Gannon and Ambassador James Wilson

[realFedUp]

from:

http://www.dailykos.com/
Susan G got an interview with Wilson and his remarks
are posted on kos.

How did the interview with Gannon come about, given that it was a small-time conservative news outlet?

Gannon called me and identified himself as the White House Correspondent from Talon News, a conservative news organization. He wanted to do a wide-ranging interview on my position on the war as well as the Niger mission and the leak.

While I had never heard his name or the name of his organization before, I was happy to do it. I have long felt that it is readers and viewers of conservative media who could benefit from a more balanced discussion of what is at stake in our policy and the actions of our government. At one point I recall Gannon as saying he was a traditional conservative (distinguishing himself from the neoconservatives, who in my judgement have totally captured our foreign policy). Speaking to the Times and other mainstream media is fine but those readers and viewers are generally better informed and often of the same perspective. It is those on the other side to whom we need to address the issues even more than to those with whom we already share views.

Did you enter the interview fearful of "landmines" being set by the other side?

I never thought that I had anything to fear from landmines. I told the truth from the beginning. There was never anything to hide.

Were you struck immediately during the course of the interview by the fact that he discussed the internal memo?

continued

[realFedUp]

1. and...

Are you comfortable letting it be known that you've spoken with me?

I have no problem with your saying you have spoken with me. I have no reason not to ensure that the truth is told and I am tired of the way in which the Republicans have smeared my family and myself for no reason other than to perpetuate their lies to the American people. I did not like fascists when I fought them as a diplomat for 23 years and I don't like them now in my own country.

[MrBenchley]

2. So to sum up....

...a gay porn entrepreneur used a phony name to waltz into the White House and get his hands on a classified CIA document...and that's the CHARITABLE INTERPRETATION.

Don't you feel safer? Me neither.

[Me.]

3. It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

I now spend half my days shaking my head, truly the inmates are running the asylum

[realFedUp]

5. eventually even roaches come into the light...

[Me.]

10. Let's Hope It's A Huge Spotlight

of the type they have in prison yards

[MrBenchley]

11. I know what you mean....

[realFedUp]

7. easy plan for terrorists...

Just become a conservative, go to Patrick Henry
College or join a rightwing spin tank right after
college...no one will check your background.

[iamtechus]

4. Who is James Wilson?

-

[realFedUp]

6. The husband of Valerie Plame

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame

Valerie Plame is an American Central Intelligence Agency employee whose identification as a CIA "operative" by columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003 resulted several weeks later in a Justice Department investigation into possible violation of U.S. criminal law regarding exposure of covert government agents. In March 2004, the independent counsel subpoenaed the telephone records from Air Force One, resulting in a political scandal.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, was identified as a CIA "operative" by Novak, who wrote "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate" the allegation.<1> (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.shtml)

According to Novak, administration sources claimed that it had been at Plame's suggestion that the CIA sent her husband to Niger in 2002 to investigate the Yellowcake Forgery, documents implying that Iraq had attempted to illegally purchase uranium from that country. This appeared to contradict Wilson's claim that he was sent to Niger at the request of Vice President Cheney. Cheney has denied any knowledge of Wilson's Niger visit.

Wilson charged that his wife's CIA association had been deliberately exposed by the White House in order to destroy her career, in retaliation for his public charge that the Bush administration had lied to the American people about U.S. intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In an article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, Wilson denounced the Bush administration, saying that "some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

continued

[Penndems]

8. Slight correction: It's Ambassdor JOE Wilson

A brave American, outstanding public servant and, I might add, one hell of a man.

[merbex]

9. Who calls a spade a spade n/t