Posted on 07/17/2005 8:37:17 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Why is special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald pursuing so zealously the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, since it is all but impossible to prove that the leaker or leakers committed a crime?
So why is Fitzgerald acting like Inspector Javert in "Les Miserables"? The answer may lie in a sentence Walter Pincus of The Washington Post wrote on June 12, 2003.
President Bush mentioned the British findings in his State of the Union address in January 2003. In his leaks to Pincus, and earlier to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Wilson claimed Bush knew this was false. The key sentence in Pincus' story is this:
"Among the envoy's conclusions was that the documents may have been forged because 'the dates were wrong and the names were wrong,' the former U.S. government official said."
Wilson outed himself in an op-ed in the New York Times on July 6, 2003, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," which described his CIA-sponsored trip to Niger in 2002. On July 14, 2003, columnist Robert Novak wondered why Wilson, who had no intelligence background and strong anti-Bush views, had been selected for the Niger mission. "Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report," he wrote. That set off the Plame name game.
Maybe Fitzgerald is investigating a different crime.
What if someone in the CIA was leaking classified information to influence the 2004 election? Uncovering a crime like that would be worthy of Inspector Javert's doggedness.
I suspect the biggest shoe in this case has yet to drop, and liberal journalists won't be happy when it does.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Apparently, Judith Miller went to jail to protect one or more of the following choices: (take your choice)
Sources Judith Miller is protecting by going to jail:
1. Karl Rove
2. Dick Cheney
3. Colin Powell
4. Haliburton
5. Tom Delay
6. GW
7. Laura Bush and her twin daughters
8. Bush's Doggie
9. _____________ (Fill in the blank with any Republican!)
10. All of the above
11. None of the above. Miller is protecting her real sources, Plame/Wilson and Plame's last CIA boss, Foley.
I hope you're right, however was that NOT how we felt about the forged TANG story and the airhead blather skated!?!
(from the story) - - -
In September 2002, the British government published a white paper in which it made public British intelligence's belief that Saddam had tried to buy uranium in Africa. A month later, the CIA received from an Italian source documents purporting to show that Niger and Iraq had done a deal. These turned out to be forgeries.
President Bush mentioned the British findings in his State of the Union address in January 2003. In his leaks to Pincus, and earlier to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Wilson claimed Bush knew this was false. The key sentence in Pincus' story is this:
"Among the envoy's conclusions was that the documents may have been forged because 'the dates were wrong and the names were wrong,' the former U.S. government official said."
Wilson's official role ended when he returned from Niger in March. The CIA didn't get the Italian forgeries until October. Wilson had no access to them. He either was making up what he told Kristof and Pincus, or he had received an unauthorized leak of classified information.
The real crime is being ignored by the Leftist news media. No one is even addressing the possibility that a rogue CIA agent, her husband, and liberal journalists planned a disinformation campaign to discredit a sitting president during a time of war.
My guess is that plenty of classified information was involved in this highly illegal operation. I have a hunch that some very big names in journalism were involved, too.
That Fedora link is awesome. Thanks!
My point is, all this time we've been seeing this material reported by people who clearly have an agenda--Mitchel even said "impeachment" on Imus.
So then I read this kind of article, step back, and see that Rove 1. would never allow himself to be sunk over such a little fish as Wilson (see above), especially since the war was already happening, and 2. Rove's story, for all the wiggling he and McClellan may have done, checks out.
Let's say Rove manipulated words to make it look like he didn't "out" Plame (he didn't) and also had nothing to do with the story, which he clearly did. Still, he didn't do anything more wrong than give an impression that he did nothing, when in fact he did very little, and nothing illegal. On a scale of 1 to 10, his "sin" is a 2.
Now look at Wilson. From giving the impression that Cheney had something to do with his "investigation"; to writing an op-ed and creating a name for himself as one of those cool "whistleblowers" the MSM love while he was on the Kerry payroll; from the lie that his wife had zero to do with his going, etc. etc. (you've seen all this and more all over this site)...
Well, my point is, reverse the labels of R and D, and look at Wilson again. If he were one of "our" guys, I for one would be pretty damned scared right now. He lied about who sent him; he wasn't important enough to even give a written report; he and his wife support Bush's oppostion; he and his wife profited by their actions (book deal, even a movie deal, if they get what they have said they want); fame as opposed to the obscurity of an ambassadorship to Gabon; Cooper doing his dramatic "I was saying goodbye to my son when I got an 11th hour appeal" routine when in fact he had the right to use Rove's name months ago...
If you take the time to step back from the Washington Insider crap, the D vs. R/MSM vs. Rove crap...this whole story takes on almost completely different dimensions.
I won't say what MY idea of it is, but this article above is part of it. Whatever it is, it sure isn't what the MSM want us to believe. When you have CNN doing a package about "coverups and scandals in Washington" which mentions Nixon but DOESN'T EVEN MENTION CLINTON!, the only president to be impeached for a coverup, you have to wonder if we've all been buying into something that isn't even a Democrat attempt at getting Bush, but a media attempt at bringing down the Administration. And the next people who will be saying they "didn't talk to a reporter" may be democrats, who will be claiming they had no idea about some kind of conspiracy of media people...
Just a thought.
I know this much--her lying hubby told Wolf Blitzer she was not "clandestine" the other day, and then made a "correction" (and no reporter gave him the crap they have been giving McClellan).
Consider me skeptical that her husband is unsure of her status. Plame could clear this up with a one-sentence comment. Seems to me if she said she wasn't covert, the story and her fame would collapse; if she said she was covert, she's setting herself up for serious repurcussions for lying. Either way, it benefits her to shut up unless she was covert--then, by telling the truth, she gains everything.
So it seems that her not coming clean proves she and her husband are lying.
BM
I need some education.
I cannot find the link, but I read a quote from Wilson saying something to the effect that he had not been called to testify or been contacted by the investigators. We are to conclude from those remarks the SP has no interest in him.
I have learned "target" is very specific in relation to a Grand Jury and someone is usually told if they are the target.
So here is my question. If Joe Wilson is indeed the "target" of the investigation, would he be informed of such if he has not been called to testify?
IOW, would it be probable/possible/acceptable for Fitzgerald to be getting his ducks in a row before he contacted Wilson? If he is the target, would it be ethical to let him tighten the noose around his neck without informing him he may need a criminal lawyer?
I have read the term "person of interest" is used instead of suspect because as soon as someone is named a suspect being informed of rights comes into immediate play. Could this be the same thing?
The articles this weekend citing unnamed sources familar with the investigation--could they have been put out there signaling Wilson he better start worrying about what he says? With so much misinformation swirling around and the dems beoming rabid in the call to "Kill Rove" could this be SP's way of (for lack of a better term) correcting the record?
I am curious and trying to put the events of late in perspective with the big picture.
ping!
Kiran on F&F just said that the media source for Rove may have been Judith Miller.
Certainly it is worth looking into the money angle. We have two career civil servants, one now existing on a pension, one with two ex-wives and a total of four children living in an expensive DC neighbourhood (Wilson's brother persuaded his wife they could afford it since it was cheaper than renting at the Watergate!), driving Mercedes, owning a $14K Rolex, maxing out donations to political groups, able to go on on an expenses only 2 week Niger trip (actually 8 days but you have to count travel time to Niger)while trying to make a living as a business advisor/lobbyist with no named clients, volunteer(?) for Kerry's campaign.
Saudi money? Oil for food money? Uranium smuggling money? French money? Family money? Someone, somewhere is paying the bills.
What if The New York Times made the story up to influence the outcome of the election? Maybe that's why Judith Miller won't release the sources because there aren't any.
"Maybe its even worse. Perhaps he was aware of the forged documents source and also knew that the docs were forgeries from the inception"
Wilson's second wife who he divorced in 1998 works for the French foriegn service as an embassy social coordinator. On another thread it was surmised that "social coordinator"
means spook!
Thanks so much for posting--this is a memorable thread.
I see post 97 has already pointed out that Wilson's second wife was French. From Vanity Fair article:
Also in Burundi, Wilson met his second wife, then the cultural counselor at the French Embassy there. They spent a year back in Washington on a congressional fellowship, during which time he worked for Al Gore, then a senator from Tennessee, and Tom Foley, then House majority whip. "It was," Wilson says, "happenstance" that he worked for two Democrats.I think Wilson's a double agent.
Funny too how the MSM has totally ignored Mrs. Wilson's admission in Vanity Fair that "on the 3rd or 4th date" she revealed her secret CIA work to Wilson. At the time he was still married to the French woman.
Lastly, I've never heard mention in the MSM of the fact that he not only worked for Al Gore & Tom Foley, he was sponsored by them with a congressional fellowship [what the heck is that?!].
As for the wheels within wheels on who is saying what in this investigation, it is entirely beyond control on the various leaks of who said what. Nobody is in control of this.
Congressman Billybob
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