Posted on 10/25/2005 9:11:39 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Man you are up real late for someone in PA. Do you work the night shift somewhere?
Yes, it is.
Any blogger who calls Mickey Kaus "astute" is a Democrat tool.
This is why I find it hard to believe that Rove or Libby would have motivation to cover up anything. Any first year law student could tell in 5 minutes that Ms. Flame is not covered by either statute. I'm sure if I knew there was no possibility of these statutes being violated so did the lawyers for Rove and Libby, that's probably why they cooperated so much. If you know you can't be convicted of the crime in question, why risk committing perjury? It just doesn't make sense.
Another question is why would the prosecutor spend two years on something he had to know couldn't be a crime, even if he bought into the Dem version of how her name got out there.
;-)
Why does the name "Joe Wilson" spring immediately to mind?
I don't know where this case is heading, but there are some things about it that don't add up.
1) Valerie Plame Wilson works in the WMD section so presumably she has been active in preparing analysis of WMDs in Iraq and she knows what her section of the CIA knows. All through the 1990s there was no apparent conflict in intelligence reports that Saddam presented a danger and was attempting to acquire more/better WMDs which is why we put troops in harms way flying the no-fly zones for all those years.
2) After 9/11, and with a new administration at the helm, things probably changed dramatically in the way intelligence reports were analyzed. For one, the "wall" between agencies came down. GWB got conflicting reports from intel agencies on WMDs in Iraq & decided that with Saddams refusal to adhere to UN resolutions, he (GWB)had no choice but to take Saddam out.
You know the saying, knowledge is power? Well, I think a lot of this case is from that section of the CIA angry that GWB had access to other reports and made his decision to bypass their intel and approval.
Squeezing the second tier to get him to flip on the first tier is exactly what Chris Matthews and his pals were drooling about the other night as they discussed Fitzgerald's past legal tactics. They expect Rove and Libby to say Cheney and Bush had had conversations about this in the WH and helped orchestrat a smear campaign against Wilson and his wife. Voila! (They also implied that without Cheney, Bush wouldn't know how to put on his pants in the morning.)Indictments of the President and VP, impeachment! Republicans driven from office in disgrace, out of power for the next forty years. Happy Days are Here Again! Dems and MSM are drooling over this.
I remember reading that CIA spokesman Bill Harlow asked Novak not to use Plame's name because it would cause difficulties. Novak has confirmed that account. I suppose, because he was not told outright not to print the story,he decided to go for it.
I like that list.
Yikes.
I've avoided posting on this topic but I'm going to don my asbestos suit and weigh in.
#1 - There have been conflicting stories about her exact status at the time of the leak. We may not know the real answer right now, but you can be assured that Fitzgerald does. It disturbs me that people just state with certainty that 'she wasn't covert for 6 years'. It seems to me that the CIA was very angry that her name was made public (since they originally requested the DOJ investigation that started this) so my guess is that she might have been covert. I heard a credible report that she was home temporarily because she had recently given birth to twins. It's not unusual for covert agents to take a break for family reasons and then go back to overseas work after a year or two.
#2 - It also disturbs me greatly that some folks on this board seem to be willing to forget their principles in the rush to defend Libby & Rove.
I don't care what the technicality of the narrow 1982 law says. I don't care if they broke the law or not. What they did was unethical at best.
Valerie Plame was a covert agent at some point in her career and she worked on WMD issues. The CIA set up a front company overseas for her. Other CIA agents worked in that company as well. Plus the civilians in that country who did business with that front company...some unknowing and some that were giving us valuable information.
By outing her they compromised national security, they put at risk every civilian who had business ties to that company, they outed every other CIA agent who worked there, they undoubtedly made it more difficult for our agents to get cooperation from civilians in other countries because they might fear being carelessly exposed, and they gave a roadmap to how the CIA sets up operations in foreign countries.
No CIA or FBI agent should ever be outed...ever. Former or current...doesn't matter. Libby & Rove had top secret security clearance and with that comes a great deal of responsibility to be extremely careful when discussing ~anything~ to do with our intel agencies.
Period.
If this was happening during the Clinton years everyone on this board would be baying for blood. Everything I hear tells me that the folks who work in the CIA are extremely angry and feel betrayed. The Bush administration would do well to take a lesson from Nixon. Don't mess with your spies.
I love your screen name. It enables me to use this quote: "In an attice somewhere is a picture of you getting prettier."
Because this rogue gang on CIA agents, including his wife, were, with the French, in on the forgery to try to affect US foreign policy.
2nd, and this is only an opinion and not a comment on the law, it seems that someone who is concerned about being undercover shouldn't involve themselves in political campaigns to destroy they President.
I wouldn't be all that upset if Rove and Libby are indicted under a strong legal theory, but Wilson and Plame herself shouldn't get away scot-free either.
"I love your screen name. It enables me to use this quote: "In an attice somewhere is a picture of you getting prettier."
LOL!! I may have to borrow that for my emails.
And now I need to go yell at my mother (again) for trying to be creative with my name. Sheesh...Lisa would have been fine with me...but noooooooo
Unfortunately, the apparently impending indictments go beyond the scope of that law. I think it is pretty clear that no one "outed" a covert agent and, reportedly, even Fitz is no longer going that route. However, he was authorized to go after crimes related to that and they appear to be going after Libby for perjury. If Libby did intentionally lie, and Fitz isn't just nitpicking, he should be indicted for stupidity.
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