[Jim Robinson]

"The CIA conduct in this matter is either a brilliant covert action against the White House or inept intelligence tradecraft. It is up to Congress to decide which."

[clee1]

There needs to be a wholesale cleanout of the Federal bureaucracy.

There are entirely too many 5th Columnists within.

[MilesVeritatis]

It's about time someone "woke up" and smelled the 900 pound gorilla in the room!

[decal]

"It is up to Congress to decide which."

It couldn't be BOTH?

I'd almost like for this to drag beyond next year's elections: a more conservative 110th Congress would be more likely to Do The Right Thing.

[Carry_Okie]

"The CIA conduct in this matter is either a brilliant covert action against the White House or inept intelligence tradecraft. It is up to Congress to decide which."

I'll take the former without the "brilliant." The only thing that made this gambit work was endless coverage by the MSM repeatedly babbling Democrat bleatings of Ms. Plame's status as a covert agent.

[Carling]

Thanks for the topical post Jim. I'm sure your hands are full at this time.

Toensing would know more so than anyone else about the CIA and how it functions.

[indianrightwinger]

This has been mentioned before, but worth repeating. It is quite possible that Tenet was Novak's source. He said "Senior Administration Official" in the article, and then described this individual as not a partisan gun slinger. Don't know if this information will ever come out or be disproved.

[Southack]

Hear, hear!

[cue applause]

[jonrick46]

The Special Prosecuter, Fitzgerald may be on to something that may cause real harm to the DemonRATS. If Valerie used her CIA connections to leak something that would hurt President Bush's reelection, we would have a major crime. Judith Miller may be hiding information that points the finger at Valerie's efforts to use her CIA connections to hurt President Bush. The New York Times certainly would not want any such revelation to be made. It would put a dagger in the heart of the DemonRATS!

Since Joe Wilson's venture to Niger produced no information, how then did he get the forged documents which were classified? Such documents were forged to hide the fact that France was helping Saddam Hussein acquire the uranium from Niger. The possession of such documents, even if they were forged, is the possession of classified information and a crime.

One last question: If Saddam Hussein did acquire uranium, where is it now?

[spycatcher]

The was the sort of intel operation one would set up in a foreign country to delegitimize an enemy power at war, except if you tried to pass off the bogus investigation and blatant lies of a Joe Wilson in their national press it would have been exposed immediately and become yet another CIA failure.

It's only been a CIA success domestically so far because they had the MSM and a naive and misguided Fitzgerald.

[GeronL]

I seem to remember stories about Senators and Representatives revealing the names of foreign spies for the US in floor speeches and those spies being killed.

Sounds like leaking to me.

[ThirstyMan]

Two decades later, the CIA, either purposely or with gross negligence, made a series of decisions that led to Ms. Plame becoming a household name.

The Niger story became a CIA story when the credibility of Joe Wilson and the legitimacy of his mission needed to be explained.

Recall Wilson said he was on a mission from Dick Cheney's office? He was supposedly sent to Niger by the Vice President.

That was a lie and that lie led to the outing of his wife. Given the fact that Joe Wilson went public (no confidentiality agreement?) with lots of false information, his credibility needed to be exposed.

Joe Wilson is a partisan hack sent on a Niger mission by his CIA wife.

Now is that certifiable as a professionally hatched and executed CIA operation?

Obviously not.

It needed to be exposed. Note that Fitzgerald has not charged anyone with the crime of outing a CIA agent.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"The CIA conduct in this matter is either a brilliant covert action against the White House or inept intelligence tradecraft. It is up to Congress to decide which."

Rush made the same point that when the Democrats did their grandstanding the Republicans should have taken the occasion to start an investigation of Joe Wilson.

[freespirited]

"The CIA conduct in this matter is either a brilliant covert action against the White House or inept intelligence tradecraft. It is up to Congress to decide which."

The CIA can't be so stupid as to believe the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was violated; it has the facts to know that it wasn't. That leaves one conclusion. It was a covert action against the White House.

[beyond the sea]

EXCELLENT SUMMATION, imo.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1512059/posts

Is this the "French Connection" we were looking for?

[jwpjr]

Well, I might be preaching to the choir, or as my dad would have put it "pissing against a wave" but I am STILL outraged that the handling of this entire episode put the cart before the horse by launching a criminal investigation before it was determined if there was a crime. We are on a VERY slippery slope when investigators whose questions must be answered truthfully under penalty of law and the threat of imprisonment can exercise that power when there was no crime in the first place. An analogy is that a body is found on the street corner and the authorities are at a loss as to the cause of death. Was it murder, natural causes, suicide? Knowing it will take several weeks to get the toxicology report back to clear up the confusion about the cause of death they set about a murder investigation. Granted, it's important to move quickly in order to preserve evidence in the event it turns out to be murder, but once coroner rules it was a heart attack how can you charge anyone who was questioned as a potential murderer with a crime for not being truthful with the investigators? A person who is innocent, and knows he is innocent, can understandably behave badly under the stress of a full court press by heavy-handed investigators determined to prove him guilty.

If a technicality can let a confessed murderer walk free, then certainly finding out that the crime cited to justify the questioning in the first place turns out not to be crime HAS to be taken into consideration.

[blinachka]

"The CIA conduct in this matter is either a brilliant covert action against the White House or inept intelligence tradecraft. It is up to Congress to decide which."

I couldn't agree more!!

[kalee]

bump

[wouldntbprudent]

It's about time someone started calling for an investigation into the actual issue here:

Was or was not Valerie Plame a covert agent?

Was or was not Valerie Plame's mere association with the CIA protected from disclosure under any law?

THEN these ancillary issues Toensing brings up.

[KenmcG414]

Amen! Amen!

[Bob from De]

Let’s look at the Senate Iraq report for a possible clue [page 59]:

On November 25, 2002, The Naval [REDACTED] issued a very brief report {Alleged Storage of Uranium Destined for Iraq [REDACTED] that a large quantity of uranium from Niger was being stored in a warehouse in Cotonou, Benin. The uranium was reportedly sold to Iraq by Niger’s President. The report provided the name and telephone numbers for the individual, a West African businessman, who was responsible for coordinating the alleged uranium transaction and indicated that he was willing to provide information about the transaction. CIA’s DO told Committee staff that the businessman has never been contacted and the DO has not made an effort to determine whether this individual had any useful information. The DO told Committee staff that they saw no reason to contact him and noted that “no one even thought to do that.”

Let me try and remember again who was establishing a business of trade in Africa, specifically Niger? Ah, yes - Joe Wilson. And who was in Niger in early 2002? Joe Wilson. And all of a sudden this report comes into the CIA about uranium in a warehouse for Saddam, but the CIA never follows up. We are going to war, the VP is at the CIA asking questions – and a load of uranium in a warehouse is ‘misplaced’.

In view of the above;
1. This report did find its way to the CIA.
2. Did it go to CIA-Valerie Division?
3. What individual deep-sixed this report?
4. Who is the supervisor responsible?

If Valerie recommended Joe for a "crazy story", why not for an ACTUAL FIND?