Free Republic

Since the revelation that Richard Armitage, a former high-ranking official in the State Department, was the source of the much-ballyhooed Valerie Plame "leak," many in the media have refused to touch the story with a ten-foot pole. This was quite a turnaround since before the Armitage involvement was known, many journalists believed the CIA leak story was one worth pursuing on a daily basis. Some even believed it could bring down the Bush White House, or at least end the careers of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. One of the biggest media figures boycotting the Plame story has been MSNBC...

Though the investigation into who “outed” Plame was premised on the notion that (a) her identity was not publicly known before Robert Novak’s article in July 2003 and (b) the disclosure came from the Administration—particularly persons in the White House to somehow “punish” Wilson, there is increasing evidence that Wilson himself widely divulged that information to burnish his own credentials as an expert. I reported long ago that at the June 14, 2003 EPIC conference (where he listed his wife as Valerie Plame in the program) Wilson revealed he was the Ambassador who was the source for the May 2003...

"The same unit [the Office of Special Plans] that fed Chalabi's intelligence on WMD to Rumsfeld was also feeding him Chalabi's stuff on the prospects for postwar Iraq," said a leading US government expert on the Middle East. Says a former US ambassador with strong links to the CIA: "There was certainly information coming from the Iraqi exile community, including Chalabi--who was detested by the CIA and by the State Department--saying, 'They will welcome you with open arms.'"

In a development that got no media play over the weekend, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's defense lawyer announced on Friday that he has located five witnesses who will testify that Joe Wilson outed his wife Valerie Plame as a CIA employee before Robert Novak did so in his July 2003 column. According to the NationalReviewOnline's Byron York, Libby's lawyer Ted Wells told the court that his witnesses "will say under oath that Mr. Wilson told them his wife worked for the CIA." Wells said that he expects Leakgate Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to call Wilson to testify in a bid to...

Another suggestion: who "outed" Plame I said that Wilson revealed he was the Ambassador who was the source for the May 2003 Nicholas Kristof piece and the June 2003 Walter Pincus piece, in which he falsely accused the Administration of jiggering evidence on June 14, 2003 at the Washington EPIC conference (where he also listed his wife’s name as “Valerie Plame.”) There’s ample reason to believe he flourished her name and connection to the agency in greater detail regularly, which makes the entire investigation into who publicly disclosed her identity particularly ridiculous. A shrewd reader at Free Republic has found...

PARIS — Two flights chartered by the CIA made stopovers in France in 2002 and 2005, the French newspaper Le Figaro said Friday, adding to likely questions facing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits Europe next week. French officials said they had no knowledge of the clandestine flights via France, which were first mentioned Thursday in The New York Times and Britain's Guardian newspaper. Le Figaro said the first flight identified took place on March 31, 2002. The Learjet private plane stopped in the northwestern town of Brest on its way from Iceland to Turkey, with a...

Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.

August 13, 2004 Times Reporter Is Subpoenaed in Leak Case By ADAM LIPTAK Reporter for The New York Times, Judith Miller, was subpoenaed yesterday by a Washington grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. undercover officer to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. The subpoena to Ms. Miller was only the most recent of a series issued to journalists in a politically sensitive inquiry that has on several occasions led investigators to question White House officials. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The Times, said the paper would move to quash the subpoena to...

THE FACTS KEEP “DRIBBLING” ON WILSON’S PARADEDropped By The National Media Now That His Claims Have Been Debunked, Wilson Tells His Story To “The Georgetowner”______________________________________________________________JOSEPH WILSON: “It’ll take a little while to get on top of it. But it will also encourage people for the facts to come dribbling out. And, as they come dribbling out, it will rebound against the administration.”  (Beth Solomon, “High Value Target,” The Georgetowner, 7/21/04)HERE ARE SOME FACTS WILSON DIDN’T LIKE “DRIBBLING” OUT Senate Intelligence Committee Unanimously Concluded That Wilson’s Report “Lent More Credibility” To CIA Reports On Iraqi Attempts To Purchase Uranium From Africa. ...

WHO’S PART OF THE “SMEAR CAMPAIGN”?Under Fire From Senate Intelligence And British Government Reports, Wilson Lashes Out______________________________________________________________CNN’S BILL HEMMER: “Mr. Ambassador, people are now calling you a liar. Your response to that is what?”  JOE WILSON: “Well, I think when the facts are known to everybody, the truth will be very clear. This is part of a partisan smear campaign over the last several days. The Republican National Committee has been sending out blast faxes and blast e-mails focusing on me. Ironically, just a week before the convention, I seem to be their worst enemy. Again, this is designed to...

JOE WILSON’S CREATIVE FICTIONOn CNN, Wilson Continues To SpinFalse Tales With “Literary Flair”________________________________________________JOE WILSON: “Well, I don't know. Obviously, there's been this orchestrated campaign, this smear campaign. I happen to think that it's because the RNC, the Republican National Committee's been involved in this in a big way …”  CNN’S WOLF BLITZER: “But they weren't involved in the Senate Intelligence Committee report.”  WILSON: “No, they weren't.”  (CNN’s “Lade Edition,” 7/18/04)»»»»WILSON’S FALSE CLAIMWilson Claims His Wife Did Not Suggest He Travel To Niger To Investigate Reports Of Uranium Deal; Instead, Wilson Claims It Came Out Of Meeting With CIA To Discuss...

Something to Yak About – Calling Joe WilsonAnd no, we’re not talking about the Gentleman from South Carolina here, we’re talking about disgraced Kerry henchman Joe Wilson, whose mug was virtually ubiquitous on the talking head circuit when he was accusing the president and most of his administration of all kinds of malfeasance regarding pre-war Iraq intelligence. But now that Joe’s been exposed as a liar, he’s somewhere deep in the tall grass. Try this on for size – Google ‘Joe Wilson’ and ‘Niger,’ and see how many current news items return. It’s fun for the entire family! When a...