James Nagy – 4/16/07

This page was last updated on April 16, 2007.

Hunting truth; James Nagy; Beaver County Times; April 16, 2007.

You probably recall most of Mr. Nagy’s letters are simply vehicles to bash Republicans in general and President Bush in particular. In a recent letter, Mr. Nagy lobbied for impeaching President Bush.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In reply to Michael Alberico’s letter (‘Blood for oil?’ Thursday):

“One point was well taken. There is much about what is going on in the Middle East that cannot be explained by oil alone.

“In searching for the real reason(s) for the war, one might start by becoming acquainted with ‘The Project for the New American Century.’

“This neo-conservative group believes in empire-diplomacy based on military force. Its members had a plan to ‘liberate’ Iraq well before Sept. 11, 2001. Many former high-ranking members of the Bush administration (Lewis Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz) supported this plan.”

[RWC] Ah, there’s nothing like a good conspiracy theory. By the way, what is a neo-conservative?

“The first sign of trouble came about this way. A false report was inserted into a State of the Union address against the wishes of the intelligence community.”

[RWC] No “false report was inserted into a State of the Union address.” As a reminder, let’s review the part of President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech Mr. Nagy claims was false. President Bush said, “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” The British Butler Report (2004) on this subject stated, “We conclude also that the statement in President Bush’s State of the Union Address … was well-founded.” Further, the “Report on the U.S Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq” (2004) by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded (Conclusion 13) Joe Wilson’s debriefing in 2002 bolstered the CIA’s belief that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Niger.

“Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson wrote about this information being wrong in an op-ed piece in The New York Times (‘What I didn’t find in Africa,’ July 6, 2003).”

[RWC] Either Mr. Nagy is ignorant of this issue or he hopes we are. I’ve covered this issue quite a bit already, so please go here for the whole story. Even the liberal and anti-Bush Washington Post concluded Mr. Wilson lied in his op-ed piece.

“The outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife, is believed by many to have been done in retribution by someone in the White House. In March, Plame testified at a congressional hearing chaired by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.”

[RWC] Note how Mr. Nagy says, “is believed.” The fact is, we learned definitively last fall that former Deputy Sec. of State Richard Armitage was the “leak” source and he was an opponent of the Iraq war. Mr. Nagy also fails to note no one was prosecuted for the alleged “outing.” No one was prosecuted because Mrs. Wilson (Valerie Plame) was not a covert agent. Face it; you can’t be a covert agent and go to work at CIA HQ everyday.

“There is much more to the story. U.S. Rep. Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, has documented even more offenses against the Constitution and our laws.”

[RWC] “There is much more to the story,” but you’ll never hear it from folks like Mr. Nagy. They are content with repeating innuendo and proven falsehoods.

If Mr. Conyers has “documented even more offenses” no better than Mr. Nagy did above, he’s in a lot of trouble.