Posted on 09/02/2006 9:46:54 PM PDT by STARWISE
On July 14, 2003, a Robert Novak column in The Washington Post outed the CIA-agent wife of vociferous Bush administration critic, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson. Thus was born the "Plame Affair" which quickly became a morality tale of how an out of control Bush Administration would do anything to justify its war in Iraq.
A mere three days later, journalist David Corn, summarized the allegations that would color reporting on the Iraq War for the next three years and eventually lead to the indictment of a top aide to the vice president for lying to a grand jury:
((((THE OLD DAVID CORN:)))"Now there is evidence the Bushies used classified information and put the nation's counterproliferation efforts at risk merely to settle a score. It is a sign that with the [Bush] gang, politics trumps national security."
Now we know the story is much more complicated.
In a book to be released next week, the same David Corn, of The Nation magazine and Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, reveal that the original leaker to Novak was actually a Bush administration insider who was opposed to the war in Iraq, but also suffered an irrepressible urge to gossip, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
The reporting duo also reveal that when Armitage realized that he was the source of the leak, he came clean to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell however, revealed the minimum amount of information possible to those outside the department. The State Department told the FBI of Armitage's role and informed the White House that they had given information to the FBI about the scandal, but nothing more.
The public learned nothing.
And as the investigation dragged on through 2004 and 2005, the Gallup Poll showed that a majority of Americans formed the opinion that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was deliberately outed by the Bush administration as an effort to silence him and discredit his claim that intelligence was twisted to justify the war.
Reflecting that view, Wilson wrote, "The conspiracy to destroy us was most likely conceived - and carried out - within the office of the vice president."
All along, Secretary of State Colin Powell knew that the facts were more complicated, yet he said nothing. And he had rather unflattering reasons for silence.
At the time, the relatively dovish State Department and CIA were struggling with the office of the vice president and the secretary of Defense for the primary role in shaping Iraq and Middle East policy.
Every day that the vice president was smeared with the Plame allegations strengthened Powell's hand in the Bush administration's internal struggle.
None of this changes the fact that the public presentation of intelligence was shaped to fit the decision to invade Iraq.
Nor does it preclude the possibility that Bush administration officials went too far in trying to punish Wilson. However, the previously hidden role of Armitage does reveal that, in Washington, easy morality tales - where the good guys and bad guys come prepackaged and clearly labeled - are often myths.
BS!!
Ping !
Could it be because nothing actually happened. Good grief! Powell didn't do anything because there was nothing to be done. But of course that would imply that the media created the scandal for their own reasons. And that is the big scandal in this case.
Never heard of the "Virginia Pilot". What college is it from?
Virginia Beach, I think. Or Newport News maybe.
Good point .. hopefully, you got read his email response to the new revelations. Unbelievable lala world he lives in.
LOL!
I keep wondering when "setting the record straight" became "punishing" somebody.
BTW, does Corn apology in the new book for his false predicts and lies in the original articles? I didn't see anything about it but I'm sure there are some apologies in there somewhere......
FRom wikipedia
It's a newspaper .. says Hampton Roads, VA at the top of the link.
The media, Wilson, Plame, Armitage, Powell and Fitzgerald perpetrated a massive fraud upon the citizens of the United States during wartime and must be held to account for their actions. Perhaps we need another "special prosecutor" to look into this, hum?
INDEED!!!This whole thing is so politically motivated with so many outrages committed by all to slime the administration and the President..Shame on them..shame on them
That is as much as I can say and keep my dignity and my membership.
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This will certainly be the end of Mr. Armitage's career, and that of Mr. Fitzgerald. A fringe benefit is that it may end the career of Mr. Powell as well. None of them will be missed.
With luck, Mr. Fitzgerald will be tried for prosecutorial misconduct. Since this was a conspiracy to bring down the President, LOTS of Democrat and MSM skeletons may come to light in the process.
Boy...the media just canNOT accept that this is not and never was a conspiracy to harm the Wilsons.
And, until Armitage, Powell...and the Wilson's are interviewed and made to admit what happened...the perception of the "culture of corruption" will not go away.
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