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.

[Miss Marple]

Excellent description, Red Raider!

And now, Grampa Dave, I think we should see if we can find a connection between Plame, Wilson, and Foley to the odious Michael Moore, who has a book coming out on Monday which apparently is going to make the case for impeachment. I would not be surprised to find this entire thing coordinated by the denizens of Chappaqua. Weasely Clark's connection to Wilson seems to support this as an orchestrated effort.

[Grampa Dave]

Now Wilson has finally stated on tv the obvious fact to everyone but the GW haters.

This administration and GW would never leak intel or expose a real agent or source.

Since the 1960s and maybe before then, leaks and exposure of agents/sources/techniques have come from one political party, the DemonicRats. Both political and mediot Rats have worked 24/7/365 to harm/weaken/destroy the effectiveness our intel collection and processing for at least 4 decades.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/995849/posts

Wilson: Bush Not Party to Leak
The Washington Post ^ | 10/6/2003 | Walter Pincus


Posted on 10/05/2003 10:49 PM PDT by Utah Girl


Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV said yesterday that the leak of his wife's name as a covert CIA official by Bush administration officials last July could have been for revenge or to undercut his criticisms of the Iraq war or to intimidate other government insiders from talking to journalists.

"I do believe, however, that the president would never have condoned or been party to anything like this," he said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The Justice Department has begun an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, who served in the CIA's operations division and acted clandestinely under what is called non-official cover. That means she worked in a position not associated with the U.S. government and when overseas on a spy mission was not protected by diplomatic immunity.

Asked whether he thought the leak had endangered his wife, Wilson said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that since the publicity of the Justice Department investigation, "other people" have suggested "perhaps this does make her a target." As a result, he said he and his wife were taking unspecified security precautions.


Excerpted - click for full article ^
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47562-2003Oct5.html

[Grampa Dave]

I think the retirement of Foley and the fact that he was Plame's boss will start to come back to haunt the rats.

[cyncooper]

Good point, Grampa Dave.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Absolute nonsense.

Accurate description of your editorializing. Since you know so much, who killed Kennedy?

[BOBTHENAILER]

The scandal is why a group in the CIA was/is trying to undermine President Bush.

Just got on this thread and I like the above quote, almost as much as your earlier assertion that this may be a "Wilson" generated leak. Makes more sense than a lot of other scenarios.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Nothing about this passes a most basic smell test.

Wilson himself is part of the problem.

[lugsoul]

source?

[SevenDaysInMay]

No pics of Val yet?

[lugsoul]

Joe Wilson had the requisite security clearance to receive that information. You still running around spewing unsupported opinion? Who sent you your talking points?

[MissouriForBush]

How do you know what kind of security clearance he had?

[lugsoul]

wow. You'll say anything, won't you? Did you get that off of your talking points memo?

[MissouriForBush]

Who sent you your talking points memo?

[lugsoul]

Published reports. As opposed to your practice of stating assumption as fact. Please remember, this was AFTER he was acting ambassador to Iraq in the runup to Gulf War I - you remember, don't you, when GHWB praised Wilson's courageous service to our country? - And that he was the last American to speak with Hussein before the war? - what kind of security clearance do YOU think one in that position would have?

[Grampa Dave]

You are doing nothing but reciting your talking points!

This is an old left wing trick to use talking points from the DNC and when challenged with reality to claim the other side is using talking points.

However, please keep it up as you are exposing yourself on Free Republic just like Foley/Wilson/Plame and their wh$res have.

Time for your next Phoney DNC Talking Point, your moleship!

[lugsoul]

Don't have one. I'm just sick of seeing people repeat lies, without a shred of backing, as fact in defense of a decidedly un-American act. Since you have not a single source for your lies, it follows that they must come from your talking points.

[lugsoul]

That's a great line. Sort of like "I am rubber, you are glue." Of course, you can't cite to a single source for your lies.

[MissouriForBush]

"Nothing about this passes a most basic smell test. Wilson himself is part of the problem."

You said it all in two short sentences. Amen!

[Mo1]

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.

Yes they do need the high morale and they have nothing to gain

However, I could name a few that would like to see discourse between the WH and the CIA

The organization that Mr. Wilson is involved with would be one of them .. Moveon.org

[Grampa Dave]

You are are the current poster boy for Jim Rob's comment about the Bushhaters on Free Republic a few months ago:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/945516/posts?page=40#40

The anti-Republican/anti-Bush paleocon/paleolibertarian/buchananite/rockwellian/anarchist movement has combined with the Democrat/French/German/Iraq pro-terror axis.