. One of these reports (the Butler Report) suggested that the forged documents were distributed with the knowing goal of being discovered as obvious forgeries so as to discredit the intelligence. The documents were obtained by the U.S. Embassy in Rome on October 92002, and distributed throughout the U.S. intelligence community shortly thereafter, but not passed on to the IAEA until February 32003. The IAEA released its report a month later, just weeks before the start of the Iraq war.
On July 62003, Wilson authored an op-ed essay in the New York Times[4] in which he accused the Bush administration of "exaggerating the Iraqi threat" in order to justify war. In the article, Wilson states: "The vice president's office asked a serious question. I was asked to help formulate the answer." Critics of Wilson have contended that he falsely claimed to have been sent by the vice president personally. However, in the quotation above and other instances Wilson has said only that he was sent by the CIA in response to questions asked by the vice president's office.
The day after Wilson's editorial, titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa" appeared, White House aides said that the State of the Union Address should not have contained the reference. And Secretary of State Colin Powell, then traveling with the President in Africa, gave a press conference addressing the issue, saying "There was sufficient evidence floating around at that time that such a statement was not totally outrageous or not to be believed or not to be appropriately used. It's that once we used the statement, and after further analysis, and looking at other estimates we had, and other information that was coming in, it turned out that the basis upon which that statement was made didn't hold up, and we said so, and we've acknowledged it, and we've moved on."[5]
The administration still maintains that other intelligence that Iraq may have attempted to acquire uranium in Africa may have been correct, and many supporters of the theory point to Butler Report, which found that there was credible intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Niger in 1999 and less certain intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Critics of the theory view the evidence relating to the Democratic Republic of Congo as suspect, and point out that while the President's speech mentioned only Africa, press secretary Ari Fleischer explicitly affirmed that this was a reference to Niger.[6]
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report
A Senate Intelligence Committee report issued on July 7, 2004 challenged some of the statements made by Wilson.
The report suggests that Wilson's wife was involved in his selection for the mission. As reported by the Washington Post:
- The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her 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." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said. [7]
However, several CIA officials have since stated that the person who wrote this memo was not present at the meeting where Wilson was chosen. Accounts of Valerie Plame's involvement in her husband's selection differ significantly. Wilson has claimed that she simply contacted him on the agency's behalf and escorted him to the meeting before leaving. The evidence cited above, if accurate, would indicate that Plame may also have recommended her husband and/or written a summary of his qualifications when he was being considered. In contrast, Matthew Cooper's e-mail records that Karl Rove told him that Plame had actually authorized the trip.
Wilson's report has also come under fire for inconsistency. As reported in the same Washington Post article:
- The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."
- "Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.
The trip to Niger
The bulk of Wilson's op-ed dealt with his trip to Niger in 2002. Many further details of the trip can be found in the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, which contains a 48 page section dealing with intelligence related to Niger.
In late February of 2002, Wilson had been sent to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate the possibility that Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy enriched uranium yellowcake. Wilson concluded then that there "was nothing to the story".
But he also reported that, although former Nigerien prime minister Ibrahim Assane Mayaki was unaware of any pending sales contract with Iraq, an Iraqi delegation had approached him in June 1999, expressing an interest in "expanding commercial relations". Mayaki believed this may have meant that they wanted to purchase yellowcake uranium, one of Niger’s few exports. Mayaki claimed he refused to discuss any trade issues at all due to active UN sanctions on Iraq, and so steered the conversation in another direction. [8] Wilson's critics claim that this evidence provides further confirmation that Iraq may have been trying to purchase uranium in Africa, and that he failed to include this information in his op-ed.
The piece did, however, include Wilson's assessment that "Given the structure of the consortiums that operated the mines, it would be exceedingly difficult for Niger to transfer uranium to Iraq. Niger's uranium business consists of two mines, Somair and Cominak, which are run by French, Spanish, Japanese, German and Nigerian interests. If the government wanted to remove uranium from a mine, it would have to notify the consortium, which in turn is strictly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Moreover, because the two mines are closely regulated, quasi-governmental entities, selling uranium would require the approval of the minister of mines, the prime minister and probably the president. In short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired."
An article in the 25 October, 2005 edition of the Italian newspaper Italic textLa Repubblica'Italic text indicates that Wilson's statements about Niger were correct. The article claims that Nicolo Pollari, head of the Italian Intelligence Service, SISMI, knew the Nigerien documents were forgeries, but tried to go around the CIA to get them into the public eye in the US.
Italic textLa RepubblicaItalic text also claims that Pollari met with Stephen Hadley, previously the Deputy National Security Advisor, on 9 September, 2002, to discuss problems about the documents. That date was before the speech given on 7 October, 2002, when Bush specifically claimed uranium was sought from Niger.
Here is a link to the article:
http://www.repubblica.it/2005/j/sezioni/esteri/iraq69/bodv/bodv.html
Book: The Politics of Truth
In 2004, Wilson published a book, The Politics of Truth, with the subtitle, "Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed my Wife's CIA Identity". In just over 500 pages, he gives a detailed account of over two decades of foreign service, in addition to giving his personal account of the events leading to his decision to go public with his criticisms of the Bush administration, and what he views as an orchestrated attack by administration officials in retaliation for his coming forward. The book also provided fuel for many of Wilson's critics, who perceived an increasingly partisan tone and who found in it what they believed were inconsistencies with some of Wilson's prior statements. Some also saw the book as both financially, and politically opportunistic, particularly given its release in an election year.(May, Schmidt, 2004).
Candidate contributions
According to Federal Election Commission records, Wilson has made campaign contributions to members of both parties. He donated $2,000 to John Kerry in 2003, $1,000 to Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) HILLPAC in 2002, $1,000 to Al Gore in 1999, and $2,250 to other Democratic candidates. However, he also donated $1,000 to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and $1,500 to Rep. Ed Royce's (R-CA) 2000 reelection campaign. [9][10] [11]
See also
External links and references
- Bush, George W (January 28, 2003) State of the Union Address whitehouse.gov
- Wilson, Joseph (July 6, 2003). What I didn't find in Africa. New York Times reprinted at Common Dreams News Center
- Powell, Colin (July 7, 2003) Press Conference in Africa pbs.org
- Fleischer, Ari (July 7, 2003). Press gaggle. The White House.
- Wilson, Joseph (September 14, 2003). Seeking honesty in U.S. policy. San Jose Mercury News reprinted at Common Dreams News Center.
- Bedard, Paul (October 20, 2003). Wilson adds ammo to hit war credibility gap. USNews.com “Washington Whispers” [not found in on-line archive]
- Wilson, Joseph (May 2, 2004). 'Administration went after me and my wife'. Miami Herald reprinted at Common Dreams News Center.
- U.S. Senate Select Committee (July 7, 2004) Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq intelligence.senate.gov
- Roberts, Pat (July 9, 2004). Press release. Basis for the Susan Schmidt, Clifford May, Robert Novak, and Matthew Continetti articles below.
- Schmidt, Susan (July 9, 2004). Plame's input is cited on Niger mission. washingtonpost.com, p. A09 [registration required]
- May, Clifford D. (July 12, 2004). Our man in Niger. National Review Online.
- Hitchens, Christopher (July 13, 2004). 'Plames Lame Game'. "Slate"
- Novak, Robert (July 15, 2004). Errant former ambassador. Townhall.com
- Wilson, Joseph (July 19, 2004). Response to Pat Roberts Reprinted at Alternet.
- Wilson, Joseph (July 21, 2004). A right-wing smear is gathering steam. Los Angeles Times reprinted at Common Dreams News Center.
- Continetti, Matthew (July 26, 2004). “A little literary flair”. Weekly Standard suggests that Wilson made false accusations.
- Joel Mowbray. (July 15, 2005). Joe Wilson's Credibility Problem Frontpage Magazine
For other individuals with similar names, see Joe Wilson.