Christopher J. Arndt fights a never ending battle for truth and justice...


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Faux Secret Agents out in Public


For those in Rio Lindo, "faux" means "fake". The picture above was taken of a willing and smiling couple, Ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame. The picture was for an issue of Vanity Fair and published in Vanity Fair. It even predates the infamous two-page spread, or so that is my impression. I stole the above image from the Corner but I cannot recall when.

Now at the recent news that the pair is suing Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Dick Cheney for the public revelation that Ms. Plame had employment with the Central Intelligence Agency I am generally tempted to start the project that I have been planning for over thirteen months. I'm tempted to mention that I have, in fact, met Joe Wilson.

Last night when the news broke I was tempted to swing by NRO and all the places and see what was up and post a round-up report of all the commentary on my weblog. I could not; I was late for volleyball and when I returned my connection was impossible (error 262? a busy signal at the University).

I don't have to. Those fine folks at Hot-Air have done it more to my satisfaction than I ever could.

There are some more original comments to be made about Joe Wilson past and present. I will get around to it. But this does finally give me the opportunity to reprint and emphasize the image that I have been keeping all this time. How could this woman have possibly been a secret agent (she could not have been) if so soon after the broadcast of her name tied in to an affiliation with the CIA she would circulate images of her face to accompany that information? That doesn't seem like the behavior of someone who wants to keep a low profile attached to her activities. Apparently here is the crux of the complaint:

The Complaint specifies that each of the Wilsons has been deprived of their First and Fifth Amendment rights; each has suffered a gross invasion of their privacy; each has been impaired in pursuing professional opportunities; and that they fear for their safety and the safety of their children as a result of the wrongful public disclosures.

How is it that Joe Wilson can honestly complain that his wife's outing has limited his opportunities and has been an obstacle or hindrance for him and/or his wife. I tell you from my perspective that he has certainly suffered more benefit than harm from these events, just looking at the book deals and activities on the lecture circuit. Joe Wilson is not earning chump change from all of this, all of this having never occurred in not for the "outing". If we're seriously claiming that Plame was going forward within the CIA, as a career, and this turn of events through a monkey wrench into that little engine... I seriously say that that is a humorous claim. As a serious man I seriously dispute that in a serious manner. An act of strange deviant nepotism is what brought glory hound Ambassador Joe Wilson to poke around Niger looking for nuclear weapons components. I assert and insist that in her position at the CIA Valerie Plame delegated the job to her husband to seek intelligence on this country's behalf. I also assert that she did it to help him more than to help this country, that he could use the job more than we could use his insight. I assert that Joe Wilson, regardless of what he was told or what he saw or how hard he actually worked to discover one thing or another or another thing that he asserted a political and personal role/position and a need to take a stand of one sort or another instead of actually fulfilling or informing the needs of the Executive Branch. Rather than tell the POTUS or the CIA about his findings Mr. Wilson publicized it all so he could be a political champion against a President to whom he obviously did not hold allegiance. Now, of course, he is not merely a champion of the anti-Bushites but he is a martyr in their bloody cause.

This is indeed a bloody cause which includes the new NYT vs. SWIFT scandal and the Hamdan versus Rumsfeld decision.

posted by Chris Arndt at 7/14/2006 11:24:00 AM | |