Joseph Wilson
The Inaugural Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize

Joseph Wilson, former ambassador to two African nations – Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe – and the senior American diplomat in Baghdad during the first Gulf War, was recognized for challenging the assertion in President Bush’s State of the Union address that Iraq had sought to purchase significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Wilson investigated the charge at the request of the CIA on a trip to Niger and reported back that it was “highly unlikely.” Wilson’s revelation called into question the Bush Administration’s truthfulness, and undermined its claim that it had ample evidence to justify an invasion of Iraq.

“Thanks to Joseph Wilson and those like him, we have access to truth instead of ‘spin,’ ” said Fertel Foundation president Randy Fertel. “His courageous act came at a high personal cost, when this career diplomat and his wife were attacked by the conservative press. However, in the spirit of Ron Ridenhour and My Lai, the benefits of his action to foreign policy and to our democracy were great.”

Text of the speech given by Joe Wilson in 2009

Thank you. After having watched that video, I'm glad I'm not the only one who tears up at these events. I will try not to today. Obviously, I'm glad to be here and be back in Washington. Particularly nice to be in Washington when you know you're leaving before the sun goes down. And my suitcase is out there.

And it's a particular honor to be able to introduce this year's recipient of the Truth Telling Award. But before I do so, I'd like to congratulate all the recipients and tell Jane that I did go ahead and send a copy of your book to the Spanish prosecutor.

But in actual fact it is such a searing indictment that we don't need the Spanish to launch an inquisition. We can launch an investigation on our own and we well should. All the evidence is there. Five years ago I had the honor to be the recipient of the first Ridenhour Truth Telling award. The ceremony then was a much smaller affair, with lunch in a small room on the other side of the building.

It took place in great solemnity and dignity and with enormous respect and remembrance for Ron Ridenhour. And it also occurred with virtually no publicity. Until about a year later, when, as part of the full blown and fulsome campaign to utterly destroy my integrity and to kill the investigation into the criminal activities of high government officials, certain disingenuous congressmen, who I like to refer to as scurrilous scallywags, demanded the Ridenhour board and The Nation Institute strip me of the honor. I was heart sick. I wondered then whether the Nation award program would sink with me as the anchor that brought it down and whether it would indeed survive.

Obviously, it has, and it's moved to a much bigger room, and there are now many, many more people who are participating and supportive. And I think it's safe to say we've all been vindicated.

Had I had my wits about me at that time, I would have actually nominated the Ridenhour board, The Nation Institute and various officials for the Ridenhour Courage Award for standing with me and standing by me as we did this.

I didn't have my wits about me, but I do now. I'd just like to publicly thank all of you. Ham, Randy, Conrad, David Corn, who wrote the response, and everybody associated with the program.

Now, five years later, the awards program is clearly prospering, after that somewhat challenging beginning. We're in the big dining room. Hundreds of supporters who have come to celebrate the responsibility of American citizens to hold our government to account for what it says and does in the name of the people.

This year's recipient of the Truth Telling Award understood his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. When he learned that the very Justice Department that exists to ensure respect for the rule of law was engaged in the wiretapping outside the scope of the FISA Court, he queried senior officials as one would do when one works within the system as he and I both have.

The response was a shrug of the shoulders and the admission that the program was probably illegal. Thomas Tamm understood his responsibilities. But he also understood the potential consequences. He prepared himself for a fight that could ultimately deprive him of his liberty. And he disclosed the existence of that illegal program that was hidden beneath a national security classification shroud. He called The New York Times.

18 months later, all Americans became aware that the government, our government, had been illegally wiretapping American citizens, or, as the seminal New York Times headlines said "Bush lets U.S. spy on collars without courts." There's a New York Times article today which says that there are certain things that may still be going on related to that.

It was a gross violation of our rights under our Constitution, or, more succinctly, it constituted, in my judgment, high crimes and misdemeanors and certainly an illegal invasion of our privacy as American citizens, all masked as a national security program.

Rather than celebrate what Tom did to protect and preserve our rights, the FBI, instead, investigated and harassed him, including invading his home, armed and in flack jackets. True Gestapo tactics. Talk about having the wrong address. Thomas Tamm had actually done the FBI's work. He had uncovered criminal behavior.

And then he gets investigated. To my friends in the FBI, you had the wrong address. A better use of your talents would have been to look through Dick Cheney's man sized safes.

There's no doubt this has been a tough several years for Tom and Claire and their family. I told him last night, having come through the other side of this, with time and patience the truth will come out. Mark Twain once said: A lie is halfway around the world before truth has a chance to put on its socks. But I can stand here before you saying after a certain amount of time, we have been vindicated and you will, too.

He's still standing. And thanks to him and others who are prepared to do what he did, our Constitution still stands. By his courageous act he helped us stop the rampant hemorrhaging of our civil rights under the Constitution, irrespective of the consequences to him and to his family. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to bring up here an American hero, a citizen who told the truth on behalf of all of us, who stood up to a rogue regime, and who acted truly in the spirit of this award program and the spirit of Ron Ridenhour himself, Thomas Tamm.