Posted on 09/01/2006 4:47:27 AM PDT by PurpleMountains
This does get a little complicated. First, a holdover, liberal CIA employee, Valerie Plame, decided to undermine President Bush’s policies by pulling strings to get her like-minded husband, Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger to discredit the report from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase yellowcake for nuclear weapons development. (This British report was mentioned by Pres. Bush as one piece of intelligence we relied on in concluding that there was a significant risk of WMD in Iraq. The report turned out to be factual.)
(Excerpt) Read more at forthegrandchildren.blogspot.com ...
This does get a little complicated. First, a holdover, liberal CIA employee, Valerie Plame, decided to undermine President Bush’s policies by pulling strings to get her like-minded husband, Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger to discredit the report from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase yellowcake for nuclear weapons development. (This British report was mentioned by Pres. Bush as one piece of intelligence we relied on in concluding that there was a significant risk of WMD in Iraq. The report turned out to be factual.) Wilson then wrote a piece in the NY Times labeling the British report as false. That report was prominently published and mentioned over and over again by the Times. Step One
A retiring official in our State Dept., Richard Armitage, who also opposed Bush’s policies, casually mentioned Plame’s identity to Robert Novak, who exposed her in his newspaper column. Immediately virtually every Democrat politician, the NY Times and every other liberal newspaper, all the TV networks and CNN launched into a three year campaign that: 1. it is a crime to reveal her name (it wasn’t), 2. obviously the leak came from Dick Cheney’s office, probably by Karl Rove, and both of them ought to be investigated and charged. 3. obviously this was a very dirty political trick to discredit Wilson, and Pres. Bush must have known of it and approved of it. Step Two
A special prosecutor (Patrick Fitzgerald) was appointed. Although he learned almost immediately that the source was Armitage and was just a casual mention, and although he concluded that no laws were broken, he ended up ruining Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby, by charging him with lying about when and how he heard about Plame’s identity. This is such an absurd and politically motivated charge, which, unbelievably, is still outstanding (shades of Nifong and the Duke rape case), even Democrats are embarrassed. Step Three
This week, Armitage’s identity as the “leaker” was revealed to the rest of us, and his lawyer confirmed it. Since Armitage had no possible motivation to discredit Plame, the whole scheme to use the Plame-Wilson affair to discredit the Bush administration collapses. Step Four Not surprisingly, neither the Democrat politicians nor the left-wing media who filled the air with “dirty trick” and “Rove belongs in prison” charges for three years have made much mention of the Armitage development nor have they withdrawn their charges or apologized. The lawsuit filed by the Wilsons against Vice President Cheney, top White House aide Karl Rove, and former Cheney aide Lewis Libby is still on the record as well. No Step Five
Step 5: Cheney, Rove and Libby sue the jejesus outta Wilson, Plame and their attorneys for abuse of process.
If you are going to post my article, post it all.
I'm with you in wondering why action does not lie against people who cause real harm with deceit.Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimateadvocates suits against the FCC and broadcast journalists for provable torts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.