Woodward adds twist to CIA leak case ~ Armitage tape at CNN reveals truth of Plame exposure

strata-sphere.com ^ | February 12th, 2007 | AJStrata

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Listening to the full Woodward tape of Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaking the news about Plame must be giving Fitzgerald nightmares. CNN has posted the full tape played at the trial and it is astounding. The part that got me was when Armitage said “His wife named him”, and Woodward asks, “Why doesn’t this get out?”. Then Armitage says, on June 13th 2003, basically what Andrea Mitchell would say months later when she was talking off the cuff on CNBC. Armitage laughingly says “Everyone knows”. In the words of Mitchell.

MURRAY And the second question is: Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA?

MITCHELL: It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn’t aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.

But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”. I predicted long ago, and again just prior to the trial, it would come out that Joe and Valerie were both sources for Kristof and others. Armitage is not saying ‘everyone knows’ who Joe Wilson is (though they did).

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Link to the just one Minute Blog:

Knocking the Prosecutor for Some Loops

***********************************EXCERPT*******************************

Two of the biggest blunders to date were failing to put anything on to support the July 12 count on Miller.With that out, obstruction is only available on the Cooper count(are you kidding?) and the Russert count.Fitz seemed shook as he made what I thought was a very weak argument that the jury could infer the July 12 stuff from the other conversations. .(I will detail this further tonight when I get home but he never charged Libby with perjury re Miller, only with obstruction and if that's out, it would only seem logical to tell the jury to disregard all that.)

[oceanview]

no.

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/walton-bio.html

[JerseyJohn61]

"Democrats don't care about the abuse of the judicial
system for political means"...

Exactly. The see themselves as the enlightened elite.
They are in the "right" with their convictions and
agenda. Conservatives are merely shallow minded,
selfish people who must be stopped by any means.

So even if they must lie, cheat or steal, they feel
justified in doing so. The end justifies the means....JJ61

[popdonnelly]

What matters to me is that members of the news media knew this and played this game that the White House was out to get Joe Wilson. Whatever they get, they deserve it.

[popdonnelly]

"No kidding. Gregory knew early and...he kept it to himself ? "

Don't forget Andrea Mitchell. And Joe Wilson! Joe got some 'splainin' to do! He better be on his knees praying that he doesn't get called as a witness.

[CyberAnt]

Yep! It sure looks that way to me too.

[angelsonmyside]

PING!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Tape is NOT great quality....

[Enchante]

PING PING PING!! Everyone, be sure to listen to the 1:47 min. tape posted by CNN. The Armitage/Woodward conversation of June 13, 2003 is incredible! ..... and just what a number of us have posted about these past 3+ years, that informed people were just sitting around shaking their heads about what a bozo Joe Wilson is, what a crock the whole "send Joe to Niger" mission was, and how Joe was calling "everyone" according to Armitage pushing his tall tales (remember, this is a MONTH before the Novak column!!).

---

http://www.strata-sphere.com/blog/

But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”. I predicted long ago, and again just prior to the trial, it would come out that Joe and Valerie were both sources for Kristof and others. Armitage is not saying ‘everyone knows’ who Joe Wilson is (though they did). He is saying “everyone knows” who Plamne is because Wilson was calling everybody and spilling the beans on his wife! It is quite clear what Armitage is saying, and what I am betting he will testify too.

I have maintained the reason Fitz could not charge anyone with exposing Plame was because Plame had exposed herself (or Wilson had) to back up Joe’s wild claims about forged evidence. Seems I was right. Clearly Armitage is saying everyone is finding out about Plame because of Joe’s calls. Now Mitchell and Russert must be sweating right along with Fitz-Magoo. I wonder if Wilson called more than Grossman. We know by Wilson’s own admission he was calling the State Department. Wonder if he got hold of Armitage? Did Wilson blab to Armitage?

Update: Make that pretty much a given that Armitage heard about Plame from Wilson (or Grossman). As we know Wilson called Grossman right before the Woodward meeting with Armitage (June 8-9th). So what Armitage is saying is only a few short days after these calls and he confirms HE KNOWS it was Wilson blabbing about Plame. Now with a transcript we can see Armitage admits personal knowledge (H/T Atlas Shrugs):


2:15 WOODWARD: But it was Joe Wilson who was sent by
2:16 the agency. I mean that’s just —
2:17 ARMITAGE: His wife works in the agency.
2:18 WOODWARD: — Why doesn’t that come out? Why does —
2:19 ARMITAGE: Everyone knows it.
2:20 WOODWARD: —that have to be a big secret?
2:21 Everyone knows.
2:22 ARMITAGE: Yeah. And I know [ ] Joe Wilson’s
2:23 been calling everybody. He’s pissed off because he was
2:24 designated as a low-level guy, went out to look at it. So,
2:25 he’s all pissed off.
3:1 WOODWARD: But why would they send him?
3:2 ARMITAGE: Because his wife’s a [ ]
3 3:23 3:2 Woodward & Amitage Interview -

[gusopol3]

Wonder if Val's Hillarizing Joe tonight? That divot in his head tomorrow could be from a heavy ashtray.

[Parley Baer]

Post 9. I have thought this way for years. If the media was just in the middle and had no bias one way or the other there would not be a dimocRAT parts as we know it.

[Peach]

But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”.

Everybody knew according to an awful lot of people. Is Wilson in court at ALL listening to what an ass he's made of himself?

[justshutupandtakeit]

Sounds like Bobby wants to testify and the defense will be stupid if it does not call him to the stand.

[popdonnelly]

Personally, I'm outraged that members of the news media would knowingly participate in this false attack on the White House. Their credibility is now zero.

[Enchante]

I remember being mocked on one of these threads a couple of years ago by a certain freeper who took umbrage at my remark that if we could somehow have tapes and/or transcripts of all the relevant conversations among Joe and Valerie talking to various MSM, CIA, and State Dept. types (both active and retired) between May 1 and July 14, 2003 it would blow the whole story into the stratosphere. I KNEW there would be stuff like this if only we could get access to it, because there were just so many indications from several directions of active manipulations of this matter behind the scenes for many weeks before Novak published his column.

All the smoke and mirrors led by David Corn and Joe Wilson has been like a classic Soviet-style agitprop operation: raise hell on the wrong issues, accuse your opponents of the very evils you yourself are doing, lie cheat defraud, etc.

Corn and the Wilsons are among the most despicable figures in modern US history. Life in prison would be too good for all of them.

[Enchante]

Armitage hasn't even testified yet, am I right? We only have this brief tape so far ..... while Armitage is no pal of the WH, this tape indicates he has things to say that should blow up the entire "retaliation" line of argument as a motive. It certainly should be the end of any chance for Joe and Valerie to prevail in their civil case. I know this doesn't speak to the specific 5 charges against Libby, but the judge ought to be shaking his head at what Fitz-dork has done for the past 3 + years.

[Peach]

Armitage has not testified yet. This entire trial should show everyone that they never, ever talk to anyone without an attorney and that we're much better of saying "I don't recall" (which is what the media has done) than we are in answering questions that we're not 100% certain about.

[Wolfstar]

Thanks for the ping, Enchante. If nothing else, for people who have paid attention to this whole BS case, this has revealed beyond any doubt the deep dishonesty endemic to the reporting business. It is the single most disgraceful, underhanded, phony, yet legal line of work around.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

To me...this potentially is bigger than Rathergate....NOT One Reporter has said that the Learned about Valerie from Joe Wilson...as far as I know,...but I am late to this....

[Kay]

Good one for your ping list!