Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Bush hires private lawyer for CIA leak probe
Substitute the name Clinton for Bush and this would have been such a bigger story. The hyphen "gate" would have attatched itself and the words scandal, illegal, tainted, criminal and treason, would be used galore.Here is the background story on the public outing of a CIA operative.
So what Senior Administration officials gave Robert Novak this confidential information? We may never know.
prosecutors may be forced to try to identify the leaker through Novak or other reporters. However, journalists pressed by the prosecution could assert a First Amendment privilege to protect their sources.
Why not invoke the power of the Patriot Act to get around that pesky First Amendment? Or use some Abu Ghraib style abuse on Novak to get him to sing?
The Carpeterbagger has some interesting commentary. Here's a sample:
"At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs," Wilson said. "And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words."
Whoa. That's no small accusation. Karl Rove effectively runs this White House and serves as Bush's brain. It's not inconceivable that Rove would talk to Novak and mention that Wilson's wife as part of an effort to raise questions about Wilson's credibility.
Wilson is saying, in no uncertain terms, that Rove committed a felony by leaking classified information as part of a smear campaign against him. If this is true and can be proven, Rove would be in some pretty big trouble. If this isn't true and Wilson is falsely accusing Rove, then, as Kleiman said, Wilson "risks being personally discredited in a way that's very hard to recover from."
Ultimately, Wilson's comments suggest that this story isn't quite dead yet. Wilson noted at the forum that there's still congressional interest in this controversy from several high-profile members, including Sens. Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, and Hillary Clinton.
It does, however, put things back in the hands of the political journalists who largely ignored this story a month ago. It's pretty simple, really. A former ambassador who played an important role in the Niger-gate scandal has accused the president's top political advisor of leaking classified information to a sympathetic journalist. Someone -- anyone -- in the White House press corps needs to ask, "Did Rove leak the information or not?"
It's a question that deserves an answer.
Robert Novak attempts to defend himself while I undefend him with comments mixed in.
WASHINGTON -- I had thought I never again would write about retired diplomat Joseph Wilson's CIA-employee wife, but feel constrained to do so now that repercussions of my July 14 column have reached the front pages of major newspapers and led off network news broadcasts. My role and the role of the Bush White House have been distorted and need explanation.
The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else.
Did you ask? You didn't use the CIA as your source. Shouldn't you have enough common sense that outing a CIA operative is inherently dangerous. Even if no danger exists, it's still inherently wrong for obvious reasons, plus it ruins her career.
Third, it was not much of a secret.
That is no excuse! Just because some Washington insiders, knew her real job, it's still not public knowledge. Only a dumb ass journalist with a sinister agenda, would blow her cover in a newspaper. Rule One in CIA training is that your affiliation to the CIA is NOT public knowledge.
The current Justice investigation stems from a routine, mandated probe of all CIA leaks, but follows weeks of agitation. Wilson, after telling me in July that he would say nothing about his wife, has made investigation of the leak his life's work -- aided by the relentless Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. These efforts cannot be separated from the massive political assault on President Bush.
This story began July 6 when Wilson went public and identified himself as the retired diplomat who had reported negatively to the CIA in 2002 on alleged Iraq efforts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one.
Wilson was originally hired by George H Bush before working under Clinton. Why should who he personally supports politically matter in a job to investigate nuclear proliferation national security issues? Everything I have seen about Wilson shows that he is a professional. Why Pick Wilson for the Job? Wilson has experience with Both Iraq and Africa. As a career State Department official he specialized in Africa and was an Ambassador to Iraq. He has a perfect resume for the job.
During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.
At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.
So the CIA tells you NOT to use her name and you do it anyway. Asshole deserves to be in prison.
How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.
Dumbass, does her appearance in "Who's Who in America" list her occupation as CIA Operative? I don't think so.
A big question is her duties at Langley. I regret that I referred to her in my column as an "operative," a word I have lavished on hack politicians for more than 40 years. While the CIA refuses to publicly define her status, the official contact says she is "covered" -- working under the guise of another agency. However, an unofficial source at the Agency says she has been an analyst, not in covert operations.
The Justice Department investigation was not requested by CIA Director George Tenet. Any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the Agency to Justice, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July shortly after the column was published. Reported only last weekend, the request ignited anti-Bush furor.
Ahhh downplay it as much as you wish but Bush has hired a lawyer, have you?
