[SF Republican]

the real story is that the CIA “launched a covert operation” against the President - little baby legs, grow baby grow.

[GOPJ]

...the real story is that the CIA “launched a covert operation” against the President when it sent Wilson on the mission to Africa to investigate the Iraq-uranium link.

Hmmmm

[massgopguy]

So she blows her cover to Wilson on their third date during a make-out session. What if he was, say, A RUSSIAN? Didn't she violate the law?

[Juan Medén]

Maybe we should be asking the CIA where the WMD's are. It sounds like this little cabal is capable of tipping Sadam off and even assisting in the hiding or disposal of the weapons. Maybe its time to start looking for double agents.

[Sacajaweau]

Excellent!! Thanks!! Just another Rathergate but much more serious because it suggests "Dem Operatives, including Valerie, in the CIA".

[txhurl]

Yes.

[kabar]

The money quote of the article:

DiGenova tells this columnist, “It seems to me somewhat strange, in terms of CIA tradecraft, that if you were really attempting to protect the identity of a covert officer, why would you send her husband overseas on a mission, without a confidentiality agreement, and then allow him when he came back to the United States to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times about it.”

[Enchante]

"DiGenova told me he believes there has been a “war between the White House and the CIA over intelligence” and that the agency, in the Wilson affair, “was using the sort of tactics it uses in covert actions overseas.” One has to consider the implications of this statement. It means that the CIA was using Wilson for the purpose of undermining the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy."

Yes, this is the theme that is so crucial to understanding this whole mess and the theme that a number of us have been sounding since fraud artist Joe Wilson first emerged on the national scene. Has Fitzgerald been onto this, or not?? I would hope/expect that there should have been all sorts of confidential grilling of current and former CIA and State people going on, especially the VIPS pigs, but who knows?? It does worry me that so little of the 'real' story ever seems to get into the MSM. I know that's not surprising given their biases, but it's still worrying that Goss and the WH so far have been totally unable to educate the media and the public about the real problems......

[Bob]

At this point in the media feeding frenzy over the story, the issue of how the investigation started has almost been completely lost. The answer is that it came from the CIA. Acting independently and with great secrecy, the CIA contacted the Justice Department with “concern” about articles in the press that included the “disclosure” of “the identity of an employee operating under cover.” The CIA informed the Justice Department that the disclosure was “a possible violation of criminal law.”

Nobody seems to want to talk about how this whole thing got started. The CIA certainly seems to have done exactly what it needed to do to hamstring the White House.

[TiaS]

Ever question why Porter Goss, another Florida Republican and former member of the Congressional Committee to oversee intelligence operations, was selected to head one of the already failed agencies he was being paid to oversee?

[tkathy]

Seems to me everything connected with the Niger thing should be declassified and hearings held and anyone who lied should be held accountable.

[doesnt suffer fools gladly]

Off topic but I'm curious. Do Plame and Wilson have children from prior marriages/relationships?

[Mo1]

DiGenova tells this columnist, “It seems to me somewhat strange, in terms of CIA tradecraft, that if you were really attempting to protect the identity of a covert officer, why would you send her husband overseas on a mission, without a confidentiality agreement, and then allow him when he came back to the United States to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times about it.”

I'd sure as heck like to know why they allowed this

[Steve_Seattle]

This is why I am hopping mad at the MSM - they have simply refused to look at the story from this angle, which has far more serious ramifications than if Libby or Rove incidentally "outed" Plame while setting the record straight regarding Wilson's trip to Niger. They are obsessed with the inner workings of the White House, but - for the first time ever - completely indifferent to the possibility of nefarious schemes being hatched in the CIA. This sickens me. My contempt for the MSM has never been stronger.

[rhombus]

And "Slam Dunk" got a medal.

[lilylangtree]

It was Wilson and his demoncRAT friends that plotted. Wilson bragged all around DC that his wife worked with the CIA. It wasn't a secret. Yet, if and when an administration official mentions it the reaction is like telling a poorly-kept secret. In Washington, DC, there aren't any secrets.

[popdonnelly]

I don't know if DiGenova is correct, but I do notice that there are a number of "former terrorism" people pumping up this Plame story. Could it be that these pre-9/11 terrorism experts are diverting attention from their own mistakes by attacking the White House?

[mewzilla]

Duh.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Back in July, I mused about why the MSM weren't considering a CIA plot.

Here's what I posted then:

"Countless times, over a period of many long years, I've heard about how adroit the CIA is at destabilizing governments. I suspect that it would be easier to count the stars in the sky than conspiracy theories about the CIA. Many of these conspiracy theories were so convoluted that they made John le Carré novels look straightforward by comparison. Most were covered extensively in the MSM -- with the requisite anti-US slant.

Now, we have a CIA "operative" and her husband at the centre of an intrigue apparently designed at destabilizing the US government itself. Naturally (I've come to believe that I've fallen into a parallel universe, where the totally bizarre and twisted is natural), the MSM is ignoring the possibility that this is a CIA plot -- or, at the very least, that it is the machinations of a highly trained CIA operative."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1445109/posts?page=18#18

[Courdeleon02]

This article is very interesting. I think it is very plausible.