Posted on 08/04/2005 9:17:13 PM PDT by Cautor
If Valerie Elise Plame Wilson was a top-notch covert spy, as the main stream media would have us believe, we’re all in real trouble. Spending even a couple of hours on the web demonstrates she was less than adept at hiding her deep cover as the following items—pieced together from searching the Internet—indicate.
So what do we know about Ms. Plame? She was born April 19, 1963 in a military hospital in Anchorage Alaska to Samuel D. Plame, an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, and Diane E. Plame her mother. She graduated from Lower Moreland High in Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1981 and headed off to Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania where she received a BA in journalism in 1984. She later studied abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the College of Europe, an international relations school in Bruges Belgium. It is possible she studied in Europe after she was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
According to a friend who knew her when she worked on the staff of the college newspaper, The Daily Collegian, Valerie “visited State College [PA] a year or two after her graduation, and she spoke vaguely of her new occupation in Washington.” The friend thought her visit was probably for a football game or some such. This suggests she was may still have been in the U.S. in the 1985-1986 timeframe.
Not much if anything is publicly known of Plame’s career during the 8 year period from about 1986 until 1994. We do know that on February 22, 1994, Aldrich Ames, a CIA counter-intelligence officer and analyst, and his wife were charged by the US Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union. From many published accounts, including one by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, it appears highly likely that Ames’ spying activities disclosed the covert identity of Plame along with that of many other CIA agents thus effectively ending her utility as a spy. So her undercover security was undermined at that time and she was brought back to Washington, DC for safety reasons.
Only 3 months after the Ames indictment, it appears the CIA set up a front company called Brewster-Jennings & Associates. According to the records, Brewster-Jennings was first entered into Dun and Bradstreet records on May 22, 1994. With an address at 101 Arch Street, Boston, Massachusetts, the company claimed to be a “legal services office.” According to its web site, the company billed itself as a “law firm concentrating in the energy field.” The site also claims they were founded in 1994 by company partner Victor Brewster. Also according to the site, the company “conducts business with leading energy firms such as Mobil and ARAMCO. With offices in both Boston and Washington, DC the firm has staff with a combined 70 years of legal experience, eager to serve you.”
But, according to a piece called "Apparent CIA front didn’t offer much cover," the company had no visible presence at the 21-story office tower in Boston. It didn’t even bother to file the state and local records required of most real businesses. Some from the real estate industry said they believed something was “amiss, if not illegal” about the company. Rob Griffin, regional president of a real estate firm that once oversaw the leased property remarked that “It’s almost like out of a spy novel—the tenant that wasn’t there.”
In fact, former intelligence officials mentioned in the story confirmed Plame’s cover was an invention “and that she used other false identities and affiliations when working overseas.” In fact one former intelligence official who did not want his name used in the story put it this way: “All it was was a telephone and a post office box…when she was abroad she had more viable cover.” According to intelligence observers mentioned in the story, “that’s a good thing, considering how little work seems to have gone in to establishing the company’s presence in Boston…At the least, a dummy company ought to create the appearance of activity, with an office and a valid mailing address…A cover that falls apart on first inspection isn’t very good. What you want is a cover that actually holds up… and this one certainly doesn’t.” David Armstrong, an Andover researcher for the Public Education Center, believed the Brewster-Jennings cover had not been done convincingly and that other covers would have been established for her by the CIA. In any case, the bottom line is that Plame’s non-official cover as an energy analyst with Brewster-Jennings was not apparently used until 1995 because the firm did not exist prior to that time. As a point of interest, Brewster Jennings the man was president of the old Vacuum Oil Company, a predecessor of Exxon Mobil. He is mentioned in the “Forrestal Diaries” edited by Walter Millis in connection with the importance of Middle Eastern oil.
While supposedly employed by Brewster-Jennings, Plame was apparently working in the Washington, DC area, as a history of addresses reported for her include one in Falls Church and one in Arlington, both in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC and both in reasonable proximity to CIA headquarters.
In early 1997, about 3 years after the CIA established the Brewster-Jennings cover for Plame, she met her future husband, Joseph C. Wilson, IV, a career foreign service officer and diplomat, at a party in Washington, D.C. They married on April 3, 1998. Soon after, in 1999, they purchased a home on Charleston Terrace in Washington, DC in the exclusive Foxhall Road area close to Georgetown. They paid $735,000 for the home which records show had previously sold for a mere $44,000.
It’s clear both Wilson and his new wife Valerie Plame Wilson were staunch Democrats who supported Al Gore for President. In fact both contributed money to the Gore 2000, Inc. campaign committee. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) records disclose that Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV of Charleston Terrace, Washington, DC, who named J.C. Wilson International Ventures as his employer, contributed $2,000 to Gore on March 26, 1999. On April 22, 1999, his wife, who billed herself in the FEC records as Ms. Valerie E. Wilson, contributed $1,000 to the Gore campaign. She listed her employer as Brewster-Jennings & Associates. Just so there’s no mistaking the fact that Valerie Wilson was and is a left-leaning Democrat, it should be noted that she more recently contributed $372 on October 11, 2004 to “America Coming Together” organization, a George Soros-backed liberal Democrat activist group. Interestingly, in the records documenting this contribution, she listed no employer and instead stated she was “retired,” a statement in clear contradiction of the facts. In short, she told a fib on her campaign disclosure.
About this same time (1999) or certainly not long thereafter, there is an interesting post on a web site for genealogists researching Polonnoye, Ukraine. The web page indicates the site was last updated on May 29, 2000, so posts on the page were made on or before that date. Among the queries listed on the page is one looking for information on the Plame surname by a researcher who called herself Valerie Wilson. The email address listed for replies is jvwilsoniv@cs.com. Clearly this was a post by Valerie Plame Wilson.
Moreover, about this same time the web site for the Saudi-linked Middle East Institute posted a biography on its web site for Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV. The web page has since been taken down, but a search of cashed versions of the page indicate it was copyrighted in the year 2000 so this biography was posted in that year or before. The Middle East Institute biography concludes as follows: “He [Wilson] is married to the former Valerie Plame and has two sons and two daughters.” Another biography for Wilson is posted on the web site for the CPS Corporate & Public Advisory Group, and it also includes the notation that Wilson is married to the former Valerie Plame. The date for this biography is uncertain, but blog sources put it no later than some time in 2003.
The Bob Novak column which the main stream media claims “outed” Valerie Plame appeared on July 14, 2003. But before this date, what can be said about her? For one thing, until 1994, she very probably did not use the Plame name. She certainly did not use the Brewster-Jennings cover because it did not exist until May of 1994. In April 1999, she associated herself with the company called Brewster-Jennings which any self-respecting spy would quickly have concluded was a phony company and quite possibly a cover for some kind of covert operation in the international energy field. The company claimed it had ties to the Saudi Arabian Oil Company ARAMCO. In 1999, she also exposed her preference for Al Gore over George W. Bush for President. Sometime in 2000 (possibly before) we know Wilson himself identified his wife as the former Valerie Plame. He too had some kind of connections with the Saudi-backed Middle East Institute. We also know that not later than May 29, 2000, Valerie Wilson connected herself with the Plame surname and with the name of her husband Joe Wilson. The inescapable conclusion seems to be that if anyone really outed Ms. Wilson, it was not Bob Novak in July of 2003, but Plame and her husband well before that date. Whatever else can be said, Plame and her husband showed little concern over connecting her maiden name with her married name, nor did she worry about connecting herself with her CIA front company.
And what of the terrible damage done to covert operations? Well, it seems that from the time she was hired by the CIA in the mid to late 1980s until May 1994, she was using names and cover that remain a secret to the US public but which were likely revealed to the Soviets by Aldrich Ames. From May 1994 forward, Plame was not under any real cover—unless the Brewster-Jennings farce is considered deep cover. This is doubtful as even former intelligence officials point out she used other identities when working overseas—away from her desk at Langley, Virginia, CIA headquarters.
The real question the main stream media continues to ignore is who in the CIA and/or Department of State went to bat to support Plame’s efforts to get her Bush-hating-Kerry-supporting husband an assignment in Niger which he would soon use to try and torpedo the Bush campaign. The signs increasingly indicate it was neither Rover nor Libby. A fact worth recalling is that Wilson was on the payroll of the Kerry campaign until he was thoroughly discredited by revelations proving he had lied about how he garnered the Niger trip. The Kerry camp pulled out all the stops to try and trash George W. Bush. Could they have had a hand in this phony outing setup? Judith Miller may hold the key.
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I hadn't thought of that. You may be correct that the price was for the lot only. I will say, however, that the Foxhall section of DC is one of the most expensive. I can't imagine you could buy a lot for anything like $44,000. One could go to the public records in DC and find this out. I did find a web site that I can no longer find that contained a newsletter for the Foxhall Road neighborhood that made mention of recent property transfers and the property in question was one of them.
"The US government and its foreign policy and intelligence communities are riddled not so much by neocons as with vast numbers of Arabists and Saudi sympathizers and hirelings."
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm afraid even Bush senior has more Saudi/middle east contacts that I care for. I think he's a good man, but he is an old school types who is out to make a buck. Thanks for your thoughts.
"Pardon my deep skepticism, Cautor, but the last thing we need is for that grand jury to be extended"
You have a very good point. I guess I was only thinking of a way to keep Miller in the pokey til she cried uncle. I simply can't understand why this has gone on and on. Only think I can come up with is that a quick adjournment of case would have had the MSM crying cover-up.
Good find. I guess the $44,000 was for a lot. Man has property escalated in value in DC since then. Your comment about granite countertops being a fairly new trend is exactly correct IMO. In fact, we bought a 7 1/2 year old house a few months ago and quickly proceeded to tear out the kitchen countertops and replace them with granite--new appliances too even though the old ones were fine.
Couldn't agree more...Rove Rove Rove....all the MSM is trying to do is nail for something, ANYTHING. They are getting dangerously close to letting this blow up in their face...more so than it has already!
"They are getting dangerously close to letting this blow up in their face...more so than it has already!"
I agree. The left is so crazed with hate that it completely overcomes any instincts they have for sensibility. Like lemmings, they may follow this one off the cliff. I sure hope so.
Unreal.
You're right. What was I thinking?!
The list grows longer....
There are a lot of excellent books out there on the subject. Unfortunately, I think it helps to know if you are reading a book by a genuine Intelligence officer or just someone who worked for the CIA and thinks of themselves as an expert. Most of the "former CIA officers" who appear on the news are lightweights, building a cottage industry from some limited experience. One I can strongly recommend is "The Main Enemy" by Milt Beardon. He was a CIA Case Officer throughout much of the cold war and then led the battle against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He was deeply involved in the Ames investigation and then later was forced into retirement during the Clinton era for not being politically correct. If he has nothing else, he has integrity. You can really get an honest and fair assessment of the CIA from this book.
Is there a link for that? I'd love to see it...
Rush Limbaugh archives - enter: "Wilson LA Times" in 'search' area
Thanks. I suspected there are a lot of pseudo ex-CIA operatives out there writing their own versions of history. I doubt many serious agents shoot their mouths off. I appreciate your information.
Can you possibly provide a date and a title to the story from the LA Times?
Did you get to see this video? Libbish though:
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/press01.html
Like I posted to NewLand, the only link I have for the Wilson op-ed piece is at Rush Limbaugh's site which you need to subscribe to in order to view. When you go to Rush's site and enter: 'wilson la times', it takes you to this link:
_________________________________________________
3: Joe Wilson L.A. Times Op-Ed
Headline: A 'Big Cat' With Nothing to Lose Source: The LA Times Byline: Joseph C. Wilson Date: Feburary 6, 2003 Joseph C. Wilson, chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 1988 to 1991
__________________________________________________
Thanks. That's an easy find at
www.politicsoftruth.com/editorials/big_cat.html
I'm sorry, I have no idea how to make that a live link.
I was really surprised to discover yesterday that Joe's site was still up and current.
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