Posted on 09/14/2006 4:35:19 AM PDT by kellynla
WASHINGTON -- When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, the former deputy secretary of state's interviews obscured what he really did. I want to set the record straight based on firsthand knowledge.
First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he "thought" might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked, and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.
An accurate depiction of what Armitage actually said deepens the irony of him being my source. He was a foremost internal skeptic of the administration's war policy, and I long had opposed military intervention in Iraq. Zealous foes of George W. Bush transformed me improbably into the president's lapdog. But they cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson. The news that he and not Karl Rove was the leaker was devastating news for the Left.
A peculiar convergence had joined Armitage and me on the same historical path. During his quarter of a century in Washington, I had no contact with Armitage before our fateful interview. I tried to see him in the first two and one-half years of the Bush administration, but he rebuffed me -- summarily and with disdain, I thought.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
NO!!! Wilson said there is no evidence that Iraq was going after Yellow Cake "THROUGH LEGAL CHANNELS". And he said further: If Saddam was intent on purchasing yellow cake, it was through illegal channels.
Holy Mackerel!
I had missed Snow's "Patience" response.
Hmmmm...
I thought the most important part of Novak's column is in the last paragraph: "When Armitage now says he was mute because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's request, that does not explain his silent three months between his claimed first realization that he was the source and Fitzgerald's appointment on Dec. 30. Armitage's tardy self-disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive."
NOOOO!
He didn't say "going after" he said "had bought"!!!!
You should offer tag lines like this for sale.
You're kind of soft on criminals aren't you? /semi-sarcasm ; )
I think he owes the taxpayers the entire cost of the investigation and the trial. He should also lose his law license and spend a few years doing a mandatory minimum in a federal pen.
The great thing is that the WH didn't give them this target at all. This whole red herring was generated by one of their own. Joe Wilson. The rest of the libidiots just ran with it.
I don't know what Karl Rove gets paid but it has to be too much. I think his main strategeric advice must be "Go to work every day and do what you think needs doing. Ignore the Dems. Do not publicly gloat when their grand assaults on you blow up in their faces."
Consider the level of civility and cooperation that was extended to Fitzgerald by this administration, as compared to how Ken Starr was treated by the Clinton gang.This shows the difference between all class, and no class.
The reporter who spent a few months in jail might be one. She could ask for a hefty settlement for pain-and-suffering on top of her expenses I would think. She also ought to find a prosecuter to bring charges for false imprisonment as well.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
How did he get 2 "journalists" (Isikoff and Corn) who are not exactly Bushbots to write a book outing the whole affair, just in time to affect the '06 elections?
Two reasons IMO: 1) I think the entire Left expected Libby to do what they would have done--cop to some kind of plea deal to avoid the financial devastation and emotional agony of an ugly and drawn out investigation and prosecution, not to mention real physical fear if he got jail time.
If his "deal" could be worded by Fitz in such a way that Rove and Cheney seemed to be implicated, that's a bonus better than "getting" Libby even if they couldn't prosecute the big boys.
Libby really threw the Left a bean ball when he chose to go to trial and had the effrontery to subpoena lefty operatives like Russert and his wife, the editor of Vanity Fair. Mr. Grunewald must be crapping himself as well.
They cannot afford to have these operatives exposed and much worse,the possible exposure of the left-wing, anti-American cabal in the CIA and the State Department. Above all else, the Left does NOT want this case to go to trial!
What they thought was a club to beat the Bush administration over the head with has turned into a potential saber through their own hearts. They sooo need this trial to go away and not happen because this story is no longer an asset in '06 elections; it's a horrible liability.
It's a big enough liability that they'll throw their allies--Wilson, Plame, Fitz, Armitage, maybe even Powell--right under the bus to stop the trial and then hope the DBM can suffocate the story altogether.
Reason #2: they make some bucks from selling a book, any book.
Good on ya.
The great innovation of the Bush Administration is that they do not expend political capital to raise the President's approval rating when it doesn't matter. The President has to be popular on five days in eight years, the day he is elected, the day he is re-elected, two mid-terms election days and the day his successor is elected. Wasting time and effort getting that number up on any other day is just vanity.
LOL Too true!
This is an excellent article.
It sounds as though Novak is a bit miffed at Armitage.
GOOD.
Thank you for the post and ping.
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