Any exposed CIA operative is in real danger. So why isn’t Valerie Plame being protected?
Okay, it’s bad enough that members of the Bush administration blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Wilson (nee Plame). Now that the story has blown up in their faces, however, why isn’t the government protecting her?…
Orcinus does a stellar job of covering the important details.
…Accompanying the White House spin, of course, is the predictable chorus from his media apologists: Pay no mind, move along, folks. The Plame matter is a mere “partisan” affair that will evaporate when the smoke clears.
Republicans as a whole are not our enemies. Neither are real, classic conservatives. They are our rivals, but many are noble and honorable people. Larry Johnson, former CIA official, is one of them:
…To hear Bob Novak parsing words like a Clinton lawyer defining sex is outrageous. Sure, they didn’t call him, he called them but they volunteered the information. They took the initiative to divulge the CIA officer’s name. And that is outrageous.
“CIA lawyers followed up the notification this month by answering 11 questions from the Justice Department, affirming that the woman’s identity was classified, that whoever released it was not authorized to do so and that the news media would not have been able to guess her identity without the leak, the senior officials said.”
Um…ouch. So much for “she was no big deal” and “everyone knew who she was.”…
Rather than add a lot of commentary, I’m mainly doing my bit on this by compiling a list of relevant articles. I think I have everything up through MSNBC bringing the story into the limelight, but after that I’m picking and choosing. There are so many, they get redundant after a while. However, I’m making a concerted effort to stick to facts. They, in the long run, will speak for themselves.
(by Morgan, Tue, 30 Sep 2003 10:01 AM)…
Well, I have to admit, I’m impressed. It’s not every day that you see a group of people display arrogance and desperation…simultaneously.
Arrogance:
McClellan said White House officials were not trying to determine on their own what had happened or who was involved. “Are we supposed to chase down every anonymous report in the newspaper? We’d spend all our time doing that.”
Desperation:
…In particular, McClellan said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that Karl Rove, Bush’s top political operative, was involved, as once alleged by Wilson. “He wasn’t involved,” McClellan said of Rove. “The president knows he wasn’t involved. … It’s simply not true.”
Not much to add to this one, but here’s hoping this is the one the Bushies won’t be able to sweep under the rug :-).
…
NBC, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, CBS, and the New York Times are all on this story.
The Washington Post story is the most damning:
…A senior administration official said two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife. That was shortly after Wilson revealed in July that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson’s account eventually touched off a controversy over Bush’s use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.
