Posted on 07/05/2005 8:22:23 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The Washington Post, declaring Wednesday an "historic" day in the history of the press in America, suggested that perhaps the "leaker" of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIa operative was not a Bush administration official but a reporter (or reporters).
In a Wednesday A3 story, Carol Leonnig writes, "Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around -- that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee."
She also revealed that colleagues of Matt Cooper, the Time who may be sent to jail Wednesday if he continues to refuse to testify to a grand jury, say "he is still struggling with his decision. For practical purposes, he cannot protect his sources because his publication has already turned over notes that identify them. But if Cooper cooperates, friends say, he fears his journalistic reputation will be tarnished. Time editors have told him they will respect whatever decision he makes, they said."
Leonnig also observed that at a lunch meeting on Tuesday with Washington Post reporters and editors, Karl Rove, who turned up as a source in Cooper's notes, declined to answer questions about the Plame case.
I thought I read on at least one thread when they first went after Novak that Valerie Plame's CIA identity was Washington's worst-kept secret. Everyone knew, they just didn't talk about it.
Pegged. :-)
"But will you respect me in the morning if I tell?"
Please Mr. Cooper, no one cares. Your collegues are full of "Let's you and him go fight" encouragement, but how many would go to jail to conceal a potential criminal act from the grand jury?
I can barely wait.
I missed that -- there was a plea deal?
"Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a former White House national security adviser, plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and will acknowledge intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism....
... Under terms negotiated by Berger's attorneys and the Justice Department, he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance."
....he fears his journalistic reputation will be tarnished.....
He has no journalistic reputation to shine. it is forevermore tarnished by his recalcitrance to obey the law.
Has Hersh been called to testify in the leak investigation? IIRC he was one of the earliest reporters to cite Wilson as an anonymous source. It's interesting to compare Wilson and Hersh's comments about their contact with the CIA--note how Wilson uses the term "officials at the CIA" when he seems to primarily have Plame in mind:
In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report.
SNIP
While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.
SNIP
In early March, I arrived in Washington and promptly provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. I later shared my conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau. There was nothing secret or earth-shattering in my report, just as there was nothing secret about my trip.
Though I did not file a written report, there should be at least four documents in United States government archives confirming my mission. The documents should include the ambassador's report of my debriefing in Niamey, a separate report written by the embassy staff, a C.I.A. report summing up my trip, and a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president (this may have been delivered orally). While I have not seen any of these reports, I have spent enough time in government to know that this is standard operating procedure.
Seymour Hersh, "Who Lied to Whom?", The New Yorker, Issue of 2003-03-31
On December 19th, Washington, for the first time, publicly identified Niger as the alleged seller of the nuclear materials, in a State Department position paper that rhetorically asked, “Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?” (The charge was denied by both Iraq and Niger.) A former high-level intelligence official told me that the information on Niger was judged serious enough to include in the President’s Daily Brief, known as the P.D.B., one of the most sensitive intelligence documents in the American system. Its information is supposed to be carefully analyzed, or “scrubbed.” Distribution of the two- or three-page early-morning report, which is prepared by the C.I.A., is limited to the President and a few other senior officials. The P.D.B. is not made available, for example, to any members of the Senate or House Intelligence Committees. “I don’t think anybody here sees that thing,” a State Department analyst told me. “You only know what’s in the P.D.B. because it echoes—-people talk about it.”
SNIP
It is also clear, as the former high-level intelligence official told me, that “something as bizarre as Niger raises suspicions everywhere.”
SNIP
The former high-level intelligence official told me that some senior C.I.A. officials were aware that the documents weren’t trustworthy. “It’s not a question as to whether they were marginal. They can’t be ‘sort of’ bad, or ‘sort of’ ambiguous. They knew it was a fraud—-it was useless. Everybody bit their tongue and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if the Secretary of State said this?’ The Secretary of State never saw the documents.” He added, “He’s absolutely apoplectic about it.” (A State Department spokesman was unable to comment.) A former intelligence officer [Note: Is this "officer" distinct from the "official" mentioned above?--Fedora] told me that some questions about the authenticity of the Niger documents were raised inside the government by analysts at the Department of Energy and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. However, these warnings were not heeded.
“Somebody deliberately let something false get in there,” the former high-level intelligence official added. “It could not have gotten into the system without the agency being involved. Therefore it was an internal intention. Someone set someone up.” (The White House declined to comment.)
The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went on, was that the intelligence reports about Iraq provided by the United Nations inspection teams and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitored Iraq’s nuclear-weapons programs, were far more accurate than the C.I.A. estimates. “Some of the old-timers in the community are appalled by how bad the analysis was,” the official said. “If you look at them side by side, C.I.A. versus United Nations, the U.N. agencies come out ahead across the board.”
Of course we know Seymour Hersh would never be involved in leaking information about the CIA. . .
It just keeps getting better and better IMHO -- figured the way Novak looked like the cat that swallowed the canary when he said he would tell all after the grand jury was finished, it was good news for our side.
I just got off the golf course so I am trying to catch up after reading all my pings! I hope Novak spills the beans and shows that it was a RAT all along.
I am with you -- cannot wait -- just got back from the store myself and getting caught up. How was your golf game?
Happy FReepin'
K4
WOW! Congratulations! I cannot feature getting a hole in one. I can putt but everything else is downhill!
Will definitely ping you -- it is getting good right now -- I keep chuckling as the Dems keep walking the plank!
Hole-In-ones are an accident plain and simple. But they are nice when you get one (or finally get one in my case.) Thanks for the congrats. This Sen. Schumer phone call thread is good stuff. That is going to get good also. Check it out.
An oldie.
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