Posted on 07/08/2007 10:36:02 PM PDT by FreedomCalls
When I went to my office Monday, July 7, 2003, Joe Wilson was not in the forefront of my mind. Frances Fragos Townsend was. She had just been named deputy national security adviser at the White House though her background was in liberal Democratic politics, including Attorney General Janet Reno's inner circle during the Clinton administration. Her appointment was a political mystery of the kind I had been exploring for forty years in my column.
I wrote the Townsend column Tuesday morning because I had a busy schedule the rest of the day, including a 3 p.m. appointment with Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state. I had no idea what a big event it would turn out to be.
Armitage was less guarded
I asked to see Armitage early in the George W. Bush administration and repeated my request after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Armitage and Colin Powell, the new secretary of state and Armitage's close friend, were widely perceived as being out of step with the rest of the administration about military intervention in Iraq.
I had ready access to Powell, in person and over the telephone, but he was circumspect in what he said to me, while Armitage had a reputation for being less guarded in conversations with journalists. Armitage rebuffed me, not with the customary evasion of claiming an overly full schedule but by his secretary making clear that he simply did not want to see me. I assumed that Armitage bracketed me, a notoriously conservative columnist, with the Iraqi war hawks who were unsympathetic toward his views. If so, he had somehow missed my written and spoken criticism of the Iraqi intervention.
Then, in the last week of June 2003, Armitage's office called to agree unexpectedly to my request and set up the appointment for July 8.
Neither of us set ground rules
It is important to note that Armitage reached out to me before Joe Wilson went public on the New York Times op-ed page and on "Meet the Press" with an account of his Niger report that he said contradicted 16 words in Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address: ("The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa.")
I was ushered into Armitage's big State Department inner office promptly at 3 p.m. Neither of us set ground rules for my visit. I assumed, however, that what Armitage said would not be attributed to him but would not be off the record. That is, I could write about information he gave me but would not identify him by name. During a long career, I had come to appreciate that sort of thing in countless interviews without putting it into so many words. I viewed what Armitage told me to be just as privileged as if he had made me swear a blood oath.
Armitage was giving me high-level insider gossip, unusual in a first meeting. About halfway through our session, I brought up Bush's sixteen words. What Armitage told me generally confirmed what I had learned from sources the previous day while I was reporting for the Fran Townsend column.
I then asked Armitage a question that had been puzzling me but, for the sake of my future peace of mind, would better have been left unasked.
Why would the CIA send Joseph Wilson, not an expert in nuclear proliferation and with no intelligence experience, on the mission to Niger?
"Well," Armitage replied, "you know his wife works at CIA, and she suggested that he be sent to Niger." "His wife works at CIA?" I asked. "Yeah, in counterproliferation."
He mentioned her first name, Valerie. Armitage smiled and said: "That's real Evans and Novak, isn't it?" I believe he meant that was the kind of inside information that my late partner, Rowland Evans, and I had featured in our column for so long. I interpreted that as meaning Armitage expected to see the item published in my column.
The exchange about Wilson's wife lasted no more than sixty seconds.
I never spoke to Armitage again about Wilson. But he acknowledged to me nearly three months later through his political adviser, lobbyist Ken Duberstein, that he was indeed the primary source for my information about Wilson's wife. Shortly thereafter, he secretly revealed his role to federal authorities investigating the leak of Mrs. Wilson's name but did not inform White House officials, apparently including the president.
After Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago named as a special prosecutor in the case, indicated to me he knew Armitage was my source, I cooperated fully with him. At the special prosecutor's request and on my lawyers' advice, I kept silent about this -- a silence that subjected me to much abuse. I was urged by several friends, including some journalists, to give up my source's name. But I felt bound by the journalist's code to protect his identity.
Reprinted from The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington, Copyright © 2007 by Robert D. Novak. Published by Crown Forum, a division of Random House Inc., available in bookstores Tuesday.
Specter's comments make sense. I hope he doesn't get all weak-kneed when Fitzgerald testifies.
If Leahy and Spectre are involved, they’re up to no good.
You’ve posed great questions.
Some time in the latter half of the century before the last, (can you imagine for a person of my age how difficult it is to make that adjustment?)a Texas ranger arrived by train at a town which had summoned the Rangers because there was a riot in progress. The righteous town fathers, desperate, asked, "you mean, there is but one of you?" The Ranger, stepping off the train, inquired, "is'r but one riot,?
Some time in the latter half of the century before the last, (can you imagine for a person of my age how difficult it is to make that adjustment?)a Texas ranger arrived by train at a town which had summoned the Rangers because there was a riot in progress. The righteous town fathers, desperate, asked, "you mean, there is but one of you?" The Ranger, stepping off the train, inquired, "is'r but one riot,?
I've no remaining hope that the MSM will consider the evidence that challenges their credal doctrines on the genesis of the Iraq war. Neither do I expect this administration to end its curious indifference to forcing a debate on these issues.
I respect when journalists keep sources confidential (short of crimes against the country). The press serve an important role in society and in keeping government in check. Fitzy was the problem here.
OCTOBER 10, 2006 : (VALERIE & JOE WILSON ATTEND "SPIRIT OF LIBERTY" AWARDS EVENT PUT ON BY PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY -- see ANSWER=UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE) [photocaption]Valerie Plame Wilson, former United States CIA officer who once held non-official cover (NOC) status and wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV (L) pose as they arrive as guests at the 25th Anniversary Spirit of Liberty Awards presented by the People for the American Way in Beverly Hills, California October 10, 2006. via 24 posted on 10/11/2006 11:30:12 AM PDT by STARWISE | To 18
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leading the leftist juggernaut in its current attack on America’s defenders is the largest and most influential hate group in America, misnamed People for the American Way." People for the American Way is a permanent campaign of fear and hate aimed principally at Christian conservatives but at every group that attempts to defend America against the assaults of the left.---24 posted on 10/11/2006 11:30:12 AM PDT by STARWISE | To 18
2002 FALL : (LEFTISTS MEET AT THE OFFICES OF PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY TO CREATE A NEWER, 'SOFTER' UMBRELLA ORGANIZATION TO REPLACE THE TAINTED GROUP ANSWER- IT IS TO BE CALLED 'UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE' -- see LESLIE CAGAN) Until now [March 2003], the largest organization behind this [antiwar] movement has been "International ANSWER," which thanks in part to the efforts of the War Room and www.frontpagemag.com has been revealed as front for a Marxist-Leninist party with ties to the Communist regime in North Korea. According to a comprehensive (but partisan and sympathetic) report in The New York Times,3 some factions of the left became disturbed that the overtly radical slogans of the International ANSWER protests were "counter-productive." Last fall [2002], they met in the offices of People For The American Way to create a new umbrella organization called United for Peace and Justice that would present a more palatable face to the American public.
As it happens, the name of the new organization was similar to that of one of the two main groups behind the national protests of the anti-Vietnam movement. It was called the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice and it was a run by the American Communist Party. (As it happens, the other organizer of the national demonstrations was the MOBE, which was run by the Trotskyist Communist Party.)
The groups that People for the American Way assembled to create the new Iraq protest organization picked Leslie Cagan to be its leader. Cagan is a veteran of the old Vietnam left -- a pro-Castro radical who was still a member of the Communist Party after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Ms. Cagan’s politics were no less radical and anti-American than International ANSWER's. But Leslie Cagan understood the problem of too much candor. "If we’re going to be a force that needs to be listened to by our elected officials, by the media," Ms. Cagan told the Times, "our movement needs to reflect the population." In other words, we have to keep our horns hidden. According to the Times, since that meeting, the left has been hiring Madison Avenue firms to shape its messages and has been putting up billboards with the slogan "Peace Is Patriotic" to make its point. ----------- "Moment of Truth" (For the Anti-American Left), By David Horowitz, FrontPageMagazine.com, March 31, 2003
I would like to add that Novak repeatedly during the investigation went public with his position that it was long past due for the original leaker (Armitage) to come forward.
Novak knew that Armitage was acting like a mean-spirited and cowardly jerk and stated so publicly w/o revealing his name.
Novak also knew and disclosed that none of this “scandal” had any legs.
Whoever is employing Richard Armitage, I hope they go bankrupt. He is scum.
Outstanding thread. Thanks for posting. Thanks to all contributors.
ping
Was ther a covert Armitage/Plame/Wilson/DNC axis which cooked this whole thing up? Armitage is a flaming liberal. You know he ran in the same crowd as Wilson/Plame.
The Nation Media (Tim Russert/Andrea Mitchell) were all over this case from the inside. The drove the G****m train for the Wilson/Plame/Armitage/DNC.
bump
Your responses and insights into Bush in this thread and others are excellent.
I noted at the beginning of Novak’s piece that he was interested in a particular person that Bush had inexplicably named to a high office, interested in why he would do so. Now, I have been wondering this all along, not just about Townsend, but about a host of people. To wit: why did Bush keep a host of clintonoids in power and also, why did he place people who he had to know were hostile to him in paces of real power?
As Suzy Quzy asked, has this guy got a serious death wish?
The reason I ask this of you, is that in your analysis of Bush governing from a Christian perspective you posit that he promotes from the perspective of the nominee’s “heart” or profession of Christian beliefs? If this is his lone criteria for promotion... Yeesh!
I have come to view Bush as a bigger and bigger fool these last few years for a number of reasons. Among them is his pattern of placing trust in those who are utterly undeserving of it, and then, upon the inevitable betrayal, continuing to trust the individual involved.
Why would he do this? He seems to have some small amount of smarts, but is absolutely clueles in important areas. Such foolishness cannot be attributed to religion alone. What is it that keeps Bush blind to basic facts about people?
“Yep, Novak is scum, and so is Armitage.”
Dittos! I would also like to add that Armitage is a fang-toothed weasel!
Robert Novak, the so-called conservative journalist, has been used by the dems and the media for years and he is either too stupid to realize it or he is a willing accomplice. I really don’t think he is that stupid.
‘I never spoke to Armitage again about Wilson. But he acknowledged to me nearly three months later through his political adviser, lobbyist Ken Duberstein, that he was indeed the primary source for my information about Wilson’s wife. Shortly thereafter, he secretly revealed his role to federal authorities investigating the leak of Mrs. Wilson’s name but did not inform White House officials, apparently including the president. ‘
What Novak fails to mention is Armitage wouldn’t take a crap without Colin Powell’s expressed approval.
In my mind, I’ll always believe this was Colin Powell’s doing, and I’ll never respect him after learning he lied to the media at least TWICE about his knowledge of this mess. I think this was Powell’s ‘revenge’ for not having his viewpoint on Iraq followed by the President.
I agree. Even if Novak felt it was important to still keep the name of his source a secret, he SHOULD have told all the story he KNEW, which was that his source had talked to the prosecuter, and that his source WAS the primary leaker of the information, and that the PROSECUTER knew that.
If we had known in December of 2003 that Fitzgerald already knew who the leaker was, we could have put pressure on the White House to call him in and get the job done, and we wouldn’t have put up with it for two more years.
God bless Pres. George W. Bush.
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