Valerie Plame Wilson - Monday

Technical difficulties plague my morning blogging, so this may be [witha few late adds] weirdly link-free.

Mark Kleiman has a very good post which hammers a point ai made earlier - however we got here, President Bush needs to decide whether he is part of the solution, or part of the problem. Up to now, the cover-up has been protecting staffers (or Cheney!). Anyone at he White House still working for George Bush has to remember, there is only one indispensable man in that operation.

And no, I wasn't speaking of Karl Rove. But on that subject, we see yet another denial (by Press Sec'y McClellan) of Rove's involvement.

Now, the White House explains that the Justice Dept is studying whether laws were broken, or national security compromised. Surely that has been established? Surely not. Allow me to muddy the waters.

Suppose Ms. Wilson had posed as a professor at the University of Islamabad while recruiting Pakistani engineers to spy on their countries nuclear development program. Reasonable minds can agree that outing her might compromise national security. However, if she came back to the US six years ago, she would not, for statutory purposes, be "covert". The WaPo notes that there may be another law relating to White House folks with a security clearance, so the lawyers have a lot to chew on. [LINK - wow, this blogging thing is a breeze in "stream of consciousness" no-link mode!]

Now, imagine that Ms. Wilson was serving abroad in a position that "everyone knew" was CIA. This is analogous to the notion that all Soviet cultural attaches were KGB. The CIA took care that she never met with sensitive assets, so outing her does not affect national security. However, and oddly, if she came back four years ago, she is still technically "covert", and a crime may have been committed. We note that Mark Kleiman links to the WaPo story with the ghastly news that "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." Troubling. But what is the source, and the motivation - we detect hostile fire, and perhaps we can discount it pending more information.

So, Ms. Wilson may or may not be covert, there may or may not be national security implications, and answering one question does not automatically answer the other. To further compound the confusion, the statute seems to require knowledge and intent on the part of the "outer" - repeating water cooler gossip may be VERY stupid, but not illegal.

So, on the one hand, there is certainly enough here for the Justice Dept. to mull over. However, for the Justice Dept. investigation to become an excuse for inaction on the part of the Bush Admin doesn't work for me - if, G*d help you all, I were in charge, I would want to know what happened, and address this.

And perhaps the Wh already has? Maybe the WH has done some homework and is satisfied that national security was not compromised, and that no laws were broken. Fine, then say so. That is very different from "we will cooperate with the investigation."

I have some quick asides in the continuation, and I air one of my personal demons.

Quick asides - Andrea Mitchell is mentioned in the WaPo as a recipient of the leak, but gave the "no comment". She phoned in to "Imus In the Morning" and yes, she did get the call. Imus did not ask whether she double-checked with the CIA (as Novak did), nor did she say. Her take was, this info did not advance the story, the Ambassador was credible, can it.

I can offer personal testimony on that point. I read the Novak piece "live", before David Corn called our attention to it. I noted the involvement of Ms. Wilson, and spent about thirty seconds thinking, oh, great dirt, this makes Wilson look ridiculous. I then spent another thirty seconds thinking, man, look at his resume, can anyone keep a straight face and say he was not qualified for this Niger gig?

So I posted a different excerpt from the Novak piece. However, we have a great bit of "Psychic Ex-Post Journalism" from the reporter at CBS - nobody called me (because our ratings stink) but if they had, man, I would have known immediately it was a big story about a breach of national security. Right, just like all the other reporters, pal.

Now, on the notion that the White House staff knew she was a secret agent, knew that outing her would jeopardize natiojnal security, knew it was a felony, but proceeded anyway - please. It makes sense, maybe, if you are committed to the view that BushCo people are evil, arrogant, and hopelessly stupid. One attempts to imagine the following conversation:

"Here's a brainstorm! Why don't we at get Wilson by outing his wife!"

""Smooth! But I am the teensiest bit worried. That will compromise national security, and is a felony that could land us in jail for ten years.

"Good point! Let's not call more than six reporters, then".

"That's why you're the brains of this operation, boss."

Sure, it could have gone that way. But more likely, they didn't know she was covert, or knew that she was not "really" covert. That doesn't excuse bad judgement, but it may save a felony rap.

Personal Demon: The WaPo piece from Sunday mentioned the CIA spokesperson as expressing concern for Ms. Wilson's personal safety. Originally, I had been inclined to discount this issue - my guess is that she had "open covert" status while abroad, so that foreign intelligence services are no more interested in her now than previously.

However, it dawns on me (finally) that terrorist groups and talented cranks may have added a new name to their target list. That is not acceptable - we all watched "The Godfather", and you have to keep family out of it.

I have said before that this outing was stupid, but I may not have properly assessed that it was also dangerous.

Comments

[dwight meredith]

As to Ms. Plame's status, and whether her exposure harms security, the 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.

[narciso]

Apparently, most of the posts on this matter, share the habit attributed to the President,
they only read the headline. How else. can the
onus fall on 'unnamed administration officials'
who was allegedly singled out by other 'senior
administration officials. Now one can almost forgive the Dickerson and Calebrezzi's ignorance of the circumstances behind the assassination of Richard Welch, they were probably in grade school when that issue of
Time went to print, in December 1975. However
Novak has no excuse: He was clearly aware of
the 'Richard Welch Bill' and the consequences
of such a disclosure; if he didn't he was clearly reminded, by a company spokesman

"When Novak told a CIA spokesman he was going to write a column about Wilson's wife, the spokesman urged him not to print her name "for security reasons," according to one CIA official. Intelligence officials said they believed Novak understood there were reasons other than Plame's personal security not to use her name, even though the CIA has declined to confirm whether she was undercover.

"Novak said in an interview last night that the request came at the end of a conversation about Wilson's trip to Niger and his wife's role in it. 'They said it's doubtful she'll ever again have a foreign assignment,' he said. 'They said if her name was printed, it might be difficult if she was traveling abroad, and they said they would prefer I didn't use her name. It was a very weak request. If it was put on a stronger basis, I would have considered it.'"

Since Mrs. Plame was not apparently under diplomatic cover, she was obviously a NOC.
If she had Namebase and the KGB influenced
CAQ; would have burned her long before
(re; Mission Impossible and Alias for fictional counterparts) their status is much
harder to determine than your standard covert
operative; if not we're in deep trouble

Of course Dickerson and co, complicated the issue by parroting and elaborating Novak as
did David Corn; forcing the Agency to keep
confirming her status:

Of course, the cases of Dick Holm, the entire
Guatemalan country team, and at least one Port
Au Prince station chief, makes the outrage by
these suddenly concerned patriots seem forced

[Clay Ranck]

I did notice that a biography of Joe Wilson on the website of the Middle East Institute names his wife as "the former Valerie Plame". I'm not sure when this info was provided, and it doesn't link her to the CIA, but if this information was on the website before July, then the issue about releasing her maiden name doesn't seem very credible.

Here's the address of the bio: http://www.mideasti.org/html/bio-wilson.html

[TM]

Good point, Clay. We want to give props to "Seamole" who pointed that out in July.

http://seamole.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_seamole_archive.html#105887178100510663

There are other pre-July sightings of her maiden name as well.

[Jokes]

The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists - two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her." The first man said. "You cant be serious. I could never shoot my wife!"The agent replies, "Then you?re not the right man for this job."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. "I tried, but I cant kill my wife." The agent replies, "You dont have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the womans turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didnt tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair."

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