Plenty of irony in Plame affair

Manchester Union Leader ^ | October 5, 2003 | Bernadette Malone

[billorites]

IF AMBASSADOR Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was indeed a covert agent for the CIA (and not just an analyst), and if a Bush administration official did expose her, a 1982 federal law may have been broken and someone should pay. But considering the many ironies of this story, Wilson’s allegation that Bush’s administration “outted” his wife to punish him (by risking her death, implicitly) just doesn’t figure.

Wilson wrote a New York Times op-ed faulting the White House for suspecting that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. (An ambassador in both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations and a long-time friend of and former aide to Al Gore, Wilson admits he became anti-George W. Bush after the 2000 South Carolina primary. He is now a big supporter of John Kerry’s Presidential campaign.)

Irony No. 1: The Bush administration allegedly released the name of a CIA officer as political payback against the officer’s husband. Doesn’t the Bush administration need the help and high morale of the CIA right now to help prosecute the War on Terror? What would it have to gain by putting a CIA operative’s life in danger? One must assume the leaker knew he wasn’t endangering Valerie Plame’s life.

Irony No. 2: Columnist Bob Novak was the journalist who printed Plame’s name. Novak opposed the war against Saddam Hussein because he, like Wilson, did not believe Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that were a threat to the United States. Was Novak used by the administration? Was he callous about Plame’s safety?

Having worked for Novak for five years, I know him to be an exceptionally savvy journalist who doesn’t allow himself to be used as a pawn of any administration. He is a patriot who cares deeply about the safety of men and women defending our country, and he is a recent convert to Catholicism who takes ethics and human life seriously.

Novak explained in his Oct. 1 column how Plame’s name ended up in his July 14 column. After Wilson’s predictably anti-Bush New York Times piece appeared, Novak probed into the matter of why the CIA would want a Kerry supporter to go to Niger to investigate possible “yellowcake” uranium sales in the first place. Administration officials said the reason Wilson was sent was because his wife, a CIA officer, pushed for him to go.

Here’s where a law may have been broken by administration officials, but here is where it also is necessary to digest a few facts.

The fact that Wilson’s wife was a CIA officer is newsworthy, because it tells Americans that even after the massive intelligence failure of September 11, the CIA may be making decisions based on politics and personal ties instead of what’s best for the country.

Was former ambassador Joe Wilson the best person to send to Niger to search for uranium dealers? Maybe not, given his strong anti-Bush bias and the implausibility of thugs from Niger revealing anything noteworthy to an official ambassador who grandstands in the New York Times about his CIA connection. Why did the CIA not send a qualified investigator in Wilson’s place?

Secondly, it is important to realize this: Lots of people in Washington work at the CIA, and most of them are not glamorous secret agents whose lives would be endangered if their identities were revealed. In fact, columnist Maureen Dowd has revealed that Plame blabbed to Wilson about her CIA work around the time of their first kiss. She was apparently as casual as the administration about her “cover.”

In the 10 years I spent in Washington, I met three people who rather off-handedly told me they had done work for “Langley,” the Virginia neighborhood where the CIA is openly situated. When Novak called the CIA to confirm his sources’ allegation, he wrote, the CIA confirmed it but asked him not to print Plame’s name. The CIA did not say that printing Plame’s name would endanger her. Instead the official said it could make traveling overseas more difficult for her, Novak reported.

Here’s where a journalist makes a decision about motives: Is it likely that the CIA asked that Plame’s name not be printed because her life or health would be jeopardized as an analyst? Or is it more likely that the CIA is embarrassed that someone found out the politics and personalities behind its post September 11 decision making?

Irony No. 3: Who are the fiercest defenders of CIA operatives and fiercest critics of “freedom of the press” now? U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Harvard officials, and the editorial pages of the liberal Washington Post and New York Times.

If a law was broken, whoever broke it should pay the price. But let’s not be naive and accept Joe Wilson’s tripe about the White House wanting to endanger his wife as payback for his criticisms. The more likely motivation is administration concern that even after the CIA fell down on the job before 9/11, it continues to take short-cuts in the War on Terror.

Bernadette Malone is the former editorial page director.

[MissouriForBush]

Why is it that you have all the documented, verifiable sources, but those of us un-Americans who disagree with you don't? Why do others only have talking points, yet you possess The Truth and are on a higher moral ground? I've reviewed the same stuff/sources you refer to, but I draw completely different conclusions than you do.

Gee, you sound just like a liberal Democrat.

[Eldorado431]

Having worked for Novak for five years, I know him to be an exceptionally savvy journalist who doesn’t allow himself to be used as a pawn of any administration.

"No, he prefers to allow himself to be used by FBI spies named Robert Hanssen. Not only that, but he's been used by Karl Rove in the past to plant false stories."

atlayann, I am interested in evidence you have about Rove using Novak to Write False Stories. Also evidence about Novak being used by FBI Spies. Do you have any proof of this? Or is that information you’re own speculation?

[lugsoul]

Good one. Now go find one - ONE - comment I have made to the effect that Bush had anything to do with this.

Oh, that's right. You can't. All you can do is sling unsupported crap.

[Grampa Dave]

Keep burying yourself.

[lugsoul]

You have cited to NO sources except for your own "common sense." You state opinion as fact and then run away like a child when asked to back it up.

Now, why don't you tell us all your suppositions about Brewster-Jennings & Associates. You know what that is, don't you? Plame's front company, which is now useless? Tell us all how Plame ran around telling everyone that her stationery and business cards were fakes? How she made jokes about her fake yellow pages listing? Come on. You like to throw accusations - let's see some substance.

Whoops. Guess your talking points memo doesn't address that.

[lugsoul]

Oh, that's good. Since you don't have a response, you just keep slinging crap. You call me a Bush-hater for pointing our the lies you sling on this story, but you can't point to ONE single solitary statement where I've pinned this on Bush. Not ONE. You are lame.

[chudogg]

Irony No. 3: Who are the fiercest defenders of CIA operatives and fiercest critics of “freedom of the press” now? U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Harvard officials, and the editorial pages of the liberal Washington Post and New York Times.

So true. A few days ago i strolled to DU to see their take on this. One poster had an avatar of a the letters CIA but in the the font they use for CNN. Making somekind of implication that the CIA controls CNN.

That same poster had a comment going on and on about how Plame and the CIA were defending this country's security, and the Bush admin were undermining it! And directly below their comment was the graphic ridiculing the CIA.

I was think to myself "and my the only one who see's the irony of this?"

[Calvin Locke]

Can't remember where I heard/saw it originally, but Googling on 'wilson cia cocktail' eventually brought me to a Jonah Golberg comment at www.nro.com:

THE LEAK "SCANDAL" [Jonah Goldberg]

.
.
.
[last line] Wilson's wife is a desk jockey and much of the Washington cocktail circuit knew that already.

[lugsoul]

Yep - Goldberg says that. Doesn't make it true. First, his description of her job is contradicted by the Agency. Second, he apparently wasn't one of the ones who already knew what she did. Neither was Novak. Nor any other reporter on the "cocktail circuit." Nor any of the Wilson friends. Got anything else?

[CyberAnt]

This is what Rush said. The Bush admin has always been characterized by the media as being exceptionally tight-lipped. For this attack to be about leaks is particularly laughable.

[Calvin Locke]

Doesn't make it true.

True, but neither is Wilson's claim about Karl Rove.

Wilson did publish his bio with his wife's maiden name. From what I understand, one of the spy/diplomat games is to use the spouse. The CIA would not have been too happy with the publishing, if for nothing else, fly-by-night retributionists targeting diplomats and family.

The point is obviously moot if the leak of name in order to harass/target comes from an opposing government playing the game.

IMO, the leak came from the anti-administration or anti-American 5th column that seems to exist within both Foggy Bottom and DoD.

In any case, Wilson should cough up the names of the people that "told him" or go seek psychiatric help.

Lies and innuendo may be SOP within the beltway, but tying up the government over unsubstantiated charges is another thing.

If he has evidence on Rove, then nail him.

If not, I'm sure he and Gary Sick could go in to business together.

[lugsoul]

I don't think I said Rove did it. But I haven't seen any evidence that the leak was anyone other than the "senior administration officials" already cited.

[piasa]

No pics of Val yet?

Only of the back of her head while she was shaking hands with Bubba.

[piasa]

Joe Wilson had the requisite security clearance to receive that information.

How would Val know that on the first kiss? What did she do, call up Foley at 2 AM on a Friday night to ask if Wilson was cleared? what's she doing revealing her "cover" to a guy while on a date? How professional is that?

[piasa]

No one is defending any "unAmerican act," and Wilson himself was the source of the first kiss thing.

Wilson had no "need to know," by the way.

[MissouriForBush]

You're just mad because we've got your number. See ya'!

[SevenDaysInMay]

Was Val standing in front of Bubba?

[PhilDragoo]

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A spy is just a spy
The undercover stings apply
As Plame goes by

And when two leakers woo
They still say, "I love you."
Yet plausibly deny
No matter what a Deep Throat sings
As Plame goes by

*Dead drops and turncoats
Never out of date
Moles full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman tips hand
And man must out his mate
On this you can rely

It's still the cover story
Sell books for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome leakers
As Plame goes by

[Grampa Dave]

You should copyright your As the Plame goes by!

[piasa]

Yes; to her credit she wasn't kneeling.