Posted on 09/29/2003 1:49:52 PM PDT by Pokey78
Edited on 09/29/2003 2:01:54 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told 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 Clitnon 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 an undercover operatives...
Funny. I tuned into John Gibson a little while ago and he had on Clifford May (see post 23) absolutely NUKING this so-called story.
Red
The dolt-dems have such short memories.
GHWB was the DIRECTOR of the CIA, and was admired by his staff.
Does anyone think that W jr. would even think of doing what the dolts argue he did? Stupid. /rant
Doesn't appear that it was from Wilson as "Wilson will not confirm that his wife was or is a CIA operative,"...
Also of possible interest: THE TRUTH IS OUT THEREBlown cover
published August 10, 2003SNIP
Exposing an undercover operative
In a July 14 column examining the Niger fiasco in some detail, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak wrote, "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
Novak told Newsday that "two senior administration officials" told him that it was Plame who suggested sending her husband, Wilson, to Niger. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."
Why he named her remains unclear. And whether he knew he was exposing an undercover CIA agent is not clear. Novak declined to be interviewed for this story.
"I have no idea whether Novak knew or not," said Wilson. "But I can't see any reason whatsoever for using my wife's name in his column. It did not advance the story at all."
Wilson says it is not even clear what supposed sin Novak's sources were hinting at.
"I can't imagine what they trying to suggest," he said. "Maybe that nepotism was somehow involved in my getting the assignment? That doesn't make any sense. We not talking about a trip to Nassau here, and I was only paid expenses."
Plame has declined requests for interviews, but Wilson said she is "doing fine."
Wilson will not confirm that his wife was or is a CIA operative, though Newsday has reported that a senior intelligence official confirmed it. Specifically, Plame was reported to be a Directorate of Operations undercover officer. (The New York Times reported Friday that Plame is "known to friends as an energy industry analyst.")
"But," Wilson said, "hypothetically, I will say that if what Novak asserts is true, then laws were broken. And if it's true, they (the administration) took off the board an important national security asset (Plame) in order to protect some yo-yo's political concerns."
He said he believes that political operatives in the White House gave his wife's name to Novak, and he thinks he knows who they are. But he's "not ready, yet" to name them. He hopes an investigation - by the FBI, Congress or both - will take care of that.
Criticism of the disclosure has been sharp, though it is not clear what will happen next, if anything.
"Frivolous and irresponsible," said W. Patrick Lang, former director of Middle East analysis at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"Vile . . . highly, highly dishonorable," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., vice chairman of the Senate's Intelligence Committee.
In a July 25 letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Judiciary Committee, demanded a criminal investigation.
"Leaking the name of a CIA agent is tantamount to putting a gun to that agent's head," Schumer said. "It compromises her safety, the safety of her loved ones, not to mention those in her network and other operatives she may deal with."
The administration has said little.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied that anyone in the White House had been authorized to leak Plame's undercover status, saying, "That is not the way this White House operates."
Asked if he were ruling out administration involvement, McClellan said: "I'm saying no one was certainly given any authority to do anything of that nature . . ."
/SNIP
DO NOT underestimate the Bush team.
Those Scumbag Administration holdovers were left in place precisely so they could fall into embarrassing traps just like the one that was sprung today. More fallout will follow.
The Clintons were outfoxed again - - they are clearly WAY out of their league.
So has Clark, even LATER than Kerry.
Right on, and another prime example of the biased liberal media. What if a Republican President had done this? It was a precurser to the "most ethical administration in history." A sign of things to come, and necessary only to one, who has things to fear!
Mr. Wilson told Novak his wife was a CIA agent.
Novak told the govt. officials what Mr. Wilson said, they confirmed. They shouldn't have, but didn't think much of it because Mr. Wilson told Novak. Technically they did wrong, so they'll cover up.
Novak's article came out. Wife yelled at Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson lied to his wife. CIA started to press the issue, Mr. Wilson felt the heat, started to make up stories to deflect attention from himself.
Under extreme pressure he fell back to a primordial Democrat beltway fear. Blaming Karl Rove.
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