Plame Out - The ridiculous end to the scandal that distracted Washington.

www.slate.com ^ | Aug. 29, 2006 | Christopher Hitchens

[neverdem]

fighting words
Plame Out
The ridiculous end to the scandal that distracted Washington.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006, at 1:02 PM ET

I had a feeling that I might slightly regret the title ("Case Closed") of my July 25 column on the Niger uranium story. I have now presented thousands of words of evidence and argument to the effect that, yes, the Saddam Hussein regime did send an important Iraqi nuclear diplomat to Niger in early 1999. And I have not so far received any rebuttal from any source on this crucial point of contention. But there was always another layer to the Joseph Wilson fantasy. Easy enough as it was to prove that he had completely missed the West African evidence that was staring him in the face, there remained the charge that his nonreport on a real threat had led to a government-sponsored vendetta against him and his wife, Valerie Plame.

In his July 12 column in the Washington Post, Robert Novak had already partly exposed this paranoid myth by stating plainly that nobody had leaked anything, or outed anyone, to him. On the contrary, it was he who approached sources within the administration and the CIA and not the other way around. But now we have the final word on who did disclose the name and occupation of Valerie Plame, and it turns out to be someone whose opposition to the Bush policy in Iraq has—like Robert Novak's—long been a byword in Washington.

[Mount Athos]

Gotta read this one

[kinghorse]

Wake me when she makes it to Playboy.

[MaestroLC]

Telling it like it is. A must read.

[mkjessup]

Hitch scores multiple bullseyes with this article.

What I want to know is why the illustrious AMBASSADOR (they never fail to beat us over the head with that title) Joe Wilson hasn't demanded that RICHARD ARMITAGE be "frog marched" out to the street by the authorities?

Oh wait, it's not Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, or any of those guys who were FALSELY ACCUSED!

[pollyannaish]

I often disagree with Hutch...but this one is right on the nose.

Not only that, the man is worthy of respect. You don't find that much in opponents any more.

[jaydubya2]

This story is unraveling in an fashion. More than ever we should never trust the MSM!

[pollyannaish]

Oh and I forgot: One heck of a writer.

[Eagles Talon IV]

Don't worry, this story about the humiliation of Plame and Wilson caused by the revelation of the real leaker, Armitage, will be plastered all over the networks, their lies and pitiful attempts at self aggrandizement will be highlighted for all to see and....oh wait

[FormerACLUmember]

Absolute dead silence from the Drive-By media. Which of course totally proves Socialist Hitchins and Progressive-Coservative Rush 100% correct.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

And can one imagine anybody with a stronger motive to change the subject from CIA incompetence and to present a widely discredited agency as, instead, a victim, than Tenet himself?

I hadn't thought of this before.

[MikeA]

Hitchens said it all. Great piece. One point he missed however...

I was on Limbaugh's show yesterday as a caller and made the following comment about the Isikoff piece:

It obviously killed Isikoff to have to clear the Bush inner circle of being the ones who first leaked Plame's identity because near the end of the Newsweek piece he still can't resist trashing the administration and Karl Rove and falling back to the media's template that the administration was out to smear Wilson.

Near the end of the article he says:

But officials at the White House also told reporters about Wilson's wife in an effort to discredit Wilson for his public attacks on Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence. Karl Rove confirmed to Novak that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, and days later offered the same information to Time reporter Matt Cooper.

Isikoff fails to mention that Novak says he's the one who initiated the call to Rove, Rove didn't call him, that the initial subject matter was on some policy issue besides Iraq and that Novak then brought up Plame's name as being the one who sent Joe Wilson to Niger. All Rove
said was "Oh you heard that too?" Rove never even
brought up Plame or her name! And Novak has said he obtained Plame's name from "Who's Who."

[tje]

I just sent a copy of this to my liberal nemesis-es with the comment: "If you were following this brouhaha (emphasis on the haha)."

[r9etb]

Wake me when she makes it to Playboy.

Well, one must admit that there, at least, she'd be plausible.

[USS Alaska]

Not only that, the man is worthy of respect. You don't find that much in opponents any more.

I loved it when he gave maher's audience the bird.

[Billthedrill]

Hitchens has been thoroughly and humiliatingly - for his critics - vindicated in this matter. If he repeated this column every issue for a year it still wouldn't come close to offsetting the incredible smear campaign that surrounded this disclosure, and whose proponents will continue without the slightest twinge of conscience long after every one of their claims has been disproven. Kudos to Hitchens.

[avacado]

Do a Google search in News on "Richard Armitage" and see that this story has dropped off the radar like a lead balloon!

[nopardons]

Over here...you have to read this one.

[FlipWilson]

The thing is, Pissikof and Cornhole intended this book to be a validation of the story. Instead, it has only served to confirm that Joe Wilson is a partisan hack. Not to worry, it will be circle the wagons time at the MSM before you know it.

[nopardons]

bttt