09-28-2019, 09:43 AM
Joseph Wilson, diplomat
Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson died from organ failure on Friday, according to a report by The New York Times. He was 69.
Wilson, whose diplomatic career spanned more than 20 years, was a key figure in undermining the Bush administration’s narrative surrounding the decision to invade Iraq.
In a 2003 New York Times op-ed, Wilson questioned Bush’s claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had purchased materials for a nuclear weapon from Africa. Wilson had traveled to Niger in 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate whether Hussein had purchased a form of uranium known as “yellowcake.” Wilson concluded after the trip that the reported Iraq-Niger deal did not exist.
Shortly after the op-ed published, the Bush administration leaked the name of Wilson’s then-wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent, in an attempt to undercut Wilson. That move effectively ended Plame’s career with the agency. (Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017.)
In an interview with the Times on Friday, Plame called Wilson “an American hero” for speaking out against the Bush administration.
“He did it because he felt it was his responsibility as a citizen,” she said. “It was not done out of partisan motivation, despite how it was spun.”
“He had the heart of a lion. He’s an American hero,” added Plame, who is now running for Congress in New Mexico.
In 2007, a federal jury found Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, guilty of lying about the role he played in leaking Plame’s identity and of obstructing the probe into the leak.
Bush commuted Libby’s sentence in 2007, which spared him from serving a prison sentence.
President Donald Trump pardoned Libby in 2018, which drew criticism from Wilson, who said it showed the president’s disregard for America’s national security.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joseph-wi...e7604c9ca8
Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson died from organ failure on Friday, according to a report by The New York Times. He was 69.
Wilson, whose diplomatic career spanned more than 20 years, was a key figure in undermining the Bush administration’s narrative surrounding the decision to invade Iraq.
In a 2003 New York Times op-ed, Wilson questioned Bush’s claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had purchased materials for a nuclear weapon from Africa. Wilson had traveled to Niger in 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate whether Hussein had purchased a form of uranium known as “yellowcake.” Wilson concluded after the trip that the reported Iraq-Niger deal did not exist.
Shortly after the op-ed published, the Bush administration leaked the name of Wilson’s then-wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent, in an attempt to undercut Wilson. That move effectively ended Plame’s career with the agency. (Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017.)
In an interview with the Times on Friday, Plame called Wilson “an American hero” for speaking out against the Bush administration.
“He did it because he felt it was his responsibility as a citizen,” she said. “It was not done out of partisan motivation, despite how it was spun.”
“He had the heart of a lion. He’s an American hero,” added Plame, who is now running for Congress in New Mexico.
In 2007, a federal jury found Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, guilty of lying about the role he played in leaking Plame’s identity and of obstructing the probe into the leak.
Bush commuted Libby’s sentence in 2007, which spared him from serving a prison sentence.
President Donald Trump pardoned Libby in 2018, which drew criticism from Wilson, who said it showed the president’s disregard for America’s national security.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joseph-wi...e7604c9ca8
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.