Posted on 09/07/2006 4:10:25 PM PDT by Laverne
(CBS) In an exclusive interview with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, Richard Armitage, once the No. 2 diplomat at the State Department, couldn't be any blunter.
"Oh I feel terrible. Every day, I think I let down the president. I let down the Secretary of State. I let down my department, my family and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson," he says.
When asked if he feels he owes the Wilsons an apology, he says, "I think I've just done it."
In July 2003, Armitage told columnist Robert Novak that Ambassador Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, and Novak mentioned it in a column. It's a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA officer. But Armitage didn't yet realize what he had done.
So, what exactly did he tell Novak?
"At the end of a wide-ranging interview he asked me, 'Why did the CIA send Ambassador (Wilson) to Africa?' I said I didn't know, but that she worked out at the agency," Armitage says.
Armitage says he told Novak because it was "just an offhand question." "I didn't put any big import on it and I just answered and it was the last question we had," he says.
Armitage adds that while the document was classified, "it doesn't mean that every sentence in the document is classified.
"I had never seen a covered agent's name in any memo in I think 28 years of government," he says.
He adds that he thinks he referred to Wilson's wife as such, or possibly as "Mrs. Wilson." He never referred to her as Valerie Plame, he adds.
"I didn't know the woman's name was Plame. I didn't know she was an operative," he says.
He says he was reading Novak's newspaper column again, on Oct. 1, 2003, and "he said he was told by a non-partisan gun slinger."
"I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, 'I'm sure that was me,'" Armitage says.
Armitage immediately met with FBI agents investigating the leak.
"I told them that I was the inadvertent leak," Armitage says. He didn't get a lawyer, however.
"First of all, I felt so terrible about what I'd done that I felt I deserved whatever was coming to me. And secondarily, I didn't need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth. I as already doing that," Armitage explains. "I was not intentionally outing anybody. As I say, I have tremendous respect for Ambassador. Wilson's African credentials. I didn't know anything about his wife and made an offhand comment. I didn't try to out anybody."
That was nearly three years ago, but the political firestorm over who leaked Valerie Plame's identity continued to burn as Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald began hauling White House officials and journalists before a grand jury.
Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."
"I thought every day about how I'd screwed up," he adds.
Armitage never did tell the president, but he's talking now because Fitzgerald told him he could.
Too bas hari kari is not an acceptable method of attoning for such screw ups.
Please ping the scooter list. Thanks.
BTTT
And you let down Powell who you are going to throw under the bus in true liberal fashion.
There are not enough words to describe how disgusting this is.
When will the frogmarching begin? Are the Wilsons still suing the entire leader of this great country, in an effort to keep the spotlight on them a little longer?
Hasn't there been a law or two broken by these vile and stupid people?
Well there now he has apolgised, so that makes it all okay now doesn't it. /Extreme sarcasm
Now why would Fitzie ask him to not reveal he was the source..
He did not screw up as badly as the media screwed up. They've been attributing the leak to Karl Rove for years.
Some interesting items: Fitzy told Armitage not to talk; Fitzy now tells Armitag its OK to talk. Armitage says he NEVER told the President he was the leaker.
I'll provide a .45 bullet...
I saw the segment while waiting for Rush's turn - that Armitage fellow sure is a shallow, pitiful, repulsive excuse for a government employee!
I'd watch.
How about Scooter, you jerk???
Scooter ping!
Guess Fitz didn't want anyone bringing an abrupt halt to his well-paying dog and pony show before it even started.
I guess this pretty much puts the last nail in the coffin of the Plame/Wilson lawsuit against Rove, Libby, and Cheney, doesn't it?
I wonder if the filing of the lawsuit might now be grounds for maliscious prosecution.
Was there any discussion on CBS about the continuing impact on and cost to Scooter Libby or the shadow that hung over Karl Rove for so long?
Yup..
"Oh I feel terrible. Every day, I think I let down the president. I let down the Secretary of State. I let down my department, my family and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson," he says.
Interesting he doesn't say he let down Scooter or Rove or Cheney....all the ones who have been vilified by the outrageous lies of the old drive by media.
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