My Interview with Valerie Plame Part 1 and 2

[AmericanGranny]

Bernadette T. Vadurro is a political strategist and an award winning author and also the host of a new cable TV program; America's Issues featuring important political topics critical to average Americans. 

Please watch the interview with Valerie Plame Wilson. Read excerpts from from pages 146-147 of America's Conscience: Facing Threats to Democracy, the Middle Class and Our World.  America's Conscience was named one of the best books of 2008 winning the prestigious Freedom Fighter Bronze Award by Independent Publishing.

Part 1 - The Betrayal: An overview of the facts leading to the Bush Administration "leaking" Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA Operative.

Spin, Baby, Spin

"If you are not with me, you're my enemy."

Anakin Skywalker / Lord Vader

"Only a Sith [Dark Lord] would say such a thing."

Obi-Wan-Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith (Star Wars III)

IN LATE 2001, the Italian government claimed to have received letters and documents indicating that Iraqi agents had attempted to buy uranium yellowcake in Niger from government officials. The evidence was shared with both the British and U.S. intelligence services. In February of 2002, the CIA sent former State Department Official Joseph Wilson to investigate these allegations. Wilson was a good choice for the job because he had been a State Department officer in the mid-1970s and was Ambassador to Gabon in the early 1990s. In 1997 and 1998, Wilson was the senior director for Africa at the National Security Council and had spent a fair amount of time dealing with the government of Niger. Finally, Wilson was the last U.S. ambassador in Iraq prior to the first Gulf War.

George W. Bush on Yellowcake Uranium

For Wilson's role in the Gulf War, Rowland Evans wrote that Wilson displayed "the stuff of heroism." President George H. W. Bush also commended Wilson, stating, "Your courageous leadership during this period of great danger for American interests and American citizens has my admiration and respect . . . ."(1)

Ambassador Wilson went to Niger to conduct an investigation regarding the allegations that Iraqi agents had sought uranium. Upon his return, Mr. Wilson reported to both the CIA and the State Department. He told them he could not confirm the allegations that Iraqi agents had tried to buy yellowcake from Niger. Ambassador Wilson prepared a detailed written memo and sent it directly to State Department Secretary Colin Powell refuting the Italian intelligence.(2)

At this point, the yellowcake story should have been a shut and closed case. Instead, the story was resurrected six months later in a British government dossier published on September 24, 2002. It declared that "Iraq had sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Ari Fleisher, the White House Spokesperson, concurred, saying that the U.S. agreed with the British findings.(3)

After receiving Ambassador Wilson's report, Colin Powell refused to use the debunked yellowcake allegations as part of his testimony before the United Nations on the necessity of war in Iraq. CIA Director George Tenet would also forgo the story when he testified before the Senate. George Tenet personally telephoned Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley in October 2002 to make sure the yellowcake allegations were taken out of a speech George W. Bush was to deliver in Cincinnati.

In October, the CIA included a footnote to a 90-page report on the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqi Weapons Programs, stating that assertions regarding the yellowcake were "highly dubious." In a CIA memo dated October 5, 2002, Stephen Hadley informed chief White House speechwriter Michael Gerson of the CIA's objection to the  yellowcake claim that had been placed in a draft of President's State of the Union Address to be delivered in January 2003.(4)

In another memo addressed to Condoleezza Rice and Hadley dated October 6, 2002, the CIA clearly stated there was a "weakness in the evidence."(5) At this point the administration had received one telephone call, a detailed written report and two memos debasing the yellowcake charges. But because the evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was so scanty, politics trumped truthfulness. This false allegation about the yellowcake uranium was left in the speech by Condoleezza Rice, who would later defend the speech by saying, "if the CIA, the Director of Intelligence, had said, ‘Take this out of the speech,' it would have been gone, without question."(6) This yellowcake statement would come back to haunt the administration time and again.

Order your copy of America's Conscience at http://www.americasconscience.com/

 

 

 

[Raintree]

Oct. 13, 2008 at 2:51 PM

First of all- Great Job!!

Second of all- Oh my goodness, I'm so proud of you, I could just burst!

[EstrellaStar]

Oct. 13, 2008 at 3:02 PM

This was really well done both technically and verbally.

What a fantastic way to educate and inform people on Valerie Plame and her husband Ambassador Joe Wilson. Another corrupt, vile and horrible situation the Bush administration has brought about.

[eammarx]

Oct. 13, 2008 at 3:51 PM

The Bush administration is deplorable! Great job!

[AmericanGranny]

Oct. 13, 2008 at 4:39 PM

Thank you all very much!  Please let others know about the journal post!!

(Original Poster)

[feministmama]

Oct. 13, 2008 at 4:49 PM

Awesome job!  I voted popular!

[rgh3angel]

Oct. 13, 2008 at 5:30 PM

Great job Berna!!!!

This must have been such an amazing experience for you!!

I can't understand how this alone wasn't enough to bring some serious consequences to the Bush Admin.

 

[falconmoonstar]

Oct. 15, 2008 at 12:12 AM

Thanks for posting this. Rove should have been thrown in prison for this but those at the top can just buy their way out of taking responsibility for serious wrongdoings while us at the bottom pay their wages.

[SRiveroC]

Oct. 23, 2008 at 4:53 PM

Great piece! You did an amazing job. Congrats on helping spread Plame's story!