Posted on 11/11/2007 8:22:37 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Sunday he was foolish to have revealed Valerie Plame's CIA identity.
Armitage's acknowledgment came in response to comments by Plame, who said the former Bush administration official had no right to talk to a reporter about where she worked.
A year ago, Armitage publicly apologized to Plame and her husband. The former No. 2 State Department official remains the only principal in the leak to have done so.
At least three one-time administration officials in addition to Armitage discussed Plame's CIA status with reporters. They are former White House political adviser Karl Rove, Vice President Dick Cheney's ex-chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer.
Armitage and Rove were the sources for a 2003 newspaper column by commentator Robert Novak that disclosed Plame's CIA employment.
Novak's column came out eight days after Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Libby was convicted this year of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI about his conversations with reporters regarding Plame.
After receiving immunity from prosecution, Fleischer admitted to a federal grand jury that he had told reporters about Plame.
Bush, who was questioned in the criminal investigation, commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence and never took any individual to task publicly for the leak.
In July, the president said the criminal investigation had run its course and that "now we're going to move on."
Armitage has taken a different tack.
"I think it was extraordinarily foolish of me" to have disclosed Plame's identity, Armitage said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." He was agreeing with comments by Plame that he should have known better.
Armitage said there was no ill-intent on his part. He said he spoke to Novak after seeing a reference to Wilson's wife in a memo, which did not name her.
Plame sued Cheney, Rove, Libby and Armitage for alleging violating her rights, but a federal judge dismissed the case, saying there was no legal basis for it.
Despite the dismissal, the judge said the lawsuit raised important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by the nation's highest government officials.
**FILE PHOTO** Richard Armitage, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, makes a speech at a privately sponsored conference in Tokyo, Thursday, July 6, 2006. Armitage said Sunday that 'it was extraordinarily foolish of me' to have disclosed Plame's identity. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)
Let me guess:
1) Mistakes were made.
2) You could have knocked me over with a feather.
3) It’s news to me.
If the GOP had any testicles, Armitage would have been skewered, instead of Libby facing a perjury rap.
Any dope standing outside CIA headquarters and watching the cars come in knew where Valerie Plame worked.
You aren’t covert when you drive to work openly every damn day.
Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson have perjured thamselves before Congress—where’s the investigation?
And Colin Powell was Mr. Useless—he knew of Armitage’s perfidy, but left his boss to hang out to dry.
Armitage could have come clean years ago, but the little cowardly SOB kept his mouth shut to obviously hurt the Bush White House.
Call me small minded, but if I was the President or the Vice President, I would go after all of these clowns hammer and tong.
Bush did not lie about the yellowcake. And he was only one who didn’t.
Plame, Wilson, Armitage, and Powell and Fitzgerald should be exposed for the cowardly partisan hacks they really are.
And the same goes for Timmy Russert and Andrea Mitchell.
The “new tone” be damned.
What you said.
Armitage’s statement gave the writer the opportunity to write an entire column about what should have been a non-event and to attack those who spoke with reporters but never apologized to poor Val and Joe. Bwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaa.
Umm... Once something is leaked, especially to the press, isn't it sort of impossible for somebody else to "leak" it afterwards? I mean, once something is leaked the info is out there, so how could somebody else "leak" the same info at a later time? Can this guy Pete Yost be that stup.... Oh. Pete Yost.
Excellent post.
And that’s the truth. Now, Armitage speaks up after the damage is done. The klymer.
Thanks for posting this new article.
Here is something that has been ignored ever since this faux James Bond episode started.
The White House wanted the CIA to find out if Saddam was trying to purchase yellowcake ore from Niger.
Joe Wilson was going to Niger on ‘personal business’.
So his wife, working at the CIA, suggested to her boss that they send Joe. He had a very close relationship with business and government officials in Niger, including the President of Niger. They thought since he was part of the ‘inner circle’ in Niger, he could get to the truth.
So, the CIA sent Joe. Paid his way. Didn’t even ask him to sign any confidentiality agreement or National Security agreement.
So, off Joe went. When he came back, he reported that there were inquiries from other sources trying to buy the ore (like Libya), but that Niger did not sell, nor discuss selling ore to Saddam.
Now.... the good part.
This happened during the Clinton Administration.
Spool forward. Bush Administration. Needs to know if Saddam has been trying to buy yellowcake ore.
Everything happened again, just like Deja Vu. Same circumstances, same results.
Except for one thing. Once the Kerry Campaign recruited Joe Wilson, he came out and tried to say the Bush Administration lied about the results of his spying.
Of course they didn’t. That was just to help Kerry’s run for President.
I might note that both times that Joe Wilson went to Niger to spy for the CIA, Saddam received large quantities of yellowcake ore (through Libya?). The UN team responsible for checking to see if Saddam got some said he didn’t. That’s because Saddam played the POLICE EVIDENCE ROOM game.
15 Tons of ore IN, 15 tons of ore OUT. Still 15 tons locked up where the inspectors checked, so their assumption was that none had recently come in. (idiots!)
NOW. Why was Joe going to Niger? What ‘personal business’ did he have?
JC Wilson, International is a broker for handling deals for the President of Niger.
What is their main export that JC Wilson,INTL would be handling???? Yellowcake ore.
He wasn’t “foolish” .. he was and is an arrogant ass.
His only redemption to me is to repay Libby all the money Libby has had to spend to defend himself - from something Armitage said.
What really galls me .. Fitz KNEW FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS ARMITAGE. Which means that Powell also knew .. and I will always believe this was a payback to the Bush admin because they wouldn’t follow the Powell doctrine of anti-war.
Disgusting. And .. after hearing from Bolton about his new book (which I just purchased tonight) - I suspect I’m more right about the state dept attitude than I ever knew.
Did he apologize to President Bush, Libby the American people for all the wasted tax payer money sopped up by that prosecutor Fitzgerald?
Richard Armitage to Scooter Libby: neener neener!
Armitge,the Wilsons, and a good part of St. Dept. & CIA were just trying to committ treason, that’s all. Only Saddam told the truth.
Right on. This whole thing is so bizarre it boggles the mind.
Six Reasons the Plame Episode is a Farce:
What was “extraordinarily foolish” of Armitage was to cooperate with the perjury trap by keeping his little secret for so long.
Powell and Armitage are grade A jackasses. Armitage leaked about PLame then kept his mouth shut as the loony left wailed away on the Bush administration for two years. Chrissy Matthews flung gallons of spittle for two years about Plame
Powell and Armitage were booted from State. This was their revenge. I despise them both. They can go to hell
“Now.... the good part.
This happened during the Clinton Administration.”
Do you have a link to that information? I have never heard that before and would love to read about it.
Bumping your post, moreso than the article.
Wilson claimed from the beginning that he did not know who recruited him and would not know them if he met them on the street. This was about a month or so after his campaign for Kerry introduction in the NYTimes, on a C-SPAM interview.
I have thought from the beginning that the liberals were after what 'intel' President Bush had they did not and old Joe was selected to stir up the mix so these liberals could find out what President Bush knew and when did he know it.... Remember old Hillry's screech with her New York paper accusing President Bush on the Senate floor right after 9/11.
I think that was what her Soviet show style commission was to be and do, a vehicle to cover-up what she was doing during her co-presidency. Sandy the Burglar sure came in a timely manner to expunge her record.
President Bush’s failure to respond to this was the beginning of his slide into powerlessness against the Dems.
I have to wonder why he allowed Plame and the media to spin this lie so effectively and for so long.
Mega-dittoes for that concise summary!
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