Posted on 08/29/2006 7:13:53 AM PDT by bobsunshine
A new book by Michael Isikoff, an investigative reporter for Newsweek, and David Corn, who writes for the far left wing magazine The Nation, casts many powerful people in Washington in an unflattering light -- but not the people who Mr. Isikoff and Mr. Corn wish to besmirch.
A brief review for those of you who have lives, and who consequently haven't been following closely the details of the Plame Name Game: In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
First in leaks to reporters, and then in his own op-ed in the New York Times, a retired diplomat, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, said the president was lying. His claim to speak with authority was that in the spring of 2002, the CIA had sent him to Niger to see if Saddam had tried to buy uranium there.
Mr. Wilson's charge was important because it marked the beginning of the "Bush lied" meme about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But investigations by the Senate Intelligence Committee; the Robb-Silberman Commission on prewar intelligence, and the British Butler Commission all concluded it was Mr. Wilson who was not telling the truth. Saddam had indeed tried to buy uranium in Africa, as even Mr. Wilson himself had acknowledged to the CIA officers who debriefed him after his Niger trip.
One of the false claims Mr. Wilson made was that he had been sent to Niger at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney. In his July 14, 2003 column, Robert Novak disclosed that he had been sent instead at the insistence of his wife, Valerie Plame, who worked at the CIA.
Ms. Plame had once been an undercover operative. Concern was expressed that the leaker had violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
Mr. Wilson blamed the leak on White House political guru Karl Rove, claiming it was payback for his "whistle-blowing." A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, was appointed to investigate the charge. Mr. Fitzgerald eventually indicted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then the chief of staff to the vice president, on a charge of having lied to a grand jury about from whom he had learned of Ms. Plame's occupation. He is awaiting trial.
No indictments have been brought on the charge Mr. Fitzgerald was appointed to investigate, because it is clear there was no violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The act applies only to those who are operating under cover overseas, or who have done so within five years of the disclosure of their identities. Ms. Plame had been manning a desk at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. for longer than that.
Mr. Isikoff and Mr. Corn disclose that it was then Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage who disclosed Ms. Plame's identity to Bob Novak, which is not exactly news to those who have been following the case. But Mr. Isikoff and Mr. Corn provide details which reflect poorly on Mr. Armitage, Mr. Fitzgerald, and the journalists who knew the truth at the time.
Mr. Armitage disclosed to his boss, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and to Justice Department officials his role in the case in October, 2003, after a second Novak column, Mr. Isikoff and Mr. Corn say.
For more than three years, Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have been accused, falsely, of being the source of the leak. Mr. Armitage, Mr. Powell, and Justice department officials knew the truth, but said nothing. Clarice Feldman, a Washington, D.C. lawyer, described Mr. Armitage's silence as "inexplicable and perfidious."
"Had he spoken out publicly immediately, could there have been a reason for the press to have demanded the appointment of the feckless special prosecutor?" she asked.
Mr. Fitzgerald knew in his first few days on the job that Mr. Armitage was the leaker; that the leak was inadvertent, and that the Intelligence Identities Act hadn't been violated. Yet he has persisted in a sham prosecution.
Mr. Isikoff and Mr. Corn write that: "the Plame leak in Novak's column has long been cited by Bush administration critics as a deliberate act of payback, orchestrated to punish and/or discredit Joe Wilson after he charged that the Bush administration had misled the American public about prewar intelligence."
They add, lamely, that: "The Armitage news does not fit neatly into that framework."
They don't mention that Mr. Isikoff and (especially) Mr. Corn have been among the journalists flogging this meme, and the time that it takes to research and write a book indicates they've known for quite some time that it isn't true. They're only willing to tell the truth, now, for money.
Fox needs to FIRE David Corn!!! He is a LIAR!! He MUST be FIRED if Fox has any FAIRNESS left!! PUBLICLY FIRE HIS ARSE!!
Is he working for Fox? I don't think so. He writes for The Nation.
Drive-By Media. I think Rush first came up with the term, comparing the media's tactics to a drive-by shooting.
David Corn is a FOX Contributor and should be FIRED!!
And where, pray, is Mr. Armitage now? He is the most shameful person in all of this (except for Fitz). He could have come out on day 1. He could have come out when he was bashing the Bush administration after having left, the slimy weasel.
Now, after all of this nonsense, reporters going to jail, Lewis Libby getting suspended and indicted (and Libby should punch Armitage in the face on national television) all because of a political dustup over a non-story promulgated by a Bush-hater.
It is delicious, I have to say, that it is Armitage.
Perfect question. But I think she did end up going because she was "protecting" Libby even though he let her off the hook long ago.
I think it would have been bad character to snitch on Armitage, but Powell should have (and IIRC, he did, but not aggressively enough IMHO) downplayed this as hard as he could in general terms.
To be fair, Novak told Fitz. It is Fitz who made other people twist. Well, him and Armitage himself.
I prefer the term, "KOZmonauts" because thet're spaced out.
I think Novak did, in so many words. He did say it wasn't "a partisan gunslinger". (BTW, this is probably untrue. Armitage is, in fact, a partisan gunslinger -- for the other party.)
David Corn is a monstrous hypocrite. He is the person who first leveled the charge that the administration outed Plame in order to harm Wilson.
The following two paragraphs are from a piece I did here on FR in 2003 entitled Set up? Anatomy of the contrived Wilson "scandal."
The first charge that the Bush administration "outed" Wilson's wife in order to "punish" him comes in a piece by David Corn in The Nation on July 16 [2003]—a scant two days after Novak's piece appeared. Titled, "A White House Smear," the piece begins with a suitably inflammatory Leftist spin:"Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security-and break the law-in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?...It sure looks that way, if conservative journalist Bob Novak can be trusted."
David Corn was an integral part of the cabal who ginned this phony story into a scandal. Now he's writing about it in the third person, as though others are responsible for what he, himself, did. And yes, the writer of the posted article above is correct -- Corn is doing this to make dirty money off the vicious deceit he has perpetrated on the American public since 2003.
I wonder how much. It's not the "Merry Fitzmas" storytale the KOZmanuts wanted and we know Corn's a creep. So who's going to buy this dog?
"Truth" is the turd floating in their Fitzmas punchbowl
ping
Interesting to note that the two major newspapers that were umost instrumental in using Plamegate to bludgeon the White House have a curious way of reporting this. The NY Slimes didn't cover this at all. The LA Slimes had a mention of it in an entertaiment article.
Corn and Isikoff get the customary advance. For well-known authors like them, it would be a substantial amount.
So who's going to buy this dog?
Enough people will be curious to at least make the book profitable, even if it doesn't rise too high on the best seller lists.
Having answered your questions, though, I think you miss the point. Even if Corn makes only a single dollar profit off this book, it's one dollar too many. Why? Acting in concert with a cabal of Leftist journalists and the Wilsons, Corn is the person who first raised the totally libelous charge that the administration was out to smear Wilson by outing his wife.
THANKS!! I'm thick this A.M.
Not defending Novak here, but didn't he do as much? Didn't he say, something like, the leaker was not a partisan and was not in the administration? The fault lies with the MSM which ignored Novak's exculpatory comment.
If I remember correctly, Fitz went to a Federal judge early on to get the investigation expanded, extended or both.
The judge granted his request, saying he did so because of the seriousness of the matter.
That judge should revisit Fitz's request to see if he or she was taken for a ride, and act accordingly.
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