The CIA leak (Latest From Novak)

townhall.com ^ | 10/01/03 | Robert Novak

[cyncooper]

If the admin has balls, it would investigate who was the "CIA official" who leaked to the BBC.

Especially since the "CIA official" was pro-Wilson/anti-Bush. Coincidence? And speaking to the BBC, no less, who were applying the bellows to their "Sexed-up Dossier" story at the time. Why, it all dovetailed together----those liars Blair and Bush against the noble public servants like Wilson (retch).

[Shermy]

I think it's Tenet and he is gone.

I think you're on to something there.

I looked at the original article, it began with this paragraph:

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. Remarkably, this produced a political firestorm that has not yet subsided.

How did Novak know this? Maybe he during a long conversation with Tenet he asked "Didn't you know about this" Tenet said "no, routine procedure."

Tenet is a big shot, but so is Novak so they could have met.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Destro, Mr. Wilson was not a CIA employee. His wife was.

[nutmeg]

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Destro]

So he went to Niger as a freelancer?

[Mia T]

Precisely!

clinton fruitcake cooks Niger yellowcake_bump

1. Why did Bush allow it?

    

2. And why hasn't Bush purged the executive and judicial of the clintonoid-holdover infestation anyway?

 

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[Leroy S. Mort]

You got it.

[Cicero]

Bush did a good job appointing competent top-level people he could trust. But he has done a LOUSY job of shoveling out clinton's political appointees in the middle ranks.

The CIA, the FBI, the State Department, and most other parts of the government are chock full of clintonoids, busily undermining Bush's administration.

A president can't rule alone. He needs people he can trust to carry out his program. Tenet should go. Mueller should go. And hundreds of less well known people should go. The Democrats NEVER make this kind of mistake. They always clean house.

[okie01]

"Also, this article might confirm the idea that the "leak" was from gabbiness..."

That clearly appears to be the case.

I wonder what would've happened if Novak had written only that "Wilson was sent to Niger on his wife's recommendation". I.e., without mentioning her distinctive name, Valerie Plame.

Because, to my mind, Novak was certainly right to report the nepotistic aspect of Wilson's appointment -- a Clintonite hack is appointed to investigate a Bush administration claim by a CIA committee headed by his wife!?

[ex-Texan]

*BUMP*!

[PhiKapMom]

This made our Oklahoma City Fox News after the baseball game. The reporter had a former CIA Supervisor/agent on who was retired. He said Wilson's wife was an analyst and this was much ado about nothing. The reporter came back on and said twice that she was an analyst not an undercover operative.

Her final comment was that there was a much bigger questioned that needed investigated and it was:

Why did Wilson get the assignment in the first place?

[Optimist]

Fridays are often chosen for below-the-radar news "leaks" since it is too late for the Friday editions, and the weekend news teams are generally less substantial. Often by the time Monday rolls around, it is three days old and is often buried below the fold. (Altough it helps to have a sympathetic media.)The Clinton administration did this all the time when they wanted to get ahead of a story.

[FairOpinion]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2003/9/30/121754.shtml

Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...


Tuesday Sept. 30, 2003; 12:03 p.m. EDT

Wilson: Wife Not Endangered by Leak

Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Joseph Wilson admitted Monday that his wife was not endangered by having her name divulged in a July 14 report by columnist Robert Novak.

Asked if the leak "in any way put your wife in danger," Wilson told ABC's "Good Morning America" host Charlie Gibson, "Well, not that I'm aware of."

The Bush administration critic said that while there was always the potential that a CIA employee could become a target, he reiterated, "I don't have any specific threats to talk about at all."

Despite Wilson's acknowledgment that his wife was never in danger, reporters and commentators have continued to report breathlessly that her life was in jeopardy because of the leak to Novak.

The CIA refuses to say whether Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was working undercover. But in reports published before the Agency called for a special investigation on Friday, Plame was identified as an energy analyst who did consulting work for the CIA.

National Review Online columnist Cliff May said Monday that Plame's identity was no big secret - and was instead known to many in Washington, D.C.

"That [Wilson's wife worked for the CIA] wasn't news to me," May revealed. "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."

[Mitchell]

Ping.

[Jeff Chandler]

Why did Wilson get the assignment in the first place?

If the party affiliations were reversed, that would be the headline, and Novak would be given a hero's welcome on Good Morning America.

[swilhelm73]

I think unlike you or I, Republican leaders generally think that compromise is still a possibilty. Bush promised a new tone and worked his a$$ off to try and set one, only to have it thrown back in his face.

At the same time, like Reagan before him, Bush seems to believe that fighting a drawn out partisan battle back home will jeopardize the war abroad.

The ironic thing, of course, is the only way we could realistically lose the war on terror is if the Democrats succeed in demonizing it and the president.

[July 4th]

Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.

So the name was out there. Bottom line.

[Jeff Chandler]

The ironic thing, of course, is the only way we could realistically lose the war on terror is if the Democrats succeed in demonizing it and the president.

They're getting uncomfortably close to doing just that. At what point will Bush fight for his job?

[okie01]

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.

"If true, why was it "reported" Friday night, to get a full weekend's settling in?"

On another thread, I noted there had been a ten week gap between the "outing" and the "outrage". Given that we now know the investigation request was actually made in July, it all becomes even more suspicious, does it not?

[swilhelm73]

That would fit Novak's latest article in which he says his source was high ranking and apolitical...Tenet has served Clinton and Bush...