Posted on 05/28/2005 3:43:05 AM PDT by infocats
Two reporters facing up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify about their sources gained some unlikely allies yesterday.
The attorneys general of 34 states and the District of Columbia filed a brief in the United States Supreme Court supporting the reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine.
The brief urged the court to hear the reporters' case and argued that the absence of federal protection for journalists and their sources undermined the laws of the 49 states that do offer protection.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They ain't covering for a Pubbie.
Ping aling.
By all means lets allow the journalists to keep their "anonymous sources" that dont exist.
Their source was an article by arch conservative Bob Novak who apparently got in no trouble for breaking the original story outing an undercover C.I.A. agent.
he didn't OUT anybody and she WASN'T undercover...
The excerpt below is all I could pick up from a Google News Search because the article is out of date and costs $4.95 to retrieve but...
... grand jury investigating who revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie ... was made almost two years ago by syndicated columnist Robert Novak commenting on ...
"Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller face 18 months in prison for contempt of court after refusing to testify about conversations they had regarding Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent whose identity was disclosed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak".
1) it was WELL KNOWN inside the beltway that she worked for the CIA 2)she worked INSIDE of Langley... that by definition is NOT undercover!!!
nice RAT talking points though and thanks for playing...
Well that's just great. Now her identity is well known outside the beltway too!
she worked INSIDE of Langley... that by definition is NOT undercover!!!
Oh, now I get it. Assignments are forever!
nice RAT talking points though and thanks for playing...
When you can't come up with a rational argument to substantiate your false assertion, attack (however snidely) your opposite.
I don't mind playing...but I'd rather it be with someone with a slightly more sophisticated intellect!
ok, here it is... maybe i've got a hair trigger lately, but this has been hashed out here to death, and pretty much agreed that novak did nothing wrong!!!(use the search you'll find tons of threads on it) even the Prosecutor isn't charging him with anything... but he still wants to talk to the Slimes!!! and then you start with the perfect RAT talking points about novak outing her BS and it gets my back up. If ANYBODY should go to jail, it's her POS HUSBAND who wrote about his TOP-SECRET mission to africa that started this whole mess in the first place!!! so if you still want to talk about novak, pls read the other threads and i'll be happy to talk with you about it. FReegards Chode
I've been away a lot lately and haven't followed the thread on FR but paid some attention (although perhaps not as much as I should have) to the original story when it first broke.
My impression was that Novak had always been a staunch C.I.A. supporter (some might even say apologist) so I was rather taken aback about the initial allegation(s) because it seemed so out of character for him.
It was then further suggested that Novak was acting on behest of someone in the White House (unnamed...an internal investigation was to be forthcoming) as payback to her husband who had been sent to South Africa (I think) to find evidence of "yellow cake" procurement by Iraq to substantiate an Iraq - WMD connection; the payback was alleged because his findings proved negative which in no way demonstrates, at least to my simple mind, that no such conncection existed...or that even if it did not, this negated any possibility of any type of Iraq - WMD connection prior or subsequent to, Plain's finding.
As you suggested, I will try to dig up some of the original source material (as reported), further digest it, and get back to you.
I have no particular ax to grind (one way or the other) as to the outcome of this story, other than to say I believed then, as I do now, that Saddam Hussein was a terrorist, consorted with other terrorists, certainly had the ability to produce crude WMD's even if not having a particulary effective delivery system, and was more than capable of secreting them out of the country upon pain of discovery.
a couple things... she put her husband up for the job then lied about it when she denied it
he should of been arrested and frog marched to jail for his partisan hit piece in the paper of classified/TS information he got only after "extensive" sessions of drinking hot tea...
let's say novak really did out her, albeit unintentionally, GOOD!!! her loyalties or should i say lack there of were exposed for all the world to see as far as the USA is concerned and i for one don't want to see her or her hack husband in any position even remotely near the decision making process concerning the welfare of this country...
and last but not least, the slimes say in their court argument that "no laws were broken by their staff" in a way that made it plainly clear, that novak didn't do anything illegal either, without saying so in so many words...
now... pls tell me what it is that you think novak actually did/where the information came from so i can see why you think he's guilty and judge the source of the alligations??? thx Chode
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1351722/posts here's the slimes saying that NO laws were broken, it was just abuse of power.
HAha... let them prove it then and tell us who told them so they can be punished for their abuse of power!!! (crickets chirping) 8^)
Arch-consrive, eh? Novak's not exactly "pro-bush administration." More like pro-McCain.
Judith Miller didn't source Novak. The reason she's been pulled into this is still an open question though she's involved in a related investigation concerning terror charities. Not to mention she has links to the late UK Bioweapons inspector Kelly, who was emailing her before he died, supposedly.
One or was it two of the reporters subpeonaed has, however, been involved in another bigger story whereby a terrorist-linked charity was tipped off by a NY Times reporter - before the FBI was able to obtain surveillance warrants on the organization Global Relief to monitor its - and another charity's [Benevolence International's] reaction to impending raids on their offices overseas. The groups gained valuable time to destroy their files. Ironically that part of the story receives almost no coverage. The Plame name game has served to paper over that investigation of those reporters' sources quite well.
AUGUST 7, 2002 : (US ATTORNEY FITZGERALD SAYS ITS BEN ESTABLISHED THAT GRF LEARNED OF THE LOOMING FBI SEARCH FROM NY TIMES REPORTER PHILIP SHENON) ."It has been conclusively established that Global Relief Foundation learned of the search from reporter Philip Shenon of The New York Times," Fitzgerald said in an Aug. 7, 2002, letter to the Times' legal department. -------------TIMESMAN TIPPED OFF TERROR CHARITY: FEDS (NY Times Correspondent Accused) via post by cyncooper to jriemer , On News/Activism 02/22/2005 9:37:48 AM PST · 196 of 325
Novak also didn't disclose the identity of Plame as an undercover agent. One of the papers that did that was The Nation [see David Corn who, unlike Novak, said she was a "covert agent"], another I believe was Newsday. Had you been following the story, you'd know that. Since these papers' articles contained considerably more information about Plame than Novak, emphasized she was covert or undercover, and also altered Novak's description of his sources to suit Newsday's own political agendas, it's obvious they had a source other than Novak's article. If not, Newsday at least had more imagination than Novak.
It was the husband of Plame, Joe Wilson, of said "undercover CIA operative" Plame [actually there is no evidence so far that she was undercover at all- she was a WMD analyst /desk jockey working for a resigned official named Foley] that foolishly drew attention to a CIA-linked mission to Niger when he popped off about his bit role in inquiring about Niger's contacts with Iraqi officials. [But he curiously failed to mention he had a conflict of interest in that he had private business in Niger of his own relating to mining.]
He first claimed he found no evidence of Iraqis seeking to acquire uranium from in Niger when in fact had found at least one Nigerien official who had been contacted by Iraqis [including according to Wilson a future Information minister of Iraq] concerning what the Nigeriens understood to be inquiries about obtaining uranium. Wilson also claimed he went to Niger to investigate the documents which were said to be forgeries; problem is, he also admitted he never saw the documents and the timeline indicates there were no such documents to investigate at the time of his trip. Those documents were obtained later. There was human intel however that has never been refuted, and there was relevent information concerning Niger, Benin and Iraq provided by an informant the CIA never even bothered to investigate.
Wilson as it happens may have business links to one of the individuals involved with the Islamic charity that was tipped off by one of the reporters who has since been subpeonaed. Wilson also has disturbing ties to the French. Recall one of his former wives, and his dinner with one of Iraq's leaders and a French arms buyer on the eve of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Wilson's own odd background and his media-assisted coming out party before the Novak article drew attention to him, making just about everyone wonder why he was selected by the CIA to go to Niger. By politicizing and drawing attention to himself and his CIA 'mission,' he has no one to blame but himself for the interest in his wife and indeed, he has much to answer for in his own public disclosures about his CIA role. He may have been tipping off people in Niger, France or Iraq of CIA interest in their operations by going public in time for them to scrub records. His seeking out of publicity, book and movie deals is also not something Novak or anyone else forced him a gunpoint to do.
Plame's husband Joe Wilson openly admits - or shall we say claims- that Plame told him she was CIA at the time of their "first kiss." If he's not lying, she's not very good at keeping quiet about her job. She also made an appearance at at least one Clinton White House gathering. She also set the stage for exposing a CIA front company unneccessarily when she listed it as her employer on a political donation.
The investigation of the "Plame leak" appears to be much more extensive than just Novak's article, which didn't refer to her as being undercover and would not have raised an eyebrow without the aid of Newsday, the Nation, the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and others in raising Plame's profile. Speaking of that charity I mentioned earlier:
1999 : (EL SHUKRIJUMAH ARRANGES FUNDRAISERS FOR GLOBAL RELIEF FUND, ALLEGEDLY TO HELP REFUGEES IN BOSNIA) In 1999, Adnan [Gulshair El'Shukri-jumah] organized garage sales and car washes to raise money for Muslim refugees of the war in Bosnia. ''I remember him telling me once that he felt like those people were his family too,'' his mother said. At the time, his family said, neither they nor Adnan were aware that the charity they supported -- Global Relief Fund -- was allegedly involved in funding terrorist organizations. About the same time, the family befriended a man named Imran Farooq Mandhai -- who later would become the genesis of the FBI's suspicions about Adnan. Mandhai, now serving nearly 12 years in prison for plotting to blow up power plants and other South Florida facilities, first approached Gulshair's father for spiritual leadership. The family described him as a follower of little intellect but lovable. -- "FBI sees terror; family sees good son Ex-resident of Miramar being sought in terror case ," BY DAVID KIDWELL AND LARRY LEBOWITZ (Natalie McNeal contributed), The Miami Herald, 03/31/2003
It's amusing that the pressitutes that demanded Novak reveal his sources when they were trying to fan the bogus claims that his source was Rove are now upset that reporters have been subpeonaed in the GRF and leak investigation cases concerning their sources, some of which smell like the ravings of Joseph Wilson.
Already was- she blabbed her 'identity' to Wilson when he woked for the US Army Europe back in the 90s right before General Wesley Clark came into the picture there. She was also considered to have been outed by the spy Hanssen to his handlers much earlier, which is why she wasn't undercover and was sitting in Washington with the non-secret analyst job.
If you don't want to be associated with the CIA, don't spill your guts to potential mates whenever you're horny, don't pick a mate with large egos and matching mouths, don't recommend such a blabby mate for secret CIA mission jobs to Niger, don't let your mate post your unmarried name to his online bios, don't make donations to political figures that include mention of your old front company when your car's parked at Langley during work hours, and don't accept photo ops in Vanity Fair or otherwise elevate your profile in ways that draw attention to the CIA.
Lackofinfocats, If you think his mission was to South Africa, then you're so ridiculously late to the story that you have no business berating others on the thread for not having a "slightly more sophisticated intellect."
My apologies for my old battered keyboard's tendency to skip letters, BTW.
I was late to the story. As I explained to Chode, what initially caught my attention about this story was Novak's allegededly uncharacteristic involvement.
I promised Chode I would do further research, have already bookmarked (but not necessarily read) several source references, and will continue to do so, time permitting.
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