The Mighty Washington Post's Fair and Balanced Recap of the Wilson-Plame-Rove Incident
You know, I keep pushing certain facts in this case out of my mind, and it's good to be reminded of them. Wilson--a really admirable guy so far as I can tell--has distorted some of the relevant facts in this case. That's important for those of us who are generally inclined to be anti-administration to remember.
It's weird that the strange case of the uranium from Niger would have attracted more long-term attention than e.g. the more outright distortions about the aluminum tubes or the alleged UAVs (i.e. the model airplanes). Seems to me that the notorious "sixteen words" were not notably more misleading than thousands of other words uttered in the course of leading us to war.
You know, I keep pushing certain facts in this case out of my mind, and it's good to be reminded of them. Wilson--a really admirable guy so far as I can tell--has distorted some of the relevant facts in this case. That's important for those of us who are generally inclined to be anti-administration to remember.
It's weird that the strange case of the uranium from Niger would have attracted more long-term attention than e.g. the more outright distortions about the aluminum tubes or the alleged UAVs (i.e. the model airplanes). Seems to me that the notorious "sixteen words" were not notably more misleading than thousands of other words uttered in the course of leading us to war.
posted by Winston Smith at
10:03 AM
6 Comments:
Winston,
Agreed. Wilson has overstated or exaggerated some things. See esp. http://dailyhowler.com/dh071405.shtml The whole etiology of how Wilson came to be chosen for that trip was apparently also distorted by the Senate SCoI report, too, at least according the person on Plame's desk named in the report. http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/07/14/plame/index_np.html
All of this doesn't negate the fact that the Bush cabal saw him (among others) as a potential problem for their PNAC-inspired plans, and sought to smear him, in the process potentially compromising national security. Plame was just the horse's head in the bed to warn others against blowing any whistles. Google Karen Kwiatkowski, Larry Johnson or Ray McGovern if you need more info.
Their willingness to compromise national security for political gain is not limited to this instance either. It appears that the September 2004 disclosure of the name of a captured Al Qaeda suspect who became a mole in the organization led to some of his erstwhile accomplices getting away. This might have prevented the disruption of the London subway attacks and who knows what other potential attacks they had in preparation. http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/14/211527/166
WS: "Distorted"? Do you have any particular point against Wilson you'd like to be corrected on? The WP claim re Wilson and Cheney is just made up, for example. And you're accepting the committee report as "facts"?
Any why in the world do you think it would matter if it were true? You're citing the famous "The govt gets to do what it wants to confront distorting opponents" exception to law and morality?
More succinctly, what Yglesias said.
Whew...I was under the impression that everyone was agreed that Plame had recommended Wilson and he had for awhile denied that. I was also under the impression that the final judgment on Wilson's report was that it gave far less support to the 'no purchase' claim than he had asserted.
The vigorous response here forces me to go check this out again.
Thanks; will do so asap.
Incidentally, not that I neither said nor suggested nor intended to convey the impression in this post that any of this did anything to mitigate Rove's apparent misdeed.
Winston,
You might try looking here:
http://www.thepoorman.net/2005/07/19/somerby-jumps-the-shark/
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