Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net (My Title: CIA Questioned in "Leak" Case)

Washington Post ^ | Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei

[SolidSupplySide]

The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case.

Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.

[Jim Robinson]

"during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war"

Bwahahhahahahahahahahah!! No bias here.

[Mo1]

In a strange twist in the investigation, the grand jury -- acting on a tip from Wilson -- has questioned a person who approached Novak on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 8, 2003, six days before his column appeared in The Post and other publications, Wilson said in an interview

Pincus Alert Ping

[Reactionary]

"Administration officials?" Hardly. Someone in the CIA allowed Ms. Plame to send her husband on a propaganda mission to Niger. And this was done during a time of war. Further, it appears that journalists in the MSM were involved..

My guess? It was her boss who sent her. The entire thing smacks of cozy liberals getting together to use the CIA to discredit American foreign policy.

[Republican Wildcat]

determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case.

How transparent can you get?

[SolidSupplySide]

Most of the questioning of CIA and State Department officials took place in 2004, the sources said.

This is l-o-n-g after Rove's testimony to the grand jury. Fitzgerald was not asking the CIA if Plame was truly a covert agent at this point. Fitzgerald would have known that by 2004. Could it be that people in the CIA are the target of this investigation?

[MJY1288]

The egg on the faces of these leftists reporters will be a sight to see :-)

[SolidSupplySide]

(My memory says Rove testified in 2003. I could be mistaken.)

[mondonico]

I really would like it if the prosecutor indicted Wilson himself or maybe a journalist...

[blogblogginaway]

Using background conversations with at least three journalists and other means, Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility. They said that his 2002 trip to Niger was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but CIA officials say that is incorrect. One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.

Uh yeah OK. We believe that.

[cyncooper]

Thanks for this ping. The wide net is wonderful to finally get confirmation of.

The spin by the WaPo to only say the WH is the one being looked at for wrongdoing and ignoring the many possibilities that others in this cast of characters is lying and up to no good is unreal (though not unexpected since they've been carrying the Wilsons' rancid water for years).

[MJY1288]

Who has been exposed as a liar?

Who did the Senate Intel report label as "Not Credible"

Who lied when he said his wife had nothing to do with him being sent to Niger?

Who lied about the verbal report he submitted to the CIA?

Who lied when he said the Vice President's office sent him to Niger to investigate a Forged document that didn't exist until 8 months after his trip?

Fitzpatrick is not deaf dumb and blind. The scandal here rests in the laps of Valeria Plame and her Husband Joe Wilson. Plus all those involved in sending his sorry arse to Niger

[SolidSupplySide]

One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.

Good catch, blogblog.

I thought this matter was put to bed by the bipartisan Senate investigation. Plame recommended Wilson for the trip. There was even documentation to back it up.

Why is the CIA so intent on revising that story? Do innocent people revise their stories?

[cyncooper]

In a 2002 trip to Niger at the request of the CIA, Wilson found no evidence to support allegations that Iraq was seeking uranium from that African country and reported back to the agency in February 2002. But nearly a year later, Bush asserted in his State of the Union speech that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, attributing it to British, not U.S., intelligence.

Let's see, the WaPo manages to ignore so many facts here: Tenet has expressly stated that Plame's group sent Wilson on their own initiative. By saying he was sent "at the request of the CIA" they intend to lend him undeserved credibility.

Furthermore, it is outragoues that they tie the SOTU speech to the trip since it is established beyond any doubt that Wilson's "findings" (actually that Iraq was seeking to obtain yellowcake from Niger) were not briefed to the WH at all at that time (only after the wretched fool started making his lies).

[okie01]

One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.

Walter Pincus changes the CIA's story and adds to the confusion...

In a strange twist in the investigation, the grand jury -- acting on a tip from Wilson -- has questioned a person who approached Novak on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 8, 2003, six days before his column appeared in The Post and other publications, Wilson said in an interview. The person, whom Wilson declined to identify to The Post, asked Novak about the "yellow cake" uranium matter and then about Wilson, Wilson said.

The re-surfacing of Terrance J. Wilkinson...???

[cyncooper]

Exactly---they are piling on the anti-Bush spin in this piece (as they have before and will again).

The court filings I have seen say Miller spoke with a "government official". Now, yes, it could be someone pro-Bush---or it could be someone in the Plame group who was getting the Wilsonian false version out to reporters, yet this article keeps referring to an "administration official" and even more pointed "Bush official".

And this is pure speculation delivered as if it is established fact:

Fitzgerald appears to believe that Miller's conversations may help him get to the bottom of the leak and the damage-control campaign undertaken by senior Bush officials that week.

How dare the Bush WH set the record straight with facts when Wilson and his cohorts are out there lying. To the WaPo this is "damage-control".

They even say with a straight face:

Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility.

Gee, not a hard job since he was LYING. But in the world of WaPo, the Bush WH is supposed to allow any politically motivated asshat to spread stories to undermine them and not say a word.

[Enchante]

[Plame] "had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post."


Here's a sidelight, but it could yield some interesting, perhaps damning info: in 1999 Joe Wilson was just a year or less into his new venture with his own consulting company. His wife in the CIA arranges for him to take some official government trip to Niger..... they couldn't be using the CIA and US government influence to promote hubby Joe's new consulting business could we??? Is there a corruption/nepotism angle on the possible promotion of Joe Wilson's private consulting business here??? I remember a passage in his book, when he is discussing his 2002 trip to Niger for the CIA, where he mentions that some of the vistors to his hotel room only wanted to talk with him about "local business conditions" - I'm pretty sure that's the exact phrase he used - sounded like a euphemism for cultivating his private business contacts as opposed to his bogus CIA mission. So his wife has helped to set him up in a semi-official role while he is pursuing private gain re: Niger gold mining, etc. [he mentioned that some of his clients were interested in possible investments in development of gold mines in Niger]

[Shortstop7]

Heck no..... Just ask Cokie and Steve Roberts. They are worried about that kind of thing, you know.

Hogwash.......101.

[cyncooper]

Check out the loose lipped Wilsons still blabbing away to their buds at the WaPo:

CIA officials told The Washington Post.

and

acting on a tip from Wilson

Please indict these insufferable fools, Fitzgerald...please.