{"id":903,"date":"2005-11-07T05:42:55","date_gmt":"2005-11-07T05:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:09:27","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:09:27","slug":"ok_lets_conside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"OK, Let’s Consider This A Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Marshall has posted the rough draft<\/a> of what he hopes will be the definitive Wilson scandal timeline. He’s asking for emendations and suggestions, and on reading it, one immediately comes to mind.<\/p>\n

He says:<\/p>\n

February 26, 2002:<\/p>\n

# Wilson arrives in Niger. After meeting with the former Nigerian Prime Minister, the former Minister of Mines and Energy, and other business contacts, Wilson concludes that “it was highly unlikely that anything was going on.” <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmmm. Let’s go to the record.
\nFrom Page 43 of the Senate report<\/a> (pdf):<\/p>\n

The intelligence report indicated that former Nigerian President Ibrahaim Mayaki was unaware of any contracts that had been signed between Niger and any rogue states for the sale of yellowcake while he was Prime Minister (1997 – 1999) or Foreign Minister (1996 – 1997). Mayaki said that if there had been any such contract during his tenure, he would have been aware of it. Mayaki said, however, that in June 1999, [redacted] businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss “expanding commercial relations between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted “expanding commercial relations” to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales. The intelligence report also said that “although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So Josh – how about amending the report to read that “Amb. Wilson was personally told that Iraqi agents were seeking uranium ore, but discounted the importance of the information” – ??<\/p>\n

Let’s consider this a test; I’ve respected Josh as a good journalist who happens to be a passionate partisan. One side or the other will win out. I’ll email him and we’ll see.<\/p>\n

For the record, my own view<\/a> on the Fitzpatrick investigation was blogged here awhile ago:<\/p>\n

I’ve stayed out of the swamp that is the Rove\/Wilson\/Plame game for the same reason I stay out of it when TG gets one of her speeding tickets, and is outraged, yes outraged that she has to go to court.<\/p>\n

\nYes, I know everyone does it, but that’s not going to do you much good in front of the judge when you’re explaining why the officer wrote you for 58 in a 40.<\/p>\n

\nSo yes, I know everyone talks to the press, and typically violates all kinds of policies up to and including secrecy, but there’s no way it doesn’t – at minimum – look bad when you’re the one caught doing it.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Marshall has posted the rough draft of what he hopes will be the definitive Wilson scandal timeline. He’s asking for emendations and suggestions, and on reading it, one immediately comes to mind. He says: February 26, 2002: # Wilson arrives in Niger. After meeting with the former Nigerian Prime Minister, the former Minister of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}