Second Letter from Alberto Gonzales to W.H. Staff

White House ^ | 9-30-03 | Alberto Gonzales

[dogbyte12]

IMPORTANT FOLLOW-UP MESSAGE FROM COUNSEL'S OFFICE

This communication is a follow-up to the directive I sent you this morning regarding the preservation of certain materials in the possession of the White House, its staff, or its employees.

Pursuant to a request from the Department of Justice, I am instructing you to preserve and maintain the following:

"[F]or the time period February 1, 2002 to the present, all documents, including without limitation all electronic records, telephone records of any kind (including but not limited to any records that memorialize telephone calls having been made), correspondence, computer records, storage devices, notes, memoranda, and diary and calendar entries, that relate in any way to:

1. Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, his trip to Niger in February 2002, and/or his wife's purported relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency;

2. Contacts with any member or representative of the news media about Joseph C. Wilson, his trip to Niger in February 2002, and/or his wife's purported relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency; and

3. Contacts with reporters Knut Royce, Timothy M. Phelps, or Robert D. Novak, or any individual(s) acting directly or indirectly, on behalf of these reporters."

You must preserve all documents relating, in any way, directly or indirectly, to these subjects, even if there would be a question whether the document would be a presidential or federal record or even if its destruction might otherwise be permitted.

If you have any questions regarding any of the foregoing, please contact Associate Counsels Ted Ullyot or Raul Yanes in the Counsel to the President's Office.

Alberto R. Gonzales

Counsel to the President

[dogbyte12]

Knewt Royce and Timothy Phelps are from Newsday I believe. They share bylines, as far as I can tell by googling their names up. They write on foreign affairs & terrorism. Two new names to throw into the mix.

[dogbyte12]

FYI

[Chad Fairbanks]

ping!

[Shermy]

Is this the article?

Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover
by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce
Published on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 by the Long Island, NY Newsday

[Timesink]

I don't have time to do any digging at the moment, but I will throw this in: Newsday has always approached its reporting from a weird sort of mid-60s paleoliberal viewpoint. Whoever Royce and Phelps are, don't expect them to be registered Republicans.

[aristeides]

Article by Knut Royce and Timothy M. Phelps from July 22 Newsday: Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover . The article does call her an "undercover CIA officer."

[Timesink]

Funny how commondreams.org can repost entire LAT/WP articles every single day, but we can't.

Oh, that's right, they're LEFT-wingers. Silly me.

[aristeides]

From that article: Intelligence officials confirmed to Newsday yesterday that Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson, works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity - at least she was undercover until last week when she was named by columnist Robert Novak.

[Shermy]

Yow!!!

"...A senior intelligence official confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked "alongside" the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger.

But he said she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment. "They [the officers who did ask Wilson to check the uranium story] were aware of who she was married to, which is not surprising," he said. "There are people elsewhere in government who are trying to make her look like she was the one who was cooking this up, for some reason," he said. "I can't figure out what it could be."

"We paid his [Wilson's] air fare. But to go to Niger is not exactly a benefit. Most people you'd have to pay big bucks to go there," the senior intelligence official said. Wilson said he was reimbursed only for expenses.

[Shermy]

OK, what's a "senior intelligence official" and who is he or he? He squealed too. (Who didn't???)

[OldFriend]

Newsday......rabidly anti republican

[aristeides]

If the article weren't accurate about her being an undercover Directorate of Opeations operative, I don't think Albert Gonzales would be so interested in evidence of White House employees' contacts with these two reporters.

[dogbyte12]

Intelligence officials confirmed to Newsday yesterday that Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson, works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity - at least she was undercover until last week when she was named by columnist Robert Novak.

Ok, so the law was broken there. The intelligence source who talked to them broke the law by confirming. Could possibly somebody other than the person to talk to Novak. It could get convoluted. Once Novak let the cat out of the bag, another CIA source might have confirmed to them, which leaves another agent on the hook for a felony.

[dogbyte12]

I don't think I have ever read Newsday in my life, at least not on purpose. Are they a popular paper?

[aristeides]

Where's the "senior intelligence official" in the article? I see "senior administration officials" and "intelligence officials."

[OldFriend]

Clearly Wilson used this as an opportunity to promote his against the war agenda. It is my understanding that he was even supporting an organization that wanted to end sanctions against Iraq and end the no fly zones protecting the people in the north and south of Iraq.

[roses of sharon]

I'll bet this is what happened. My quotes from vague memory of events.

Wilson smeared Cheney in his July op-ed, by saying Cheney ignored his report from Africa, and lied in the SOTU.

Cheney and his people said, "we had no report or memo, we made a general request of the CIA to check into the uranium claim, we did not know who they sent".

Cheney told Russert he did not even know Wilson.

Wilson then admitted he made no written report.

Somewhere in the gov. Bush and Cheney's people called reporters to say, "we don't know Wilson, did not request that he be sent, but his wife works there, so she probably put his name up to go".

In defending themselves against smears, they probably did not think it thru.

Who knows. Do these events sound right?

[RobbyS]

What cover? If the gal is a middle-level bureaucrat/tech.

[aristeides]

If that's all she was, why do you think Albert Gonzales is so interested in contacts between White House employees and the two Newsday reporters?

[SpinyNorman]

Lets see: the Bush WH cooperates fully, preserving all records and information, while the Clinton WH would have had everything shredded, wiped (both hard drives and people's memories), and cover stories formulated by this time.

What a difference.