AJ Strata has a post today that I thought was interesting. In his post, he speculates that Joe Wilson was actually the deep cover operative, not his wife, Valerie. It’s an interesting theory and AJ makes some compelling arguments in support of his theory. Here’s a portion of his post:
First, Joe Wilson worked in the Baghdad bureau of the State Department and was the one who ‘stayed behind’ when the first Gulf War broke out. His role as Chief of Station could be a dual one, with an intelligence side as a covert agent. It would make sense why he received so many accolades for his stint there – he could have been a lead CIA coordinator in country.
Second, when Wilson and Plame met at a party at the Turkish Embassy in 1997, it is reported she blurted out she worked at the CIA early on in their encounters (under 48 hours). Plame doesn’t seem to be the type, after being a NOC, to simply blurt that out. But Wilson is gifted in saying things he shouldn’t at times (like noting Val’s job at Brewster and Jennings on a political donation, but more on that in a second). So it is not a big shock if the conversation was more along the lines “I work at the CIA too” and Wilson was trying to be too cute by half. Valerie had just come back from Greece because it was feared her cover had been blown by Aldrich Ames, so I doubt she would tell just anyone where she worked. In fact, there has been speculation that Marc Grossman, who seems to have known them both, may have helped get the two together. The intelligence world is a very small clique, which is why Grossman could get a request answered in a day when it came time to find out who sent Wilson to Niger (though I still suspect he knows). So maybe she knew about his work and was just letting him now she was from the same clothe.
Third, there is the first hand knowledge of CIA cover Brewster and Jennings by Wilson. Should he have known about Val’s cover? I am not sure, but some cover story had to be established. All I know is it seems he was the one who noted it on campaign donation records. As I noted way back here in this post it appears Wilson donated too much money initially to the Gore campaign, well over the hard money limit, and had to redistribute the money between him and Valerie so it looked like two donations. But why use the CIA cover company after years of supposedly keeping it secret? Well, what if B&J was a well known cover company that was a code word Congress and others in the Federal Government used to refer to black ops work? Maybe Wilson was trying to send a signal to someone on the Gore campaign? Who knows. Granted, this is a weak connection, but the B&J mystery has always been what a lame cover it is, which makes it perfect as a code phrase for top government officials to use to hint at a group of people and their intel work.
Fourth, Wilson’s many trips to Niger at key, critical points and on jobs that would not be in the hands of just anyone. His first trip, in Wilson’s own words was to turn a military coup detat, inside a country that’s prime product was a nuclear power source, towards a democratic government. And this was in a country that basically was a French protectorate. So why send the CIA in? Probably because the French could not have a US official openly working for them or some other such nonsense. But Wilson did play a large role in this 1999 effort (which happened to occur right after his donation to the Gore campaign). At least that is what Wilson claims. My knowledge of the government is they DO NOT outsource these kinds of responsibilities to private individuals – probably because legally they cannot. Agents of the government have certain authorities which cannot be conveyed on private individuals. It makes more sense Wilson, as an agent, was operating as a US official under cover.
Read the rest of AJ’s post.
Sorry folks! I forgot to add the link to AJ’s post. I’m feeling a little under the weather, so I apologize if I’m not on top of some details.
(Link added)
