The Wilson War Continues [CIA/FBI investigate White House]

Time Magazine ^ | September 27, 2003 | Timothy J. Burger

[sinkspur]

Karl Rove has been a cancer on the Bush presidency from Day One.

You're nuts.

Rove engineered the 2002 Congressional wins, and Bush wouldn't be president without him.

Rove didn't do this, but you'll pile on nonetheless.

[AntiGuv]

One other thing. Wilson's wife wasn't out in the field as an operative. She was an analyst at Langley...

You are parsing in a manner that the CIA won't give a damn about. There is a fundamental principle at stake here that the CIA will not compromise. Their very lives depend on it and if you think this is just gonna go away, you are wrong.

[dogbyte12]

The CIA has to defend their turf here. It really doesn't matter who did the leaking. It could have been Wilson himself for all it matters to the CIA. They can not let this go unchallenged, investigated. If they let it slide, it will be harder for them to let other things slide.

I personally hope that Novak was lying about the admin sources and is lying out his ass. I don't want Rove to be the party here, but it looks like something he would do. It's hardball.

[rwfromkansas]

The WH leaked nothing. THE NAME WAS ALREADY LEAKED BEFORE NOVAK EVEN GOT IT!!!

[AntiGuv]

Two administration officials could be CIA administration officials. Why assume White house?

Because that would've been handled internally, were that the case. The CIA already knows who it was - they simply cannot investigate a domestic charge so they turn it over to the FBI as a formality. At least one of the two officials were in the White House (at least, so far as the CIA has determined).

[rwfromkansas]

No wonder Bush hasn't really responded to the Dems if he doesn't know what is going on. He needs to watch the news...

[writmeister]

Has Novak said that it was Rove? I don't see anything in the posted article saying that Rove leaked the information.

Can you maybe source how you know that Rove was the leaker?

I am personally disinclined to believe anything Novak says because of his long association with CNN.

[dogbyte12]

Wilson said he suspects it was Rove, based on info from other journalists other than Novak who were peddled the story.

[anglian]

Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. "Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate" the allegation./Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger. Times Watch for August 8, 2003
Times Hacks Bob Novak Facts/ Friday’s story by Douglas Jehl, “Iraq Arms Critics Reacts to Report on Wife,” is a sympathetic account of the trials of Joseph Wilson, the instigator of the Bush-uranium-Niger controversy. Jehl writes: “Days after the column, another chapter opened. Mr. Wilson's wife was identified by name as a covert C.I.A. operative in a column by the conservative columnist Robert Novak, a disclosure that Mr. Novak has attributed to senior administration officials. Officials are barred by law from disclosing the identities of Americans who work undercover for the C.I.A. That provision is intended to protect the security of operatives whose lives might be jeopardized if their identities are known.”

Jehl apparently didn’t actually read the Novak column in question, because Novak didn’t reveal Wilson’s wife as a “covert CIA operative” (although Jehl apparently just did). From Novak’s July 14 column: “Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me his wife suggested sending Wilson to Niger to investigate the Italian report.” Nothing about “covert” there.

[Asclepius]

When President Hillary Clinton's minions do something like this in 2009, or President Dean, or whoever the rats finally get into office, I want all of you who say it is no big deal, to either zip it, or stay consistent.

If presidents Clinton or Dean ever expose some revenge-of-the-clerks plot in the CIA, I will be the first to raise my glass to salute them.

[Asclepius]

Two administration officials could be CIA administration officials. Why assume White house?

Why indeed.

[AntiGuv]

It was Joseph Wilson himself who implicated Rove at some panel in Washington:

"First, the CIA would perform an internal investigation. The results of that would be passed on to the Justice Department for professional investigation. I don't think this will be dropped. "At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words."

Now, I understand that he later backtracked somewhat to imply it may've been someone other than Rove, though I'm unclear as to whom. But, that's where the Rove connection arises.

[dogbyte12]

CBS hits The CIA/Wilson Story too. This will have legs, no matter how it is spun.

[Asclepius]

These leaks now are a shot across the bow. If the Agency is still not satisfied by the progress afterward, it's only the beginning. Bet on it.

Given how cripplingly inept our highly-politicized CIA is at the moment, I'll bet on the White House prevailing. But then, I would bet on the Pittsburgh PTA previaling against the CIA. As would al qaeda, or several drug cartels, or the Chinese, or the Russians, or any of a number of other states or non-state actors that have been running circles around them for ten long years.

[AntiGuv]

I should add that I haven't been following this closely since the Novak story - aside from the certainty I had at the time that the CIA would by no chance let this issue slip away. It's too crucial to their very existence. Anyhow, since I haven't been following this I'm just culling info now from the 'Net where it's being discussed, but those are mostly leftist sources. Therefore, they may not be altogether reliable (no source is, but particularly not biased sources such as these..)

[dogbyte12]

NY Times up with their article now

The media follows the NY times like lapdogs. Now that the times has published, it will be discussed on all the talking head shows tomorrow.

[AntiGuv]

Given how cripplingly inept our highly-politicized CIA is at the moment, I'll bet on the White House prevailing.

Yeah, and why do you suppose no one at the Agency has ever or will ever be fired for its politicized ineptitude? Get a clue, bud. If the White House and the CIA go to war, the White House will not prevail. Best to just get this over with quietly and then everyone can bebop along to less troublesome pursuits.....

[auggy]

Wouldn't Novak be just as guilty or moreso???

[dogbyte12]

Novak won't get busted, just like the people at the NY times who published the Pentagon Papers weren't busted.

Novak can print this, but shouldn't have. The person who leaked to him though is liable for 10 years in the federal pokie.

Novak will probably never get a source at CIA to ever speak to him again, but since that really isn't his beat, it won't affect him otherwise.

My guess is that any CIA person caught talking to Novak now, would soon be reassigned to analysis of local elections in Iceland.

[arasina]

Isn't this sort of a U.S. version of the Dr. Kelly-BBC's Gilligan-Alistair Campbell and PM Blair "sexed-up" leak?