quote:

---

Originally posted by beskeptigal

I am bothered the news wimps are...

---

quote:

---

As an outsider to Washington, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald appears to have misunderstood the finer points of how national security classifications work when a secret is as discrete – and sensitive – as the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

In his five-count indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, prosecutor Fitzgerald leaves the false impression that it was all right for White House officials with security clearances to be discussing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, a counter-proliferation official under deep cover.

Under the rules of classification, however, to see such secrets an official must not only have a top-secret clearance but also special code-word clearance that grants access to a specific compartment governed by strict need-to-know requirements.

In both the Libby indictment and a hour-long press conference on Oct. 28, Fitzgerald showed no indication he understood how extraordinary it was for White House officials to be bandying about the name of a covert CIA officer based on the flimsy rationale that she was married to an ex-diplomat who had been sent on a fact-finding trip to Niger.

Fitzgerald, who is the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, appears to have bought into the notion that government officials had a right to discuss Plame's covert status among themselves as long as they didn't pass the secret on to journalists. Then Fitzgerald didn't even seek punishment for that, limiting his criminal case to Libby's lying about how and when he learned of Plame's identity.

---

quote:

---

Some Americans, especially Iraq War critics, were deflated by Fitzgerald's insistence that he would prosecute only clearly defined crimes stemming from the Plame case, not venture into a fuller narrative about the Bush administration's justifications for war.

Administration officials are not entirely out of hot water, however, because new disclosures could emerge from Libby's trial or from additional indictments that Fitzgerald might seek before he wraps up his investigation. According to press accounts, Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove remains under investigation for his role in leaking Plame's identity to journalists.

In one of the most mysterious revelations about Fitzgerald's hectic activities on Oct. 28, the day of the Libby indictment, was the New York Times report that the special prosecutor made an unexplained visit to the office of James Sharp, President Bush's personal lawyer. [NYT, Oct. 29, 2005]

---

quote:

---

Wilson, who had served as a diplomat in both Iraq and Africa, returned with the conclusion that the reports were most likely untrue. (The Niger allegations were later debunked by U.N. investigators.)

However, in the State of Union address in January 2003, Bush cited the Niger allegations as part of his rationale for war with Iraq. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq two months later, but U.S. forces failed to discover any stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction or evidence of an active Iraqi nuclear program.

By spring 2003, Wilson began talking privately to journalists about his Niger findings and criticizing the administration for hyping the WMD intelligence. Behind the scenes, the White House began to hit back, collecting information about Wilson and his trip.

Vice President Cheney and other White House officials soon lear

quote:

---

Time Reporter Says He Learned Agent's Identity From Rove...

Oct. 31 2005 -- One of the reporters at the center of the investigation into the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA officer, says he first learned the agent's name from President Bush's top political advisor, Karl Rove.

Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper also said today in an interview with "Good Morning America," that the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, confirmed to him that Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative.

[...]

If a trial goes ahead, Cooper said he would name Rove as his source of the information.

"Before I spoke to Karl Rove I didn't know Mr. Wilson had a wife and that she had been involved in sending him to Africa."

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by vrwc

The speculation, by the left, on this investigation is just so much masturbation.Wilson outed his wife well before Bob Novack.When it all comes out intrial you'll have to find a new fantasy. vrwc

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by vrwc

The speculation, by the left, on this investigation is just so much masturbation.Wilson outed his wife well before Bob Novack.When it all comes out intrial you'll have to find a new fantasy. vrwc

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Admiral

As the wife of a man very prominent in at least 3 consecutive administrations and pretty prominent in her own right, how far underground could Valerie Plame have been? I'm inclined to believe that she just occupied a position on a government payroll due to her husbands prominence?

---