Posted on 07/13/2005 3:28:51 PM PDT by Jean S
Please allow me to share with you some of the things I don’t know.
I don’t know what Valerie Plame’s status with the CIA was in July 2003 when Robert Novak wrote his column mentioning that she was an “agency operative” and had recommended her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for a fact-finding trip to Niger. Was Plame a covert agent then? If not, how recently had she been a covert agent?
I don’t know.
I also don’t know what’s going on with The New York Times’ Judith Miller.
Since top presidential adviser Karl Rove and top vice-presidential adviser Lewis Libby signed strongly worded waivers releasing all reporters from any pledges of confidentiality, why hasn’t Miller testified? Does that mean her source was someone else who has not signed a confidentiality waiver?
I don’t know.
I also don’t know why Miller is involved in all this at all, since she never wrote a story about it. Was she some sort of “carrier,” as is now being theorized, and actually helped spread word of Plame’s identity?
I don’t know.
For that matter, I don’t know what Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper was doing either. Rove’s lawyer says Rove signed the waiver about a year and a half ago and has never changed it. Why was that waiver not acceptable to Cooper for 18 months and then, on the brink of going to jail, Cooper agreed to testify?
I don’t know.
I don’t know anything about the role the other journalists caught up in the case — Tim Russert, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler — played. Apparently on the basis of waivers signed by sources, they all gave information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. What did they say?
I don’t know.
And of course I also don’t know what is happening with Novak. Given Fitzgerald’s aggressiveness in dealing with all figures in this case, Novak must have made some sort of accommodation. Did he testify? Refuse to testify?
I don’t know.
I also don’t know why many in the press, most notably The New York Times, were once so enthusiastic about the Fitzgerald investigation. On Dec. 30, 2003, the Times published an editorial headlined “The Right Thing, At Last,” which said, “After an egregiously long delay, Attorney General John Ashcroft finally did the right thing yesterday when he recused himself from the investigation into who gave the name of a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak.” Why did the Times do that?
I don’t know.
And then, why did the Times change its position and condemn Fitzgerald who, the paper said, “can’t even say whether a crime has been committed.” Why would the Times say that, when it had once been so sure that a crime had been committed?
I don’t know.
I also don’t know about the actions of Joseph Wilson. For example, in his book, The Politics of Truth, he wrote, “The assertion that Valerie had played any substantive role in the decision to ask me to go to Niger was false on the face of it. ...Valerie could not — and would not if she could — have had anything to do with the CIA decision to ask me to travel to [Niger].” But later, the Senate Intelligence Committee, in its bipartisan report, said that “interviews and documents provided to the committee indicate that [Wilson’s] wife, a CPD employee [a reference to the CIA’s Counterproliferation Division], suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told committee staff that the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’ and a memorandum to the deputy chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from [Wilson’s] wife says, ‘my husband has good relations with both [Niger’s prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’” So why did Wilson say his wife played no “substantive role” in it?
I don’t know.
I also don’t know why Wilson’s defenders accuse the White House of “smearing” him. What was the smear? Was it a smear to say that Wilson got the Niger assignment, at least in part, because his wife recommended him? If so, then the Senate committee “smeared” him, too. If not, what is the smear?
I don’t know.
And finally, I don’t know about Karl Rove’s public statements on the case. Last year on CNN, he said of Plame, “I didn’t know her name and didn’t leak her name.” Even if he hadn’t passed on Plame’s name — just mentioned her as Wilson’s wife — why not just say nothing, especially since the whole thing is under criminal investigation?
I don’t know.
The bottom line is, some of the most critical facts in the whole Wilson/Plame/CIA matter are just not known, at least not known by anyone outside of the Fitzgerald investigation.
But don’t worry. At least we can be sure that we will someday know them, right?
I don’t know.
York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week.
E-mail: byork@thehill.com
placemark
Piasa keep digging up the gems..
Cyn see post 217..
Okay...Well Oil for food = oil or nukes with this caveat...
Not a direct corralation but becomes the end result. Wilson is sent at the behest of his wife to make sure the French company is obsolved of wrong doing....in the proccess the French get thier oil benefits and exchange them for yellow cake uranium.
Wilson actually is now not just a player but now a pawn ( useful idiot) because he probably believes that he is just there to cover any uranium discussion so he can get the administration. I believe Wilson can't see past his own nose...which would exlain his percieved vanity. Because he tells lie after lie and thinks nothing of it...but the press keeps hauling this guy out. ..oops off on a tangent..
So tell me how Kelly plays in all this.
Right after the orignal Plame flap started, I did a search on the name Valerie Plame and came up with this genealogy link with that personal information on it. I wonder if this is a legit post where she's looking for family history, or is there something more to this post. Maybe a code or signal connected with her job at CIA--Ukraine and all that. Anybody know where Plame was born/raised?
My take: [ FWIW :-) ]
First the page was last updated May, 2000 which means she has put her Maiden and Married name on a PUBLIC forum. Genealogy is a huge internet activity, so it is seen by thousands.
Keep in mind, I rarely post my entire name and personal email address in genealogy boards, unless I know the person I am posting to our I have been a member of that forum forever.
I would say it was obvious Valerie was not interested in anonominity (?sp) in May of 2000. Either that or she is incredibly stupid to think no one can make the connection.
Yesterday Hannity was talking about his (Joe's) book as it relates tto his relationship with Valerie.
If I recall, about the third date they were in the middle of a heavy makeout session and she stopped with an "Oh, BTW, there is something you should know about me. I am a CIA agent." [paraphrased of course.
Whoa....I am no expert on policy and procedure, but I thought being it was imperative that operatives avoid being compromised, especially in a sexual trist.
He met her in Feb 1997 (also keep in mind he did not divorce his second (?) wife until 1998-just an aside as to his character.)
Seems like everyday ordinary white trash to me.
That's what I think, and I further speculate that the leaker had leaked real information detrimental to national security--not just this irrelevant, non-criminal crap about the desk jockey Plame.
Thanks for your reply. I too am an amateur genealogy buff and you are exactly right about posting full names and other personal stuff including email addresses. It is quite uncommon. For one thing, there are those who sweep up such personal information and use it for marketing &c. I find this post very strange indeed.
It's really amazing how closely many of the prominent journalists are linked to prominent politicians. Might be interesting to make a list for reference. I'm sure someone somewhere has done it.
Wow. I remember following that story that night as it mutated its way around the world AFTER having been discredited.
I have a feeling that this case is a Rope a Dope aka Rove a Dope. Surely, the special prosecutor will have all the answers and God help anyone that commits perjury.
Wow...only 300 missed points.
There's also the issue of control of the mines. As I recall, there were several statements - from Niger - that there were mines that weren't controlled, and that there was concern about unofficial sales being not only possible, but entirely plausible.
I think most of that's on the right track, but my take is that Wilson had something to gain beyond getting the administration. Among his possible motives, the one that seems most tangible to me is that his business partners and political allies had financial and geopolitical interests in parts of Africa and the Middle East also of interest to France, and these interests were at stake in the debate over Iraq.
On Kelly, when he died he was being investigated as a possible source for a story by British reporter Andrew Gilligan which related to the British investigation of the origin of the same forged documents underlying Wilson's story.
Thanks for mentioning that. I don't think I'd heard those statements, but that seems logical to me, and plausible in light of Niger uranium sales to Libya. It's at least a possibility Wilson should've taken seriously if he was serious about his investigation.
As a business owner, the 3 words I loathe the most: "I Don't Know".
Okay now that all makes sense. It seems so obvious..there has to be a money trail though for this to come to fruition.
With all we know...the one question I have..is why is the WH just milling about on on this? I am starting to get the impression that there will be a huge suprise and the press will have a ton of egg on it's face.
Perhaps he DIDN'T lie!
Perhaps his REAL source did give him a last minute waiver, the identity of whom we still don't know as it was only disclosed to the Grand Jury.
If this is the case, it's further proof that it wasn't Rove!
hmmmmmm.....
According to Vanity Fair, they met at a cocktail party in Washington DC.
That's my impression, too.
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