Woodward Apologizes to Post for Withholding Knowledge of Plame

Washington Post ^ | November 16, 2005; 1:18 PM | Howard Kurtz

[Trust but Verify]

This is my theory.\:

This unnamed government official was hoping to stay out of the spotlight but his conscience got the best of him after Libby was indicted. My guess is that they now realize it was THEY who first talked to the press about Plame, and they do not want Libby to go to prison for something they did. Also, since it is clear that no crime was committed by talking about Plame, they are not in any legal jeopardy for doing so.

Comments?

[Deb]

Katherine Graham said on her last Larry King appearance, that she had to confess it was her intention to use the Washington Post to bring down Nixon and she used "two kids" from the Metro section in case the story exploded in her face she could just denounce them and save the paper. Funny how this info wasn't a particularly big deal to King or the rest of the media.

[popdonnelly]

Makes sense. And by giving Woodward a release, the unnamed official put Woodward in a position where he had to testify.

[OldFriend]

Just saw DeGenova on with Brit Hume. DeG demanded that Fitz drop the charges.
That he was obligated by the Justice Department to review his entire case. Since the premise that Libby was the first administration official to lead Plame's identity was WRONG, then the case needs to be reviewed and then dropped.

[OldFriend]

Russert is the rotten egg in this case.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I was just wondering who benefits from this kind of late disclosure. Thanks much for the info.

AC, see post #78.

[Alberta's Child]

It looks to me as if Libby may benefit from this disclosure, based on the information posted here on this thread (Post #84, for example).

I don't know the exact nature of the indictments and have no legal background, so I'd have to defer to lawyers who know a lot more about this than I do.

[sine_nomine]

Thanks. That is new information for me.

[sine_nomine]

I figure we are never told the whole truth about anything. I grew up in a town where the chief of detectives was known for murdering three people and being the bagman for the local mob. The media knew but no one else did, officially.

[onyx]

Indeed and the biggest liar.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Another step or two down this path Woodward, you leftist puke of a pseudo-journalist, and you'll be in league with Nixon and some of his questionable lapses of ethics.

Ironic. Not.

[USS Alaska]

Government official with a conscience? This is not Ripley's believe it or not.

Either someone else knew and was going to rat out the gummint official or this person was already out of the gummint {George Tenent??} and knew that Woodward knew and was afraid of being the second man to the grand jury so he beat him to the stand to testify first.

I always believe that gummint officials think about CYA first, last and always. Pangs of conscience, I'll pass on that altruistic thought. It would be nice, but so would world peace.

[GianniV]

Bob Woodward is a f*cking a--hole.