Posted on 07/01/2005 1:09:11 PM PDT by Shermy
Who leaked to Novak?
Or who leaked to Cooper and Miller? And about what?
For Cooper, any of the names in this article, IRAQ: A Question Of Trust - The CIA's Tenet takes the fall for a flawed claim...... is a good starting point.
For Miller, I have some guesses. She may have been the first reporter to tell Libby about the Plame connection. I believe Libby said he learned of it from reporters. If she did that information would help prove his claim.
She also could have told other reporters. Third, she might have been working on a piece about Plame. In that piece Plame and Wilson might have been sources, they wanting to extol Plame like Wilson in the press. Her sources might have had it in for Wilson. Tenet and his people would be primary suspects. It gets lost in the fog of lefty blather about Bush "lying" about WMDs, but Bush didn't "lie", he was supplied the info from the CIA. Tenet was chagrined about Wilson's article.
I have pointed out all along that at the very same time the Wilson allegations were launched here, over in Great Britain Tony Blair was being charged with the "Sexed Up Dossier" business.
The Downing Street Memo is indeed that old trumped up story with a twist.
One has to first assume that the multiple sources are all genuine live human beings, and not a fictitious device or composite the reporters used to cover their own behinds.
Going with the assumption that the sources are real, we need to understand the anonymous-source speak reporters use to hint at why they consider the source credible. There is a subtle descending hierarchy.
The best anonymous source is one that can be characterized fairly specifically, as in a White House source, or a State Department source, or a police department source -- that sort of thing -- versus the more broad administration, or government, or congressional source.
In addition, an "official" (direct) is better than a "source close to" (indirect, 2nd hand or maybe an eavesdropper), which is better than a "source familiar with" (maybe 3rd hand or snuck a peak at some documents). A "senior official" is better than just "an official," who is better than just "a source in; close to; familiar with..." And so on.
So, assuming Novak followed this inside baseball source-speak, I take his "senior administration official" who is "no partisan gunslinger" to mean something like a career upper-level manager working somewhere in the executive branch, but not in the White House. I take his "senior administration official" with no other characterization to mean someone who may or may not be an appointee versus a careerist, and again working somewhere in the executive branch but not the White House. (Most of the time, "senior" means someone at assistant deputy level or above. If you see a characterization similiar to "high administration official," that usually means at the level of a Cabinet secretary, or #2 in a department, or chief of staff, etc.)
The next hints Novak gives us are in this sentence: "He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife." That's pretty arcane stuff. Not even a Cabinet secretary would know that unless a report happened to cross his desk or it was mentioned in a national security briefing -- something like that. Depending on how tight an operation the CIA Director ran, he might not even know about it.
At least one of the people to whom Novak spoke was a male who either had access to fairly arcane national security and CIA personnel information, or to documents that discussed the matter. The man is not likely to have been privy to the information otherwise, unless he worked for and had close contact with a true senior official such as a cabinet secretary and/or the department's #2 person -- and not unless the secretary/#2 received a report about the matter.
Even then, it couldn't be just any cabinet secretary, but one who either had direct knowledge of CIA personnel matters and/or received national security reports/briefings that included the information. So, depending on the specific subject matter, the list would most likely include the cabinet-level offices of Defense, State, Justice, Treasury, FBI, CIA. Within Defense, it also could include the Joint Chiefs and military intelligence.
Who was that guy that also work on the Kerry Campaign with Wilson
Randi ???
I'm having a senior moment and can't think of his name
Out of all those names .. who is the one person named in each of your categories?
Richard Clarke
Potential sources radiate out from there. Who would be most likely to know of their own accord the information about how Wilson came to be selected? Alternatively, who would have the authority to request the info? Bear in mind that even if others elsewhere in the administration eventually received Wilson's pseudo-report after his trip, they wouldn't necessarily learn how Wilson came to be picked for the job unless they made a specific inquiry.
My memory of the initial reception of Wilson's report at CIA when it was first filed is that it wasn't well thought of and didn't get circulated. My memory also is that the first time anyone outside CIA knew about his report was after Wilson wrote his first news article. His basic complaint, as I recall, was that the president lied in the SOTU address and that Wilson's report "proved" it. Wilson also complained that no one ever did anything with his report back when he first delivered it.
Very good stuff Wolfstar.
In another Time article the same week the story mentions Foley, Wilson, Libby, and Thielmann. Any one of them would know about Plame.
How come we never upped US Security after the 1993 Tower Bombings?...OKC Bombing??...Embassey Bombings?? ...Cole Bombings??? Never heard booooo, did we!!
You mean I spoke like one who actually knows the facts of the story.
He is the guy who claimed to want the references to Niger-uranium taken out of the President's SOTU speech, which the WH denied ever happened.
Challenging the Administration on a key point like that and being unable to prove it, is probably more likely why he resigned.
Your points are very good.
There is something fishy about the whole story, starting with how/why Wilson was selected, what he was meant to accomplish, what he coughed up as part of his findings, and ending with his wife being "outed" as an "operative".
I believe Novak did not mean she was an "operative" in the cloak-and-dagger sense, but merely used a term that's often used to describe a generic classification.
:: A Dem operative, a religious operative, a marketing operative, a CIA operative ::
I should add my two bits on Miller. Here's some theories:
1. She's the first reporter to tell Libby about Wilson's wife.
2. She knew the name because she worked with Plame on WMD stories, or otherwise. She may have been working with Plame/Wilson on a puff piece on Plame, to advertise her like Wilson was doing for himself.
3. She might have told other reporters about Plame, or given a name to rumors about "Wilson's wife."
4. She's Tenet's pal, and she was doing his revenge work against Wilson.
http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Showcase.view&showcaseid=0019
I guess we should add Pincus' wife to the possibilities.
BTW, it's Lawrence "Larry" Wilkerson, not Wilkinson.
confused the name with that Terrance Wilkinson story.
Sorry to respond to an earlier post, but...{ding,ding,ding) I think we have a winner! Thielmann is now touring with Joe Wilson to all of the anti-war meetings. Thielmann was Director of the Office of Strategic Proliferation in Military Affairs in the INR...where the Powell memo came from. Another Freeper mentioned his name on this thread and my search on him turned up your post.
From here, all roads lead back to Wilson as the culprit in this whole scheme. I just hope Fitzgerald uncovers this info.
You can see on this thread I predicted Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell right hand man, for the first leak to Novak.
I hadn't thought it was Powell because Wilkerson was asked if it were Powell but he said something like "absolutely not".
However, given the hairsplitting about giving her name versus talking about her, maybe Wilkerson's statement about Powell was true but Powell was the leaker - just didn't say "Valerie."
Powell or Armitege as the leaker to Novak makes sense....if you remember Novaks claim that the leaker wasn't a political "gunslinger"... Neither Powell nor Armitege are running for any office soon.
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