Blogcritics Comments on All the Resident's Men

Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Fri, 3 Oct 2003 02:35:48 EDT

I'm actually planning on seeing Ellsberg speak at A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books in San Francisco at 7 pm on Friday. It should be interesting to hear what he has to say on all of this. ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Fri, 3 Oct 2003 02:18:35 EDT

Just read the Dean article. It's an excellent idea:

I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people. And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means. For example, special counsel Chuck Colson, once considered the best hatchet man of modern presidential politics, went to prison for leaking false information to discredit Daniel Ellsberg's lawyer. Ellsberg was being prosecuted by Nixon's Justice Department for disclosing the so-called Pentagon Papers (the classified study of the origins of the Vietnam War). But Colson at his worst could barely qualify to play on Bush's team. The same with assistant to the president John Ehrlichman, a jaw-jutting fellow who left them "twisting in the wind," and went to jail denying he'd done anything wrong in ordering a break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, where the burglars went and looked for, but did not find, real information to discredit Ellsberg. But neither Colson nor Ehrlichman nor anyone else I knew while working at the Nixon White House had the necessary viciousness, or depravity, to attack the wife of a perceived enemy by employing potentially life-threatening tactics. So let me share a bit of history with Ambassador Wilson and his wife. And, well aware that gratuitous advice is rightfully suspect, let me also offer them a suggestion -- drawn from some pages of Watergate history that till now I've only had occasion to discuss privately. Long before Congress became involved and a special prosecutor was appointed, Joe Califano, then general counsel to the Democratic National Committee and later a Cabinet officer, persuaded his Democratic colleagues to file a civil suit against the Nixon reelection committee. And that maneuver almost broke the Watergate coverup wide open. In seeking justice from the closed ranks of the Bush White House, Wilson and Plame should follow a similar strategy.

Dean ought to know. more ]]>

Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Fri, 3 Oct 2003 01:50:56 EDT

John Dean also writes in Salon than the Bush administration is even worse than Tricky Dick's. ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Fri, 3 Oct 2003 01:06:07 EDT

Salon speculates on a prime leaker suspect:

Criminal leak investigations are notoriously futile, and the identity of the administration officials who illegally blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame may never be known. But one name keeps coming up, and so far it hasn't provoked a specific, emphatic White House denial: Lewis "Scooter" Libby, assistant to the president and Vice President Dick Cheney's powerful chief of staff. On Wednesday the New York Daily News reported that "Democratic congressional sources said they would like to hear from Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby." On MSNBC's "Buchanan and Press" on Wednesday, Pat Buchanan asked an administration critic who claims to know the leaker's name point blank if "Scooter Libby" was the culprit (the critic wouldn't answer). And Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska made a veiled reference on CNBC this week, suggesting that President Bush could better manage the current crisis by "sitting down with [his] vice president and asking what he knows about it." But below the surface there's even more chatter. Says one former senior CIA officer who served under President Bush's father, "Libby is certainly suspect No. 1." Libby might feel more secure if the White House would issue a blanket denial about his involvement, the way it did for Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, who was the focus of attention early in the week as the possible source. At a press briefing this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was adamant: "The president knows [Rove] wasn't involved ... It's simply not true." more

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Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Thu, 2 Oct 2003 02:32:43 EDT

Salon:

At least three key points of Novak's argument have all proven faulty: that the CIA officer in question is simply an analyst, not an undercover operative, so no harm came from making her identity known; that it was her idea to get her husband involved in investigation claims about Saddam Hussein; and that the unfolding leak investigation is "routine."

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Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:54:31 EDT

It became a big story because it was announced the Justice dept. was investigating it. Chris, did you read any of the quotes I posted or what Johnson said? Plume was undercover. Printing her name in Novak's column blew her cover. As Josh Marshall points out, Novak was singing a different tune earlier: Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover NEWSDAY, July 22, 2003 Tuesday By Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it." ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Wed, 1 Oct 2003 21:56:03 EDT

Good roundup, in attractive chart form, of excuses/defenses here. ]]>

Comment by Chris Arabia on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:26:29 EDT

also, i visited calpundit and the assessment there seems to be that conservative reaction is far more nuanced than the "clueless right-wing reaction" claimed above. some people are searching for excuses, others for answers. i dont find much difference between calpundit's ultimate position and my own: leaker identity and plame's exact job are keys. the white house seems to advocate firing the leakers AT A MINIMUM. ]]>

Comment by Chris Arabia on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:15:58 EDT

for the record, someone please state EXACTLY what is obvious, for the purposes of later comparison to what we may or may not find out. please include the names of the leaker(s) and the nature of plame's relationship to the cia (which goes to determining what possible crimes may have occured). based on what i've read, the leakers should probably be fired and referred for prosecution, but some of this story seems less than obvious. ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:54:35 EDT

Tom Tomorrow has some good advice for the right-wing blogosphere struggling so hard to pretend there isn't a scandal here:

Word to the wise, from someone who acknowledged that Clinton was lying right out of the gate: if you want to ever have a shred of credibility, you have to concede the obvious.

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Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:42:21 EDT

InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds, naturally, is embarrassing himself on this one. A roundup. ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:37:30 EDT

Larry Johnson, a former counter-terrorism official at the CIA and the State Department, on the Newshour:

This not an alleged abuse. This is a confirmed abuse. I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been under cover for three decades. She is not as Bob Novak suggested a "CIA analyst." Given that, i was a CIA analyst for 4 years. I was under cover. I could not divulge to my family outside of my wife that I worked for the CIA unti I left the Intelligence Agency on Sept. 30, 1989. At that point I could admit it. The fact that she was under cover for three decades and that has been divulged is outrageous. She was put undercover for certain reasons. One, she works in an area where people she works with overseas could be compromised... For these journalists to argue that this is no big deal... and if I hear another Republican operative suggesting that, well, this was just an analyst. Fine. Let them go undercover. Let's put them go overseas. Let's out them and see how they like it... I say this as a registered Republican. I am on record giving contributions to the George Bush campaign. This is not about partisan politics. This is about a betrayal, a political smear, of an individual who had no relevance to the story. Publishing her name in that story added nothing to it because the entire intent was, correctly as Amb. Wilson noted, to intimidate, to suggest taht there was some impropriety that somehow his wife was in a decision-making position to influence his ability to go over and savage a stupid policy, an erroneous policy, and frankly what was a false policy of suggesting that there was nuclear material in Iraq that required this war. This was about a political attack. To pretend it was something else, to get into this parsing of words. I tell you, it sickens me to be a Republican to see this.

Quote via Atrios, who also links to the audio. ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:31:43 EDT

CalPundit has a good roundup of the clueless right-wing reaction to this scandal. I guess national security isn't such a big deal anymore. ]]>

Comment by Ralph Del Rio on All the Resident's Men

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 00:49:08 EDT

They main thing now is that Novak denies the lead is coming from the 'Bush White House'. Also, a major point is that Mrs. Wison's. husband went on a tirade against Rove publicly in July...and Why did it take the Post almost 3 months to push the story? It's old news. It's that there seems to be some good news coming out of Iraq these days and this report is coming out. Iran is flaring up really nasty. I don't think this one has any real juice. ]]>

Comment by Natalie Davis on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 23:24:22 EDT

Steve Rhodes wrote: "Regarless of how Novak got the story, senior administration officials were still peddling the story to other reporters. And it still is against the law." I don't doubt that you are correct, Steve. I was just passing on the gist of what was up at Drudge. ]]>

Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 19:26:51 EDT

Yep. He writes:

When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson's involvement in the mission for her husband -- he is a former Clinton administration official -- they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives'...

Perhas his 46 years of journalistic experience might have suggested that they would ask him not to use her name for a reason. The Washington Post reports:

She is a case officer in the CIA's clandestine service and works as an analyst on weapons of mass destruction. Novak published her maiden name, Plame, which she had used overseas and has not been using publicly. Intelligence sources said top officials at the agency were very concerned about the disclosure because it could allow foreign intelligence services to track down some of her former contacts and lead to the exposure of agents. The disclosure could have broken more than one law. In addition to the federal law prohibiting the identification of a covert officer, officials with high-level national security clearance sign nondisclosure agreements, with penalties for revealing classified information.

Drudge also links to a National Review piece saying that people were aware she worked for the CIA:

That wasn't news to me. I had been told that — but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of.

First he infered. He didn't ask. Second there is a different from some Washington insiders knowing it and Novak publishing the name she used abroad in the Washington Post and other papers. ]]>

Comment by Chris Arabia on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 19:09:14 EDT

I found Novak's explanation of his decision to print the story to be a bit puzzling. ]]>

Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 18:59:55 EDT

Except Novak is wrong and perhaps his CIA source wasn't aware of the damage the leak would do. Wilson's wife was undercover as an energy analyst. Which endangers people working for US corporations abroad who aren't even CIA operatives because they might be suspected of it (Danny Pearl was accused by those who murdered him of being a CIA agent). Basically, Novak fucked up as did those who leaked to him and other reporters. ]]>

Comment by Chris Arabia on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 18:36:39 EDT

"The two White House officials hatched an astonishingly illegal and hateful strategy. They called at least six Washington reporters and revealed that Joseph Wilson's wife was a covert operative for the CIA." Steve makes a fair point. Here's another fair point: the above statement from the original post here contains at least two MAJOR factual inaccuracies, according to the latest reports. ]]>

Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 18:04:46 EDT

I doubt Novak told Drudge anything. He probably just got an advance copy of Novak's column. Regarless of how Novak got the story, senior administration officials were still peddling the story to other reporters. And it still is against the law. ]]>

Comment by Natalie Davis on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 17:30:34 EDT

For those who don't follow the link: Novak tells Drudge that no one from the Bush gang leaked anything to him, and that Valerie Plame, though a CIA analyst working on the issue of WMDs, was not a covert operative or spy. ]]>

Comment by Joe on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 17:17:10 EDT

via Drudge NOVAK RESPONDS: 'NOBODY IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CALLED ME TO LEAK THIS' Careful, Brian. Your habit of diving headlong into any story that might scandalize Bush is building your reputation as the boy who cried wolf, or at least someone who could use some Depends. ]]>

Comment by Phillip Winn on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:45:16 EDT

Brian, since you seem to be trying to drag me into this by name, but appropos of nothing and without any sort of actual content to your statement, I'll respond on the same grounds. Um, I'm rubber and you're glue, and uh, whatever comes next! Personally, I think it is quite obvious that Atrios, Glenn Reynolds, Newt Gingrich, Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly are all reptilian aliens. It's obvious! You see it, right? ]]>

Comment by Steve Rhodes on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:35:07 EDT

There is some hope in that speech. When Tenet introduced Bush, he mentioned his parachute jumps and Bush said:

You mentioned the parachute jumps, Director. I landed very proud. Jumped out of the plane at 12,500 feet, fell at 120 miles an hour for 7500 feet, pulled the rip cord, floated down into the tranquil sands of Yuma, Arizona. And said to my wife, "Now what do you think?" She said, "I haven't seen a free fall like that since the '92 election." (Laughter)

I think we're seeing another free fall like that. Hopefully, it will continue until election day. ]]>

Comment by Brian Flemming on All the Resident's Men

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:23:02 EDT

And they'd be right. Intelligence assets have nothing to do with Democrat or Republican. This is and should be a non-partisan issue. Just updated the story with more credit where credit is due. ]]>