Oooh! I screwed up big time.
Posted on 09/30/2003 9:24:15 PM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON -- I had thought I never again would write about retired diplomat Joseph Wilson's CIA-employee wife, but feel constrained to do so now that repercussions of my July 14 column have reached the front pages of major newspapers and led off network news broadcasts. My role and the role of the Bush White House have been distorted and need explanation.
The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.
The current Justice investigation stems from a routine, mandated probe of all CIA leaks, but follows weeks of agitation. Wilson, after telling me in July that he would say nothing about his wife, has made investigation of the leak his life's work -- aided by the relentless Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. These efforts cannot be separated from the massive political assault on President Bush.
This story began July 6 when Wilson went public and identified himself as the retired diplomat who had reported negatively to the CIA in 2002 on alleged Iraq efforts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one.
During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.
At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.
How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.
A big question is her duties at Langley. I regret that I referred to her in my column as an "operative," a word I have lavished on hack politicians for more than 40 years. While the CIA refuses to publicly define her status, the official contact says she is "covered" -- working under the guise of another agency. However, an unofficial source at the Agency says she has been an analyst, not in covert operations.
The Justice Department investigation was not requested by CIA Director George Tenet. Any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the Agency to Justice, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July shortly after the column was published. Reported only last weekend, the request ignited anti-Bush furor.
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Was it important? IMO no, true or false.
Anyway, ask yourself, who had the most to gain with continuing the Saddam regime and sanctions - the suppression of Iraq's oil production? Note Wilson didn't deny Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. He carefully said Iraq didn't acquire the uranium.
Apparently Mr. Wilson sits, for one, as a member of an organization funded by Saudi Arabia.
Except that we will hear from every news source every half an hour and on every front page for the next two months that "Bush punished a diplomat for exposing his lies by blowing the cover of his CIA undercover agent wife thereby subjegating national security to political pique."
We Balkan posters WARNED (AND WE WERE THE ONLY ONES TO DO SO ON FREEREPUBLIC) Bush to cut ties off from Clintonista Balkan holdovers like Wilson. what was Bush doing keeping them on? The only bad thibg this reflects on the Bush White House is that they were stupid enough to keep these enemies in positions of authority.
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Either that, or, true to form, he could invite Wilson to the White House for dinner, praise him publicly, and allow him to dictate policy. (New Tone)
I'm hoping this is accurate. Is Novak indicting himself?
In Wilson's case, he wasn't working for the Administration and wasn't selected by the Administration for this job. He was selected by the CIA on advice of his wife, an employee.
I don't think people are paying attention yet, and by the time they do, Wilson will have completely destroyed his credibility by his showboating saturation tv antics, his appearances with Democrat senators, and his goofy delight in all the attention.
For a man who's wife has been put in mortal danger, Wilson is having a helluva good time.
Just once I'd like to see the Bush administration hillary-slap the rats and their rat media.
His knowledge of the law. Except in extremely specific circumstances (so extreme that nobody has ever been prosecuted for the offense), it's not illegal for a reporter to name even a classified CIA operative, much less a paper pusher. Any blame goes squarely on the government leaker. And nobody's ever even been prosecuted for that, either.
If true, why was it "reported" Friday night, to get a full weekend's settling in? Hmmm....Did Kerry/Wilson leak and time this one? Spiced up with the "Karl Rove" rave and the well-scheduled media appearances of Wilson?
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