Posted on 02/25/2007 11:51:02 AM PST by RussP
2007-02-03 -- In a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003, Valerie Plame (aka Valerie E. Wilson) was identified as a CIA "operative on weapons of mass destruction." Plame was married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had worked briefly for the CIA and had written a scathing editorial a week earlier in the New York Times accusing the Bush administration of "twisting," "manipulating," and "exaggerating" intelligence about Iraqi weapons programs "to justify an invasion."
Bush's adversaries quickly concluded that he or someone close to him had illegally "outed" Plame in retribution for her husband's editorial, and thus a "scandal" was born. Many of them demanded that Karl Rove, the President's close advisor and an early suspect in the case, be fired immediately. Many more speculated and hoped that the "leak" would ultimately bring Bush down in classic Watergate style.
President Bush appointed a Special Prosecutor to investigate the matter, and thus began one of the most ridiculous episodes in American history. The original conspiracy theory was absurd on its face and has been debunked, but the "mainstream" media has kept most of the American public ignorant of several absurdities that have permeated this case from start to finish. For at least six reasons, the Plame episode was and is a farce.
The "mainstream" media routinely refer to Plame as a former "covert" or "undercover" agent, but they almost always conveniently neglect to mention that she had not been one for several years prior to the so-called "leak." When the "leak" occurred, Plame was working openly at a desk job at CIA headquarters and had been for over five years.
Common sense suggests that once an agent works regularly at CIA headquarters, the agent is no longer useful for long-term, high-priority covert work. The law sets the threshold at five years, and Plame had exceeded that threshold for not working an extended undercover assignment. Hence, the law about "outing" a covert agent simply did not apply.
The law also requires that the leak be intentional, which is very difficult to prove under any circumstances. When the "outed" agent had been working openly at a desk job at CIA headquarters for several years prior to the "outing," malicious intent is almost impossible to prove. And when the agent is married to a high-visibility public figure, forget about it.
Victoria Toensing and Bruce W. Sanford wrote in the Washington Post:
As two people who drafted and negotiated the scope of the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, we can tell you: The Novak column and the surrounding facts do not support evidence of criminal conduct.
For obvious reasons, nearly every person who works in any significant capacity for the CIA is required to sign a standard non-disclosure agreement (NDA). But for some reason Joe Wilson was apparently not required to sign one when he was hired to investigate the claim that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium "yellowcake" from Niger.
Wilson had originally claimed that his wife, Valerie Plame, had no influence in his selection for the job, for which he was essentially unqualified. However, a memo later surfaced from his wife recommending him for the job. But the larger issue is not that Wilson benefited from nepotism and lied about it. The larger issue is that he apparently got special unrestricted status in not being required to sign a standard NDA.
The CIA is part of the executive branch of government and, as such, is supposed to work for the President -- not against him. So why was Wilson allowed to independently "go public" with information he obtained while working for the CIA? It just doesn't make sense unless the CIA was very careless -- or Wilson was specifically hired to do a political hatchet job on the President. The latter possibility is the real scandal that should have been investigated, but it completely eluded the "mainstream" media, which seems to be capable of finding only Republican scandals.
The irony is that Wilson's New York Times piece accusing the President of lying to start the Iraq war turned out to be a lie itself, as Norman Podhoretz has abundantly documented. According to a bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, Wilson's actual report on his brief eight-day trip to Niger did not support his sensational conclusion in the New York Times. From the official report:
The report on [Wilson's] trip to Niger ... did not change any analysts' assessments of the Iraq-Niger uranium deal. For most analysts, the information in the report lent more credibility to the original CIA reports on the uranium deal.
As if this whole episode were not absurd enough, Wilson wrote a book called The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity.
As mentioned above, Plame had worked openly at a desk job at CIA headquarters for over five years prior to the so-called "leak." That in itself made her non-viable for serious long-term covert work.
But she became even less viable, if that was possible, when her husband Joe Wilson became a high-profile public figure by writing a provocative piece in the New York Times accusing the President of lying to start a war. The notion that she was still viable and useful as a covert agent after that episode is simply ridiculous. Even if the Novak column had never been written, the CIA would have to be incompetent to have ever used her in a covert role again.
Even more ridiculous is the notion that her employment status with the CIA could have somehow been kept secret even though she was driving openly to her job at CIA headquarters every day amidst the glaring publicity surrounding her husband and his controversial investigation for the CIA. Yet that is what you must believe if you believe that Plame's "outing" somehow "damaged" national security.
Ironically, many who believed such nonsense praised the New York Times when it published top-secret information from an anonymous CIA mole regarding the tracking of terrorist financial operations.
The CIA is part of the executive branch of government, and as such it answers to the President. The President can fire the CIA Director at any time for any or no reason. He cannot have a Civil Service government employee fired without cause, but he can easily have an agent's covert status terminated if he so desires.
The notion that the President of the United States or someone close to him had to "leak" the name of a covert CIA agent to the press to "blow" her covert status is ridiculous. Underlying the notion that the President lacks the legal authority to terminate a CIA agent's covert status is the ridiculous notion that the job of a covert agent is some kind of "union-protected" job. Yet that is what you must believe if you believe that Bush or someone close to him illegally "outed" Plame to "punish" her husband.
In many parts of the world, getting caught attempting to undermine a national leader that you are supposed to be working for will get you killed, of course. In this case, even if the President had illegally "outed" Plame, consider the significance of it. Not only did she not lose her life -- she didn't even lose her job! All she lost was her supposed "covert" status -- which she hadn't used for several years anyway!
Many of the same people who believe that Bush is leading the nation into fascism also think that "outing" Plame was a horrendous crime against humanity. To put this whole ridiculous episode into perspective, try to imagine Hitler getting retribution on a Nazi secret agent by leaking the agent's identity to the press to blow her covert status! Then, to compound the absurdity, try to imagine the matter being investigated for over two years!
The original "leaker," State Dept. official Richard Armitage, is in no legal jeopardy, nor should he be. Plame was not a covert agent at the time, and the so-called "leak" was a completely innocuous statement of fact made in passing. But the Vice President's Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, who was not involved in the original non-crime, is now being prosecuted for perjury by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
What is the point of prosecuting someone for perjury regarding a non-crime that was "committed" by someone else? Libby's testimony certainly did not mislead the prosecutor into believing erroneously that a crime had been committed, nor was it needed to determine that no crime had been committed.
Novak identified Armitage to Fitzgerald as the "leaker" very early in the investigation, and Armitage didn't deny it. But Armitage was told to "keep it to himself" while Fitzgerald continued an unnecessary investigation as a politically motivated perjury trap. Fitzgerald is now prosecuting a peripheral figure for failing to recall in detail conversations from months earlier. Like the original prosecutor in the infamous Duke rape case, the prosecutor in this case should be prosecuted himself.
Much has been made of the fact that Libby and others in the Bush administration were very focused on this matter initially, implying that they should have good recall of the details, but that is essentially more media distortion. What they were "focused" on was the inaccuracy of the Wilson editorial and how he got hired by the CIA. The supposed "covert" status of his wife did not even occur to them initially, nor should it have. Hence, fuzzy memories about when they first mentioned or heard her name are completely understandable.
As for the purists who believe that Libby deserves to be prosecuted, many of them are suspiciously selective in their outrage. Where were they when Bill Clinton perjured himself by claiming under oath he had never been alone in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky? Unlike Libby's misstatements, that was clearly an intentional lie, and it was also relevant to the case being tried. But Clinton was never prosecuted for perjury, of course.
The so-called "mainstream" media has been diligent in perpetuating public ignorance regarding the many absurdities of the Plame episode. And now that the original conspiracy theory has been debunked, that same media is now keeping the public ignorant about that fact too. Hence, a large percentage of the public is still under the impression that the Plame episode exposed "dirty tricks" used by the White House rather than against the White House.
For example, a recent ABC News story on the Libby trial rehashed the original conspiracy theory that the Bush administration had deliberately leaked Plame's identity to "get back at" her husband -- but they conveniently forgot to mention that the original theory is now discredited. In that story, ABC is clearly perpetuating public ignorance and using it to continue the smear campaign against the Bush administration.
In that same story, the reporter said that the Libby trial "will remind the American public just how dirty politics can get," underhandedly implying that the Bush administration was the perpetrator rather than the victim of such "dirty politics."
Aside from Fox News, the coverage of this entire episode by the major news sources has had the effect if not the intent of maintaining public ignorance and casting aspersion whenever possible on the Bush administration. At the same time, Joe Wilson's egregious lies have been ignored, and he has been held up as a paragon of truth.
The Plame Game: Was This a Crime? --lawyers who wrote law to protect agents say Plame charge doesn't meet standard
Who Is Lying About Iraq? --mandatory reading by Norman Podhoretz
Who Exposed Secret Agent Plame? --a must-read article by Clifford D. May
Our Man in Niger --another must-read article by Clifford D. May
Trial of the Absurd --don't miss this article by John Podhoretz
Analyst says Wilson 'outed' wife in 2002
Joe Wilson's Credibility Problem
But we aren't talking about a defense attorney, are we?
We're talking about the Prosecutor's Prosecutor, right?
Surely, he wouldn't be playing games with the jury, would he?
bookmarked and bumped
Playing games with the jury? Are you just making stuff up? What kind of games do you think he is playing? Mind control to cause a juror to go seek out information in the press?
There is no way that OVP didn't know exactly what her status was - all they had to do was ask. Libby had all necessary clearances.
If her job wasn't classified, can you think of any reason why Libby would've AGREED in the CIPA proceedings that her status would not be a part of the trial? Why in the world wouldn't they demand that it be admitted?
Why, restarting deliberations, of course. Why would he want to delay proceedings for another 2.5 days or more? Justice delayed is justice denied, you know.
"The SP is accountable to the judge, his superiors at DOJ, the bar, all kinds of folks."
Only in the grossest sense. He is given very wide latitude. A perjury charge is a classic example of a charge that can virtually *always* be made. Whether someone lied or just had an innocent lapse of memory is obviously difficult to establish. Hence Fitz can always claim to have acted in good faith.
"There is no way that OVP didn't know exactly what her status was - all they had to do was ask. Libby had all necessary clearances."
That's baloney. Yes, of course they could have *found out* her official status, but they had no reason initially to even guess that she was *undercover." Do you think they should have investigated her status before they even mentioned her name? Bull****.
My article apparently sailed completely over your head. I suggest you read it again, because the issue of Plame's covert status is a farce. Even if she was technically "undercover," she was useless for covert work for several reasons, including the fact that she was married to a high-visibility public figure. It just doesn't work that way, and if you can't figure that out you are either extremely naive or just pretending to be.
No, I'm not saying they knew beforehand, though I think they certainly could've. I'm saying that, in defending against the charges, or responding to the investigation, there is no way they wouldn't know exactly what her status was. If she was overt, can you think of any reason in the world why they would agree not to bring that into a trial?
"So you think she could've been "technically undercover" but not really undercover?"
Absolutely. Have you ever dealt with a bureaucracy?
"If she was overt, can you think of any reason in the world why they would agree not to bring that into a trial?"
I don't know who agreed to what. My understanding was that the pinhead judge made Plame's status off limits.
You are aware, I hope, that neither Libby nor anyone else is being charged with "outing" Plame. As an excercize, why don't you explain to me why that is so. Could it possibly be that she really *wasn't* "undercover"?
WRT prosecution for 'outing' - intent is an element. It seems plain that the reason Armitage didn't get charges with anything is that he came off as a big doofus who didn't know her status. Should he have checked it out? Sure. But that's not criminal - it would only involve revocation of clearance. I think, if she wasn't covert under IIPA, the same explanation applies wrt revealing classified info under Espionage Act - there must be proof of intent to release classified info. That would've been the biggest hurdle for any prosecution of those crimes.
I've already agreed that Plame's status may have technically been "covert," but I also explained why that is irrelevant. If Libby's lawyers stipulated what her technical classification was, so what? If someone sticks a name tag on you that says "pink elephant," that doesn't make you a pink elephant, but it would be silly to argue that you are not wearing a tag that says such.
You just don't seem to want to face the obvious. Plame had worked openly at CIA headquarters for some period of time, perhaps over 5 years. She got a job for her unqualified husband to do an investigation for the CIA, yet he was not required to sign a standard NDA. He went public in a *big* way, with an editorial in the NYT accusing the President of lying to start a war. How in the f***ing world you think her identity could have possibly been kept secret during all that is beyond me. It's almost as if I told you not to think of a pink elephant.
If you're not just pulling my leg, you've fallen for a transparent scam that would be funny if someone weren't facing jail time. The only real question here is whether the Plame "outing" was a planned setup from the start or whether it fell into the Left's lap due to brain-dead media coverage. I lean toward the latter. How about you?
The thing I find odd about the vehement attacks on the prosecution is that Libby is not the only one who initially didn't come completely clean with the GJ. They let Rove come back 4 times to clarify the things he "forgot" and "misremembered" - and didn't charge him with anything. Libby testified multiple times, but refused to own up to what the other evidence showed were flaws in his own story. I think if he had done what Rove did and said, "ya know, your right, I must've had those conversations. But I didn't think it was classified, yadayadayada" he probably wouldn't have been charged.
To really understand the absurdity of the Libby case, I suggest you read one of the linked articles in my article. It is by John Podhoretz:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26861
Excerpt:
So let's review. No crime was committed, according to Fitzgerald, in the publication of Valerie Plame Wilson's name.
No crime was committed, according to Fitzgerald, by the actions of two government officials who revealed Valerie Plame Wilson's name to Novak.
No crime was committed, according to Fitzgerald, by the White House press secretary who actually and actively tried to spoon-feed the name to three journalists.
Scooter Libby, by contrast, spoke to a reporter who didn't publish a story with Valerie Plame Wilson's name in it. She went to jail for 85 days. Now Fitzgerald wants to send Libby to jail too - on the basis of dimly remembered conversations and indecipherable chicken scratches.
So why did this series of conversations end up being the subject of a criminal investigation? Don't ask. Really. The jury's not even supposed to think about Valerie Plame Wilson's status - whether covert, classified, non-covert, non-classified or whatever. Honestly. That's what the judge ruled.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Crime Without a Cause.
"There is no way that OVP didn't know exactly what her status was - all they had to do was ask. Libby had all necessary clearances."
OK, I'm probably beating this thing to death, but I just want to make one more point here. The Vice President is not responsible for keeping track of who is and is not "covert" at the CIA. The CIA is supposed to be responsible for keeping the identity of their covert agents secret. In Plame's case, they clearly failed in that responsibility. And blaming the VP for knowing what was generally known about her in Washington social circles is ridiculous.
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