Assuming you trust the Associated Press, they have new “information” on the Plame Affair from three (not one) anonymous sources:
Information attributed to Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff in New York Times reporter Judith Miller’s interview notes is incorrect, offering prosecutors a potential lead to tracking the bad information to its original source.
Miller disclosed this weekend that her notes of a conversation she had with I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on July 8, 2003 stated Cheney’s top aide told her that the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson worked for the CIA’s Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control (WINPAC) unit.
Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, never worked for WINPAC, an analysis unit in the overt side of the CIA, and instead worked in a position in the CIA’s secret side, known as the directorate of operations, according to three people familiar with her work for the spy agency.
The three all spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the current secrecy requirements of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s grand jury investigation into the leak of Plame’s identity in 2003 to the media.
Meanwhile, on a related note, my annual envelope from “Who’s Who in America” arrived today. You know the one informing you that you have been selected for “Who’s Who” and can now buy your own copy of the book for fifty bucks or whatever it is. I don’t know the exact amount because, as usual, I chucked the envelope in the basket without opening it. Practically anyone… even covert CIA agents who work in the “top secret” Directorate of Operations… can be in “Who’s Who“.
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17 Comments
1. Bill Quick:I chuck them too. The last time I looked, they wanted over three hundred bucks for one of those green or brown leather babies.
Oct 17, 2005 - 8:31 pm 2. Luther McLeod:I have no comment on the Plame ‘affair.’ It is far too convoluted for me to follow, I’ll wait for Fitzgerald’s (sp) report/indictments. I just wanted to say (in case anyone from the AP is reading) that I Do Not trust anything the AP reports. They have gone way beyond the bend for me. As I have mentioned before, I think they actively look for ways to manipulate their verbiage to disparage/destroy Bush, the US and in general, Western Civilization. Apologies for being such a cynic. And, yes, even I, have received the offers, they go straight to the round file.
An aside, just in case someone from TypeKey is reading, not only does the two week registration not work, the time out on comments is very frustrating, and what is the point?
Oct 17, 2005 - 8:42 pm 3. Terrye:This whole thing is so absurd.
Wasn’t Plame supposed to have had her status changed or something?
I mean how can they divulge that she is covert is they do not know that she is covert and if she is covert why did so many people from her neighbors to the press know she worked at the CIA?
I give up.
Oct 17, 2005 - 9:47 pm 4. Charlie (Colorado):Yeah, you’ve about got it, Terrye. Anyone who is a “covert operative” under that law doesn’t spend six years driving to the Big CIA Building.
When I was covert, I wasn’t even supposed to recognize my CIA guy on the street.
Oct 17, 2005 - 10:08 pm 5. Lew Clark:That is what angers me so much. The MSM still prints “the disclosure of the identity of a covert CIA agent” to describe the case, even today. It doesn’t matter where she worked at Langley, whether her work was classified or unclassified. The law is very specific and makes sense to anyone with an IQ above room temperature. It is to protect agents working in foreign countries, engaged in espionage, under a cover identity. Because if what they are doing, not so much what their name is, is disclosed, bad things will happen to them. They shoot spies!
Plame/Wilson was not in that situation, and had not been for at least six years.
But, throughout this whole mess, the “other side” screams that the law has been broken and one of our most secret spies has been outed and put in danger. As if, after the Novak “outing”, Valerie Plame/Wilson goes to her car at CIA Headquarters, exits the front gate, and is gunned down on her way to her well-known residence.
I’m sure it has happened, but I can’t recall any CIA employee being killed in the United States because they were a CIA employee.
And Plame/Wilson was never going to go on an overseas mission again. That ended when she married Wilson. Since her high-profile linkage to an ex-ambassador would make it almost impossible to pull off a covert mission.
Oct 17, 2005 - 10:42 pm 6. Foobarista:The whole thing reminds me of the classic scene in “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie drops an F-bomb. He’s forced to eat soap, and then Mom – who knows that Dad drops F-bombs by the minute – asks who Ralphie learned “that word” from. Saying “Dad” is a good way to get smacked for sassing, so he says the first name that comes to mind: “Schwartz!”.
So, the question for this “investigation” is who gets to be Schwartz?
Oct 17, 2005 - 11:37 pm 7. Fausta:Amazing that The Manolo can remain undercover while blogging, while the Valerie Plame couldn’t while working for the CIA, at the CIA building, isn’t it?
Oct 18, 2005 - 4:52 am 8. LarryD:Because of their anomonimity, we don’t know if these “sources” even exist, they could be complete fabrications by the “reporter”.
An “anonymous source” should never be cited, a honest reporter should check out the information, and simply report what could be verified.
Oct 18, 2005 - 5:40 am 9. jerry:If this story is true then I don’t see how they could get a conviction. If the source of the information claiming Plame works for WINPAC was dinner table information then I don’t see how you can get a conviction. You have to know that the information is classified to violate the law. I suppose there is a presumption of knowledge if you have authorized access to classified information.
It is interesting that Fitzgerald has changed the focus of his investigation from the Intelligence Identities Protection Act to unauthorized disclosure. This is a sign that he is another special prosecutor gone wild.
In addition, all this talk of VP violating some disclosure law is wishful thinking on the part of the press. The VP probably has declassification authority.
Oct 18, 2005 - 6:28 am 10. byrd:He actually bought an entry in that book?!?
What a maroon!!
Oct 18, 2005 - 7:41 am 11. RogerA:Where is Syl when we need her–She has a handle on this stuff.
Jerry: I understood that one possibility the SP was looking at was the diclosure thing, perhaps based on old espionage laws–If indictments are bought, would that not be the equivalent of an official secrets act? Most of the DC bureaucrats SES 1, Flag Officer, and FSO 1s would be going to jail, the media sources would dry up, and special prosecutor will become a major career field as most the permanent bureaucrats, and all of the political appointees are brought to trial.
Oct 18, 2005 - 8:18 am 12. ed:Just a couple of things and then I’ll stay quiet until this thing comes to a close. First, not one neighbor, friend, or DC partygoer (except for cliff May who hasn’t said a word about this in a very long time now. Must be lonely on that limb) claims to have known of her employment prior to Novak’s article. Find on example, I dare ya. And second, now that Hannah has flipped, well, lets just sit back and see what happens.
Oct 18, 2005 - 11:56 am 13. old cranky exspook:This whole thing is plain NUTS. Hell the SP is still trying to figure out if a crime was committed. Fitzgerald has an outstanding rep. Not the kind to go off the reservation. To much rumor and spin, not enough facts. Lets wait till we hear from him on this.
Oct 18, 2005 - 4:36 pm 14. old cranky exspook:One other thing. Mrs. Wilson is finshed in D.C. no matters what happens. DCIA Goss is old school. She and her hubby will be lucky if she can get a job at a parking lot after this. Waiting for the I.G. report…….
Oct 18, 2005 - 4:42 pm 15. Syl:RogerA
Heh…spent the last 48 hours straight (it seems) at Tom Maguire’s. I even indulged in some conspiracy theorizing. It only lasted about two hours, then I backed off.
Please, people, don’t assume Ms Wilson was not undercover because you think she was already ‘out’.
Charley…there are, really, covert people who physically show up at Langley.
(and ed, don’t make too much of this the other way.)
And, another thing, I think the tendency here is to poo-poo the AP for reporting anonymous sources saying Ms Wilson is really covert. Why? Because you don’t believe it’s true? I believe it’s true.
But you have to try to figure out who the sources are. They also spoke to Reuters which has its own release on it.
People I know on the right assume the three sources are Wilson, Plame, and Larry Johnson. I disagree. I think the three sources are friendly to the administration, though I don’t know who they are.
You see the WINPAC info IS important. The ‘table-talk’ is important. It’s showing us that what Libby told Miller, he got from unofficial sources.
And the reason I think I’m right is that the MSM didn’t pick up and expand on this…it doesn’t help them in their never-ending fight to get the administration. The dems have been silent on it too.
I also think Brewster-Jennings and even, possibly, ‘Valery Plame’, are red herrings. Old ‘outings’ that have no applicability now.
Whether indictments will come down or not, I don’t know. I really don’t. The fact that ms wilson, aka valery plame, works at the agency would not have come out into the public as official information if Harlow had not confirmed the info to Novak (accidentally or on purpose).
We just have to wait and see.
BTW, it occurred to me that Joe Wilson himself is (or was) CIA, working undercover as State Dept. (class2a) Might explain why he didn’t sign an NDA before the trip.
Oct 19, 2005 - 2:43 am 16. Neo:He [Joe Wilson] said he hoped that the Iraqi constitution vote had failed, not because he wanted to see the administration fail but because he believed a negative vote would cause America and others to rethink their strategy and “go back to the drawing board.”
With friends like this ..
Oct 20, 2005 - 3:15 pm 17. Neo:He [Joe Wilson] said he hoped that the Iraqi constitution vote had failed, not because he wanted to see the administration fail but because he believed a negative vote would cause America and others to rethink their strategy and “go back to the drawing board.”
With friends like this ..
Oct 20, 2005 - 3:17 pm