Posted on 08/31/2006 10:08:00 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Edited on 09/01/2006 5:56:51 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.
Mr. Armitage was one of the Bush administration officials who supported the invasion of Iraq only reluctantly. He was a political rival of the White House and Pentagon officials who championed the war and whom Mr. Wilson accused of twisting intelligence about Iraq and then plotting to destroy him. Unaware that Ms. Plame's identity was classified information, Mr. Armitage reportedly passed it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey
Smith, who quoted a former colleague of Mr. Armitage.
It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue......
Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.
Me either
MSM: "Never mind."
News to me.
What's more probable is that the WaPo can no longer deny the obvious.
See ! I knew it was all that evil Karl Rove's fault !
Wait, the WaPo just admitted that the whole thing was a lie made up by Joe Wilson? Will they apologize to the president for this?
I see they still have to get their parting shots in at Cheney and Libby, though it's nice to see Wilson finally baring the brunt of it. What goes around comes around. Wonder if Libby has any legal moves he can make on this now.
> Can't believe the Washington Post wrote that.
They are signalling the rest of the Resident Enemy Press
to drop this entire story down the memory hole, like it
never even happened.
She was not an undercover CIA agent in the field, or on the CIA's NOC list at the time of public disclosure.
I don't want to see ONE MORE FREEPER write that the MSM are dinosaurs.
It is a false claim.
Just look at what they have done to this President.
One big smear after another, this President is no longer even human to the public worldwide.
Bastards, they should be dead, why do we let them get away with destroying our troops too???????????????????????
They WILL NEVER return with honor they deserve.
Holding my breath.
A more glorious act of journalistic hypocrisy I have yet to witness.
SCOOTER PING -- BIG TIME!!!!
They weren't "reluctant" when they were pushing this bogus story, back when that FRAUD Joe Wilson was the first to claim George W. Bush purposely exxagerated the Intel reports on Iraq
Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife.
He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.
"
It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue. The partisan clamor that followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been avoided had Mr. Armitage's identity been known three years ago."
Help me out.
I'd like to get the quotes from Democrats making the false allegations against Rove et al.
We need to make Democrats eat a big plate of crow here. They deserve it.
I had to read it twice to make sure I was reading what I thought I was reading!
Because Joe Wilson has been busted as a liar. They'll of course want to "move on" now.
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