Posted on 09/30/2003 8:11:11 AM PDT by mattdono
Known facts:
1. The CIA wanted to send someone to Niger to investigate Yellowcake claims.
2. Mrs. Wilson works for the CIA (in some capacity).
3. The CIA asked Mr. Wilson's wife to discuss it with Wilson.
4. Mrs. Wilson discussed it with Mr. Wilson.
5. Mr. Wilson went to Niger.
6. Mr. Wilson stayed at (read: inside) the U.S. embassy in Niger for all 8 days he was there, drinking tea and talking with people about the established Italian and British intelligence reports.
7. Mr. Wilson came back and wrote an op-ed in the NY Times that there was "nothing" to the claims that Saddam was trying to obtain Yellowcake from Niger. 8. Questions arose about who he was and how he was making these claims.
9. Mr. Wilson is married and his wife's name is published on his own biography page. 10. It is known in Washington circles that Mr. Wilson's wife works for the CIA. 11. Cliff May (of National Review) and Bob Novak (of Chicago Sun-Times) wrote articles critical about Wilson's involvement and how this came about. Novak includes Mrs. Wilson's name.
12. According to Novak, he was told that Mrs. Wilson was not a covert agent, but was an analyst. You can not believe Novak all you want. He is a well-known journalist with an impeccable 46 years of reporting and commenting. He has never been accused of anything untoward or inappropriate. Even his colleagues on the other side of the political spectrum have a notable appreciation for his journalistic skill.
The established facts above can't be disputed. How Novak came up with the name would be interesting to know (was he told the name or did he research it himself?). The investigation will determine what it determines. An investigation means nothing other than something might have occured.
Well, I'm not sure what you are talking about here.
» That Novak has an established reputation as an honest reporter/commentator isn't spin.
»Accepting Mr. Novak's statements as they are isn't spin.
»Reading more into Mr. Novak's statements is spin.
»Accusing Mr. Novak of trying to get himself off the hook is spin.
»Stating that Mr. Wilson was appointed by Bush 41, when, in fact, was appointed by President Carter is not only spin (actually spin from Mr. Wilson himself last night on Paula Zahn), but factually incorrect.
» Not providing ample time for the facts to become clear is premature.
This much can't be disputed, even if you believe Novak: The CIA didn't want her name and affiliation with them released. "Senior administration officials" told Novak that Plame worked for the CIA. If Novak didn't know it already, then "everybody in Washington" most certainly didn't - Novak would certainly know something like that if it were common knowledge. White House counsel says she was an "undercover CIA agent." Even though the CIA didn't want her named, "senior administration officials" outed her as CIA and Novak named her. Facts, not spin.
Mr. Wilson says he didn't find anything. However, he did learn about in incident in 1999 where Iraq approached a Nigerian official about a possible purchase of uranium, but dismissed the claim because it wasn't a "significant quantity". Other than that, his lack of evidence might have had something to do with the FACT that he never left the U.S. embassy and sat around drinking tea and talking. He really didn't do any investigating.
His official report was filed in 2002. To him, it was done and over. In 2003, he was struck by the "16 words" regarding uranium. Following up on this with some friends in the State department, he started to conclude that the "16 words" were incorrect.
He then wrote an op-ed in the NY Times called "What I Didn't Find in Africa" where he rencounts his trip to Africa and states that they hadn't found anything at all. He neglects to include the incident that might have made the 16 words possible, if not correct.
As I noted, he did find something. In his 2002 report, he found some (antecdotal) evidence that Iraq had made overtures in 1999 to a Nigerian official about purchasing uranium. But, again, he dismissed the claim because it wasn't a significant quantity.
This whole thing goes back to the 16 words that the President said in SOTU address:
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.It just shows how arrogant Mr. Wilson is. He took the 16 words as a rebuke to his report. Where, in fact, the President was citing British intelligence.
Perhaps Mr. Wilson wasn't the only person that might have investigated the possibility of significant amounts of uranium being sought?
Maybe someone did a more thorouh investigation? Perhaps, I don't know, the BRITISH?!
Maybe the British investigation actually included leaving the British embassy?
I mean, even his insulated investigation reveal 1 incident, even though it wasn't a significant amount. Maybe if his investigation actually left the US embassy, maybe he would have found more evidence?
That's not correct. The White House Counsel said:
We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee.
They didn't say that she was or wasn't. They said that there is an investigation into whether a possible unauthorized disclosure occurred.
lug, you are the one that is spinning here.
I don't see that any "LEAK" necessarily took place.
Sounds to me as if Novak talked to people who simply relayed the background of the story -- that Mrs. Joseph Wilson was instrumental in getting her husband sent to "investigate" the yellowcake story.
Since her status as a CIA employee was common knowledge (according to Cliff May at NRO), that was mere incidental information. NOT a "LEAK."
In fact, that seems to be the case. I have read accounts that Mrs. Wilson was left to discuss this with Mr. Wilson, but the actual decision was made by other at CIA. I have also heard that she was invovled some and thought that he would be a good person to go, because of his previous service in Niger and surrounding countries (such as Gabon).
Indeed, it is well known that she worked for CIA.
It is also well known that she is married to Mr. Wilson.
It is also well known (as cited here on countless threads) that Mr. Wilson himself placed his wife's name (maiden name) on his biography page at the Middle East Institute.
As the Beatles said, "1 and 1 and 1 is 3". Novak is a freakin' investigative reporter. If the CIA didn't tell him her name, it is pretty damn easy to figure out.
It may come out that no one in government tolk Novak the name. In his July 14 article, Novak is investigating how Wilson came to do his investigation in Niger. [SOURCE].
From the original Novak article:
Some excerpts...
The CIA's decision to send retired diplomat Joseph C. Wilson to Africa in February 2002 to investigate possible Iraqi purchases of uranium was made routinely at a low level without Director George Tenet's knowledge.
Wilson's mission was created after an early 2002 report by the Italian intelligence service about attempted uranium purchases from Niger, derived from forged documents prepared by what the CIA calls a "con man." This misinformation, peddled by Italian journalists, spread through the U.S. government. The White House, State Department and Pentagon, and not just Vice President Dick Cheney, asked the CIA to look into it.
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 Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him.
Please see post #48.
Here's a taste:
The Washington Post has a useful backgrounder on the law in question, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, enacted in 1982 after former CIA agent Philip Agee (who now lives in communist Cuba) published a book and various articles revealing the names of undercover CIA agents in an effort to sabotage U.S. intelligence activities. Even if Plame does turn out to be a covert agent, revealing her identity wouldn't automatically be illegal:
The law enacted to stop Agee and others imposes maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and $50,000 in fines for the unauthorized disclosure of covert agents' identities by government employees who have access to classified information.
The statute includes three other elements necessary to obtain a conviction: that the disclosure was intentional, the accused knew the person being identified was a covert agent and the accused also knew that "the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States."
In order to violate the law, in other words, one must disclose a genuine secret. Was Plame's association with the CIA a secret? As we said yesterday, the CIA's blasé attitude toward Novak's inquiries suggests not. Bolstering that inference, Clifford May writes in National Review Online that Plame's CIA connection "wasn't news to me. I had been told that--but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of."
The Justice Department has now undertaken an investigation of the matter, the Associated Press reports, so eventually things will become much clearer.
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