Posted on 07/11/2005 11:18:25 PM PDT by Howlin
I WROTE a column on Oct. 10, 2003, about the strange case of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame.
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...I offered my speculation of what an administration official might have said to a journalist to explain just how Wilson — a Clinton administration official — got the assignment in the first place: "Administration official: 'We didn't send him there. Cheney's office asked CIA to get more information. CIA picked Wilson . . . Look, I hear his wife's in the CIA. He's got nothing to do. She wanted to throw him a bone.' "
Hate to say I told you so, but . . .
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There's no mistaking the purpose of this conversation between Cooper and Rove. It wasn't intended to discredit, defame or injure Wilson's wife. It was intended to throw cold water on the import, seriousness and supposedly high level of Wilson's findings.
While some may differ on the fairness of discrediting Joseph Wilson, it sure isn't any kind of crime.
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So if the offense wasn't against Plame, what of the offense against Wilson? There was no offense. As many of Joe Wilson's own hottest defenders would no doubt argue in relation to President Bush, exposing a liar is not only not a crime, it's a public service.
And Wilson lied. Repeatedly.
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What isn't controversial is this: Karl Rove didn't "out" Valerie Plame as a CIA agent to intimidate Joe Wilson. He was dismissing Joe Wilson as a low-level has-been hack to whom nobody should pay attention. He was right then, and if he said it today, he'd still be right.
And if Valerie wants to live a quiet spy life, she should stop having her picture taken by society photographers and stop getting stories written about her on the front page of the Times.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It's been somewhat disconcerting that the WH doesn't go ahead and straighten them out...but did you notice that McClellan gave another PC today? And that same blowhard from MSNBC did the same "j'accuse" routine? Now--wonder why the WH decided to put themselves through that twice.
I think the MSM is being set up for the coup de grace--because this is such a (boring, really) mess of entangled lies, it's going to take a blade to cut the gordian knot.
What beats me is that the MSM doesn't seem to know what's coming. They know that Plame was already "outed"--they know that there's no crime here...they know that we know. Are they so arrogant that they believe they can fool all the people, all the time?
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And now a few pertinent facts:
(NOTE: Kristof uses the word "facts" here, for what it's worth.)
First, the C.I.A. suspected that Aldrich Ames had given Mrs. Wilson's name (along with those of other spies) to the Russians before his espionage arrest in 1994. So her undercover security was undermined at that time, and she was brought back to Washington for safety reasons.
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So your guess is as good as mine, but it appears likely that the special prosecutor long ago switched tracks on his investigation since there clearly could have been no crime committed relating to Valerie Plame's "outing", according to Victoria Toensing and others who were involved in crafting the law.
My own suspicion is that the SP is pursuing prejury charges against one or more of those who have already testified and/or he may be going after those parties (reporters) who tipped off that terror mosque in Detroit(?) about an impending federal raid.
To me, the most serious (yet hilarious) question in this whole fiasco is WHO is it that the New York Times is so interested in covering for that they will let one of their own reporters rot in prison until October?
Regards,
LH
He gives a press briefing every week day. That's his job. If it takes place outside the WH briefing room it is called a press gaggle. Go to the WH website and you can see them all.
I saw parts of today's and noticed he stressed that he was eager to answer all their questions eventually---shades of Novak. He was calm, relaxed and confident.
Of course the reporters were in jackal mode but not quite as bad as yesterday. Very reminiscent of the press briefing when GWB's TANG service issue was revived about Feb '04.
Maybe just enough of the people enough of the time. And Lord knows there are plenty of people ready and willing to be fooled.
As to why the WH doesn't clarify the matter, I think it relates to the legalities of the prosecutor's investigation. And since the President's access to Rove is at least as good as Cooper's and other reporters, he has the full facts and a grand strategy must be unfolding. I hope it's the one you outline -- a real coup de grace and not a chicken coup. At this point I don't think enough facts are known to decide how it will go.
Since Plame was Outed ten years ago it should be obvious to anyone who cares to examine the matter that NO ONE in this administration had a thing to do with it.
On the surface that appears to be true. But Kristof also wrote:
"After passing as an energy analyst for Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a C.I.A. front company, she was switching to a new cover as a State Department official, affording her diplomatic protection without having "C.I.A." stamped on her forehead."
If K. is to be taken as a credible source, then Novak -- NOT Rove -- might have gone against the rules when he published her name. But since Novak seems to have a grin as big as the Cheshire cat's, something else is in play. I suspect you're right. It's something entirely unrelated to the Plame game (unless it's the roles of her husband and some sneaky reporters). This is all very fascinating.
Bump for a later read. Thanks!
Love that line.
"Rove's committed a classic case of treason - deliberately outing a secret operative for base political motives"
Interesting that you have joined in with the slime-merchants without any knowledge or understanding of the case. There's no reason to believe Rove did anything unethical or illegal or (heaven forbid) 'treasonous' but there are plenty of good reasons to say that the imbecilic fraud artists who have been orchestrating and feeding these non-scandals, beginning with the dishonest and idiotic piece by Joe Wilson in the July 6, 2003 NY Times, are indeed guilty of various unethical, scurrilous activities.... and the people engaging in such activities against the government in TIME OF WAR certainly are guilty of seditious, perhaps treasonous, activities.........
Looks like WILSON is the one who leaked his wife's name.
Odds are, this is where some of the journalists got the info for her name.
ODDS are, they leaked her identity.
kaboom!
Kristof just showed that Plame was NOT Covert.
Hey Federal,
This all brings us to another issue.
WILSON IS GUILTY OF TRYING TO THWART US NATIONAL SECURITY!
He was out lying about the Niger stuff. For politics no less.
AT A TIME OF WAR!
Looks like WILSON may have committed treason....if folks want to throw that term around.
Hey your absolutely correct, I shout it every time I get the chance.
Its not just Wilson but Turban Durbin and just about every other democRAT you can name......
What "secret operative" ? Plame was a low-level desk jockey.
Ok, another article that I just read indicated that it was Cooper protecting his own partisanship that led him to refuse to testify about his source and the nature of the conversation. Is it possible that since the Times was leading the call for the appointment of the independent council, that they are protecting their own butt in that they also knew that the Whitehouse was not leaking Plame's identity to get back at Wilson? In other words is Miller in jail as a CYA for the NYT?
That's it in a nutshell.
Eva, you're must smarter about the in's and out's of this political intrigue than I am.........don't ask me! But that certainly sounds feasible and reasonable to assume.
BTW, Brit Hume pointed out tonight that Scooter Libby also signed a blanket waiver for all the reporters HE talked to at the same time Rove did.
When Libby signed his, Cooper testified before the GR, presumably telling "all." Now, why on earth would he NOT testify after Rove signed his if he had for Scooter?
We are missing something here......big time.
Did you even READ the article? Are you retarded?
I think that the whole thing rests on the call for the independent council investigation for a crime that the NYT reporters knew never happened. I think that the prosecutors are going to prove that the NYT was acting as a partisan political arm of the DNC and John Kerry. If you recall John Kerry called for the independent council investigation in September of 2004. No, let's go back further than that.
One of the articles mentioned that Wilson did not even jump on the, the Whitehouse exposed my wife as a CIA agent until two months after the press started the story. That would have been after Wilson met with Kerry's campaign manager (can't remember his name, but he's the guy who dug up the Bush DUI)in May . It was this campaign manager that set Wilson up with the Vanity Fair article and hyped the story that was first broken in April, but was short lived in the press. No one cared. I'm not sure when the NYT jumped in, but they were calling for heads to roll and an independent investigation, and for Novak to reveal his source, because they declared that it was evident that the Whitehouse was using a friendly source to sabotage Wilson, and nullify his report. The NYT took the lead on this issue and never dropped it, until it's own reporters were subpoened.
When it was demonstrated that no law was broken by revealing that Plame was a CIA agent, the Times called for the investigation to be closed, but the prosecutor was not satisfied. He had found something else that interested him in the investigation. Possibly what he found was a concerted effort on the part of the Times (and Time) to manipulate the issue for the benefit of the Democrat party. Was there any crime involved, probably not, but the report would not be flattering to an already troubled NYT.
Chris Lehane? He met with Chris Lehane?
And did the NYT really call for the investigation be stopped?
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