WILSON/PLAME/KAFKA ETC

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/ ^ | 9/30/03 | Andrew Sullivan

[swilhelm73]

WILSON/PLAME/KAFKA ETC: Well, I sat down yesterday afternoon and tried - no, really tried - to understand what this whole Wilson-Plame "scandal" is about. Here's my first stab: Joseph Wilson, for some reason, was picked to go investigate claims that Saddam had tried to purchase uranium from Niger. He came back and said - he didn't write anything down, apparently - that there was no evidence that such a transaction had occurred. When the Bush administration cited British sources for uranium from Africa (not specifically Niger), Wilson got his panties in a twist and wrote an op-ed for the NYT accusing the Bushies of distorting intelligence to wage war. Subsequently, somebody in the government - either at the White House or elsewhere - was talking on the phone to Robert Novak, anti-war columnist, and told him that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative. Novak's disclosure set Wilson off again, and he accused the administration of trying to wreck his wife's career out of spite at his dissent, and subsequently blamed Karl Rove personally. A few lefty writers made something of this on the web. Then it died down. Then over the weekend, news broke that George Tenet was ticked off about the affair and an "administration official" (CIA?) told the Washington Post that two government sources had actually cold-called six hacks and "outed" Wilson's wife around the same time as Novak's conversation. Then last night, Novak said that Plame wasn't an undercover CIA agent after all; and that no-one in the government had tried to call him with that information. The Post, in contrast, has reported baldly that Plame "is a case officer in the CIA's clandestine service and works as an analyst on weapons of mass destruction." That's about it. Okay, so there are nuances that I've missed, but that's the best I could do.

WHAT IS HER JOB?: So, first off, is Plame or is she not an under-cover CIA agent? The original "leaker," Robert Novak, says no. The Post says yes. And why would CIA complain if it weren't true? Surely this is findoutable. If she is not undercover, someone at the CIA can easily provide her job description and clear all this up. If she is undercover, then we really do need to know who tried to "out" her to the six journalists. One possibility is that she once was undercover and now no longer is - which still makes the outing illegal but less dangerous, less vindictive and more baffling. Novak, meanwhile, has blown a hole through his part of the story by saying last night that

"Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing. As a professional journalist with 46 years experience in Washington I do not reveal confidential sources. When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson's involvement in the mission for her husband - he is a former Clinton administration official - they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives."

So, according to Novak, there really isn't a story here. It seems to me that until we know exactly what Plame's job is, there's not much point in speculating further. If she's just an analyst and this is widely known, then the White House calls are slimy (and still baffling to me) but not worthy of major investigation. (I have a hunch she is no longer under-cover and now simply consults.)

ONE MORE THING: If none of the six journalists published Plame's name and we do not know the context in which her name was raised, and Novak denies it, how do we know at all that this was an effort to punish Wilson and/or Plame? Do we believe the "revenge" motive provided by the government source over the weekend - or are his motives merely inter-agency in-fighting? In Novak's column, there's no direct negative slant on Plame at all. And there's no source provided for her identity. Here's the money quote:

Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me.

Notice that Novak doesn't write that the two SAO's told him about Plame's identity. They just indicated that it was her suggestion that Wilson be used. The CIA subsequently asked him to withhold her name. Now if she knows her stuff, and isn't undercover, why is this damning at all? Beats me. Or are they trying a weak argument that he's an incompetent or worse who got the assignment for nepotistic reasons? Who knows? I have many more questions than answers. And since I'm not part of the Krugmanian Bush-Is-Hitler/Nixon/Saddam crowd, I'll leave the hyper-ventilating to Josh Marshall until we know more. (Useful summary: The Rant.)

[swilhelm73]

A useful summary I think.

[.cnI redruM]

Sullivan put that one to bed rather succinctly. Too bad Schumer and Daschle are too busy hyperventilating to listen....

[lainde]

I'm still confused. This whole thing just doesn't make any bloody sense...It doesn't feel right. It smells like RAT droppings.

[mrsmith]

"there are nuances that I've missed"

The main one IMHO is that administrations have always given "deep background" information to journalists that would include classified information that the journalists agreed not to publish.

So the lib press is going to criticize the Bush administration for doing what every administration has done.

And the press is going to gag them knowing that every administration has done this.

Thye only do that to Republican administrations of course.

As to why the subject came up with the journalists, I assume it had to do with explaining frau Wilson and her husband pushing the Niger story to the BBC.

[RightWhale]

Schumer and Daschle are too busy hyperventilating

Daschle has apparently shot down ANWR again. Busy man.

[swilhelm73]

Overall, I don't see how on earth one can credibly claim any likelyhood this came from the Whitehouse.

Let us consider the scenario Wilson and the Democrat's press is trying to make;

Rove, or someone else at a high level is worried about Wilson's criticism. So, they decide to try and shut him up. They don't blackmail him. They don't use anything from his FBI file - which worked so well for the last administration. They instead out of the blue go public with the fact that his wife works for the CIA.

Now, this is almost guaranteed to keep Wilson talking, and to give him a far more damaging point to make...so why on earth would Rove or someone similar do this? It makes no sense...at all.

The fact that there was no threat made to Wilson to shut up or else means this did not come from the White House.

So it seems to me you are left with two possibilities.

1) Someone at the CIA believed that Plame sending her Bush hating, and patently unqualified, husband on a critical investigative mission is at best unethical, and possibly illegal, and therefore wanted to go public with the charge. This is certainly the tack from Novak's original article.

2) Lacking any real case and desperate to go after the President - as Wilson has proven to be - he, someone siding with Wilson at the CIA, or perhaps a combination, set up Novak by hinting at the possible wrong doing in Plame's involvement with the mission.

[Myrddin]

Wilson's bio names his wife, Valerie Plame. It is on an internet web page. There is no "leaking" going on here.

[Myrddin]

	AMBASSADOR JOSEPH C. WILSON, IV Ambassador Wilson is CEO of JCWilson International Ventures, Corp., a firm specializing in Strategic Management and International Business Development. Ambassador Wilson served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998. In that capacity he was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He was one of the principal architects of President Clinton’s historic trip to Africa in March 1998. Ambassador Wilson was the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe, 1995-1997. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1988 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During “Desert Shield” he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of “Desert Storm.” Ambassador Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger, 1976-1978; Lome, Togo, 1978-79; the State Department Bureau of African Affairs, 1979-1981; and Pretoria, South Africa, 1981-1982. In 1982, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission in Bujumbura, Burundi. In 1985-1986, he served in the offices of Senator Albert Gore and the House Majority Whip, Representative Thomas Foley, as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville, Congo, 1986-88, prior to his assignment to Baghdad. Ambassador Wilson was raised in California and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He is a graduate of the Senior Seminar (1992), the most advanced International Affairs training offered by the U.S. Government. He speaks fluent French. Ambassador Wilson holds the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, the University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award. Additionally, he has been decorated as a Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star by the Government of Gabon and as an Admiral in the El Paso Navy by the El Paso County Commissioners. He is married to the former Valerie Plame and has two sons and two daughters.

The Middle East Institute 1761 N Street, NW Washington, DC 20036-2882 (202) 785-1141

© Copyright 2002, The Middle East Institute. All Rights Reserved.
 

[secretagent]

Wilson's biography page doesn't mention his wife's occupation (s), so it doesn't qualify as the source of the leak.

[mass55th]

How does someone, sent on an investigative trip set up and paid for by the CIA, get away without putting his investigative findings down in an official report to the people who sent him? Something is rotten in Denmark and I believe Mr. Wilson has some 'splainin' to do.

[swilhelm73]

Its also interesting that, in his own words, he did not investigation on this trip...and failed even to bother to ask anyone about the point in question he was supposed be investigating.

The leaker, if there indeed is one, isn't the only person that needs to be fired and prosecuted. Whoever made the call to send Wilson committed at best a serious blunder.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[Ingtar]

If an independent counsel is named, please let it be one of the stalled judicial nominees.

[Utah Girl]

This explanation makes as sense. I think. I think it is much ado about nothing.