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Second Letter from Alberto Gonzales to W.H. Staff
White House ^ | 9-30-03 | Alberto Gonzales

Posted on 09/30/2003 4:44:20 PM PDT by 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


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cia; josephwilson; knutroyce; niger; phelps; robertdnovak; robertnovak; royce; timothymphelps; timothyphelps; timphelps
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To: aristeides
Alberto Gonzales is taking this seriously. He is no John Dean. Dean acted unethically first, then ratted. Gonzales seems to be trying to do this professionally.
21 posted on 09/30/2003 5:03:56 PM PDT by dogbyte12
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To: aristeides
I think they are letting it all hang out so that the other side can exhaust itself straining at a gnat.
22 posted on 09/30/2003 5:04:21 PM PDT by RobbyS (nd)
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To: 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.

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.

23 posted on 09/30/2003 5:06:31 PM PDT by Shermy (Defend The Right To Claim My Dissent Is Censored By Your Disagreement!)
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To: OldFriend
One must ask if Mr. Wilson's agenda was driven by personal gain. For example, his Saudi connections - were they paid connections? Did he go to Niger with a finding in mind?
24 posted on 09/30/2003 5:08:40 PM PDT by Shermy (Defend The Right To Claim My Dissent Is Censored By Your Disagreement!)
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To: Shermy
They need to add Matthew Cooper to the list because it seems his article came out about the same time as Novaks


In July Time Magazine Interview, Joe Wilson Said His Wife Had Nothing To Do With Niger Trip

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/992437/posts
25 posted on 09/30/2003 5:10:17 PM PDT by Mo1 (http://www.favewavs.com/wavs/cartoons/spdemocrats.wav)
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To: roses of sharon
Exactly. I bet whoever leaked had no idea that they were breaking any laws.
26 posted on 09/30/2003 5:12:33 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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To: SpinyNorman
Why don't they cut through all of the bs and go directly to Hitlery and Bubba?
27 posted on 09/30/2003 5:13:55 PM PDT by freekitty
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To: aristeides
Gonzales is interested in the evidence because someone has asked for it...now we have posters on FR who are willing to translate cooperation with the Justice Department into an admission of guilt?

Get a grip...when did Clinton ever actually cooperate with any probes that he wasn't conducting himself?
28 posted on 09/30/2003 5:18:55 PM PDT by norton
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To: Mo1
Former CIA agent Larry Johnson tonight who claims to be a lifelong republican, with campaign contributions to match, said on Newshour on PBS tonight that Plame was an undercover agent for 3 decades. That he in fact was one of her trainers in espionage when she joined the agency.

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."

29 posted on 09/30/2003 5:19:40 PM PDT by dogbyte12
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To: norton
Gonzales is interested in the evidence because someone has asked for it

So who asked for that evidence? Justice? What does that suggest to you?

30 posted on 09/30/2003 5:20:45 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: dogbyte12
Thanks for that. Maybe now people will stop their denials.
31 posted on 09/30/2003 5:21:36 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: dogbyte12
This is about a betrayal, a political smear, of an individual who had no relevance to the story."

It's about blabbing and cozying up to reporters who want a story.

32 posted on 09/30/2003 5:22:17 PM PDT by Shermy (Defend The Right To Claim My Dissent Is Censored By Your Disagreement!)
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To: dogbyte12
I saw the same interview.
But by all accounts, her employment with the CIA was no secret prior to Novak's mention of it. Novak simply made it common knowledge, rather than personal info known by friends and acquaintances.
33 posted on 09/30/2003 5:22:43 PM PDT by Notwithstanding
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To: dogbyte12
Need some Time magazine reporters in there as well:

In July Time Magazine Interview, Joe Wilson Said His Wife Had Nothing To Do With Niger Trip ^
      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 ...

34 posted on 09/30/2003 5:23:25 PM PDT by Stultis
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To: aristeides
Thanks for that. Maybe now people will stop their denials.

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.

35 posted on 09/30/2003 5:23:53 PM PDT by Shermy (Defend The Right To Claim My Dissent Is Censored By Your Disagreement!)
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To: Stultis; Mo1
Mo1 just noticed something very interesting. The author of that Time article is married to an advisor to Hillary Rodham Clinton. See post 80 on that thread.
36 posted on 09/30/2003 5:24:45 PM PDT by William McKinley
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To: aristeides
The assumption is that the enemies of Wilson were the leakers.

I am not sure that is a good assumption.

37 posted on 09/30/2003 5:26:01 PM PDT by William McKinley
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To: dogbyte12
Who was the reporter on Fox this morning saying that "everyone" knew she worked for the CIA?
38 posted on 09/30/2003 5:27:00 PM PDT by jbstrick (Behold the Power of CHEESE!)
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To: Notwithstanding
There is a difference though between knowing somebody works at the CIA, and the knowledge that they actually are more than an analyst.

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.

39 posted on 09/30/2003 5:27:41 PM PDT by dogbyte12
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To: dogbyte12
Maybe it was Ari Fleisher who leaked this - and Pesident Bush fired him when he found out.

After all, he did quit right after Novak wrote his story.
40 posted on 09/30/2003 5:31:14 PM PDT by Notwithstanding
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