Wilson Responds: Bush And Cheney Must Explain Why They Outed My Wife

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/06/wilson-responds-verdict/


Wilson Responds: Bush And Cheney Must Explain Why They Outed My Wife

Ambassador Joseph Wilson offered his first response to the Scooter Libby verdict during a conference call today.

“Now that this trial is over,” Wilson said, “the president and the vice president owe the country a much broader explanation of their own actions.” Wilson called on them both to release the transcripts of their discussions with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and called on Bush specifically to apologize for overseeing the outing of his wife:

I also learned today that the president was quoted as saying that he was sorry for Mr. Libby and his family. I wish that he would express his sorrow for what has happened to my wife, whose career was destroyed as a consequence of this, and also to the service people of this country who are fighting in a war that now very clearly was justified by lies and disinformation.

Wilson said he hoped the verdict would teach Libby and other U.S. officials a lesson, that “you don’t abuse the public trust engaging in personal vendettas.” But he said he feared that “they will learn the lesson that several of them apparently learned after Watergate — not the lesson of not abusing power, but rather the lesson…that they should’ve destroyed the tapes.”

Transcript:

WILSON: Well, let me begin by saying that I would hope that Mr. Libby and all other officials in the U.S. government would draw the right lesson from this, and the right lesson to learn from this is you don’t abuse the public trust engaging in personal vendettas. What I probably fear most of all is that they will learn the lesson that several of them apparently learned after Watergate — not the lesson of not abusing power, but rather the lesson that they seemed to have learned is that they should’ve destroyed the tapes. That is the wrong lesson in our democracy to take away from it. So, if they learn the right lesson from it, that would be all to the good for the way that we function as a government.

I have said for quite a while, as you know, that I believe Mr. Rove was involved up to his eyeballs. That became clear when it was made public that Mr. Rove was in fact the source of the compromise of my wife’s identity to Matt Cooper. I’m not going to second-guess decisions that were made by the prosecution. We do have a civil suit in place that hopefully will address some of these larger issues.

I do believe that now that this trial is over, that the president and the vice president owe the country a much broader explanation of their own actions at this time. The president, of course, at one time said that anybody who engaged in this would be fired. Mr. Rove is still on the payroll. So I would, as a start, I would argue — I would ask the president and the vice president to release the transcripts of their interviews with the prosecutor, so as to be able to reassure the American public that they were not — that there is not a cloud over the offices of either of them. I think that would be a good start. I also learned today that the president was quoted as saying that he was sorry for Mr. Libby and his family. I wish that he would express his sorrow for what has happened to my wife, whose career was destroyed as a consequence of this, and also to the service people of this country who are fighting in a war that now very clearly was justified by lies and disinformation.

n/t

on this one....

:kick:

wish I could Recommend again and again!

God Bless all of you!

WHIG Members

* Karl Rove
* Karen Hughes
* Mary Matalin
* James R. Wilkinson
* Nicholas E. Calio
* Condoleezza Rice
* Stephen Hadley
* I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby

The White House Iraq Group (aka, White House Information Group or WHIG) was the marketing arm of the White House whose purpose was to sell the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the public.

On 20 October 2005, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a formal Resolution of Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes, notes, emails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), stating that "This group, comprised of the President and Vice President's top aides, was critical in selling the Administration's case for war. We now know that the Administration hyped intelligence and misled the American public and Congress in their effort to 'sell' the war. After over 1,900 American troops have been killed in Iraq, it is long past time for this Congress to ask serious questions about WHIG and its role in the lead up to the war."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=White_House_Iraq_Group
*

Time to loose the dogs. We know the names to put on the subpoenas. Let's get it on.

For the Bush White House, politics trumps every other consideration. The compromising of Valerie Plame, her cohorts and her assets was all necessary in furtherance of the Bush political agenda. Was intelligence gathering harmed? Big deal. You know how much valid intelligence goes by the board every day in the Bush White House because it doesn't conform to their preconceived notions? (Hint: Bin Laden determined to strike inside the U.S.)

Did people lose their jobs? So what? You know how many people have lost their jobs since Bush seized the White House? Were some people put in danger or even killed? Maybe you're unacquainted with the casualty figures out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bushistas don't care if thousands or hundreds of thousands die needlessly. They're in power, and that's all that counts.

If service to the country lined their pockets like corruption does, they'd do that. But it doesn't, plain and simple. You interfere with that at your grave peril.

That's not a very comforting explanation, I'm sure. But I have reason to believe it's accurate.

what wins out. :-(

Frickin' bastards!

so they could start this horrible war .I read Joe's book and it is amazing that bushco got away with this shit.I especially blame Colin powell because I
trusted him and he betrayed this country so that he could go along with george and the dick!!!!!
These men all deserve to be in prison the rest of their lives.Wake up people these bastards have to be stopped NOW

It is interesting that Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame are in a position to fight for what America ought to represent, and the crooks in the Republican party put them on the front line of real freedom.

for destroying his family.

I wonder from the way Wilson talks about Rove's leak to Cooper, and how he's not second guessing the prosecutor (which he's clearly doing, to me)--is Wilson upset they couldn't get to Rove the way they'd hoped to, and is the not guilty on the Cooper charge, the reason?

Not to be a buzzkiller--I think they will still shed light on this, but the tone of Wilson's message made me wonder...

Mrs. Libby will surely fight for her cubs now that Mr. Libby is under the bus. In drama, the truth always comes out at the end. Let it be so in this case. Go get 'em, Joe!

If Valerie Plame/Wilson was covert and Chaney/Rove/Libbey/et al exposed her, then why did Fitzgerald not make a case for this obvious crime? It just doesn't make sense, was the cover-up that good?

"This attack on Valerie may have been the White House's way of saying yes, indeed, there would be consequences if anybody else dared to speak out publicly. The message to mid-career intelligence officers was clear: Should you decide to speak, we will come after you and your family. Anyone not accustomed to the rough-and-tumble of Washington politics would naturally wonder if the game was worth the candle.

But how stupid I thought. The suggestion that Valerie might have improperly influenced the decision to send me to Niger was easy to disprove. The White House had already acknowledged that the Niger uranium link was unsubstantiated. Yes, I had been among who early on reported this but at the moment, it should have been the administration's priority to find out who had betrayed the president by putting lies in his mouth, rather than to attack someone who had brought the truth to him."

And they ALL need to be answered, or at least addressed - seriously, and at length.

BTW - if I may humbly submit, here's my take on it...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3149945