Is It Stephen Hadley? I Do Believe It Is
The Times of London becomes the first major media outlet I’m aware of to confirm – sort of – the scuttlebutt that Stephen Hadley was the source for Bob Woodward, and thus the new first person to reveal Valarie Plame’s identity to a reporter:
The mysterious source who gave America’s foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington’s biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation.
Here’s what Hadley was up to at the time:
Two years ago, when Plame’s identity was first revealed, Hadley was Condoleezza Rice’s deputy at the NSC. He is also thought to have been a key source for two books by Woodward on the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
I never out-and-out named Hadley, but I’m not surprised. When Woodward first came out with his bombshell, I had this to say:
Just a random thought here: who gave Woodward the most access? Colin Powell’s State Department…second most: Rumsfeld’s team at Defense…
Well, I had the wrong departments, but the right idea…just look for whoever Woodward talked to for his books, and there’s your culprit. Not a big stretch…
So how big a deal is this for Hadley? No doubt he’s all lawyered-up, but he needn’t be too concerned at this point…after all, neither Libby or Rove was indicted for leaking Plame’s name or status…the only indictments thus far involve lying to a grand jury; so, if Hadley played it straight, he’s probably in pretty good shape…
Of course, all this assumes that it really IS him…
We (supporters of the Bush Doctrine) better hope its not Hadley. If it is, the media will spin this beyond belief and the President and the entire administration will be nocked back on their heels, put back on the defensive like they have been for most of the summer and up to this point, all of the fall. Personally, I don’t see leaking Plame’s name as amounting to anything. Not only that, but Woodward seems to hold the same opinion. That opinion is that “leaking” a non-covert officer’s name to the public in order to explain that the officer used her position to give her administration-critic husband an important position possibly debunking the rationale for our country going to war is information the public deserves to know. Hadley will be slaughtered in the press. Everyone will know his name. He will be demonized. Important to remember is that THE PRESS IS NOT FAIR! For proof of this watch the press conference with Senator Robb and Judge Silberman when they issued their report at the White House. David Gregory’s questions tell us everything we need to know about the press.
Watching press conferences on C-SPAN, I fear for the future of our country. We can only prey that Hadley is exonerated for if he isn’t, the consequences will be enormous, frightening and devestating to our country’s long-term security.
I have my doubts about Hadley–his answer in China seemed to me to suggest he knows who it is and has discussed it with the investigation but it isn’t him.
You know who else it isn’t? Rumsfeld. He just told Chris Wallace that not only was it not him, but that he had the transcripts of his interviews with Woodward immediately made public on the DoD site (where they indeed are) so there could be no confusion about what he did or didn’t say.
That should be a lesson to all of them about how to handle this sort of thing.
AE, you kind of like this Rumsfeld guy, don’t you?…
We all have our hobbies.
How about Armitage? That has the ring of logic to it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10117465/site/newsweek/
And FYI, Zarqawi is dead again.
[...] …lurks Richard Armitage. Yesterday, I focused on a Times of London story that has Stephen Hadley as Woodward’s source for the identity of Valerie Plame. Another good candidate is Richard Armitage (and that has the advantage of making my original prediction just about golden): One by one last week, a parade of current and former senior officials, including the CIA’s George Tenet and national-security adviser Stephen Hadley, denied being the source. A conspicuous exception was former deputy secretary of State Richard Armitage, whose office would only say, “We’re not commenting.” He was one of a handful of top officials who had access to the information. He is an old source and friend of Woodward’s, and he fits Novak’s description of his source as “not a partisan gunslinger.” Woodward has indicated that he knows the identity of Novak’s source, which further suggests his source and Novak’s were one and the same. [...]