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.
Grow up!
What did the Justice of the Peace say: Do you Valerie X take Joe Wilson to be your co-conspirator till..........And the marriage certificate...A Public record, right!! geez.
I NEVER post to you until you bug me so just stop it////NEVER reply to me again...NEVER.
Have you no dignity? No class? No shame?
Accprding to the WaPo, Armitage testified to the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday Sept. 30, 2003, and was supposed to leave for his trip to Pakistan the next day.
Lexis-Nexis then provides the following, from the Press Trust of India, Oct 2, 2003:
In a sudden move, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary Christina Rocca have put off their visit to Pakistan from Thursday to hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf and other officials on a host of issues, including Indo-Pak ties and resurgence of Taliban on Pakistani soil.
"They are not coming. The visit has been postponed due to scheduling issues," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan told PTI here.
October 6, 2003, Monday By CARLOTTA GALL (NYT); Foreign Desk Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 2, Column 5, 356 words DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Deputy Sec of State Richard L Armitage flies into troubled southern province of Kandahar, Afghanistan, in visit to address threats to government of Pres Hamid Karzai and reconstruction efforts by resurgent Taliban and members of Al Qaeda; says in news conference following meeting with Karzai in Kabul that he expects that United States will spend $2 billion in Afghanistan this yearNY Times Article
Off this current subject, but this is an interesting article from 1996 about Duberstein, Armitage and Powell : General Letdown
The article is behind the wall and I can't get it. You might check the Indian papers around that time , but I don't think it's worth the time.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my miscellaneous ping list.
First thing I noticed too, which makes his so-called apology ring hollow. The s.o.b. is a political hack coward and was complicit in ruining Libby's life and doing unforgivable harm to the Bush administration.
Grossman drafted the original memo to Armitage and Powell and made sure it was distributed on AF-1, and Grossman told Libby. Perfect set-up. And check this out...from my files:
The MSM are still pulling the wool over our eyes, the Plamegate fiasco isn't over. The underlying story needs to be published for all to see. First of all, a story I found last week:
Kerry Exploring Cabinet Options
An excerpt:
Clarice Feldman gives us another tidbit of infom that might explain some things:
If Fitzgerald has known since January 12, 2004 of the name of the leaker, why is he still protecting him, and why is he treating the leakers (that is, Armitages) source, who is almost certainly Marc Grossman, former Under Secretary of State for political affairs, the man reportedly the source for the first accusations against Libby and Rove, as an impartial witness to the events? In the discovery process it turned out that Grossman was a longtime friend of Wilsons, dating to their college days at the University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara. Is it likely that the famous prosecutor missed this fact?More on Grossman at Strata-sphere. Seems he traveled with some cohorts of John Kerry's...Rand Beers in particular...and was the first one to point a finger at Libby. He also went to the same college and graduated the same year as {drum roll please} Joe Wilson and also had the same job in a neighboring country. Strato-sphere also has some interesting comments about a Turkey connection. You remember Turkey the country that balked at allowing our forces passage into northern Iraq?
It's all beginning to make sense now. Nope...this story is not over. Not until someone is indicted for an attempted coup of a sitting President.
Check out my #153...it was Marc Grossman.
Your research on this has been stellar but I don't think we should hold our breath for anyone to be indicted for attempting a coup on a sitting president.
The malignant limp wristed metrosexual leftists in our society can't even let a movie be aired without having a hissy fit. They certainly won't stand for one of their brethren to be indicted.
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