I know how this guy feels from personal experience in dealing with defending a spouse who has a career destroyed by political zealots in elected offices.
Today gentlemen do not win.
Thanks to Buzzflash for posting this interview. Another reason to read the headline streams along the left margin of the FCF web log.
Here is a pertinent excerpt (bear in mind the "sixteen words" Wilson discusses below brought Bush overwhelming support for the Iraq invasion):
BuzzFlash: In the end, they (Washington Post ed/op - FCF) say you were incorrect in your claim about the Niger uranium -- even though the White House and the 9/11 Commission have admitted you were correct. We think it's important to go back, to read Novak’s columns, and see what the White House’s megaphone. Mr. Novak, was saying back then. One of the things we distinctly recall at the time this story broke was that the CIA had actually told the White House in the autumn, before the President included the infamous "sixteen words" in his State of the Union speech, that this was not to be used, that the sources were not confirmed, that it wasn’t reliable information. The Niger claim had actually been pulled from an earlier speech, but then somehow ended up in the State of the Union address. Condoleezza Rice has said that it was an error. It was just a mistake, sort of, that it ended up in the State of the Union speech. Given all this, I guess I would have to ask the Washington Post, how could they claim that you made an erroneous charge?
Joseph Wilson: Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve offered over the years to meet with their editorial board. I’ve never gotten the courtesy of a response. But it’s hard for me to say, not really knowing these people very well, not being part of that group, what their thinking is on this. But you’re absolutely right that it was reported at the time, in their own newspaper. Condoleezza Rice offered an apology. Stephen Hadley offered his resignation. So I’m the one who behaved badly, or I was incorrect? There was never anything to the story, and everybody knew it. Colin Powell said we all knew there was nothing to the story. I don’t know what the Post was thinking. They are basically one of the many institutions that abdicated their responsibility to provide some semblance of oversight over this administration.
One other thing about the Post ... I think it’s been clear to anybody who cares about the news that, for awhile, that the quality of reporting in what we call mainstream media has been declining. I think one reason why you see such a surge in popularity of the so-called blog world is a direct response to that. It is the American way. If you don’t like what you’re getting from your normal provider, you go find another provider. I think that’s what people are doing. And I must say I’m one of them who now spends much more time going through the blogs than I ever did before, because I’m just not getting the quality of news that I expect and that we should demand from an independent press in this country. (- FCF emphasis added)
BuzzFlash: David Corn has written in Hubris and in his blog at The Nation, that your wife, Valerie Plame, oversaw the CIA special operational desk that was set up before the invasion of Iraq to in part confirm whether or not there were WMDs there. And it has been said in the press for some time that your wife was a specialist in tracking the illicit sales, transfer, and existence of weapons of mass destruction. Can you discuss that at all?
Joseph Wilson: I’ve read accounts of the Hubris book, and it has been reported by the press that she was with the CIA proliferation division. I don’t think that she would question that reporting. With respect to a specific job responsibility, I really don’t have any comment.
Read the complete interview at:
Ambassador Joseph Wilson Updates on Bush Betrayal of National Security
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