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.
BTTT
Only Saddam told the truth.
—
and look where it got him. ;-)
FoggyBottom is a nest of malcontents, operatives and bureaucrats, a lot of good folks have done their jobs and done them well, others have set about pursuing their own agendas and still do to thsi day.. Good luck to the next chief and SecyofState.
Attila the Hun couldn’t clean that place out.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGRjNzI4NzAyY2UwMjZiNmVhOGIyOTg2OGVkMWMzZmM=
http://marylandconservatarian.blogspot.com/2007/10/truth-about-joe-wilsons-trip-to-niger.html
Ms. Wilson said she did sound out her husband about the trip after she was asked to do so, but that her husband was picked for the trip because of his background in Africa.” Valerie Plame Wilson, Subject of C.I.A. Leak, Testifies - (3/16/2007) New York Times
But a few months later, in her book:
“She says that when the vice president’s office asked the CIA about the uranium allegation, a “midlevel reports officer” suggested in a hallway conversation that the agency could send Joe Wilson to investigate. The suggestion made sense because Wilson had served as an ambassador in Africa, was the top Africa expert on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration and
(Here it is, from the HORSE’S OWN MOUTH)
[made a previous trip to Niger at the CIA’s request in 1999.]
She and the midlevel officer brought the idea to their boss, who liked it and asked her to send an e-mail up the chain of command. “My husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity,” she wrote.
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/when-and-why-joseph-c-wilson-iv-outed-valerie-plame
March 8, 2003: CNN’s Renay San Miguel interviewed Joe Wilson about the so-called Niger forgeries, which had just become a hot topic in the news.
SAN MIGUEL: Just fine. How could this happen? It is the perception that documents like these are vetted to within an inch of their life by intelligence agencies. How do you think this managed to slip by?
WILSON: Well, this particular case is outrageous. I actually started my foreign service career in Niger and ended my foreign service career doing – in charge of Africa in the Clinton White House. We know a lot about the uranium business in Niger, and for something like this to go unchallenged by U.S.
I would say he more a coward and liar. Oh, we can add fool too, but that would be the least of his sins.
oops, forgot the “is”
Thanks so much.
How soon before the media talking heads start parroting the phrase he was just “foolish”? Remember, Sandy Berger was just “sloppy” when he stuffed documents into his socks. Since Armitage is one of the media good guys he was just foolish when he revealed Plame’s identity.
-----------------------------------------
View the SECRET email from Valerie Plame Wilson to her bosses at CIA that she was hoping would remain classified.
It shows beyond any doubt who sent Joe Wilson to Niger in Feburary 2002....
• Read my story about the Senate Intelligence committee's rebuke of Joe Wilson at Newsmax
• Sept. 17, 2007: Read my story about the return of the Rogue Weasels to the CIA at Newsmax
-----------------------------------------
Quote “Still 15 tons locked up where the inspectors checked, so their assumption was that none had recently come in. (idiots!).. Unquote.
The inspectors in Iraq were right. It didn’t come there.
Saddams scientists and about 2 billion bucks were in
Libya. When we confiscated Libya’s nuke program, that was
financed by Saddam, run with Saddam’s guys helping,
it was found the yk came from Niger next door.
A simple, relatively short, truck haul. And the French company COGEMA ran the mines for Niger and they
had couplr billion of Saddam’s money in the oil scam
deal.And Wilson’s consulting/brokering company workrd
for Niger and Cogema. So what was he doing in the trips
over there. It was covering up. In 99 when he was
there Saddam’s head nuke guy was there, a guy that
Joe knew from years before. Joe and friends, in and out
of CIA just did a snowjob, as they report no yk
went to Iraq, inspectors there confirm, but it
makes the folks who know somethings going on look like
fools. And then they get all the political mileage out
of it back here, screwing the country, just because
folks in government can’t get it all sorted out.
Oh, Wilson and the crooks knew. Ed
‘Armitage said there was no ill-intent on his part.’
Bullshit. He did Powells bidding, and it was too undermine the Administration that rejected his point of view.
The fact Powell lied to the media at least twice on this topic is also something many don’t know, or have forgotten.
I’ll never forgive either Armitage or Colin Powell, each of whom could have stopped that witch hunt with a single press conference.
That they choose not to do so speaks volumes about the character of BOTH Powell and Armitage.
From http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1725871/posts :
Finally, there’s the perplexing case of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. According to dozens of media reports, Valerie Plame was introduced to Joe Wilson by Brent Scowcroft at an ATC function. Shortly thereafter, the pair was invited to a Turkish Embassy function. Quickly after that, Plame’s CIA WMD operation (Brewster Jennings) was exposed by then Under Secretary of State, Richard Armitage. Coincidently, Dickerson was in close proximity to Plame & Wilson in the 1999-2002 timeframe and the Pentagon and US State Department. It seems likely that only a Turkish operative located somewhere in the US government/intelligence community would have uncovered that information and disclosed it to the Turks and their US sympathizers. Was it Wilson? Dickerson? Armitage?
Armitage has been described (apparently accurately) as one of the biggest gossips in Washington DC.
What a despicable turd.
something in my gut says this isn’t over.....cannot put my finger on it yet,but the whole truth to the story is lurking out there and my gut says something is brewing.......
Could be, anyone with a mouth that big has made enemies.
just remember that Joe and Valarie live in New Mexico now
these elite metropolitan types ain’t NM types.......
this is a safe house so the dems and media can “manage” the NM, Ca,AZ vote and include the reservation indians to win just like last election...............
Foolish?....but the press told us for 3 years it was a serious national security crime! Where are the charges? Oh, that’s right, he’s critical of Bush, therefore he gets an Official Pass.
‘just remember that Joe and Valarie live in New Mexico now’
I think the WaPo editorial last year basically saying Joe Wilson was a first rate LIAR is the reason they moved to NM.
Kinda hard to get invited onto the DC cocktail circuit, where they were infamous long before this non scandal crap, after the WaPo hammers you publicly.
that’s all hogwash cover for the safe house trust me...Joe got rich on the scam by people who “when they need a favor”
come calling... Joe owes those people.....
I think you highly overrate the financial compensation aspect. Given the nature of Joey and his bimbo wife’s ‘lifestyle’ I doubt they have much.
No denying the cost of living in NM is a third or less of what they were paying to play on the DC cocktail circuit.
No worries dude... the liberal media and the moonbats are too invested in the Evil Cheny and Evil Rove as the imaginary leakers to give you a second thought.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.