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Thu 29 Apr, 2004 09:44 am
White House braced for latest assault by hardback
A former US ambassador will this week 'out' a government official who named his wife as a CIA operative. Andrew Buncombe examines the latest 'must-read' memoir tackling the Bush administration
29 April 2004
The Bush administration is bracing itself for the latest memoir by a former insider. Joe Wilson, a former ambassador, will this week reveal the name of the government official who "outed" his wife - revealing her identity as a CIA operative in apparent revenge for his role in proving the White House made false claims about Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
But in what has increasingly becoming the habit during Mr Bush's presidency, Mr Wilson will not make his claims on television, at a press conference or even in a newspaper column but between the covers of a "must-read" book. His memoir, The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity, is published tomorrow.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for Mr Wilson, a former ambassador to several African countries and a member of President Bill Clinton's national security council. For while the initial "scoop" will appear in his book, if precedent is any guide the revelation will quickly be devoured by all other media and Mr Wilson will likely be filling the airwaves and broadcasts that day.
This is dependent, of course, on the "scoop"not being leaked in advance of publication. Mr Wilson knows the score on this and yesterday he declined to spill the beans. "No, I can't do that," he said. He did, however, "reveal" that the movie project of the book was not so far advanced that actors had been selected. "I will say that if this becomes a movie I am happy with that," he added. "This is a story that people should be told."
The story in question has, to a large extent, already been told. A publisher's breathless blurb might read: "Handsome and worldly Joe Wilson - the last US official to meet Saddam Hussein before the Beast of Baghdad was ousted - was dispatched to Niger at the bequest of Vice-President Dick Cheney to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from the African country to develop its nuclear weapons programme.
"Mr Wilson found the claims to be demonstrably false and told senior CIA officials.
"Last summer, after President Bush repeated the false claim in his State of the Union address, Mr Wilson revealed his trip to Niger and his conclusion to the Independent on Sunday and then in a signed op-ed piece in the New York Times". But it is the what happened next that is gripping Washington. After Mr Wilson went public, the White House leaked to the right-wing newspaper columnist, Bob Novak, that the ambassador's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative and that she may have suggested the mission. Both Mr Wilson and the CIA were furious, claiming that Ms Plame had been compromised and her career severely damaged.
Leaking the identity of a CIA operative is a federal offence and the FBI, headed by an outside prosecutor, has for several months been conducting an investigation and has put together a grand jury to consider evidence and hear from witnesses.
Mr Wilson initially claimed it was Mr Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, who leaked his wife's identity, though he has since stepped back somewhat from that allegation. Reports suggest that other potential leakers could be Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby or else John Hannah, a senior national security aide on the Vice-President's staff. Either way, if anyone in the White House is found guilty of the leak to Mr Novak and others, it would be very damaging to Mr Bush as he campaigns for reelection.
While Mr Wilson's book will receive a flurry of attention - and no doubt earn him a nice sum - it is just the latest in a series of "insider accounts" that seek to reveal the truth about what is going on at the White House. While the administrations of both Clinton and Mr Bush Snr (at least towards the end) were as leaky as the proverbial sieve, the current administration has remained remarkably water-tight, with few genuine leaks appearing in newspapers. As a result, books written by former officials such as the Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, have received unprecedented attention and there have been at least half a dozen such tomes published in recent months. Sir Harold Evans, the former Times editor and Random Books publisher, told The New York Times: "In my experience it is quite phenomenal that so many books are coming at us with such force and candour. Normally there is quite a time gap before such books start to appear, so the reconstruction of events has lost some of its bite."
Publishers are responding to the demand and the willingness of readers to buy such titles, many of which have topped the best-seller lists. Editing, production and distribution of volumes is now being done in almost as little time as it takes for a long magazine article to be produced.
Michael Korda, an editor with Simon & Schuster, said: "The mores have changed. Who on earth would say people have to wait a proper period of time before writing their memoirs?"
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JOSEPH WILSON
Mr Wilson, the former US ambassador to several African countries and the deputy head of mission in Baghdad during the build-up to the 1991 Gulf War, has written what is likely to be a hugely controversial memoir detailing his wife's outing as a CIA operative by the White House. Mr Wilson went to Niger at the request of the Vice-President's office to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium. He reported that the claims were false and that documents on which they were based must be fakes. His account was confirmed by the UN nuclear watchdog. Mr Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, are a glamorous fixture in the more liberal circles of Washington and he has been held up as someone who dared expose the false claims. His memoir could be the most damaging yet as it deals with a topic that is currently the focus of a criminal investigation. If a senior White House official is even charged with leaking Ms Plame's identity it would be very awkward for Mr Bush and Dick Cheney.
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April 2004
The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity
by Joseph Wilson (Author)
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A newspaper here showed huge front page photographs of US undercover guys in Afghanistan with a caption underneath naming them as such. I wondered what the men themselves would have thought of it. Rather surprising too, considering the right wing slant of the publication in question.
Wilson Names Three Possible CIA Leakers
Wilson Names Three Possible CIA Leakers
Thu Apr 29
WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has been pegged as a possible leaker of the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to a syndicated columnist, according to a new book by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, Plame's husband.
In "The Politics of Truth," to be published Friday, Wilson says Libby is "quite possibly the person who exposed my wife's identity," according to The Washington Post, which obtained an early copy.
Wilson writes that a "workup" of his background was done by the White House in March 2003, after his public criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.
"The other name that has most often been repeated to me in connection with the inquiry and disclosure into my background and Valerie's is that of Elliott Abrams, who gained infamy in the Iran-Contra scandal," he writes. Abrams is currently a Mideast specialist on the National Security Council.
Another suspect named in Wilson's book: White House chief political adviser Karl Rove. "The workup on me that turned up the information on Valerie was shared with Karl Rove, who then circulated it in administration and neoconservative circles," Wilson writes.
Columnist Robert Novak has said only that "two senior administration officials" were his sources.
Last October, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said his conversations with Rove, Libby and Abrams have ruled out their involvement.
On Thursday, McClellan said: "Mr. Wilson has publicly stated his primary objective is a political agenda to defeat the president in this election, and I don't intend to do a book review."
A federal grand jury is probing the leak of the CIA officer's identity. Subpoenas were issued to the White House on Jan. 22. The grand jury is attempting to find out if anyone violated a federal law that prohibits the intentional disclosure of the identity of an undercover agent by officials with security clearances.
Some critics have speculated that officials in the Bush administration had told reporters the name of the CIA officer to discredit her husband and his criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.
Wilson claims Cheney targeted him for discounting uranium cl
Posted on Fri, Apr. 30, 2004
Wilson claims Cheney targeted him for discounting uranium claims
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - A former U.S. diplomat told Knight Ridder on Thursday that Vice President Dick Cheney's office mounted a campaign to discredit him after he challenged President Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein had secretly tried to buy uranium in Africa for nuclear weapons.
The campaign, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV charged, included calls to reporters revealing that his wife was an undercover CIA officer.
Wilson spoke the day before a book he's written, "The Politics of Truth," goes on sale.
He visited the West African nation of Niger in February 2002 on a CIA-sponsored trip to examine the claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium there. Wilson found no evidence to substantiate the allegation and briefed officials in Washington.
Nevertheless, in his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003, Bush said Iraq had secretly tried to buy uranium in Africa for a nuclear weapon.
"According to a number of sources from different walks of life, there was a meeting held in March (2003) in the offices of the vice president ... chaired by either the vice president himself or more likely Scooter Libby, in which the decision was made to do a `work-up' on me," Wilson said. "In other words, to find out everything they could about me."
Libby is Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
"They clearly came across my wife's name and they decided to put my wife's name out on the street" as part of a "campaign to drag my wife into the public square and beat her to get at me," Wilson said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan didn't respond to Wilson's allegation and questioned his motives instead, saying Wilson supports Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Bush's Democratic rival in the November election.
"Mr. Wilson has publicly stated that he has a political agenda aimed at defeating the president," McClellan said.
Cheney's spokesman, Kevin Kellems, answered a call for comment but had no immediate response.
Wilson said he'd endorsed Kerry, but that his book was mostly about his 23-year diplomatic career, which included running the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad during the run-up to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when he was deputy chief of the mission.
In writing about the uranium episode, Wilson said he was exercising his right to hold his government "accountable."
He said he based his allegation about Cheney's office on "what people inside Washington have told me, people who are close to it, people who for one reason or another are unwilling to speak out or be heard themselves, journalists who have told me that this White House is absolutely ruthless to them."
The publicity is almost certain to revive questions about the bogus, exaggerated or fabricated intelligence that the president used in making his case for war. American troops have suffered their highest monthly casualty toll this month since invading Iraq in March 2003.
The book also is expected to draw new attention to a U.S. grand jury probe into who in the White House leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. It's a federal crime to disclose the names of U.S. intelligence officers.
Wilson said he didn't know who leaked his wife's identity to syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak and five other journalists in July 2003.
"It's not that I can actually point my finger and say this is the guy who did it, because I am not doing the investigation," Wilson said.
Only Novak disclosed Plame's name, in a column on July 14, 2003, in which he said his sources were two senior administration officials.
Novak's piece appeared 12 days after The New York Times published an opinion piece by Wilson in which he disclosed that he'd conducted a secret mission to Niger and said that by using the uranium allegation, the Bush administration had "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
Knight Ridder reported in June 2003 that the CIA had warned the White House some 10 months before the speech that the allegation hadn't checked out.
In his 2003 State of the Union address, the president told the country that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
The charge was intended to bolster Bush's contention that the Iraqi dictator had to be ousted because he was hiding biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs that he could use to arm terrorists.
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