Irresponsible Stretch of the Day

During the airing of Thursday's "The Big Story with John Gibson" on FOX News, Mr. Gibson provided his latest inaccurate comments on the Scooter Libby trial: "We now know from testimony yesterday in the Libby trial that Ambassador [Joseph] Wilson was sent on the CIA mission by his wife, CIA analyst Valerie Plame. I have said from the beginning that, if CIA analyst Valerie Plame was inserting herself in politics by sending her anti-war, anti-invasion husband on a fact finding mission about Saddam Hussein, then damn right, we should know her name. I said Karl Rove should get a medal for it if he did it."

First and foremost, how much power does Gibson think Plame had as a member of the CIA? The final decision to send Wilson to Niger was made by the office of the Vice President. At the same time, I do not doubt that Plame recommended her husband for the mission to Niger to determine if Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase enriched uranium yellowcake, especially considering the fact that he previously served as a U.S. Ambassador to several African nations. In fact, declassified documents from the State Department (a Bush led State Department) released during the Libby trial verify this assertion:

"Meeting [on February 19, 2002] apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger [Under Secretary Grossman] USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question."

"With the idea" of dispatching her husband to use his contacts. As a "CIA WMD managerial type", that is exactly what Plame should have done as part of her job responsibilities. At the same time, those same declassified documents paint a picture of the role played by both Plame and Wilson in this scandal contrary to Gibson's.

"[Wilson] previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger but said he would only go if the [State] Department thought his trip made sense."

From his comments, it is apparent that Plame recommending her tremendously qualified husband for the Niger mission is much worse to Gibson than Plame being exposed by her own government as an active CIA official, which is clearly in violation of federal law. Of course, Gibson and other conservative pundits steer clear of the infamous "16 words" delivered by Mr. Bush in his State of the Union address in January 2003. During that speech, Mr. Bush, in contradiction of Wilson's findings, falsely claimed that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa". However, in March 2003, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finally obtained the documents (regarding the alleged transactions between Iraq and Niger) referred to by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in front of the United Nations Security Council, the IAEA concluded that the documents were clearly fraudulent. With that being said, I definitely understand why Plame and Wilson are the villians in this story.