It’s Wrong To Expose CIA Undercover Assets Willingly
Terribly, terribly wrong…now, on to an entirely different subject. In l’affaire Plame, there has yet to be a credible allegation made that any Administration figure ‘outed’ Valarie Plame intentionally in a misguided attempt at punishing Joe Wilson for not being a dittohead. Note that judicious use of the word ‘credible’. AJ writes of the latest twist, a smoking gun memo that refuses to smoke in one direction. It’s true that the INR memo that is in many ways at the heart of PlameGate is marked as ‘Secret’…but it’s also true that she is referred to as Valerie Wilson, not Plame.
One of Joe Wilson’s most outrageous lies is that he ‘debunked’ the forged Niger documents; in the words of the MinuteMan:
…[T]he INR memo says that Wilson’s report was handled by the CIA (so don’t blame the INR!), and that “the reporting we have from his trip makes no mention of documents, fraudulent or otherwise”.
Tom sums up some of the implications of this ever-evolving story:
So Libby was part of a vicious conspiracy to punish Joe Wilson by not leaking to Cooper, Russert, Woodward, or Miller any news about the connection between Ms. Plame and the Niger trip, and by not being aware that her status was classified. Got it.
This follows from the fact that it is this memo that was allegedly the basis of the Plame leak, and this memo has this to say:
In a February 19, 2002, meeting convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD manager, and the wife of Joe Wilson, he previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger.
Read that sentence again; from that meager level of detail is the entire allegation of conspiracy built.
Doesn’t seem like a very sturdy structure, does it?
UPDATE 4:07 p.m.: Surprisingly, my interpretation has not carried the day with everyone; Anonymous Liberal runs in a whole ‘nother direction and asks, Who Framed Roger…er, Ari Fleischer?…
Mark,
I don’t think the INR memo is at the heart of the Plame controversy. Neither Libby nor Rove is even alleged to have read the memo. They both learned about Plame from other sources. The significance of the INR memo appears to have been hyped by sources close to Libby and Rove as a way of casting suspicion away from them and toward the state department and the folks on Air Force One, particularly Powell and Fleischer. In fact, I think the primary utility of the memo to Libby’s team is in attacking the testimony of Ari Fliescher. Libby’s team will allege that Fleischer learned about Plame from the memo, not from talking to Libby. They’ll also claim that it is from the memo that Fleischer inferred that Plame’s status is classified. That will help them explain why Fleischer apparently understood that he was not supposed to talk about Plame but Libby did not.
In other words, the fact that the memo doesn’t make it clear that Plame’s status was classified might actually hurt Libby’s defense. After all, Libby’s team has had this memo for quite a while, and from their latest filings, it’s clear they intend to use it to cross-examine Fleischer.
So, Anonymous, in other words, you think the whole allegation of conspiracy resting on this is the interpretation Rove and Libby’s defense would prefer, but that’s not the case…right? (Just seeing if I understand where you’re coming from).
Then where did Rove and Libby learn it from, in your opinion? Cheney and/or Bush?
Thanks for the insights, it’s a little difficult to follow all the threads of this story…
Fitzgerald’s indictment makes it clear that Libby heard about Plame from a number of sources, including the Veep, before this memo was ever issued. Libby heard about Plame from Cheney (who heard it from Tenet). Libby also heard about Plame from Grossman and from a CIA briefer. It’s all in the indictment. The significance of the memo is that it (might) explain how someone like Fleischer learned about Plame without Libby having been the one who told him. I have a post up at my site addressing this particular wrinkle.
Yeah, but…(there’s always a but, right?): Fitzgerald has to prove his indictment. It’s not the gospel, it’s his version…
True, but supposedly he has some evidence to back up his claims. Thanks for the links.
Nah, I should be thanking you for coming by and contributing in such a reasonable manner – so hard to find people from the left who’ll comment at a right blog without going off half-cocked (and vice versa)…
Two things. First, I think the memo was “Top Secret” and someone has taken an eraser to some of the markings. Second, A.L. makes a good point about the memo:
However, neither Libby nor Rove was the main source for Novak that actually leaked Plame’s identity. That person (according to pages 14 and 15 of one of Fitz’s recent filings) was an unnamed government official who also talked to Woodward. Woodward elsewhere describes him as a State Department undersecretary, probably Armitage or Grossman, who both had intimate knowledge of the INR memo.