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Joseph C. Wilson Endorses Hillary Clinton in BaltSun op-ed

The former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV penned an endorsement for Hillary Clinton in today's Baltimore Sun.  He officially came out in favor of the New York Senator in July of 2007. But the column is likely a byproduct of Clinton's need for a boost in the very close primary races, and Wilson's penchant writing controversial op-eds.

As you may recall, the op-ed he authored for the New York Times, titled, “What I Didn't Find in Africa”, published in four months after the 2003 invasion of Iraq concluded that: “Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”

The week after the article's publication, veteran journalist Robert Novak disclosed Wilson's wife's, classified covert CIA identity as “Valerie Plame” in his syndicated Washington Post column. Wilson and others alleged that the disclosurewas part of the Bush administration's attempts to discredit his report on his trip to Africa and the NYT op-ed describing his findings because they did not support the government's rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Based on his confrontation with the Bush administration it does not come as a surprise that he is deciding between the two Democratic candidates (in fact, he endorsed Democratic Candidate John Kerry in the last Presidential election). In the Sun op-ed he throws his support behind Senator Clinton: “Sen. Hillary Clinton is one of the few who fully understood the stakes in that battle. Time and again, she reached out to my wife – outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson – and me to remind us that as painful as the attacks were, we simply could not allow ourselves to be driven from the public square by bullying. Mrs. Clinton knew from experience, having spent the better part of the past 20 years fighting the Republican attack machine. She is a fighter.”

In regards to Senator Obama Wilson remarks: “Barack Obama claims to represent the future, but it should be increasingly evident that he is not the man for this moment, especially with Mr. McCain's arrival. We’ve seen a preview of that contest already. It was a TKO.”

 

Author

Melinda Brouwer

Melinda Brower holds a Masters degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She received her bachelor's degree in Political Science and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received a graduate diploma in International Relations from the University of Chile during her tenure as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She has worked on Capitol Hill, at the State Department, for Foreign Policy magazine and the American Academy of Diplomacy. She presently works for an internationally focused non-profit research organization in Washington, DC.