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.
Or did she go to jail to keep the propaganda potential (to harm the admin) alive?
No need to lurk anywhere. We all know that somehow, they will continue to find Bush at blame.
There is always the hesitancy to speak out when matters are "under investigation."
This is a deeply ingrained reaction.
However, Powell should have done more, even behind the scenes.
That said, this all falls on Fitzie. He is 100% responsible for this fiasco.
Yep, I wonder what's happening to the Wilsons' little lawsuit against the administration now.
There you go!
PING for a later read. Thanks for posting.
See the link embedded in my post #52 on this thread. The source is Corn's own July 2003 article in which he wrote the following:
"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."
Corn is the first person ever to make that charge. He slyly did it in the form of a question, and he also shunted the blame for making the charge onto Robert Novak. Novak NEVER made any such charge. Corn did. He was the first person to do so, and his fellow Leftist travelers in the media and Dim Party gleefully ran with it.
In the fall of 2003, as this stupid, phony scandal was swirling around DC and the media, I smelled a rat, meaning a set up. So I pieced the outlines of it together using just what was out in the public at that time. I then wrote an thoroughly sourced article for FReeRepublic (linked in #52) describing how the charge that the Bush administration leaked Plame's name to smear Wilson came about. That article I wrote in 2003 has stood the test of time, and it has been referred to quite often in other threads through the years.
So to see Corn now use this book with Isikoff to bury his (Corn's) central role in ginning up this phony scandal is just amazing to me.
Concur that a buck is too much, but hopefully this one will be a dog that drags down his future prospects.
Honestly, I have been saying this since the first month of the Bush administration: "the lefties continue to confuse Clinton with Bush". Scratch Clinton, and anyone could find a festering substrate of corruption and outright crime. It happened constantly during the entire Clinton administration.
I think we here at FR stopped counting at 39 individual, distinct, impeachable scandals tied to the Clintons, before and during their occupancy of the White House. Clinton's minions and supporters in the press did everything they could to either minimize, obfuscate, or outright coverup evidence that the Clintons did what they did.
Since 2000, and even before, leftist journalist/pundit/political hack types have been scrambling, scrounging, digging and delving into whatever they could find, in order to achieve some sort of payback for the Clinton impeachment. Anything would do. But, they have undermined themselves with their penchant for distortion and fraud in the daily prosecution of their "work".
Some fool hack in Texas fabricates some phony documents about Bush's TANG record or something, and the hungry, frustrated sharks seize on it, and the feeding frenzy begins! Never mind that there was never anything there to begin with, "We'll find something to nail him with!" say the self-deceiving fools. But, all this is just smoke, no fire.
Bush is not Clinton, you silly fools! And you cannot invent for him a corrupt background and persona like Clinton brought ready-made to Washington. Analyze the Plame case, now that it is essentially over- all but the shouting, and you will see echos of everything the Democrat/left has thrown at Bush and failed with, over and over. George Bush just ain't Bill Clinton, sorry.
I hope so too, but guess I'm just too skeptical of the media and how it works to really believe Corn will get what should be coming to him. (Corn, Wilson, Plame, Pincus and the whole stinking lot of them.)
I agree. He could have said something, as could Colin Powell. But neither were trustworthy...as they proved. Armitage did additonal stuff later, like serve as a lobbyist for CNOOC...and with half down for trying, and the other half if he succeeded in getting the UNOCAL deal to go through for China.
"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.
No. But with the NYT anything is possible. Kind of looks like Armitage and Powell harbored a lot of malice for the White House. They didn't lift a finger to help...while meanwhile Stephen Kappes and the other rogues at the CIA who set up the whole Pflame Game schtick...also fanned the flames of Joe Wilson's nonsense.
And Hadley just re-appointed to the CIA Deputy Director position the same Stephen Kappes, who had been fired by DCIA Porter Goss. Further interesting note...Kappes has been spreading disinformation as to his importance. He has been inappropriately hogging credit for getting Libya to disarm its covert nuclear program.
What did Russert Know and When did he Know it?? He should be fired and then prosecuted!
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
"The writer is correct...even though they KNEW it Was Armitage/Powell, they went on TV and said it was Libby, Cheney, Rove and even Bush!!! LIARS!!!! CORN and Isikoff are LIARS!!!!!"
They are backing away at MACH 100. "I didn't do it!" You didn't see me do it!"
Phony f'in bastards. They should be charged.
Oh geesh...Hadley is a co-cabalist also??? Or does he just HIRE co-cabalists??? Geesh....is there NO patriots left in our government??
Is Novak your hero?
That's what I thought the minute this story broke. He should be prosecuted and he should have his law lisence pulled.
They certainly seem to be out of style in this administration. I can't really account for what Hadley was thinking [ I do know that my Congressman, John Kline, who knows Hadley...and Goss...is completely mystified about it...but admits he smells a RAT].
There were clear warning signs that Kappes would be rehired immediately upon Porter Goss's firing...for no good cause I might add...
Reason? It could be for ideological-brown-nosing:
Hadley was a protege' of John Negroponte... who disagreed with Goss over the rising China Threat assessments. Kappes, on the other hand, is an "allied" thinker to Negroponte...and espouses the "Panda Hugger" line...and thinks we can fiddle and ignore China for decades...
The fact that Kappes was an anti-Bush rogue also apparently suits Negroponte just fine apparently.
But I did notice that their headlines sound like they come from a tabloid on sale near the cash register at a grocery store.
All that's missing are the pictures of the creatures from outer space.
No....you are, of course.
Forever yours,
laotzu
XXXOOO
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