The Wilson Gambit
Clarice Feldman has written a great article The Wilson Gambit for today’s RealClearPolitics. Ms. Feldman asks a number of questions that I, and many others, have raised before. Here’s a sampling of those questions:
Why didn’t the Agency require Wilson to sign a non-disclosure agreement respecting his trip to Niger?
Why did the Agency pay only his expenses?
Why have his report remain oral?
For an agency so up in arms about the non-outing of a CIA non-operative, they sure didn’t object to Wilson’s writing all about his hush-hush trip, did they? Sen. Zell Miller might have an answer for that question. Here’s his opinion:
But the rules on agents are clear. They can’t purposely distort gathered intelligence, go public with secret information or use their position or information to manipulate domestic elections or matters without risking their job or jail.
But their spouse can!
Folks, now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. It’s obvious that a strong case can be made that this trip was designed to gather misinformation with the intent to undercut the Bush Administration. The proof might lie in the questions: “Why did the Agency pay only his expenses?” and “Why have his report remain oral?” If the information was intended to help form Bush administration policy, a detailed, written report seems to have been vital. Also, by hiding this trip by paying only his expenses, it’s at least arguable that the CIA didn’t want the administration to know about the trip.
Those are the actions of people trying their best to conceal this trip from the administration. If the administration found out about it ahead of time, they might well have put a halt to it. Why? Ms. Feldman reports “The questions Wilson posed were essentially meaningless. He asked the same questions General Fulford had just asked. And those questions (drafted by the CIA) were hardly intended to elicit meaningful information. Moreover, Fulford had asked current officials and Wilson did not.” Hmmm. If Gen. Fulford asked the same questions earlier, why waste the time or money to send Wilson?
These and many other questions must be resolved before this story ends. If the CIA is waging war against the Bush administration, we should know about it and put an end to that corruption.
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRing