Plame’s CIA job was to stop Iran from obtaining nukes.
Plame’s CIA job was to stop Iran from obtaining nukes.
In her first interview since Bush administration officials outed her as a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson reveals to CBS 60 Minutes that she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview to be aired this Sunday, CBS reports that she was “involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran.” Watch it:
Plame’s role in Iran intelligence was first revealed by Raw Story’s Larisa Alexandrovna in Feb. 2006.
Transcript:
KATIE COURIC: This Sunday on 60 Minutes, Valerie Plame Wilson gives her first interview since top Bush administration officials exposed her role as an undercover CIA agent four years ago. CBS News has learned she was involved in operations to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview, we talked about what it meant to have her identity revealed.
[BEGIN 60 MINUTES CLIP]
COURIC: What went through your mind when you saw your name in print?
PLAME: Oh, it was horrifying, absolutely horrifying.
COURIC: She served 20 years in the CIA, many undercover in the agency’s counterproliferation division, rising to top positions and confronting one of the most ominous threats of our time.
PLAME: Our mission was to make sure that the bad guys, basically, did not get nuclear weapons.
COURIC: When senior administration officials leaked her name to reporters, they may have exposed other spies and damaged operations targeting Iran. CBS News has learned that she was involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran. It was called Operation Merlin, and it was first revealed in a book by investigative reporter James Risen.
COURIC: Are you familiar with that?
PLAME: I don’t think I can tell you.
COURIC: He said the idea was to give the Iranians blueprints for the bomb that were seriously flawed to set them back. Does that sound like something the counter-proliferation division would do?
PLAME: I think I can say it sounds like a good idea.
COURIC: Were you surprised to read about Operation Merlin in the press?
PLAME: Indeed.
COURIC: Is that problematic for the CIA?
PLAME: Leaks are always bad news.
COURIC: She should know, revealing for the first time that the leak of her name had serious repercussions.
PLAME: I can tell you all the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databases to see did anyone by this name come in the country? When? Do we know anything about it? Where did she stay? Who did she see?
COURIC: And what would be the ramifications of that?
PLAME: Well, it was very serious. It puts in danger, if not shuts down, the operations that I had worked on.
COURIC: Valerie Plame Wilson also has some harsh things to say about President Bush. That and much more in our interview this Sunday on 60 Minutes.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
I’m sure Deadeye Dick didn’t want anything to hamper Iran’s progress towards building a nuke.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pmGo ahead, trolls, tell us how again how Plame’s status wasn’t covert and classified. Even though the CIA certified it to Congress. Even though Patrick Fitzgerald presented it as fact in U.S. Federal Court filings. Go ahead, trolls, defend the Office of the Vice President for revealing this information and destroying this critical intelligence program. Go ahead, trolls, and defend the President for letting the traitor Scooter Libby go free after his conviction for lying to protect the Dick Cheney from charges of treason.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:50 pmJames Risen?! Umm…no.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:52 pmSo, did they expose Valerie Plame to get back at her husband Joe Wilson or did they expose her to disrupt the secret mission she was on to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon? Either scenario is horrifying. And one or both of them is what happened. By outing Valerie Plame, the Bush Crime Family members who exposed her also exposed other agents working through Brewster Jennings, her cover company. Novak also exposed Brewster Jennings. That alone should have been grounds to charge him with treason. We still, to this day, don’t know if anyone died because of what this Administration did. They have classified everything and anything that has to do with the outing of Valerie Plame. Maybe we will finally know when the Democratic President taxes office in 2009.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:54 pmCheney and company had (have) a vested interest in allowing Iran’s nuclear program to go forward.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:55 pmIt gives them the ultimate excuse for another war and attack on a sovereign country, with the ultimate goal of controlling the Middle East.
By outing Plame, they emasculated the efforts to derail Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology.
It appears now it may have been less of an attempt to discredit Joseph Wilson, though that was a convenient side effect.
I don’t think these evil idiots care one way or another about Iran’s nuclear program. They know they can find plenty of ways to gin up war. These mean-spirited pr*cks just had to get even with Joe Wilson. It shows how petty and small and mean they are.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:57 pmDid you know that Iran was interested in purchasing uranium in 1998?
Coincidence? Or correlation? The answer to that seems self-evident.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:59 pmRemind me again, Mr. Rove, why was ANYONE in the White House talking about Joe Wilson’s wife for ANY reason?
October 20th, 2007 at 4:01 pmGawd, Valerie Plame makes me go weak in the knees. Ok, carrion…
October 20th, 2007 at 4:04 pmI am definitely going to watch this 60 minutes. I just hope that Couric isn’t who will be interviewing her. She’s an airhead barbie doll and I find it painful to watch her.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:07 pm#10: I am definitely going to watch this 60 minutes. I just hope that Couric isn’t who will be interviewing her – - Ummm, short-term memory loss?
October 20th, 2007 at 4:09 pm“Coincidence? Or correlation? The answer to that seems self-evident.”
Comment by EvilPoet
From The Gang Who Couldn’t Think Straight?
Perhaps if they’d retained the gay Arabic translators, someone might have realized sooner that it was Iran – not Iraq – that wanted Niger Yellowcake?.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:15 pmand anyone would be in the least bit surprised by this because…? the threat of iran obtaining or manufacturing a nuclear weapon is in precisely the same category as saddam’s wmd… our country’s movers and shakers are totally committed to a state of endless war, regardless of the country or the area of the world, as long as it provides the opportunity to keep the rivers of cash flowing into the “right” pockets (apologies for the bad pun), to extend their power and global hegemony, and to monopolize the world’s resources… iranian nuclear weapons are today’s convenient smokescreen, cleverly designed to distract from their real motivations and to keep the peasantry quivering in their boots, when they’re not buying lottery tickets and hoping to strike it rich… we are one pathetic bunch of citizens…
And, yes, I DO take it personally
October 20th, 2007 at 4:22 pmTrolls will be slow to show up on this thread. To begin with it is the weekend, and it always takes longer to get the talking points written up and distributed on the weekend. Second, there are no plausible talking points for this story. So we will just get Daryll telling us that God wants us to invade Iran.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:27 pm60 Minutes is must see this Sunday.
It is interesting to compare and contrast the difference between the leak of Mrs. Wilson’s name and its publication by Robert Novak to the NYT’s exposure of a string of CIA prisons across Europe and elsewhere.
In the case of the leak of Valerie Wilson’s name the repercussions were serious and continuing. The Bush administration did not even seriously investigate the loss of this critical asset. And why would they. They were directly responsible, trading the serious repercussions for a political talking point. (Now how smart is that). A timid prosecutor took Scooter Libby to trial for the secondary felonies of perjury and obstruction. When Libby was found guilty on 4 of 5 counts the prison sentence was commuted by Bush before Libby spent a single day in the slammer. The only jail time served was by Judith Wilson for not revealing Libby’s name to prosecutors.
Now, let us look at the response to the NYT’s story. It is ongoing but that story represented little more than an embarrassment to the Bush administration and the cooperating European countries. It likewise exposed other areas where the CIA conducted torture. The likely outcome will be jail time for the reporters that published this article. The reporters sources would likely face treason charges should their identity be revealed. At this point the government has scant eveidece but this will not stop them from pushing the envelope.
There you have it. It is all about going after political enemies and taking care of political friends, justice and national security be damned.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:31 pmTrolls will be slow to show up on this thread. To begin with it is the weekend, and it always takes longer to get the talking points written up and distributed on the weekend. Second, there are no plausible talking points for this story. So we will just get Daryll telling us that God wants us to invade Iran.
Comment by VerbalKint —
But give ‘em a thread to bash little kids on, and they’re in Hog Heaven (especially Daryll).
October 20th, 2007 at 4:33 pmPersonally, I don’t think it’s coincidence that the major operation keeping an eye on middle east nukes was blinded by the Bush Administration.
I think Cheney was behind it and did it with the idea of “killing 2 birds with one stone”.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:42 pmRetaliation.
Plain and simple.
Without regard to the damage it does to national security.
Fu(king Traitors.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:43 pmThe disturbing possibility too is that this was done EXPLICITLY to keep Iran a threat so we could have another target post-Iraq. Though I have a feeling they planned Iraq to be said and done with before moving on to Iran. Not that it’s stopping them NOW.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:46 pmThe disturbing possibility too is that this was done EXPLICITLY to keep Iran a threat so we could have another target post-Iraq. Though I have a feeling they planned Iraq to be said and done with before moving on to Iran. Not that it’s stopping them NOW.
Comment by Kryptik — October 20, 2007 @ 4:46 pm
Now, use this event to add context to other events, exposing such an important CIA operation.
Why has Blackwater been stealing Iraqi aircraft? How long have they been doing it? Are the two we know about the only ones? Will we find out, since there is no oversight and accountability for mercenaries?
Where is the sixth nuclear device the Air Force has not yet reported having recovered? The original report and others in the Military Times and similar, close-to-the-source periodicals, say that five devices were returned to proper storage. However, the Pentagon and the Air Force paperwork, according to the journalists at Talking Points Memo and other watchdog journalism groups, both here and abroad, keep reporting that the plane had SIX devices. Yet all the original, on-the-tarmac reports mention a mere five put back in to proper storage. Why don’t we have verification one way or the other?
At this point, any nuclear device exploded in this country, and any Iranian aircraft attacking our forces in the Middle East, are suspect. Those are some terrifying scenarios to contemplate, and it is horrible to think that your own government would do such a thing. But how is anyone rationally supposed to think otherwise? We have known war criminals stealing enemy aircraft and refusing to return them. People willing to hold U.S. soldiers at gunpoint (and DISARM THEM) merely to back the Blackwater vehicle out of an AUTO ACCIDENT. Why wouldn’t they gladly conduct an operation that would drag our military, and Blackwater and the other contractors with them, in to another, tougher, more prolonged conflict? Remember, these people have a vested monetary interest in getting paid to conduct military operations. The more they fight, the more they protect our State Department, the more they get paid. Which is why using mercenaries should be against the law. You cannot trust national security to a for-profit organization. Who the hell reasonably thinks a company that makes its PROFITS by engaging in combat wouldn’t do whatever it takes to ensure that revenue stream?
October 20th, 2007 at 5:08 pmObviously the Bush administration and any of their supporters are traitors, pure and simple. But I just can’t understand why the Democrats and the media haven’t made more of this an issue. I sincerely believe if a Democratic administration did something like this, the Republicans would be calling for his/her head and making this a 24-hour issue, 7 days a week. Democrats failed in this endeavor to hold responsible people accountable and any Bush supporter should be ashamed of himself/herself.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:08 pmObviously the Bush administration and any of their supporters are traitors, pure and simple. But I just can’t understand why the Democrats and the media haven’t made more of this an issue. I sincerely believe if a Democratic administration did something like this, the Republicans would be calling for his/her head and making this a 24-hour issue, 7 days a week. Democrats failed in this endeavor to hold responsible people accountable and any Bush supporter should be ashamed of himself/herself.
Comment by Vincennes — October 20, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the Bush administration has been datamining and spying on us since Feb of 2001? Nah!
October 20th, 2007 at 5:11 pmThough I have a feeling they planned Iraq to be said and done with before moving on to Iran.
Comment by Kryptik
Yeah, well…
October 20th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I think 60 Minutes should do a story on who forged the Niger Documents. Who did the burglary at the Niger embassy in Rome? Wasn’t it well known eleven months before Bush’s State of the Union Speech that they were a bad forgery? This is what Joe Wilson said. This is why he had to be discredited.
How did the sixteen words passively find their way back into the speech? Was it true that only people “in the bowels of the NSA” knew they were forged (as Condi claimed)?
Then the next week, they can have a story on The Downing Street Memo. That is a story the MSM doesn’t want to touch because it is blatant proof that we wanted to invade Iraq–the evidence be damned!
I have conservatives tell me that I am wrong about these two scandals and they say the proof is they are never on the “liberal media”.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:17 pmModeration,
I certainly don’t think those nuclear weapons were carried by our plane “unknowingly”. I have heard experts say this is quite impossible given the many protocols. Of course our MSM swallowed it.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:22 pmPerhaps if they’d retained the gay Arabic translators, someone might have realized sooner that it was Iran – not Iraq – that wanted Niger Yellowcake?.
Comment by barfly
Perhaps. Unfortunately, we will never know.
Some food for thought…
October 20th, 2007 at 5:34 pmPersonally, I don’t think it’s coincidence that the major operation keeping an eye on middle east nukes was blinded by the Bush Administration.
I think Cheney was behind it and did it with the idea of “killing 2 birds with one stoneâ€.
Comment by Wayne — October 20, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Bingo! Two out of three in Shrub’s “trifecta”.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:34 pmThat’s pretty good work for a (what did the right wing media call her?), oh, yeah, a “desk jockey”.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:37 pmAlso, By ruining the CIA’s work in Iran through the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson, the Bushies also get the added benefit of acheiving their desire to go to war with Iran.
#3 oil reserves in world, Iran.
#2, Iraq (some say #1). Now worth about $20 Trillion.
#1, Saudi Arabia.
Reserves of top 5 Western oil corps now worth way over $2 Trillion, thanks to our oil administration.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:45 pmArabic translators might have some trouble with Iran, seeing as Iranians’ don’t speak Arabic.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:59 pmFarsi, anyone?
October 20th, 2007 at 6:02 pmStill no trolls? The scum defend Bush all day long on the other threads. No argument seems too inane for them to swallow and parrot. Where are they now?
October 20th, 2007 at 6:29 pmIn January 2003 President Bush suggested painting a US flag with UN colors and trying to get Iraq to shoot it down as an excuse to go to war.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:01 pmWhy would Iran want to import yellowcake from Niger? They can mine their own from deposits within their borders – like about 45,000 tons.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:20 pmIn January 2003 President Bush suggested painting a US flag with UN colors and trying to get Iraq to shoot it down as an excuse to go to war.
Comment by kirkaracha — October 20, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
Wow, I pay attention to the BBC, and try to stay up on events, but I’ve never seen these reports.
How the hell didn’t that raise huge alarms for members of Congress, the U.S. Military, the U.N., and so on? He actually suggested such an underhanded, blatantly deceptive, and most bloody likely illegal suggestion?!? No one immediately called him on it? Unbelievable. The Democratic members of the 110th Congress should have saved such a tid-bit in a little file just for such information, and brought it out when they came in to power.
Paint U.S. spy planes as U.N. planes to provoke an international incident. How much more evidence do you need that he is a criminal?
October 20th, 2007 at 7:21 pmLook for a naval incident off Iran in which they “attack” one of our ships. Like the Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin—never attacked, but the excuse for the escalation in Vietnam.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:26 pmThe secret warrantless wiretapping PRIOR to 9/11 was done to shut down US Intelligence services who had picked-up on a pending “Al Qaeda” (CIA/Mossad) attack within the US, in order to ENABLE the implementation of the attack, which Dick Cheney commanded, Dov Zakheim and Kobi Alexander and Don Rumsfeld enabled, and Mossad implemented.
Valerie Plames identity was revealed in order to shut down the intelligence agency that had the best handle on Iraq and Iran’s WMD program, in order to silence the only credible source of ACTUAL INTELLIGENCE – thereby enabling the administration to lie through its teeth about the purported WMD threat represented by Iraq, and now Syria and Iran.
Google “Eretz Israel” and see what the real agenda is.
Do you get it yet?
October 20th, 2007 at 7:54 pmWhy did Bush make it such a point to proclaim that he had DECLASSIFIED HER STATUS, if she was not covert? WHY declassify the covert status of the person most likely to keep America safe from WMD? To enABLE DANGER!
Libby Says Bush Authorized Leaks
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Libby also testified that an administration lawyer told him that Bush, by authorizing the disclosure of classified information, had in effect declassified the information. Legal experts disagree on whether the president has the authority to declassify information on his own.
The White House had no immediate reaction to the court filing.
Although not reflected in the court papers, two senior government officials said in interviews with National Journal in recent days that Libby has also asserted that Cheney authorized him to leak classified information to a number of journalists during the run-up to war with Iraq. In some instances, the information leaked was directly discussed with the Vice President, while in other instances Libby believed he had broad authority to release information that would make the case to go to war.
In yet another instance, Libby had claimed that President Bush authorized Libby to speak to and provide classified information to Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward for “Plan of Attack,” a book written by Woodward about the run-up to the Iraqi war.
Bush and Cheney authorized the release of the information regarding the NIE in the summer of 2003, according to court documents, as part of a damage-control effort undertaken only days after former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV alleged in an op-ed in The New York Times that claims by Bush that Saddam Hussein had attempted to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger were most likely a hoax.
According to the court papers, “At some point after the publication of the July 6 Op Ed by Mr. Wilson, Vice President Cheney, [Libby's] immediate supervisor, expressed concerns to [Libby] regarding whether Mr. Wilson’s trip was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson’s wife.”
Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA officer at the time, and Cheney, Libby, and other Bush administration officials believed that Wilson’s allegations could be discredited if it could be shown that Plame had suggested that her husband be sent on the CIA-sponsored mission to Niger.
Two days after Wilson’s op-ed, Libby met with then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller and not only disclosed portions of the NIE, but also Plame’s CIA employment and potential role in her husband’s trip.
Regarding that meeting, Libby “testified that he was specifically authorized in advance… to disclose the key judgments of the classified NIE to Miller” because Vice President Cheney believed it to be “very important” to do so, the court papers filed Wednesday said. The New York Sun reported the court filing on its Web site early Thursday.
Libby “further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE,” the court papers said. Libby “testified that the Vice President had advised [Libby] that the President had authorized [Libby] to disclose relevant portions of the NIE.”
Additionally, Libby “testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then counsel to the Vice President, whom [Libby] considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document.”
“[Libby] testified in the grand jury that he understood that even in the days following his conversation with Ms. Miller, other key officials-including Cabinet level officials-were not made aware of the earlier declassification even as those officials were pressed to carry out a declassification of the NIE, the report about Wilson’s trip and another classified document dated January 24, 2003.” It is unclear from the court papers what the January 24, 2003 document might be.
Although the special prosecutor’s grand jury investigation has not uncovered any evidence that the Vice President encouraged Libby to release information about Plame’s covert CIA status, the court papers said that Cheney had “expressed concerns to [Libby] regarding whether Mr. Wilson’s trip was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson’s wife.”
One former senior government official said that both the president and Cheney, in directing Libby to disclose classified information to defend the administration’s case to go to war with Iraq and in formally declassifying portions of the NIE later, were misusing the classification process for political reasons.
Although the court papers filed Wednesday revealed that Libby had testified that Bush and Cheney had authorized him to disclose details of the NIE, two other senior government officials said in interviews that Libby had asserted that Cheney had more broadly authorized him to leak classified information to a number of journalists during the run-up to war with Iraq as part of an administration effort to make the case to go to war.
In another instance, Libby had claimed that Bush authorized Libby to speak to and provide classified information to Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward for “Plan of Attack.”
In a Feb. 17, 2006 letter to John D. Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., wrote that he believed that disclosures in Woodward’s book damaged national security. “According to [Woodward's] account, he was provided information related to sources and methods, extremely sensitive covert actions, and foreign intelligence liaison services.”
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0406nj1.htm
Nowhere does anyone in the Administration claim that Plame was NOT a covert CIA agent prior to Armitage/Libby/Rove disclosing it.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:57 pmFormer CIA official Larry C. Johnson, who left the CIA in 1989, indicated Plame had been a “non-official cover operative” (NOC). He explained: “…that meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.”[5] Later, he wrote that “The law actually requires that a covered person ’served’ overseas in the last five years. Served does not mean lived. In the case of Valerie Wilson, energy consultant for Brewster-Jennings, she traveled overseas in 2003, 2002, and 2001, as part of her cover job. She met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was a national security asset until, supposedly, being exposed by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.”[6]
Valerie Plame Wilson was identified in the New York Times as a N.O.C. by Elisabeth Bumiller, who wrote (5 October 2003):
But within the C.I.A., the exposure of Ms. Plame is now considered an even greater instance of treachery. Ms. Plame, a specialist in non-conventional weapons who worked overseas, had “nonofficial cover,” and was what in C.I.A. parlance is called a NOC, the most difficult kind of false identity for the agency to create. While most undercover agency officers disguise their real profession by pretending to be American embassy diplomats or other United States government employees, Ms. Plame passed herself off as a private energy expert. Intelligence experts said that NOCs have especially dangerous jobs.
Plame is known to have served in a classified position as a CIA officer. At his October 28, 2005, press conference, Special Counsel Fitzgerald noted:
Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer. In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified. Not only was it classified, but it was not widely known outside the intelligence community. Valerie Wilson’s friends, neighbors, college classmates had no idea she had another life. The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well-known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us. It’s important that a CIA officer’s identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation’s security. Valerie Wilson’s cover was blown in July 2003. The first sign of that cover being blown was when Mr. Novak published a column on July 14th, 2003.
Fitzgerald writes:
If Libby knowingly disclosed information about Plame’s status with the CIA, Libby would appear to have violated Title 18, United States Code, Section 793 [the Espionage Act] if the information is considered “information respecting the national defense.” In order to establish a violation of Title 50, United States Code, Section 421 [the Intelligence Identities Protection Act], it would be necessary to establish that Libby knew or believed that Plame was a person whose identity the CIA was making specific efforts to conceal and who had carried out covert work overseas within the last 5 years. To date, we have no direct evidence that Libby knew or believed that Wilson’s wife was engaged in covert work.
In the February 15, 2005 ruling on the issue, the court’s opinion stated:
As to the leaks’ harmfulness, although the record omits specifics about Plame’s work, it appears to confirm, as alleged in the public record and reported in the press, that she worked for the CIA in some unusual capacity relating to counterproliferation. Addressing deficiencies of proof regarding the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, the special counsel refers to Plame as “a person whose identity the CIA was making specific efforts to conceal and who had carried out covert work overseas within the last 5 yearsâ€â€”representations I trust the special counsel would not make without support. (8/27/04 Aff. at 28 n.15.)
A Newsweek article published for the week of February 13, 2006 interpreted the information in the released documents to mean that Fitzgerald had indeed determined Valerie Plame was a covert agent.
Washington Post reporter Dana Priest notes that these possible compromises of her identity did not change her undercover status: “Plame’s case is different in that she was burned — not once, but twice. The first time was by Aldrich H. Ames, the CIA turncoat who is believed to have given the Russians the name of every covert operative in the Soviet/East European Division over 10 years beginning around 1985. Not knowing exactly whom he had outed, the CIA recalled hundreds of operatives, including Plame, for their safety. Still, her undercover status remained intact until July, when syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak identified her by name as a CIA ‘operative’ in a column about her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whom the CIA had sent to Niger to check on allegations that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium oxide there.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:01 pmPlame leak:
Leaked by
Richard Armitage to
Karl Rove
Confirmed by
Bill Harlow
For the purpose of discrediting Wilson AND destroying WMD intelligence.
If the secondary portion of the foregoing was not intentional, it’s irrelevant.
The leaking of Plame’s identity destroyed the undercover Brewster Jennings WMD surveillance operation – and quite likely resulted in the death of dozens of covert operatives, about whom you will never hear.
Brewster Jennings likely had proof that the Pentagon was arranging delivery of WMD into Iraq for the invading US forces to “discover.â€
Additionally, Brewster Jennings likely had evidence of the Administration’s complicity in the events of 9/11.
Finally, Brewster Jennings could confirm that Iran was TEN YEARS away from having a functional nuke – which would totally screw-up the Israeli-led Pentagon plan to invade the entire Middle East under false pretense.
TREASON
IMPEACH
October 20th, 2007 at 8:02 pmClosing down our best source of covert intelligence on WMD in the Middle East by making its covert status public – during a time of war – is akin to revealing troop movements and positions to the enemy – during a time of war.
It’s TREASON on it’s face.
Doing so for POLITICAL reasons is IMPEACHABLE.
BUSH, CHENEY, ROVE & LIBBY all knew that Plame was a covert agent – and a key enemy if their lies were to succeed. Everyone in the WHIG knew. They all conspired to prevent the truth about WMD from being made public
When referring to Wilson, each of them at one time or another referred to him as “a Democrat.”
That’s POLITICAL.
That’s ILLEGAL.
still not a word from these remaining supporters of Bush – the president stood in front of reporters more than once and claimed to have no idea where the leak of information to for example Judith Miller came from. In fact, the president knew, as he stood there, that he had specifically and authorized the exact leak in question, for the purposes of a vendetta with Joe Wilson.
the president hugely abused his authority and powers, wrongfully, and he stood in front of cameras and reporters and lied about it, willfully, repeatedly. he engaged in a willful conspiracy to go after Joe Wilson for debunking the lie about uranium, and he happily burned down a CIA operative and her operations with a LEAK of information. if there was a declassification, it was certainly not recorded or documented or communicated, and, in all likelihood, was made up after the fact once the Fitzgerald investigation got going.
This same president has deployed the NSA and who knows which other components of the national intelligence apparatus against the American people in direct violation of federal law.
he has abused and abused his trust and the power of his office, and it is time for him to leave that office.
.. “I don’t know of anyone in my administration who has leaked,” Mr. Bush told reporters in Chicago. But, he added, “If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.”
The president added, “There’s too much leaking in Washington. That’s just the way it is. We’ve had leaks from the executive branch and leaks from the legislative branch. I want to know who the leakers are.” …
George Bush, lying about his own leak: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/01/national/main575986.shtml
Donald Rumsfeld on Leakers of Secret Information:
… No, I’ll tell you about leaks. When a person takes classified information and gives it to someone who is not cleared for classified information, whether the person’s from the Pentagon or any department of government, they’re violating federal criminal law. And they ought to go to jail. That’s not complicated.
Kalb: What are the laws they are violating? Just –
Rumsfeld: The laws relating to classified information are quite strict as to who may be given access to that information. And so to the extent that people violate the rules with respect to classified information, they are breaking federal criminal law.
Now, they are also potentially putting people’s lives at risk, and that’s a very — it’s a terrible thing to do …
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t04102002_t0410sd.html
Scott McClellan, lying about Bush’s leak:
“If someone in this administration leaked classified information, they will no longer be a part of this administration, because that’s not the way this White House operates.”
It’s the modern Republican way. Commit a crime today; legalize the act tomorrow.
Here is what Scott McClellan had to say on July 18, 2003:
Q: When was it [the NIE Report] actually declassified?
MR. McCLELLAN: It was officially declassified today.
According to Fitzgerald’s court paper – Libby disclosed information from the NIE to Judith Miller on July 8, 2003 – ten days earlier.
So, what was the official status of the report for those 10 days? If it was declassified prior to or on July 8, why was it only shared with Judy Miller, and not released “officially” until July 18?
October 20th, 2007 at 8:02 pmhttp://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012306Z.shtml
“We already expressed our opinion about the intelligence the vice president was asking about. We thought it had no merit,” one former senior State Department official said. “We resented that they didn’t trust what we said.”
Indeed, earlier that month, Carlton Fulford Jr., a four-star Marine general, was sent to Niger to check on the security of Niger’s uranium. He returned to the United States convinced that the supply was secure. Fulford informed Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about his findings. It’s unclear whether Myers ever shared the information with White House officials. A spokesperson for Myers said the general would not respond to questions for this story.
Later that same month, the State Department official said, Wilson traveled to Niger on behalf of the CIA. That’s the trip the State Department had initially protested because Fulford had already looked into it. But Wilson confirmed that there was no truth to the allegations.
“We felt vindicated,” the State Department official said because there had long been animosity between the White House and State over disagreements concerning intelligence on the Iraqi threat.
However, seven months later, the British government prepared a “white paper” giving validity to the claims that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Niger which the State Department and Wilson had already proved false.
“Some very senior people in the vice president’s office saw that as an opportunity,” an official who currently works at the State Department in a senior capacity said. “They took it and ran with it, and it was wrong.”
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby – Cheney’s former chief of staff, who was indicted on five-counts of lying to federal investigators, perjury, and obstruction of justice related to his role in the Plame leak – National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, and Cheney had embraced the uranium claims cited in the”white paper,” according to the State Department sources, and they had all pushed for its inclusion in the National Intelligence Estimate in October 2002.
Many career State Department officials were also livid that the so-called “16 words” made its way into the State of the Union address, the current and former department officials who commented for this story said.
“To me it showed a total disregard for the truth, plain and simple,” said one former State Department official who had worked closely with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, referring to the administration’s use of the flawed intelligence.
“I refuse to believe that the findings of a four-star general and an envoy the CIA sent to Niger to personally investigate the accuracy of the intelligence, as well as our own research at the State Department, never got into the hands of President Bush or Vice President Cheney. I don’t buy it. Saying that Iraq sought uranium from Niger was all it took, as far as I’m concerned, to convince the House to support the war. The American people too.
The White House Iraq Group (WHIG) was formed in August 2002 by Andrew Card, President Bush’s chief of staff, to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. WHIG operated out of the Vice President’s office.
The group’s members included Rove, Bush advisor Karen Hughes, Senior Advisor to the Vice President Mary Matalin, Deputy Director of Communications James Wilkinson, Assistant to the President and Legislative Liaison Nicholas Calio, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
Last week, this State Department official said that a meeting took place in the office of the Vice President after Libby read the memo, to decide how they would respond to Wilson’s increasing public criticism about the administration.
“There was a major, major concern about the polls, the public response, that Mr. Wilson could cause enormous damage,” the retired senior State Department official said.
Grossman asked Carl Ford, then the head of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, to prepare what is known as an INR report about the Niger claims to shed additional light on what Wilson had been referring to in news reports.
The four-page memo indicated that the State Department long had doubts about the veracity of the administration’s claims about Iraq’s attempts to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger. The memo made scant reference to Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame.
All of the sources interviewed separately for this story said they were told that Karl Rove was the person who first suggested using the media to “turn the tables on Wilson.” The officials wouldn’t identify the person who told them this. The decision, however, was made during a meeting that took place between the White House Iraq Group.
“There was a discussion about what to do about Mr. Wilson,” the current State Department official said. “There was a decision to leak a story to the press – I think a few journalists – about the Wilson trip, that it was a non-issue because his wife set it up for him. They were going to show that Wilson and his wife were Democrats. Can you imagine?
October 20th, 2007 at 8:04 pmGOT TREASON?
Come the spring of 2001, she was in the CPD’s modest Iraq branch. But that summer–before 9/11–word came down from the brass: We’re ramping up on Iraq. Her unit was expanded and renamed the Joint Task Force on Iraq.
BEFORE 9/11 – THEY WERE RAMPING UP THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ.
GOT INSIDE JOB?
October 20th, 2007 at 8:05 pmHistory will show the Bush crime family pulled off the crime of the century…. starting with election 2000. More reasons for war equals more bucks for big business. Isn’t it a bit suspect Plame would be outed as her findings would slow the war machine down. And when the big crime is finished, when the curtains are opened, the masses will then see our country left in ruins while big business have run off with the billions.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:28 pmWho forged the Niger Documents? Doug Feith, Stephen Hadley, and Italian Intelligence? Inquiring minds wish to know.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:48 pmI think Plunger was the guy booted from the audience of Maher’s HBO show last night.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:04 pmI’m beyond words and can only echo from the above. S
It was bad enough that a covert operative was outed. It was worse that it appears to be a calculated move by senior WH staff. BUT NOW……
SO!! YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT PLAME WAS DELIVERING FAKE NUKE PLANS TO IRAN. SO!! WHEN SHE WAS OUTED, IRAN INSTANTLY WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT WHAT SHE SUPPLIED WAS FAKE! SO!! NOW SHRUB IS USING IRAN NUKES AS A REASON TO START HINTING AT WW III.
THIS IS PLAIN TREASON. AND **YES** I KNOW I AM YELLING !
October 20th, 2007 at 9:15 pmPlame’s CIA job was to stop Iran from obtaining nukes.
ha! knew it! … even told ya so!
well, not about the “stop” part maybe, but figured she had a role in the nuke program and that’s why cheney wanted her out of there…
he didn’t want the truth to get in his way…
wow…
October 20th, 2007 at 9:26 pm#4 bilbobaggins says:
So, did they expose Valerie Plame to get back at her husband Joe Wilson or did they expose her to disrupt the secret mission she was on to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon? Either scenario is horrifying. And one or both of them is what happened.
I think he is entirely correct. This was a proverbial killing of two birds with one stone. Discredit Joe Wilson for exposing Bush’s lies, while destroying the Brewster-Jennings covert front, giving Darth Cheney additional time to prepare for the attack on Iran.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:57 pmIf anyone still has doubts about the sinister capabilities of Dick Cheney — like being behind this Iran/Plame/Wilson episode, they need only review his career on the PBS Cheney documentary that aired this past week. No more doubts.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:03 amSorry for the multiple posts, here, but I just got home –
October 21st, 2007 at 12:11 amfrankly, impeachment is not harsh enough for Bush/Cheney. They are criminals. No less than the worst of them behind bars today — they are criminals! They should be in jail. They should be tried at home for treason and in the Hague for war crimes. They are criminals.
Innocent till proven guilty? They ARE proven guilty. The mounting evidence tells it all. They are criminals.
Yet another lie (”Plame was just a paper pusher at the CIA, she wasn’t a covert agent!”) that has been laid to rest. For anyone and everyone who happens to have half of a half-working brain, that is.
This won’t stop the “conservative” visitors to this site from repeating the same old debunked lies, and the same tired falsehoods about Plame, and everything else this administration has lied about.
Because I know that even in spite of this latest revelation, they won’t drop their allegiance to their Glorious Leader. Poor saps. Although I find it hard to feel sorry for such happily willing fascists.
October 21st, 2007 at 3:46 amOnly in GOP-Land does it make sense that Scooter Libby was indicted, tried, and found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice then pardoned because Valerie Plame was a “pencil pusher” at the CIA.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:35 amGo ahead, trolls, tell us how again how Plame’s status wasn’t covert and classified. Even though the CIA certified it to Congress. Even though Patrick Fitzgerald presented it as fact in U.S. Federal Court filings. Go ahead, trolls, defend the Office of the Vice President for revealing this information and destroying this critical intelligence program. Go ahead, trolls, and defend the President for letting the traitor Scooter Libby go free after his conviction for lying to protect the Dick Cheney from charges of treason.
Comment by VerbalKint — October 20, 2007 @ 3:50 pm
Yeah, but I’m sure Drudge has “proven” that all the things you say are not true, so there.
(snark!)
October 21st, 2007 at 11:05 amWith this new information clarifying Plame’s role, certainly this underlines the criminal actions the WH took by outing her, and is directly related to the ability of Iran to obtain nukes. So tell me again why this is not grounds for impeachment? But more curious and frustrating to me, is why Plame didn’t say this immediately after all the attacks on her that she was a desk clerk and pencil pusher? Why not come out and slam back down on the repubs and show them for the liars and traiters they really are? This happens time and time again…the rebuttal comes late, and quiet.
Plame and Joe could have been revealed as the patriots and even heros that they really were. Much more so than the shady figures for the Republican side like Oliver North. It is important to build heros on our side, on off years, so that when the elections come around the feeling is underlying and not cerebral for the voters. Voters are not cerebral, they vote with their gut. And if we don’t help them with their gut all year round, if we let the fascists portray good americans as traiters, if we let them make liberal, progressive, democrat and independent dirty words…..then don’t be surprised if every election is a struggle.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:11 pmI like how the news can come out and say the Bush admin. outed this woman. How come they get away with it?
And talk about a total package, holy shite!!
October 21st, 2007 at 12:36 pmwayyy hotter than dana perino, and not a congenital liar – that Joe Wilson is one lucky fella. no wonder the righties targeted them – look at the wives those jokers have to drag around.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:46 pmHow can this country hope to stop Iran if we can’t stop ourselves. It is past time to impeach the psychopath in chief and his vice. Only if we have a sane administration we can begin to address whether and what real threats we face. Only if we demonstrate that this country is no longer in the hands of the fascists will other countries feel they can trust us enough to put their resources to peaceful use.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:36 pmPlame was a failure thats why she had to be “outedâ€
Comment by Billy Hill — October 21, 2007 @ 9:19 pm
This is one of the most ridiculous, moronic statements I’ve read in a long time.
So she had to be outed, and national security had to be compromised? Ridiculous.
October 21st, 2007 at 9:47 pmDont you know a trap when you see one?
Comment by Billy Hill — October 21, 2007 @ 9:58 pm
No, but I know an assh*le when I see one, and you’d be wise not to pull “facts” from the same part of your body.
October 21st, 2007 at 10:18 pmDont you know a trap when you see one?
Comment by Billy Hill — October 21, 2007 @ 9:58 pm
I know a troll when I see one. And I am looking at one right now.
A troll who has nothing better to do with his life than to defend an administration that outed a covert agent in the middle of a very sensitive mission, compromising national security.
Way to go Billy Hill. Now make my day and tell me “libruls” are “weak” on national security. That’s be a hoot.
October 21st, 2007 at 11:17 pmObviously our friend Bigfoot still hasn’t got his little mind around the concept of obstruction of justice.
The paranoid rants about someone wanting to “get” the Bush administration are laughable. As if anyone needed to fabricate anything, any evidence at all to show the utter incompetence rampant in this White House.
Yeah, someone is trying to make Pres Bush “look bad” because he doesn’t do enough to look bad all by himself. Right.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:41 amSo Iran was looking for blueprints to make a Nuke Bomb. At least this proves they are looking to make “the bomb”. This proves we have no choice but to stop them since they are actively building a bomb.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 amYou can choose to characterize your Bush policy as “utter incompentenceâ€â€¦but the facts are, pretty much everything George Bush has attempted to do as President he has succeeded in accomplishing,
Comment by O. Bigfoot — October 22, 2007 @ 9:26 am
Oh, I didn’t realise the chaos that Iraq has become, the rampant insurgency, the roughly 4million Iraqis displaced, the destruction of their infrastructure, and the American death toll were all premeditated by your Glorious Leader.
I also didn’t know the outing of a covert agent working on a highly sensitive mission, and the corruption scandal that has engulfed this White House could be construed as a “success” for the Bush administration.
I guess you and I have different parameters to measure success and good leadership.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 pmwayyy hotter than dana perino
Comment by tombaker — October 21, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
I loved it everytime they said she was “undercover”.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:54 pm