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Our 27 months of hell
By Joseph C. Wilson IV
10/29/05 "Los
Angeles Times" -- -- AFTER THE two-year smear campaign
orchestrated by senior officials in the Bush White House against my
wife and me, it is tempting to feel vindicated by Friday's
indictment of the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby.
Between us, Valerie and I have served the United States for nearly
43 years. I was President George H.W. Bush's acting ambassador to
Iraq in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, and I served as
ambassador to two African nations for him and President Clinton.
Valerie worked undercover for the CIA in several overseas
assignments and in areas related to terrorism and weapons of mass
destruction.
But on July 14, 2003, our lives were irrevocably changed. That was
the day columnist Robert Novak identified Valerie as an operative,
divulging a secret that had been known only to me, her parents and
her brother.
Valerie told me later that it was like being hit in the stomach.
Twenty years of service had gone down the drain. She immediately
started jotting down a checklist of things she needed to do to limit
the damage to people she knew and to projects she was working on.
She wondered how her friends would feel when they learned that what
they thought they knew about her was a lie.
It was payback — cheap political payback by the administration for
an article I had written contradicting an assertion President Bush
made in his 2003 State of the Union address. Payback not just to
punish me but to intimidate other critics as well.
Why did I write the article? Because I believe that citizens in a
democracy are responsible for what government does and says in their
name. I knew that the statement in Bush's speech — that Iraq had
attempted to purchase significant quantities of uranium in Africa —
was not true. I knew it was false from my own investigative trip to
Africa (at the request of the CIA) and from two other similar
intelligence reports. And I knew that the White House knew it.
Going public was what was required to make them come clean. The day
after I shared my conclusions in a New York Times opinion piece, the
White House finally acknowledged that the now-infamous 16 words "did
not rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union
address."
That should have been the end. But instead, the president's men —
allegedly including Libby and at least one other (known only as
"Official A") — were determined to defame and discredit Valerie and
me.
They used eager allies in Congress and the conservative media,
beginning with Novak. Perhaps the most egregious of the attacks was
New York GOP Rep. Peter King's odious suggestion that Valerie "got
what she deserved."
Valerie was an innocent in this whole affair. Although there were
suggestions that she was behind the decision to send me to Niger,
the CIA told Newsday just a week after the Novak article appeared
that "she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger
assignment." The CIA repeated the same statement to every reporter
thereafter.
The grand jury has now concluded that at least one of the
president's men committed crimes. We are heartened that our system
of justice is working and appreciative of the work done by our
fellow citizens who devoted two years of their lives to grand jury
duty.
The attacks on Valerie and me were upsetting, disruptive and
vicious. They amounted to character assassination. Senior
administration officials used the power of the White House to make
our lives hell for the last 27 months.
But more important, they did it as part of a clear effort to cover
up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
That is the ultimate crime.
The war in Iraq has claimed more than 17,000 dead and wounded
American soldiers, many times more Iraqi casualties and close to
$200 billion.
It has left our international reputation in tatters and our military
broken. It has weakened the United States, increased hatred of us
and made terrorist attacks against our interests more likely in the
future.
It has been, as Gen. William Odom suggested, the greatest strategic
blunder in the history of our country.
We anticipate no mea culpa from the president for what his senior
aides have done to us. But he owes the nation both an explanation
and an apology.
JOSEPH C. WILSON IV was acting ambassador in Baghdad when Iraq
invaded Kuwait in 1990. He is the author of "The Politics of Truth"
(Carroll & Graff, 2004). He was a diplomat for 23 years.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
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