Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'Wash Post' Wonders if Leaker of Plame's Identity Was a Reporter
Editor & Publisher ^ | July 6, 2005 | E&P Staff

Posted on 07/05/2005 8:22:23 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative

The Washington Post, declaring Wednesday an "historic" day in the history of the press in America, suggested that perhaps the "leaker" of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIa operative was not a Bush administration official but a reporter (or reporters).

In a Wednesday A3 story, Carol Leonnig writes, "Sources close to the investigation say there is evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government officials -- not the other way around -- that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee."

She also revealed that colleagues of Matt Cooper, the Time who may be sent to jail Wednesday if he continues to refuse to testify to a grand jury, say "he is still struggling with his decision. For practical purposes, he cannot protect his sources because his publication has already turned over notes that identify them. But if Cooper cooperates, friends say, he fears his journalistic reputation will be tarnished. Time editors have told him they will respect whatever decision he makes, they said."

Leonnig also observed that at a lunch meeting on Tuesday with Washington Post reporters and editors, Karl Rove, who turned up as a source in Cooper's notes, declined to answer questions about the Plame case.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bush; cia; cialeak; iraq; media; plame; rove; washingtonpost; wilson; wp
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-100 last
To: West Coast Conservative

I thought I read on at least one thread when they first went after Novak that Valerie Plame's CIA identity was Washington's worst-kept secret. Everyone knew, they just didn't talk about it.


81 posted on 07/06/2005 5:10:15 AM PDT by maryz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: angkor
It is absolutely inconceivable that the self-promoting, narcissistic showboater Joe Wilson could keep his wife's employment a secret from his good pals in the Beltway press.

Pegged. :-)

82 posted on 07/06/2005 5:16:02 AM PDT by auboy ("woof")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: West Coast Conservative

"But will you respect me in the morning if I tell?"

Please Mr. Cooper, no one cares. Your collegues are full of "Let's you and him go fight" encouragement, but how many would go to jail to conceal a potential criminal act from the grand jury?


83 posted on 07/06/2005 7:29:38 AM PDT by wildbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PhiKapMom

I can barely wait.


84 posted on 07/06/2005 7:38:31 AM PDT by go-ken-go
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: airborne
There will be less news coverage than Sandy Berger's plea bargain deal.

I missed that -- there was a plea deal?

85 posted on 07/06/2005 8:19:32 AM PDT by GOPJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: GOPJ
From the Washington Post (partial text) -

"Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a former White House national security adviser, plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and will acknowledge intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism....

... Under terms negotiated by Berger's attorneys and the Justice Department, he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance."

86 posted on 07/06/2005 8:54:23 AM PDT by airborne (Dear Lord, please be with my family in Iraq. Keep them close to You and safely in Your arms.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: West Coast Conservative

....he fears his journalistic reputation will be tarnished.....

He has no journalistic reputation to shine. it is forevermore tarnished by his recalcitrance to obey the law.


87 posted on 07/06/2005 8:57:36 AM PDT by bert ( "Market forces, not political majorities, will compel societies to reconfigure themselves in ways t)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: atlanta67
It would be so sweet if it was Lawrence O'Donnell
88 posted on 07/06/2005 8:58:03 AM PDT by mware ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche........ "Nope, you are"-- GOD)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: cyncooper; Shermy; piasa
You just know when Wilson was chatting up Sy Hersh

Has Hersh been called to testify in the leak investigation? IIRC he was one of the earliest reporters to cite Wilson as an anonymous source. It's interesting to compare Wilson and Hersh's comments about their contact with the CIA--note how Wilson uses the term "officials at the CIA" when he seems to primarily have Plame in mind:

Joseph Wilson, "What I Didn't Find in Africa", The New York Times, July 6, 2003, linked from Common Dreams News Center

In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report.

SNIP

While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.

SNIP

In early March, I arrived in Washington and promptly provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. I later shared my conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau. There was nothing secret or earth-shattering in my report, just as there was nothing secret about my trip.

Though I did not file a written report, there should be at least four documents in United States government archives confirming my mission. The documents should include the ambassador's report of my debriefing in Niamey, a separate report written by the embassy staff, a C.I.A. report summing up my trip, and a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president (this may have been delivered orally). While I have not seen any of these reports, I have spent enough time in government to know that this is standard operating procedure.

Seymour Hersh, "Who Lied to Whom?", The New Yorker, Issue of 2003-03-31

On December 19th, Washington, for the first time, publicly identified Niger as the alleged seller of the nuclear materials, in a State Department position paper that rhetorically asked, “Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?” (The charge was denied by both Iraq and Niger.) A former high-level intelligence official told me that the information on Niger was judged serious enough to include in the President’s Daily Brief, known as the P.D.B., one of the most sensitive intelligence documents in the American system. Its information is supposed to be carefully analyzed, or “scrubbed.” Distribution of the two- or three-page early-morning report, which is prepared by the C.I.A., is limited to the President and a few other senior officials. The P.D.B. is not made available, for example, to any members of the Senate or House Intelligence Committees. “I don’t think anybody here sees that thing,” a State Department analyst told me. “You only know what’s in the P.D.B. because it echoes—-people talk about it.”

SNIP

It is also clear, as the former high-level intelligence official told me, that “something as bizarre as Niger raises suspicions everywhere.”

SNIP

The former high-level intelligence official told me that some senior C.I.A. officials were aware that the documents weren’t trustworthy. “It’s not a question as to whether they were marginal. They can’t be ‘sort of’ bad, or ‘sort of’ ambiguous. They knew it was a fraud—-it was useless. Everybody bit their tongue and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if the Secretary of State said this?’ The Secretary of State never saw the documents.” He added, “He’s absolutely apoplectic about it.” (A State Department spokesman was unable to comment.) A former intelligence officer [Note: Is this "officer" distinct from the "official" mentioned above?--Fedora] told me that some questions about the authenticity of the Niger documents were raised inside the government by analysts at the Department of Energy and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. However, these warnings were not heeded.

“Somebody deliberately let something false get in there,” the former high-level intelligence official added. “It could not have gotten into the system without the agency being involved. Therefore it was an internal intention. Someone set someone up.” (The White House declined to comment.)

Seymour Hersh, "The Stovepipe: How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons.", The New Yorker, Issue of 2003-10-27

The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went on, was that the intelligence reports about Iraq provided by the United Nations inspection teams and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitored Iraq’s nuclear-weapons programs, were far more accurate than the C.I.A. estimates. “Some of the old-timers in the community are appalled by how bad the analysis was,” the official said. “If you look at them side by side, C.I.A. versus United Nations, the U.N. agencies come out ahead across the board.”

Of course we know Seymour Hersh would never be involved in leaking information about the CIA. . .

89 posted on 07/06/2005 12:24:01 PM PDT by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: PhiKapMom
I LOL'd at your LOL. I don't think this will disappear at all, it has too much leg. The blogoshpere and FOX News will give it the added umpfh (that is a technical term) that it needs.
90 posted on 07/06/2005 3:08:54 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Forget about Terrorism Fool! My pug has the master plan!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: K4Harty

It just keeps getting better and better IMHO -- figured the way Novak looked like the cat that swallowed the canary when he said he would tell all after the grand jury was finished, it was good news for our side.


91 posted on 07/06/2005 3:28:15 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- J.C. for OK Governor in '06; Allen/Watts in 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: PhiKapMom

I just got off the golf course so I am trying to catch up after reading all my pings! I hope Novak spills the beans and shows that it was a RAT all along.


92 posted on 07/06/2005 3:31:35 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Forget about Terrorism Fool! My pug has the master plan!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: K4Harty

I am with you -- cannot wait -- just got back from the store myself and getting caught up. How was your golf game?


93 posted on 07/06/2005 3:40:03 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- J.C. for OK Governor in '06; Allen/Watts in 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
Silly me...and all along I thought it was Halliburton and the eeeeee-vil Dick Cheney!

Man, was that guy milking his press conference or what?! And, still he wouldn't give the press what they were clamoring for...THE NAME!
94 posted on 07/06/2005 3:42:49 PM PDT by hummingbird ("The world needs more Steel Magnolias like Beth Holloway.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: angkor
I would presume he's been telling them for years.

It gives him gravitas...heh, heh, heh....
95 posted on 07/06/2005 3:47:16 PM PDT by hummingbird ("The world needs more Steel Magnolias like Beth Holloway.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Politicalities
life is full of surprises!


96 posted on 07/06/2005 3:53:29 PM PDT by Republican Red (''Van der Sloot" is Dutch for ''Kennedy.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: PhiKapMom
Golf was great. I got my first hole-in-one today and I didn't even see it go in! Just relaxing with my Pug and trying to catch up on all the threads. Enjoy the board and add me to a pinger if anything else comes up on this topic. I'll do the same if I get here first and don' see you posting. This, and the SCOTUS stuff is gonna get good.

Happy FReepin'

K4

97 posted on 07/06/2005 5:50:59 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Forget about Terrorism Fool! My pug has the master plan!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: K4Harty

WOW! Congratulations! I cannot feature getting a hole in one. I can putt but everything else is downhill!

Will definitely ping you -- it is getting good right now -- I keep chuckling as the Dems keep walking the plank!


98 posted on 07/06/2005 6:09:27 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- J.C. for OK Governor in '06; Allen/Watts in 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: PhiKapMom

Hole-In-ones are an accident plain and simple. But they are nice when you get one (or finally get one in my case.) Thanks for the congrats. This Sen. Schumer phone call thread is good stuff. That is going to get good also. Check it out.


99 posted on 07/06/2005 6:52:01 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Forget about Terrorism Fool! My pug has the master plan!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: Berosus; Cincinatus' Wife; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Do not dub me shapka broham; ...

An oldie.


100 posted on 04/27/2006 10:10:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-100 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson