Posted on 10/28/2005 10:29:03 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
September 29, 2003
CIA requests probe into leak of operative's identity
snip
According to the Post, Tenet has sent a memo to Justice with a set of questions as to whether the leak of Wilson's wife's identity violated U.S law. Experts have said the leak could be a violation of the Intelligence Identity Protection Act of 1982, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison for the disclosure of names and identities of intelligence agents by those who have access to classified information that identifies covert agents; and up to five years in prison for the disclosure of information by those who learn the identities of covert agents through access to classified information.
snip
A statement released yesterday by Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who requested in July that the FBI investigate the leak, said Justice is now considering whether to begin a formal investigation.
******
Sept. 29, 2003; 11:41 p.m. EDT
Novak: Wilson's Wife Not a Covert CIA Agent
The wife of Bush-bashing former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Joe Wilson is apparently not a covert CIA operative or an undercover agent, though she's been described that way repeatedly since the CIA asked for an investigation on how her identity was made public.
According to columnist Robert Novak, who revealed Mrs. Wilson's name in his July 14 column, sources at the CIA expressly told him she was not a spy.
"According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives," Novak told his audience on CNN's "Crossfire."
"So what is the fuss about?" he asked, then wondered aloud, "Pure Bush-bashing?"
In fact, in a little-noticed line in the initial Washington Post report on the announcement of the CIA's request for an investigation, the paper noted that "the CIA has declined to confirm whether she was undercover."
Still, hours after Novak went public with a clarification of Mrs. Wilson's status, she was described as a "undercover agent" by former White House chief of staff David Gergen in an interview with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren, and as a "covert agent" by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.
Byron York was suggesting that there is a tape. Other than that Fritz could decide he trusted Russert because he unequivocally said they didnt even discuss Wilson and his wife and Libby goes into this long convuluted story that he remembers while forgetting all the previous conversations with Cheney and others who told him about or talked about Wilson and his wife.
Adultery plus leaking inside stuff doesn't bother you?
Judging from the indictment, it looks like he may have been trying to deflect from the VP, but badly so. His own notebook records his comments with the VP reveal that as one of the sources of the Plame identity. The records of many government offials will reflect that as well.
His defense attorneys are probably going to focus on the reporters having already known through DC social circles who Wilson's wife was and that it is evidence that they could have thought they heard something from Libby when they really didn't. It's a weak defense. I think he is in hot water. Maybe he should look for a plea.
Rumour is these same Libby notes show indicate that Cheney was the first person to tell Libby about Wilson and his wife. But Libby doesnt recall them but he does remember this convuluted discussion that he said he had with Russert. If Russert has tape Libby is cooked.
It would be politically impossible as chief aide to a sitting VP to take the 5th but any solid attorney would NEVER have let him send a letter like he did his jailbird friend. They also would have stressed the "Martha Trap" and the importance of telling the truth in the face of such almost laughable (in terms of ability to prove) charges
In addition I find it hard to believe that Fitzgerald would be so definitive in his statements regarding Russert without some serious evidence (like a recording) to back him up. If he doesn't he's given the quality criminal defense Libby desperately needs some serious ammo.
Regardless of the circumstances, there need to be consequences when anyone knowingly and provably lies to a GJ or federal investigators. If you want to compare it to the Clinton treatment, I blame the worthless and weak GOP "leadership" from those days for not fighting back harder against the Clintonista PR Machine.
If there is (please note that qualifier before you flame me) proof positive Libby lied to the GJ there needs to be accepted consequences, not a bunch of rationalizing and excuse making from our side.
Oct 1, 2003
by Robert Novak
The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.
At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.
How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.
A big question is her duties at Langley. I regret that I referred to her in my column as an "operative," a word I have lavished on hack politicians for more than 40 years. While the CIA refuses to publicly define her status, the official contact says she is "covered" -- working under the guise of another agency. However, an unofficial source at the Agency says she has been an analyst, not in covert operations.
The Justice Department investigation was not requested by CIA Director George Tenet. Any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the Agency to Justice, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July shortly after the column was published. Reported only last weekend, the request ignited anti-Bush furor.
Novak was never legally liable for leaking Plames name. As long as he testified before the grand jury he was in no legal danger.
Had Plame been given an overseas assignment in the five years prior to Libby leaking it to reporters?
Former CIA Official Larry Johnson Delivers Democratic Radio Address
Washington, DC - This week, Larry Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism, delivered the Democratic Radio Address.
"Good morning. Im Larry Johnson, an American, a registered Republican, a former intelligence official at the CIA, and a friend of Valerie Plame.
I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985 with Valerie. We were members of the Career Trainee Program. Senator Orin Hatch wrote the letter of recommendation for me which I believe that helped open the doors to me at the CIA.
From the first day we walked into the building, all members of my training class were undercover, including Valerie. In other words, we had to lie to our family and friends about where we worked. We could only tell those who had an absolute need to know where we worked. In my case, I told my wife.
I knew the wife of Ambassador Wilson, Valerie, as Valerie P. Even though all of us in the training class held Top Secret Clearances, we were asked to limit our knowledge of our other classmates to the first initial of their last name.
So, Larry J. knew Val P. rather than Valerie Plame. I really didnt realize what her last name was until her cover was betrayed by the Government officials who gave columnist Robert Novak her true name.
I am stunned that government officials at the highest level have such ignorance about a matter so basic to the national security structure of this nation.
Robert Novaks compromise of Valerie led to scrutiny of CIA officers that worked with her. This not only compromised her cover company but potentially every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company or with her.
We must put to bed the lie that she was not undercover. For starters, if she had not been undercover then the CIA would not have referred the matter to the Justice Department.
Val only told those with a need to know about her status in order to safeguard her cover, not compromise it. She was content with being known as an energy consultant married to Ambassador Joe Wilson and the mother of twins.
I voted for George Bush in November of 2000 because I was promised a President who would bring a new tone and a new ethical standard to Washington.
So where are we? The President has flip-flopped on his promise to fire anyone at the White House implicated in a leak. We now know from press reports that at least Karl Rove and Scooter Libby are implicated in these leaks and may have lied during the investigation.
Instead of a President concerned first and foremost with protecting this country and the intelligence officers who serve it, we are confronted with a President who is willing to sit by while political operatives savage the reputations of good Americans like Valerie and Joe Wilson.
This is wrong and this is shameful.
We deserve people who work in the White House who are committed to protecting classified information, telling the truth to the American people, and living by example the idea that a country at war with Islamic extremists cannot focus its efforts on attacking other American citizens who simply tried to tell the truth.
I am Larry Johnson.
Thank you for listening.
Ken Starr was able to use Linda Trips tapes.
Huh?
I was joking about worse fates than playing footsie with Judith Miller.
I think she's cute in a middle aged way.
My views on the Libby indictment is that I would prefer to see that fop Wilson and his peroxide-classified wife indicted for using my tax dollars to fund a trip to Niger designed to only damage my president.
The CIA obviously is overrun with the same lefty apartchiks as the State Department. Friends of Hiss Society
a few trials and executions should do the trick
bttt
That was my point. Novak rolled over and gave up his source. So the question is: Who is the source? If it's Libby then why didn't Libby get indicted on it? If not, then who told Novak and why hasn't that person been indicted?
Like I said. This doesn't pass the smell test. If Plame was outed why hasn't someone been indicted for it? Unless, it did come from the press and and they are protected. Or finally, she wasn't outed, it wasn't against the law to "out" her, and this whole thing is a fishing expedition.
Except Novak said they were two senior members of the administration but he also said they werent in the white house. My guess is that one is in State and the other CIA.
Russert wants *his* Dan Rather moment..he thinks
he can pull it off the way Rather did the first
time, and not get caught, like Rather did the
second time...using forged "evidence" to bring
down an administartion.
I just hope that Wilson doesn't fold and actually DOES sue! The repercussions of that, would reach into the bowels of the Hissian CIA and beyond.
Didn't Joe Wilson appear on CNN and acknowledge outright that his wife wasn't covert when Novak wrote his column?
I think I read the transcript here on FR. I think Wolf Blitzer was the interviewer.
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