Plame goes down in flames

Photo: Wochit News/YouTube

Former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson tweeted an article in The Unz Review an online magazine titled: "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars," on Thursday. 

The article claims American Jews are pushing for a war in the Middle East, particularly with Iran. The magazine hawks itself as an "alternative" to the "mainstream media," but after reading the article, it appears that it's more like an alternative to an emetic.

After her tweet, Twitter users were shocked. But Wilson doubled down and argued that her critics should read the article and "put aside" any biases. This appears to indicate that she actually read the article but it turns out she claims she didn't read it very thoroughly.

Her responses were interesting. In one she tweeted: "1) First of all, calm down. Re-tweets don't imply endorsement. Yes, very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish," Wilson said.

Then she used the "I'm such and such so how can I hate such and such?" defense. "2) Just FYI, I am of Jewish decent. I am not in favor of war with Iran, or getting out of the Iran nuclear treaty. There are simply https://t.co/AR3Jsl1yml --Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017.

After the backlashes continued on Twitter, Wilson walked it back, saying she didn't read the article thoroughly and had only paid attention to its criticism of neoconservatives.

So why did she tell others to read the article and "put aside" any biases?

Finally she said: "OK folks, look, I messed up. I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest," she tweeted. Then she admitted that she "missed gross undercurrents" in the post and actually thanked Twitter users for urging her to take another look at the article's argument. In other words, read the damn thing.

She apologized and said she isn't perfect.

The article by Philip Giraldi says American Jews shouldn't be allowed to make decisions related to Middle East policy, because neoconservative foreign policy establishment is mainly beholden to American Jews with an attachment to Israel.

"We don't need a war with Iran because Israel wants one and some rich and powerful American Jews are happy to deliver. Seriously, we don't need it," Giraldi writes.

But Valerie Plame Wilson has previously praised Giraldi's anti-Semitic venom. In one of his articles in 2014, he offered strong criticism of Israel and PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Wilson's comment was that the argument was "well put." And if you hate Israel and the Jews, everything an anti-Semite says about them is "well put" in the way you already think--even if you learned as an adult, your grandfather was Jewish.

As it turns out, Valerie Plame Wilson resigned from the Ploughshares Fund last week. She wrote on Twitter:

"Actions have consequences, and while I have been honored to serve on the board of the Ploughshares Fund . . . to avoid detracting from their mission, I have resigned."

Ploughshares was a big promoter of the Iran nuclear deal and even funded programming at National Public Radio that covered the deal. In support of the deal, Ploughshares president Joe Cirincione also used similar rhetoric that was retweeted by Wilson and finally led to her resignation. 


Tweet