Widen The Net

Jason Leopold, writing in TruthOut, and Josh Gerstein of the NY Sun both break news in the Plame investigation.  Evidently the State Department was quite casual about Ms. Plame's CIA role, describing her in one set of notes as "CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb. Joe Wilson".

Let's go to Mr. Leopold first:

Defense attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby said in a court filing   late Wednesday that the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney   doesn't remember a conversation he had with a State Department official in June   2003 in which the official told Libby that Valerie Plame Wilson worked for the   CIA.

    But the conversation did take place, according to current and former administration   officials and attorneys who have remained close to the two-year-old CIA leak   probe. At least a half-dozen witnesses who testified before a grand jury over   the past two years said that they were at the meeting when Marc Grossman, the   former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, told Libby that Plame   Wilson worked for the CIA, according to attorneys and US officials close to   the two-year-old CIA leak probe. Grossman also told Libby that Plame Wilson   got the CIA to send her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, on a fact-finding   trip to Niger in February 2002 to check out reports that Iraq tried to purchase   uranium from the African country.

Per the Libby indictment, that meeting took place on June 11 or 12.  If there were half a dozen people in the meeting, all of them become possible leakers, yes?  And of course, anyone with whom those six discussed this internally become possible leakers as well.  Of course, Marc Grossman's superior, Richard Armitage, is a leading candidate as the fellow who leaked Plame's identity to both Bob Woodward and Bob Novak, so one might imagine that Mr. Grossman is a bit defensive on this point.

Folks who have focused on the circulation of the INR memo on Air Force One will want to know more about the attendees at this June meeting.  And well we might wonder - is this the manner in which the identity of a deep-cover NOC is treated?  Sure, we assume these people had clearances, but where was the need to know, and why was this discussed so casually?

Josh Gerstein shines a light in that direction - apparently the Sun has received a declassified copy of the INR memo (per a FOIA request by The Sun)  originally addressed to Marc Grossman, and rewritten and re-addressed to Colin Powell in order to bring him up to speed for his trip to Africa in early July.   Let's take for granted that the initial memo to Grossman was the basis for the Grossman-Libby meeting.  Plame's classified status was not mentioned:

Contrary to published reports, a State Department memorandum at the center of the investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, appears to offer no particular indication that Ms. Plame's role at the agency was classified or covert.

The memo, drafted by the then head of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and addressed to the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, was carried aboard Air Force One as President Bush departed for Africa in July 2003. A declassified version of the document was obtained by The New York Sun on Saturday.

...

Mr. Fitzgerald's investigators have attempted to establish a precise chain of custody for the document because it is one way some White House officials might have learned that Mr. Wilson's wife was a CIA employee, working in the agency's weapons of mass destruction division.

"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," the memo from the State Department intelligence chief, Carl Ford Jr., said. Mr. Ford also drafted an earlier version of the memo, addressed to an undersecretary of state, Marc Grossman. Mr. Grossman apparently sought the information about Mr. Wilson's trip after receiving inquiries from the then chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, I. Lewis Libby.

Mr. Gerstein address The Sign of the S noted in the WSJ story; blog critics had made a similar point earlier (and we have table-pounding in the comments from Lew Clark):

A Wall Street Journal article on July 19, 2005, citing an unnamed person familiar with the memo, reported that the memo "made clear that information identifying an agent and her role in her husband's intelligence gathering mission was sensitive and shouldn't be shared." The Journal account said the paragraph discussing Ms. Plame's role in her husband's trip was marked in a way to indicate it shouldn't be disclosed.

A story the following day in the Washington Post, "Plame's Identity Marked as Secret," said correctly that the paragraph carried the mark "S," signifying the middle level of three major tiers of classification.

Not noted in the previous press reports was the fact that six of the seven paragraphs in the memo are marked "secret," while only one appears to mention Ms. Plame. In addition, virtually every paragraph in the attached supporting documents from the State Department about alleged Iraqi uranium procurement in Niger carries the "secret" designation.

With most, if not all, of the Niger-related documents marked "secret" in a host of places, there is no particular reason a reader would think the classification was derived from Ms. Plame's status or involvement.

Some attached notes futher undermine the notion that Ms. Plame's identity was known to be a Big Deal (emphasis added):

One attachment to the memo consists of typewritten notes a State Department representative took at a February 19, 2002, meeting where sending Mr. Wilson to Niger was discussed. "Meeting apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb. Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question," an American diplomat serving as the west and southern Africa division chief in the State Department's intelligence and research bureau, Douglas Rohn, wrote.

Mr. Gerstein does a good job getting predictable quotes from Karl Rove's attorney and Joe Wilson.

Well.  Per a recent defense filing, we have the news that Libby has "testified to the grand jury unequivocally that he did not understand Ms. Wilson’s employment by the CIA to be classified information".

Back when Fitzgerald was arguing the urgency of obtaining Judy Miller's testimony, he told the judges that "[t]o date, we have no direct evidence that Libby knew or believed that Wilson's wife was engaged in covert work."

And let's not overlook Murray Waas' contribution to the Loosening Noose.  Maybe Cheney learned about Plame's classified status himself, and shared it with Libby?  It's possible, but the person who told Cheney isn't helping out:

Cheney told investigators that he had learned of Plame's employment by the CIA and her potential role in her husband being sent to Niger by then-CIA director George Tenet, according to people familiar with Cheney's interviews with the special prosecutor.

Tenet has told investigators that he had no specific recollection of discussing Plame or her role in her husband's trip with Cheney, according to people with familiar with his statement to investigators.

Hmm.  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.

NOTE:  Let me hat tip Jeralyn Merritt, who continues her fine work on this with the Leopold post, and Clarice Feldman for the Sun shine.  And when does Josh Gerstein start getting the accolades heaped on Murray Waas?

MORE:  On the question of whether Wilson debunked the forgeries, as originally reported by Nick Kristof, the 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".

STILL MORE:  "Grossman's The One!", or, "Who Put The One in the One by Two by Six?".  From Leopold:

Attorneys as well as current and former administration officials close to the   case said Grossman was the lone dissenting unnamed official quoted in a September 28, 2003, Washington Post story who told two Post reporters that "two top White House officials" called "at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife."

Well - Fitzgerald found the "One x Two x Six" theory very interesting when he took over the investigation.  From the NY Times:

At first, the investigation seemed narrowly focused on trying to identify who at the White House provided the information about Ms. Plame to Mr. Novak. But more recently, prosecutors have focused on a Sept. 28, 2003, article in The Washington Post, which said the newspaper had been told that "yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife."

Prosecutors, referring to the story as "one by two by six," have sought to learn the identity of the senior administration official or the two top White House officials, believing that whoever provided the information to the Post knew who spoke with Mr. Novak.

That is so at odds with Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of Sate, being the source for Novak and Woodward that I wonder what it could mean; let's score it as a (small) straw in favor of Hadley as Novak's source.

 

Comments

[Lew Clark]

1. If Valerie Plame/Wilson were a covert agent, and if her status was driving the classification of the document, that portion would be labeled "top secret", not just "secret".

2. Never, never, never is the identity of a covert agent revealed in a document relating to any activity by that agent. Even if the recipients are "cleared", they do not have the "need to know". Thus the document would have been viewed as "blowing her cover", if she actually had a cover.

3. What is more likely, is that the "appropriate checks" had been made. Assurances of her non-covert status had been given. And a "your free to discuss this among yourselves" existed.

4. Which does not hinder Libby's defense, but enhances it. Since there were other classified things involved here. But , “Our pal Val works for CIA”, was not one of them.

[brenda taylor]

well it seems to me that the cia was out to get this administration there scenario is not playing out the way they planned it,and im sure there are more agencys involved.its amazing what tax payers are willing to pay for.

[Jeff]

TM - If you were as vigilant about policing the reporting on this that comes from the right as you are that comes from the mainstream and the left, you would not be satisfied with Gerstein's strained interpretation of what earlier reporting had said about the status of Plame in the document, or his strawman attack to the effect that, well, the whole damn thing was classified S/NF, so how was anyone supposed to know there was anything sensitive about her status. You read a document 90% of which is marked secret no foreign; you see someone involved in the matter under consideration identified as CIA; and you don't think, "Well, that person probably shouldn't be blabbed about"?

I do have a question along those lines: Valerie Wilson is identified as a CIA WMD manager. Does that term of art indicate anything interesting about what she did at the agency - say, that she was a case manager of case officers? that she wasn't an analyst? Anything like that?

Furthermore, 1. is "direct evidence" the only kind of evidence? 2. "being engaged in covert work" is not equivalent to her employment at the CIA being classified information. And anyway, what do you expect Libby's lawyers and Libby to say? That he was aware that her employment was classified information?

[clarice]

Seems to me Lew has answered your question before you even asked it.
That Comey-Fitz mind meld is catching.

Or is it the conspiracy by saying and doing nothing that ensnared Libby?

[Cecil Turner]

[[repeated from previous thread as much more appropriate here]]

I don't know what a "CIA WMD manager" is (and it appears to be a description, rather than a title, so I suspect it only exists in Mr Ford's lexicon). But it seems to me this is close to the worst possible document to support the "must have known she was classified" theory:

• it's in a S paragraph in a TS document;
• that paragraph is obviously background;
• her identity is mentioned in passing;
• the statement is parenthetical; and
• other, more important (and obviously classified) bits are in the same paragraph.

Further, if the contention is that it was briefed the month previous to Libby from Mr Grossman, it's hard to see why he'd retain that particular fact (considering Wilson's identity wasn't public at the time).

Further, since we now know the actual leak came from someone at State (Armitage or Grossman, probably), the latest revelations that Mr Grossman is making perhaps overstated claims very interesting. Especially as it is now clear he was very much a part of the leak (and perhaps, if he is Novak's source, the main part).

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

'You read a document 90% of which is marked secret no foreign; you see someone involved in the matter under consideration identified as CIA; and you don't think, "Well, that person probably shouldn't be blabbed about"?'

Well, Joe Wilson is mentioned in the document too, and he was blabbing about himself.

[windansea]

Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the Washington Post quoted the senior administration official, whom sources have identified as Grossman, as saying. According to sources, Grossman told the Post that the Plame Wilson leak was "wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility."

guess we know where Fitz "bought" his press narrative from

[windansea]

and this from AJ Strata

(1) Grossman held the same position in the Turkish Embassy Joe Willson did in the Iraqi Embassy at the same time during Gulf War I. (I bet they met!)

(2) Grossman was in charge of the European area for State when Valerie Plame was under cover in Europe and pulled out due to the Aldrich Ames leak. (I bet they met!)

(3) Who else would Wilson call in the State Department in spring 2003 whom he knew well enough and who was high enough in the ranks to pass a threat to Condi Rice to set the record straight on the SOTU or else?

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/1640

[Strick]

Am I the only one who's noticed (at least in this particular discussion of the memo) that this couldn't be the only source of information about Valerie PLAME since it refers to her as Valerie WILSON?

Why would anyone suddenly starting using her maiden name if this were the primary source for the leak when the document makes both her relationship and married name clear?

Well, unless they already knew who she was and that she still went by her maiden name in the Agency? Or, perhaps, more likely, that the true source of the information was something different that referred to her by her maiden name and probably described the trip itself as a boondoggle.

Maybe those things aren't mutually excluive after all.

[clarice]

She knew Grossman and Armitage and Scowcroft personally, and they probably all knew her maiden (professional) name. Just sayin' and speculatin'

[windansea]

everybody knew it

indeed

[TM]

Grossman was The One in the 1 x 2 x 6 theory! I actually noted the significance of that in a comment at TalkLeft - it sort of leaves Grossman out to sea if Armitage leaked to Novak as well as Woodward.

[clarice]

Isn't that the funnest thing of all, TM? How long before Fitz drops this with an apology?

[PeterUK]

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge,"

Why is this nonsense allowed to stand,in what way has it been a punishment for the Wilsons? Joe was an over the hill diplomat and Val had been shunted onto a desk job because of depression.Now look at them,celebrities,the money is rolling in,their futures are assured,there has been no fatwah from an irate nonproliferated mullah,the whole thing is a huge con.

[TM]

And anyway, what do you expect Libby's lawyers and Libby to say? That he was aware that her employment was classified information?

Well, if Fitzgerald had proof of the opposite, I would expect an indictment focused on perjury/obstruction to cite that.

For example, if that INR memo seemed to be conclusive, or if Grossman was emphatic that he warned folks about her status in the meeting with Libby, one might have expected Fitzgerald to have worked that tidbit into his hints about a conspiracy.

[Anonymous Liberal]

Are we positive that it wasn't Libby's people who were hyping the significance of the INR memo in the first place? Based on the most recent court filing, it seems that Libby's attorneys are planning to argue that Ari Fleischer, who is a key witness against Libby, read the INR memo and that's how he knew that Valerie Wilson's CIA affiliation was sensitive information.

Fleischer has testified that he learned about Plame from Libby (something Libby denies). And I would bet that Fleischer has also testified that he understood that he was not supposed to talk about Plame, that the information was sensitive. Libby's attorneys want to argue, I suspect, that Fleischer made this inference based on reading the INR memo, not from talking to Libby. That would explain why Fleischer knew he was not supposed to talk about Plame, but Libby did not.

I think it may have been sources close to Libby who were hyping the significance of the INR memo last summer, particularly the it was marked "S" for secret. If it's not clear from the memo that Plame's status was classified, that might actually hurt Libby, not help him. Remember this is trial for perjury and obstruction, not the underlying leak.

[topsecretk9]

Remember this is trial for perjury and obstruction, not the underlying leak.

Posted by: Anonymous Liberal | April 17, 2006 at 10:49 AM

just a really interesting observation, isn't it? The really weird part is if Wilson had not lied to Kristof there most likely would be no trial at all.

[ed]

Fitzgerald will be giving a press conference today! Sure it's about the conviction of Gov. Ryan but who knows what sorts of fantastical things will come from his mouth.

[Jeff]

Are we positive that it wasn't Libby's people who were hyping the significance of the INR memo in the first place?

The general thinking on the left for a while - led by emptywheel, I believe - has been that the leaks about the INR memo were generally White House efforts to push attention back toward Air Force One and 1)State, and Powell in particular; 2)Fleischer. But there may be leaks upon leaks: maybe Powell was out to get Fleischer as well, since he is supposedly the source of the information that Fleischer was seen perusing the memo on AF1, which Fleischer has apparently denied. But maybe Powell as the source was disinformation. Who knows. It's also possible that State was trying to spread the idea that the INR memo was a red herring, since there has been one report that Armitage saw the memo in mid-June after coming back on the job - in which case, by the way, I don't think Grossman is twisting so much.

[clarice]

AL, I am positive that the person who made the INR the issue was Fitz. And I agree with Thom, that nowhere has it even been alleged that Grossman told anyone that that parenthetical bit of information was classified. Finally, I do know that there was a good reason why Fitz told the Miller court that he had no reason to believe that Libby knew Plame held a "classified" status and why he never charged Libby was leaking classified information.

[b]

George Ryan: found guilty - all counts.
Larry Warner (co-defendent): found guilty - all counts.

[windansea]

Fitz...quit while you are ahead!!

[clarice]

Powerline squeezes this extra from the memo published by the Sun:
This line from the Sun's story seems significant; it may have been public before now, but if so, I don't remember it:

A cable attached to the key memoranda indicates that on September 10, 2001, one day before the terrorist attacks on America, Prime Minister Amadou of Niger told embassy officials "that there were buyers like Iraq who would pay more for Niger's uranium than France."
This is consistent with what Amadou's predecessor told Joe Wilson, i.e., that Iraq had sent a trade delegation to Niger that made overtures about buying uranium.http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013786.php

[clarice]

ts--Please check your emails. AJ Strata is trying to reach you.

[b]

One of Josh Marshall's reporters talked to the guy who wrote the memo ...

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000392.php

[Cecil Turner]

Grossman was The One in the 1 x 2 x 6 theory! I actually noted the significance of that in a comment at TalkLeft - it sort of leaves Grossman out to sea if Armitage leaked to Novak as well as Woodward.

Yes, and since Grossman is the other prime candidate for the leak, either way his "cooperation" is looking a bit sleazy. (Especially since 1x2x6 hasn't held up so well . . . nor is it obvious how he'd know that was true, even if it were so.)

[clarice]

Woo Woo, if this case goes to trial, people will be paying big bucks to watch the cross-examination of the prosecution's chief witnesses.

In fact, I'm thinking Libby could get rich auctioning off the right to conduct those examinations to lawyers around the country.

[ed]

That's actually pretty funny, the reporter gets the memo and to see what it all means, rather than contacting the guy who wrote it, contacts the lawyer of one of those under investigation.

[clarice]

Not as funny as Kristof not mentioning that Wilson was working with Kerry and Johnson was anti-Administration and part of a group asking for intel officers to leak.

[ed]

He was an anonymous source, maybe Wilson asked Kristof to reference him as a former hill staffer.

[clarice]

And his wife as "a CIA analyst"

[clarice]

Isn't it interesting that the Sun got this by filing a FOIA reqeust and all the other papers who've been babbling about the INR and Libby leaked, didn't apparently try to get it?

[windansea]

I sense a "plaintive" tone in the opposition today

whiners!

[jerry]

Govenor George Ryan, guilty on all charges.

[windansea]

interesting comment at AJ's

IIRC, the person that Joe Wilson went to see to intercede with Condi was her mentor, none other than Brent Scrowcoft. And that he was the one that suggested that Wilson write the Op-ed. Definately there were people at State that knew all about the personal and professional relationships of Wilson and Plame. Think Marc Grossman mentioned anything in passing to Libby? Why not.

Left by jforrik on April 17th, 2006

[Lew Clark]

I haven't followed the Ryan case very closely, and have no reason to believe he wasn’t guilty as hell. But I did note, they tacked on to the racateering charges, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. Apparently, Fitz works from a template, your always guilty of perjury and obstruction, and maybe something else if Fitz gets lucky. I also noticed a charge of money laundering. I don't think that was Fitz's charge. I think Ronnie Earl called that one in. He's in charge of campaign contributions as money laundering.

[clarice]

See, in Fitz' mind, Grossman and Scowcroft and Armitage are FREINDS of Wilson and they can leak but you have to go after the guy who didn't leak but who simply noted that Wilson's story was completely at odds with the truth.

[clarice]

**FRIENDS**

[AJStrata]

TM or Clarice,

I am not getting the connection that if Armitage leaked to Novak that leads to Hadley. Sorry, just a bit slow today.

Cheers -0 AJStrata

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Pretty obviously, the 1x2x6 story Grossman told, he got from Joe Wilson.

[clarice]

I don't get that AJ . Maybe someone else does.

[AJStrata]

OK, at least I am not the only one. Hopefully TM can elaborate.

Cheers

[Cecil Turner]

I am not getting the connection that if Armitage leaked to Novak that leads to Hadley.

I think it's:
Grossman, who'd be more likely to know if it was Armitage, told a completely different story. Hence it (very slightly) favors Hadley.

[Dwilkers]

Armitage leaks to Woddward. A month later his underling Grossman is the lone dessenter when "two top White House officials" called "at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife."

A special prosecutor is appointed to investigate who leaked. No original leaker is found, but a guy a month down the info chain is charged with obstruction. And nothing happens with Armitage.

This is starting to stink to high heaven.

What. A. Joke.

[Maimonides]

This website needs reformatting. The current format stinks.

[Squiggler]

After reading hundreds or is it thousands of posts and all kinds of filings and documents, I admit that I am now hopelessly confused. So, I would like to get some simplicity back into this who equation.

Point One ... the investigation was started to determine who leaked Valerie Plame's name ... is this correct?

Point Two ... it is now determined that Libby did not leak Plame's name ... is this correct?

Point Three ... Libby is charged with perjury, assuming this means he lied under oath ... is this correct?

Point Four ... What did Libby lie about?

[Squiggler]

who equation = whole equation, although it works as who too. :)

[AJStrata]

Cecil,

I think I see the angle - but it just doesn't make sense. Assume Grossman told Armitage who it was for starters. He would report what he knew to Armitage, probably before the WH. He'd better! Armitage never told Grossman he told Woodward, it would violate the embargo Woodward would demand. So Grossman knows before anyone else. The question for Grossman is does he have a record of being told by the CIA when after Libby supposedly asked! If he knew before even the CIA was getting its act together then he knew well before most. If Grossman cannot show how someone other than the Wilson's told him, then we have some real news. My guess is Fitzgerald did not check the timing of who learned what and when at State too carefully. I have not checked the timeline, but did Armitage know before Libby asked or was told? I still say Grossman told Armitage.

[clarice]

From my favorite poster here, this:

Yep, they did -- http://www.ucsbalum.com/alum_dir_plus/notable/politics.html

Marc Grossman '72- Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Before being sworn in as Under Secretary for Political Affairs in March of 2001, Grossman served in a number of Foreign Service positions. From 1994 to 1997 he was the Ambassador to Turkey. Other positions include Special Assistant to the Secretary of State and Executive Secretary of the Department of State.

Joseph Wilson '72- former ambassador to Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome. He served in Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy from 1988 to 1991.

[clarice]

Now, what are the chances that 2 college classmates from a smallish (then) college find themselves in the same circles in DC and do not know the names of their wives and where they work?