Hear, hear!
[cue applause]
Posted on 11/02/2005 10:51:17 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Edited on 11/02/2005 10:53:03 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
In a surprise, closed-door debate, Senate Democrats demanded an investigation of pre-Iraq War intelligence. Here's an issue for them: Assess the validity of the claim that Valerie Plame's status was "covert," or even properly classified, given the wretched tradecraft by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the entire episode. It was, after all, the CIA that requested the "leak" investigation, alleging that one of its agents had been outed in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Yet it was the CIA's bizarre conduct that led inexorably to Ms. Plame's unveiling.
When the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was being negotiated, Senate Select Committee Chairman Barry Goldwater was adamant: If the CIA desired a law making it illegal to expose one of its deep cover employees, then the agency must do a much better job of protecting their cover. That is why a criterion for any prosecution under the act is that the government was taking "affirmative measures" to conceal the protected person's relationship to the intelligence agency. Two decades later, the CIA, either purposely or with gross negligence, made a series of decisions that led to Ms. Plame becoming a household name.
• First: The CIA sent her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Niger on a sensitive mission regarding WMD. He was to determine whether Iraq had attempted to purchase yellowcake, an essential ingredient for nonconventional weapons. However, it was Ms. Plame, not Mr. Wilson, who was the WMD expert. Moreover, Mr. Wilson had no intelligence background, was never a senior person in Niger when he was in the State Department, and was opposed to the administration's Iraq policy. The assignment was given, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, at Ms. Plame's suggestion.
• Second: Mr. Wilson was not required to sign a confidentiality agreement...
There needs to be a wholesale cleanout of the Federal bureaucracy.
There are entirely too many 5th Columnists within.
It's about time someone "woke up" and smelled the 900 pound gorilla in the room!
I'll take the former without the "brilliant." The only thing that made this gambit work was endless coverage by the MSM repeatedly babbling Democrat bleatings of Ms. Plame's status as a covert agent.
Most American are more concerned with professional sports and reality TV than they are with the disfunctions of our gooberment.
This has been mentioned before, but worth repeating. It is quite possible that Tenet was Novak's source. He said "Senior Administration Official" in the article, and then described this individual as not a partisan gun slinger. Don't know if this information will ever come out or be disproved.
Wouldn't supprise me if he's photographed boppin a fence-chained Cindy Sheehan in Crawford one of these days.
We need a new McCarthy.
Hear, hear!
[cue applause]
The town of Crawford would need to call in a hazmat team to provide the necessary containment of a probable biohazard.
The Special Prosecuter, Fitzgerald may be on to something that may cause real harm to the DemonRATS. If Valerie used her CIA connections to leak something that would hurt President Bush's reelection, we would have a major crime. Judith Miller may be hiding information that points the finger at Valerie's efforts to use her CIA connections to hurt President Bush. The New York Times certainly would not want any such revelation to be made. It would put a dagger in the heart of the DemonRATS!
Since Joe Wilson's venture to Niger produced no information, how then did he get the forged documents which were classified? Such documents were forged to hide the fact that France was helping Saddam Hussein acquire the uranium from Niger. The possession of such documents, even if they were forged, is the possession of classified information and a crime.
One last question: If Saddam Hussein did acquire uranium, where is it now?
Soulmates, both on a mission. Question is: can herefords sing jazz tunes?
Wrong question.
Given Wilson and Sheehan, this is more about pigs and sheep.
The was the sort of intel operation one would set up in a foreign country to delegitimize an enemy power at war, except if you tried to pass off the bogus investigation and blatant lies of a Joe Wilson in their national press it would have been exposed immediately and become yet another CIA failure.
It's only been a CIA success domestically so far because they had the MSM and a naive and misguided Fitzgerald.
Well, were I Saddam-about-to-get-my-butt-kicked by the U.S. Marines, I'd probably give it to a neighboring Arab like Syria or Iran in return for some 'insurgents'. 'Cause you gets what you pay for.
Getting late, y'all. Have fun. OAO
Sounds like leaking to me.
The Niger story became a CIA story when the credibility of Joe Wilson and the legitimacy of his mission needed to be explained.
Recall Wilson said he was on a mission from Dick Cheney's office? He was supposedly sent to Niger by the Vice President.
That was a lie and that lie led to the outing of his wife. Given the fact that Joe Wilson went public (no confidentiality agreement?) with lots of false information, his credibility needed to be exposed.
Joe Wilson is a partisan hack sent on a Niger mission by his CIA wife.
Now is that certifiable as a professionally hatched and executed CIA operation?
Obviously not.
It needed to be exposed. Note that Fitzgerald has not charged anyone with the crime of outing a CIA agent.
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