Joe Wilson a liar? NY Times use of leaks wrong?
Powerline has it wrong once again. In their most recent post about today's NY Times editorial they voice their displeasure about the supposed hyprocracy of the NY Times use of leaks, specifically in relation to the Plame affair and a recent article in the NY Times detailing a CIA run airfield, as " guerrilla war against the Bush administration for the last four and one-half years".
First, Powerline details the efforts of Joe Wilson's (Valerie Plame's husband and former ambassador) work in disproving the Niger-Saddam nuclear weapons connection as "peddling disinformation" to "harm an adversary." This is an unusual stance taken with all the evidence suggesting the contrary, and the fact that the CIA admits the line should not have been in President Bush's speech. A link to Hersh's New Yorker article.
Powerline then asserts that Wilson's op-ed has "been found to be fraudulent by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee!" In actuality
In refrence to the "bipartisan SIC", Powerline refers only the additional views written by Sens. Roberts, Hatch, and Bond asserting their doubts about Wilson's information. These musing were only additional commentary and not part of the actual Senate Intelligence Report.
One of the accusations against Wilson's integrity.
Wilson's response.
Shoot the messanger. Cover-up the truth. Throw enough crap against the wall and some of it will stick. This is not how to have an honest debate about the benefits and drawbacks about reasons for invading Iraq.
Play down the charges of incompetence or misleading the public, done. Now onto discrediting the victim of a possible leak.
Powerline further obscures the truth by falsely stating that Valerie Plame's job is not that dangerous and "she might be in danger as she drove to and from her desk job in Langley."
In actuality she was an undercover agent in the field of WMD work. Not exactly 9-5 desk job material.
Did Iraq have stockpiles of WMD? No. Was Wilson's conclusion right? Yes. Is Powerline wrong? Yes.
To respond to Powerline's last comment about the NY Times supposedly " recent, real outing of a clandestine CIA operation", which in reality revealed that "the agency owns at least 26 planes, 10 of them purchased since 2001." Hardly surprising when considering that " the company was founded in 1979 by a legendary C.I.A. officer and chief pilot for Air America, the agency's Vietnam-era air company".
The NY Times even:
NY Times public editor's complete response.
First, Powerline details the efforts of Joe Wilson's (Valerie Plame's husband and former ambassador) work in disproving the Niger-Saddam nuclear weapons connection as "peddling disinformation" to "harm an adversary." This is an unusual stance taken with all the evidence suggesting the contrary, and the fact that the CIA admits the line should not have been in President Bush's speech. A link to Hersh's New Yorker article.
Powerline then asserts that Wilson's op-ed has "been found to be fraudulent by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee!" In actuality
"But on April 5, 2003, the National Intelligence Council issued a memo that noted, "we judge it highly unlikely that Niamey has sold uranium yellowcake to Baghdad in recent years." It added that the government of Niger was unlikely to proceed with such a deal. And on June 17, 2003, the CIA produced a memo that said, "since learning that the Iraq-Niger uranium deal was based on false documents earlier this spring, we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq pursued uranium from aboard."
In refrence to the "bipartisan SIC", Powerline refers only the additional views written by Sens. Roberts, Hatch, and Bond asserting their doubts about Wilson's information. These musing were only additional commentary and not part of the actual Senate Intelligence Report.
One of the accusations against Wilson's integrity.
Wilson's response.
Shoot the messanger. Cover-up the truth. Throw enough crap against the wall and some of it will stick. This is not how to have an honest debate about the benefits and drawbacks about reasons for invading Iraq.
Play down the charges of incompetence or misleading the public, done. Now onto discrediting the victim of a possible leak.
Powerline further obscures the truth by falsely stating that Valerie Plame's job is not that dangerous and "she might be in danger as she drove to and from her desk job in Langley."
In actuality she was an undercover agent in the field of WMD work. Not exactly 9-5 desk job material.
Did Iraq have stockpiles of WMD? No. Was Wilson's conclusion right? Yes. Is Powerline wrong? Yes.
To respond to Powerline's last comment about the NY Times supposedly " recent, real outing of a clandestine CIA operation", which in reality revealed that "the agency owns at least 26 planes, 10 of them purchased since 2001." Hardly surprising when considering that " the company was founded in 1979 by a legendary C.I.A. officer and chief pilot for Air America, the agency's Vietnam-era air company".
The NY Times even:
"sent them [The CIA] an e-mail of several hundred words that included virtually all the facts we were planning to print (all corporate names, details on the history of Aero Contractors, details of arrests of Al Qaeda figures coinciding with flights, criticism of their 'bad tradecraft'). On Friday afternoon, May 27, the chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise, gave me a no comment, while assuring me that the information had been seen by all the relevant officials.''
NY Times public editor's complete response.
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