Posted on 02/13/2007 5:15:19 AM PST by IrishMike
WASHINGTON — The jury in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who served as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, has heard powerful evidence that two other officials were responsible for disclosing the identity of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame.
Over a prosecution objection, the defense played an audio recording yesterday of a profanity-laden rant in which a former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, told a prominent journalist, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, about Ms. Plame's ties to Langley a month before she was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert Novak. Mr. Novak also testified yesterday, recounting to jurors how Mr. Armitage's identification of Ms. Plame, and a subsequent confirmation from President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, resulted in the July 14, 2003, article that prompted the investigation that ultimately snared Mr. Libby.
Another Post reporter who joined the parade of press witnesses, Walter Pincus, added more drama to the session by declaring that he was told about Ms. Plame's CIA connection by the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, two days before Mr. Novak's column appeared. That aspect of Mr. Fleischer's role in the saga had not been made public previously.
Mr. Woodward testified that the disclosure from Mr. Armitage came in a June 13, 2003, interview as the pair discussed news reports that a former ambassador, Joseph Wilson IV, had traveled to Africa at the CIA's request to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. Mr. Wilson later complained to reporters that the White House ignored his report that such a deal was impossible and deliberately inserted misleading language into President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
LOL! By Happy Hour that day of course.
I don't think you can.
Perhaps she was not a covert agent, but had conveniently never had her name removed from the list of those who were receiving extra pay for being in that status.
&&&&&
Among all the other things that the CIA is covering up, I have long believed that what you wrote is one of the most obvious reasons for their silence on her status.
Plain old fraud, like people claiming overtime pay for what shouldn't be overtime work.
Why do you doubt that Joe Wilson said that? He was on every cable political show and even had an event at the National Press Club stating that Cheney had sent him.
You're wrong again:
"On another item of dispute -- whether Vice President Cheney's office inspired the Wilson trip to Niger -- Wilson had said the CIA told him he was being sent to Niger so they could "provide a response to the vice president's office," which wanted more information on the report that Iraq was seeking uranium there. Tenet said the CIA's counterproliferation experts sent Wilson "on their own initiative."
Wilson said in a recent interview: "I never said the vice president sent me or ordered me sent."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/24/AR2005102401690_pf.html
Also:
1.) Wilson Insisted That The Vice President’s Office Sent Him To Niger:
Wilson Said He Traveled To Niger At CIA Request To Help Provide Response To Vice President’s Office. “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. … The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office.” (Joseph C. Wilson, Op-Ed, “What I Didn’t Find In Africa,” The New York Times, 7/6/03)
Joe Wilson: “[W]hat They Did, What The Office Of The Vice President Did, And, In Fact, I Believe Now From Mr. Libby’s Statement, It Was Probably The Vice President Himself ...” (CNN’s “Late Edition,” 8/3/03)
There, I proved it; and proved once again you don't know what you're talking about.
Perhaps some of the news people testifying that they learned about Valerie Plame from Novak's column are hoping that the defense/American people would not find out that they learned it from the embargoed copy they had access to before publishing.
*****
I hope this timeline fact gets picked up by conservative talkshow hosts so that at least folks interested in facts, as opposed to DNC/AP spin, can become aware of how columns actually get into print.
Every one with access to AP raw data may have been able to read Novak's column that Friday night or all weekend.
So, in your mind, saying "CIA told me that VP asked them questions so they were sending me to help them answer those questions" is the same thing as "VP asked CIA to send me to Niger"?
I know you aren't that thick, so I have to question your honesty.
WRT the former statement, can you tell me what about it isn't true? Libby's own testimony was that OVP asked CIA for more information on the Niger reporting. It isn't really even disputed that CIA sent Wilson in response to that request.
It didn't happen. The entire claim that "Wilson was falsely claiming his trip was requested by VP" is fabricated.
I have to wonder why some folks are so invested in memes that can't be supported by evidence.
In a nut shell.
I to agree with your assessment. "CIA gone wild", too much power in the hands of a few!!!!!
This is one agency that needs a through investigation, from the beginning of the Clinton era to date.
President Bush can't seem to get a wrap on this agency no matter how hard he tries.
I have to wonder why you post on Free Republic. You have a very twisted way of looking at every situation on which you choose to comment. I had reservations about responding to you at all on this thread, and I won't do it again.
The only thing "twisted" about my way of looking at situations is that, unlike those of your ilk, I don't accept assertions without evidence solely because they are what "my side" wants to believe. Apparently, you think that accepting everything "your side" claims - whether it is true or not - is the way on ought to "look at a situation."
I posted his OWN words to you.
That you continue with your rant just proves what a disengenuous poster you are.
It's quite amazing, isn't it?
"Poster" or "poseur"? LOL!
Since you contend his own words, to use your phrase, can somehow transform themselves to mean something else - why don't you show some stones and step right up and tell us what part of "his own words" isn't directly supported by the statements and testimony of the government officials involved?
I bet you are proud of that combination.
There's the quote you posted. Which part of it isn't true?
I have briefed senior officials many times.
And taken many a question and many a request to get further information on a particular item.
"Getting more information" from the Agency (any agency) does not translate into an official directive, much less an official request, to send someone's unemployed partisan hack spouse to Africa to make an assessment based on drinking tea with retired and former officials.
No wonder Cheney was surprised that this is how his question to a briefer was handled.
I don't think you'll find what you're hoping to find here. Why on earth would this administration, or anyone in it, say at any time, "Hey! Let's send Joe Wilson to find out if this yellowcake thing is true or not!" Real life doesn't work like that.
No, from quite early on, Joe wanted to leave the impression that he was still important enough in these circles that the OVP would indeed send him to do this task. You won't find a quote because it's all been innuendo.
Is there a big difference between saying, "The OVP made inquiries to the CIA, and so the CIA sent me", and "The OVP made inquiries to the CIA to send me"? Well, yeah, in retrospect. But as Silverleaf notes in post 8, this was really about Joe puffing up his ego and buffing his reputation. Those little intricacies were not his focus at the time.
Quite really, the last thing he wanted was for this to be known, as Silverleaf so eloquently put it, as "Joe's big sweet mint tea adventure".
Unfortunately for him, it has.
CA....
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