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.

[mystery-ak]

Has Wilson testified before the GJ?......Somehow Wilson got word that Novak was snooping around and planning to write a story on Niger.....since Wilson couldn't reach Novak by phone, Im still betting that Wilson sent one of his *friends* to question Novak on what he knew.....my guess is it was Larry Johnson....Novak would have recognized him and stopped to talk to him....

[SolidSupplySide]

"an absolute stranger"

Where did you get that? The article didn't say that person was a stranger to Novak. And there's a lot of speculation on this thread that the person in question was none other than Larry Johnson.

[tobyhill]

I just heard on FOX from some political pundit that some article today, somewhere, indicates Novak reiterated that the info did come from inside the CIA? Anyone with knowledge of this article, today.

[mosquitobite]

If anyone has a ping list will they add me too it? ;) Thanks!

[Wolfstar]

Wilson and Pincus have colluded together from the very beginning of this set up.

[Wolfstar]

So Walter Pincus is using the Post to prop up Wilson.

Why not?! He used the WaPo to help Wilson set up this whole attempt to discredit the Bush administration.

[Dilbert56]

This article contains a serious white-wash of the CIA's input to the President's SOTU. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report devoted an entire chapter to this episode. As has been noted, they concluded Wilson was wrong, wrong, lying, wrong, and lying about his claims. They also examined, in excruciating detail, the process those 16 words went through. All the intelligence organizations reviewed the SOTU contents. They suggested changes, rewrites, etc.

For the author to suggest the CIA's review was simply Hadley looking it over is unbelievable. Either it's a an outright lie to minimize CIA culpability (likely) or the CIA completely ceeded one of its key responsibilities (gross dereliction of duty).

Note that the President had been authorized to quote a specific tonnage of uranium ore and chose not to do so. He understated the intelligence. He did not exaggerate it.

[mystery-ak]

Plame and Johnson went to CIA school together...Plame and Johnson are friends, so there is a link to Wilson.....who better than a CIA agent and good friend would Wilson send to question Novak....Wilson/Plame/Johnson have a lot to hide.

[Wolfstar]

I don't have much, if any, faith in special prosecutors. I know a lot of folks here on FR are hoping Fitzgerald does the right thing with this investigation, but I'm not holding my breath that he will.

[Wolfstar]

Has Wilson testified before the GJ?......

I don't know, but would be interested to find out.

[CedarDave]

I think Novak is cooling his jets until the investigation is done and then he is going to unleash Hell on a lot of people.

I sure hope that is the case. Will be LOL for a whole day if it happens.

[Sam Hill]

"No wonder the Democratic National Committee cites [Pincus's] work."

Hey, they paid for it fair and square. (With plum appointments for the wife, and other perks.)

[tobyhill]

Johnson was secretly trained to forget her last name so he just called her Valarie P. He was probably trained to forget she was married too and we all know where that now leads 'em. Her code name for Johnson was "Oh-Baby".

[Wolfstar]

Where did you get that?

See Post #42.

[roses of sharon]

NR asked today, why is Pincus not disclosing in this article the fact that Wilson has been his close source?

The WP need a talkin too!

[Wolfstar]

Plame and Johnson went to CIA school together...

I didn't know that. The steaming pile gets deeper every day or so on this story, doesn't it.

[Wolfstar]

NR asked today, why is Pincus not disclosing in this article the fact that Wilson has been his close source?

It's about time someone starting revealing the collusion that's been going on between the two from the very beginning of this saga.

[mystery-ak]

Yeah.....if this was a mystery book I would have put it down....the cast of characters are endless and too confusing...LOL

[Sam Hill]

"Johnson was secretly trained to forget her last name so he just called her Valarie P."

In one of Johnson's gazillion interviews or articles he said that he knew Plame went under deep cover in 1990--or something like that.

Well, given that he left the CIA years before 1990, how did he know that?

Was he lying? (A distinct possibility, given his track record.) Or did he inadvertantly admit to illegally receiving classified information?

(Of course Johnson says there is no such thing as classified material--except for Republicans.)

[tobyhill]

Anyone knowing Wilson also knew his wife Plame and that she worked for the CIA so there again it was already in the MSM by association. If not Pincus himself then his wife probably knew her. The only perjury and lying, other than Wilson and associates, that I know of is all these reporters and journalist that have claimed not to know anything about Plame before Rove or Libby. I just have a very hard time believing that.