Valerie Plame Wilson has been testifying for an hour, and while it appears on a chart, the name of Richard Armitage — the actual person who actually leaked her identity to Robert Novak (and, a month earlier, to Bob Woodward) — has yet to be spoken. Scooter Libby’s name? Ten times.
As Richard Armitage was “no friend of the Bush Whitehouse”, expect this pattern to continue.
Update – A Timeline
It was almost certainly Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV who first “outed” his wife as a CIA officer.
And he probably did this in early May 2003 after meeting with top level Democrats and around the time he began to work for the John Kerry for President campaign.
Let’s run through the chronology.
Up until March 8, 2003 Joe Wilson still contended that Saddam had WMD and that he was involved in the nuclear arms trade.
So what happened after March 8th to make Wilson change his tune about the Iraq’s WMD and re-write his findings from his trip to Niger? A version in direct contradiction to what he told his CIA debriefers, according to the 9/11 Commission?
Not that it was a crime to leak her identity. She wasn’t a covert agent, she wasn’t undercover. She was just an employee whose identity was already known.
The case against Libby should never have even made it into court.
And what chance do think Black stands in an American court?
She was covert and there is a war and Armitage admitted, cooperated and turned over all papers and diaries. Libby obstructed. That’s a crime.
Been there Blogged that!
“That’s a crime.”
If that’s true, why wasn’t Armitage charged? Co-operation would get him nothing more than a plea bargain.
Libby faces 25 years for having a bad memory (“lying”)about something that wasn’t a crime. (Can you remember what you had for breakfast Feb. 9?) She was not covert. It’s a witch hunt.
Another question: If Armitage co-operated, why did he remain silent while the reputations of innocent men were dragged through the mud?
Why did Colin Powell?
And why did Fitzgerald continue to pursue the case as though he didn’t know who did the leaking, when it clear he knew very early in the investigation?
dirtman is exactly correct. How can you out someone as a covert agent if you don’t know she is covert? She was identified as working for the CIA, not as a covert agent. She went to work at the CIA every working day of her life in plain view of anyone who wanted to observe her. It is the CIA itself that proved to be her undoing.
I could not believe the scolding she gave “certain politicians” at today’s hearing for being “political”. Here she is, complissant in sending her very political (Bush hating) husband to investigate claims that Saddam was trying to procure nuclear material and he submits a report that conveniently omits vital information that is meant to make Bush look like he was giving the American people misleading information.
What a circus dog-and-pony show with the Democrats right in there to help her along. I am quite dissappointed that the Republicans on the panel, for probably “save your ass” reasons, did not go after her more forceably.
The fall of the Roman empire has been attributed to many different things. When they write the history of the fall of the Great U S of A it will be about stupid politics. Nothing more, nothling less. The unmistakable decline of this great country started to happen sometime soon after the assassination of JFK. It has been a steady progression since and I just pray to God that it will stop before it is too late. Never before have the stakes been so high.
Think about it. The face of our North American Nations are changing. We have negative population growth when you discount immigration. We have better get our collective act together or what we are preparing for our children and grandchildren is absolutely frightening. What do we want to do? Keep playing with petty politics or recognize that our way of life is being challenged head-on? When Bush says that the war we are fighting is completely different from any we have fought before he knows what he is talking about.
We need to recognize that and quit with the politics and start with ‘closing the ranks’ I am so tired of the political bullshit that will lead us to our ultimate self-destruction.
The fun part of the hearing was when a very smart lady, Victoria Toensing nailed old Waxman’s feet to the floor and set his face on fire. He became a typical stupid democrat immediately and refused to let her talk. They don’t want, and won’t allow, the truth to be told. Makes them look like the political aholes they are. Anyway it was another followup comedy that has gone on for two months and is scheduled to last two years. I don’t know that my humor bone can stand it. Too much laughing makes my belly sore.
General Michael Hayden, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency — appointed twice to top positions by President George W. Bush — stated for today’s record that Valerie Plame Wilson’s status as a CIA employee was “under cover” and that her employment was “classified information.”
The only time you guys get creative is when you’re making excuses for the Bush administration.
Plame was no more an undercover agent while working for the CIA than I was when I was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. At any event, Fitzgerald knew, two days into his investigation exactly who had “blown” her cover. At that point any competent investigator would have stopped and said “Here’s your culprit — investigation over.” Since Fitzgerald obviously had another agenda, he kept going back and forth over months until he managed to get someone to slip up then charged him with obstruction, while the object of the investigation was let off the hook — what a pile of B.S. and shoddy investigation technique to boot.
Joe Wilson did not go to investigate WMD’s; he went to investigate “possible purchase of yellowcake”
ah Kate Kate Kate, wasnt it you that dismissed my challenge to ‘connect the dots’ as a primary school game?
if I knew how to filter all and only responses to my posting with keyword ‘dots’ I could find it….
(as it is I can only call on my encyclopaedic memory for these factods)
more right wing hypocricy looms…..
ah Kate Kate Kate. wasnt it you who dismissed my challenge to ‘connect the dots’ a loooong time ago as a primary school activity?
right wing hypocricy looms again……
if I knew the s/w routine which would filter all past responses to my postings keyword ‘dots’ I could provide it here. maybe YOU can do that…..
The only time you guys get creative is when you’re making excuses for the Bush administration.
Posted by: Jose at March 17, 2007 10:58 AM
Hozsay, jealousy wears you well
from AOL news:
CIA Director Hayden: Valerie Plame Was Covert Agent
Posted Mar 16th 2007 11:41AM by David Knowles
Filed under: Iraq War, Scandal, House Committees
This will be a bitter pill for some conservatives to swallow. CIA Director Michael Hayden personally reviewed and okayed Henry Waxman’s opening statement for Valerie Plame’s testimony today. Furthermore, Hayden took pains to set the record straight: Plame was indeed a covert agent up until the day Robert Novak revealed as much to the public.
You see, many on the right (including some here at The Stump) have spent a lot of time trying to convince us otherwise. They never fail to use quotation marks when referring to the administration’s “outing” of Plame so as to suggest that no such undercover status ever existed. While Patrick Fitzgerald may not have believed he had enough evidence to prove that a crime was committed, there was really never much doubt that Plame had covert status.
In fact, Plame’s testimony proved illuminating on a number of fronts. Under oath, articulate, and forceful, she laid to waste a veritable forest of myths that the right has erected against her. No, she wasn’t a mere pencil pusher, she’d undertaken undercover missions to foreign countries over the past five years. No, she hadn’t been the one to select her husband to go to on his fact-finding mission to Niger. No, she didn’t talk to Nicholas Kristof (or others in the media) about her job at the CIA. But most importantly,
**************************** heres the punch line !!!
in the words of the man who now heads the CIA,
**********************************************
she was very much a covert agent.
so, o bush league bushists, you were “saying” regarding “”outing”” (note the DOUBLE double quotes, gee, what would dat imply???)
why is it the right has this tendency to eat its young?
When Bush says that the war we are fighting is completely different from any we have fought before he knows what he is talking about.”
well d bob, howcum he’s fighting it in the same old way ???
Valerie Plame Wilson’s status as a CIA employee was “under cover” and that her employment was “classified information.”
So why the hell wasn’t Armitage charged?
“So why the hell wasn’t Armitage charged?”
It is a crime to intentionally out the identity of a covert agent. That Armitage, Rove, Libby, and Fleischer all leaked Plame’s identity has been clearly established. That Plame was a covert agent is also a fact (in spite of your denial of it). Fitzgerald has however decided that he cannot prove the intentionality of these leaks, i.e. it is hard to proof that they knew they were outing a covert agent.
Anybody with a functioning brain, however, would not need a lot of time to figure out that she was intentionally outed.. proving intention is a bitch though.. and that’s why Armitage, Rove, and Fleischer are off the hook
“General Michael Hayden, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency — appointed twice to top positions by President George W. Bush — stated for today’s record that Valerie Plame Wilson’s status as a CIA employee was “under cover” and that her employment was “classified information.”
When the reporter (forgot his name) was first checking out the story he called the CIA and asked if she was, in fact, employed by them. They confirmed that she was. Armitage had been saying all over town that she was. The CIA did nothing to stop him.
She only “became” undercover when it was politically convenient for certain people.
Armitage is never charged for what was supposedly apparently a crime.
Libby was charged and convicted for lying about who first told him of the same event.
Thats pure politics.