This guy has been put through the ringer from top officials in this current administration for speaking the truth.
Also see BH's thread on
Wilson's 27 days
of hell
From not confirming the reports in the forged documents about uranium coming from Niger (which was the biggest deal for going into Iraq), to having
his wife outed and put into danger, this man is still kicking and not bending over like Libby has for this administration.
How we've come to know Joe Wilson IV
First let's talk about his Work Backround:
For 23 years, from 1976 to 1998, he was career foreign service officer and ambassador.
In 1990, as chargé d'affaires in Baghdad, he was the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein. (He was also a forceful advocate for his
removal from Kuwait.)
After Iraq, he was President George H. W. Bush's ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe
Under President Bill Clinton, he helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council.
It was his experience in Africa that led him to play a small role in the effort to verify information about Africa's suspected link to Iraq's
nonconventional weapons programs. (Taken from his op/ed article)
Chris Matthews reporting on this subject
In February 2002, the CIA sent former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV to the African country of Niger to check on reports that the Iraqis tried to buy
yellowcake uranium to make a nuclear weapon.
Wilson was known for his showy bravery. As the acting U.S. ambassador to Baghdad in 1990, before the gulf war, he had sheltered hundreds of Americans
from becoming potential hostages.
When Saddam threatened to execute anyone who did not turn over foreigners, Wilson met with reporters wearing a hangman’s noose rather than a tie.
The message, Wilson said, was:
“If you want to execute me, I’ll bring my own f--king rope.”
Retired from the Foreign Service to become a business consultant, Wilson, an experienced Africa hand, eagerly took on the CIA assignment to poke
around Niger. (He accepted no pay, other than expenses.)
After drinking mint tea and talking to Niger officials for about a week, Wilson concluded that the reports of Iraqi uranium purchases were almost
certainly bogus.
Wilson’s report seems to have vanished into the bureaucratic maw.
In his January ’03 State of the Union address, President Bush, citing British intelligence reports, repeated the charge that the Iraqis were trying
to buy uranium from Niger.
The warning was one in a series of dire pronouncements from top administration officials.
Beginning in the summer of 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney and national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice had repeatedly averred in speeches and TV
interviews that Saddam was intent on building an atom bomb.
More
Then on July 6, 2003 Joe Wilson wrote an OP/ED article in the NYT, here is a snippet of what could of possibly made his wife 'fair game' according
to Rove.
Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?
Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence
related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Now about the enriched uranium aka yellow-cake going to Iraq, he states:
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 Nigerien 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.
And now for those documents that he thinks were forgeries:
(As for the actual memorandum, I never saw it. But news accounts have pointed out that the documents had glaring errors — they were signed, for
example, by officials who were no longer in government — and were probably forged. And then there's the fact that Niger formally denied the
charges.)
Read more of his op/ed
here
These are the politics of truth my friends, you go against the grain of a powerful group of corrupt, un-American, machevellian people in the white
house and you could potentially put one of your loved ones in danger.
He is very courageous, outspoken, very intelligent, and honest, and could be an ambassador for this country..oh wait he already was.
This man deserves to be president, he would make a better one then kerry and bush put together. And during the Gore/Bush election he donated $1000 to
both parties, ask him which way he swings, he'll tell you neither.
*******Also watch this video of Joe Wilson and Sen. Schumer asking for the suspension of Karl Rove's security clearance due to the leak of CIA
operative Valerie Plame.************
here
Or go here if you can't get the video to run:
here
Also Wilson has a site if you wish to visit,
www.politicsoftruth.com...
[edit on 2-11-2005 by TrueLies]