Posted on 09/30/2003 4:44:20 PM PDT by dogbyte12
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
Yep.
And this "senior intelligence official" has some 'splaining to do.
"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.
So why was Mr. Wilson eager to go there? Did he have an agenda? Before recently I assumed the Niger Letter Story was a fraud, but if not, no big deal in the major scheme of things anyway. Now I read he didn't debunk it, he just cast doubt that uranium was actually bought. He parsed his words.
Key quotes: "This not an alleged abuse. This is a confirmed abuse. I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been under cover for three decades. She is not as Bob Novak suggested a "CIA analyst."
"I say this as a registered Republican. I am on record giving contributions to the George Bush campaign. This is not about partisan politics. This is about a betrayal, a political smear, of an individual who had no relevance to the story."
So who asked for that evidence? Justice? What does that suggest to you?
It's about blabbing and cozying up to reporters who want a story.
| In July Time Magazine Interview, Joe Wilson Said His Wife Had Nothing To Do With Niger Trip ^ |
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| Posted by Pubbie On 09/30/2003 2:38 PM CDT with 87 comments Time Magazine ^ | Thursday, Jul. 17, 2003 | By MATTHEW COOPER, MASSIMO CALABRESI AND JOHN F. DICKERSON And some government officials have noted to TIME in interviews, (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched Niger to investigate reports ... |
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I never understood the points posters' points about the distinction being significant. Either way it was wrong. And Novak was asked not to tell, but did.
I am not sure that is a good assumption.
I am curious as to when people became aware that she worked at the CIA. When Wilson quit as ambassador to Gabon, I think his last job overseas, is that when Plame stopped undercover work? Is that when people started to know that she worked at Langley?
It is murkey. But I think part of the murkyness is because of the job. She could easily be both in the same career. Spies come in from the cold. An undercover agent in a police department can quit when they are getting too well known on the street, and revert to a uniform or plains clothes homicide. I don't know exactly what Plame did, but I think the analysis is a bit too unsophisticated. It really doesn't have to be either or here.
The answer to the question "Was Valerie Plame a operative or a analyst" is most likely yes. Both.
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