Christopher Hiitchens follows up last week's piece on the Iraqi nuclear specialist who was Saddam's diplomatic envoy to Niger with more on him, and on "the utterly clueless Joe Wilson". The money graph:
In other words (I am prepared to keep on repeating this until at least one cow comes home), Joseph Wilson went to Niger in 2002 to investigate whether or not the country had renewed its uranium-based relationship with Iraq, spent a few days (by his own account) sipping mint tea with officials of that country who were (by his wife's account) already friendly to him, and came back with the news that all was above-board. Again to repeat myself, this must mean either that A) he did not know that Zahawie had come calling or B) that he did know but didn't think it worth mentioning that one of Saddam's point men on nukes had been in town. In neither case, it seems to me, should he be trusted with another mission that requires any sort of curiosity.
Hitchens paints a picture of a Joe Wilson completely in the dark while in Niger, not considered by his own contacts there to be consequential enough to entrust with important information. I don't buy the "clueless" bit, though. I think the results of Wilson's mission were determined before he even left the U.S.A. He was to return with findings that would discredit and undermine the Bush administration's Iraq policy, even if, as it in fact turned out, those "findings" were necessarily lies. I'm glad someone is still holding Wilson's feet to the fire on this.
Posted by dan at April 17, 2006 10:10 PM