How Green Was The Room With Vallely?

General Paul Vallely (ret). caused a stir yesterday, and kept at it today.  From the always interesting, sometimes accurate World Net Daily:

A retired Army general says the man at the center of the CIA leak controversy, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, revealed his wife Valerie Plame's employment with the agency in a casual conversation more than a year before she allegedly was "outed" by the White House through a columnist.

Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told WorldNetDaily that Wilson mentioned Plame's status as a CIA employee over the course of at least three, possibly five, conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington, D.C., as they waited to appear on air as analysts.

...Vallely says, according to his recollection, Wilson mentioned his wife's job in the spring of 2002 – more than a year before Robert Novak's July 14, 2003, column identified her, citing senior administration officials, as "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

Joseph Wilson may have over-reacted a bit:

WASHINGTON – Ambassador Joseph Wilson's attorney is demanding Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely retract a statement he made to WND that the man at the center of the CIA leak case "outed" his own wife as a CIA employee in conversations more than a year before her identity was revealed in a syndicated column.

A demand letter was sent by Christopher Wolf, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP and counsel for Wilson, to both Vallely and WND tonight.

It disputes Vallely's claim that Wilson mentioned Valerie Plame's status with the CIA in conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington as they waited to appear as analysts.

Now, Wilson has a valid point, but perhaps not a strong enough point to justify litigation:

The e-mail received by WND included earlier comments by Wilson to his attorney.

"This is slanderous," Wilson wrote. "I never appeared on tv before at least July 2002 and only saw him maybe twice in the green room at FOX. Vallely is a retired general and this is a bald faced lie. Can we sue? This is not he said/he said, since I never laid eyes on him till several months after he alleges I spoke to him about my wife."

AJ Strata cross-checked the appearances of Wilson and Vallely at Fox, and inferred that they would have surely met on Sept 9, 2002, when they appeared on the same show.  On other occasions, they were on Fox News on the same day, and may well have met.

As Joesph Wilson notes, Vallely's initial statement, that they met in the spring of 2002, can not be supported.

However (here comes the spin!), like a flaw in fine leather, this sort of glitch in a minor detail actually increases the plausibility of the General's story.  Yes it does!  Had the General been cutting this story from whole cloth, he surely would have taken the trouble to check his dates and do a bit of oppo research on Wilson, in which case, he would have said that they met in the late summer or early fall of 2002.

Et voila!  The General spoke with Sean Hannity today, and has changed his story to incorporate this new information.  Evidently the threat of legal action is not silencing him.

From what I heard on the radio, the General and his wife were chatting with Wilson, comparing careers and making small talk, and Wilson said "My wife works at the Agency".  No details, not a big deal at the time, but certainly (per the General) said in a way that let both of them know which Agency.

The General also stated that other reporters knew Wilson's backstory, but he declined to name names.

We will put the General on this list of "Reporters Who Knew About Valerie".

Now, if someone could contact whoever does research for Sean Hannity (I am optimistic that such a person exists), Hannity is aware of the Andrea Mitchell story, but not the others.

As an added wrinkle, we encourage the many reporters who might be called in this case to reflect upon the recent Wen Ho Lee rulings - they won't have any legal protection not to testify if subpoenaed.  Of course, that gives them a great excuse to keep quiet now, but we remain convinced that Andrea Mitchell will have a fascinating tale to tell.

Perhaps on the witness stand, if not a news show, she will answer a question that still bother us - what did Tim Russert know about a "Wilson and wife" story, and when did he know it?

Comments

[topsecretk9]

JM - Rick........

In the Condor article you JM linked to, S.Johnson asked the CIA a set of questions pertaining to Wilson's trip...here is the exchange...

"LAST WEEK I contacted the CIA public information officer who fields media questions regarding Wilson. I first asked him why the Agency hadn't asked Wilson to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding his trip. He hesitated for a few seconds, then responded: "I don't know." At his suggestion, I followed up with a set of questions by e-mail:

(1) Why wasn't Wilson's February 2002 trip to Niger made subject to a confidentiality agreement?

(2) Did the Agency contemplate that Wilson would publicly discuss the trip at will upon his return?

(3) Did the agency anticipate that if he did so, it would attract attention to the employment of his wife by the agency?

(4) Why did the Agency select Wilson for the mission to Niger to check out such an important and sensitive matter given his lack of experience in intelligence or investigation?

(5) Was the Agency aware when it selected him for the mission of his hostility to the Bush administration?

The CIA responded:

Given the ongoing legal process, I don't have anything for you in response to your questions about Ambassador Wilson."

Now re-read those questions and tell me what in the heck they have to do with what WE consider to be the on-going legal process (Libby for perjury)...

Well, okay maybe, possibly #3 or 4...but these questions have NOTHING to do with this on-going legal process...unless there is another On-Going legal process we are unaware of..

I am just hard pressed to figure out why they couldn't take a little stab at 1 and 2.

He goes on to tell (not for my point though) of another inquiry on another matter and received quite a detailed response.

Evident the LameSM has never bother to ask ANY questions, as the dumb-ass didn't even have a canned answer... the CIA, whose specialty is information decimation can't cobble together a better response

[topsecretk9]

The response again

"Given the ongoing legal process, I don't have anything for you in response to your questions about Ambassador Wilson."

see, Ambass. Wilson...says he is not in any way involved in this investigation...and he is bouncing around from show to show answering everyone questions to tell us that

How come the CIA can't answer a few simple questions about him then? Did he make then sign a confidentiality agreement about him? (that was weak attempt at humor)

[JM Hanes]

tops -

"Did he make then sign a confidentiality agreement about him? (that was weak attempt at humor)"

Not so weak. What's makes it really funny is that in essence....it's true!

[AlanDownunder]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_11_06_digbysblog_archive.html#113147542831962924>Remedial reading

[kim]

Why, p.l., if it is a matter of getting the witnesses to 'answer unlimited questions' and getting 'unlimited access' to their notes then the sky is no limit. Whatever money it takes in our justice system to compell witnesses to testify will be forthcoming.
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[kim]

Hey Australan, I'm SO pleased that Digby is starting to think 'Swift Boat Smear' when he thinks about this mess. Did I hear Christmas in Baghdad? Just how was it that that idiot Joe goaded Saddam into that Kuwait adventure?
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[Sue]

Rick,

I actually saw General Vallely last night on Fox. He seemed less forceful in his assertion that Joe had told him. He didn't back down, but he seemed...hesitant. I suspect the Vallely statement will quietly go away. :(

[owl]

Sue, I watched the same thing....did not mention wife, Muff. Just seemed "off".

[p.lukasiak]

I am just hard pressed to figure out why they couldn't take a little stab at 1 and 2.

have you considered the fact that the administration has still not declassified the documents on which the answers to these questions would be found?

Occam's razor. Try it sometimes.

[p.lukasiak]

I actually saw General Vallely last night on Fox. He seemed less forceful in his assertion that Joe had told him. He didn't back down, but he seemed...hesitant. I suspect the Vallely statement will quietly go away. :(

I agree. Lets face it, regardless of whether its true or not, Vallely would be under considerable pressure to shut the hell up. A lawsuit by Joe Wilson, regardless of whether it was successful or not, would require that Vallely disclose all sorts of information that the government would prefer not to be disclosed.

(and I'd love to watch Wilson's lawyer ask Vallely "So basically, what you are saying is that you lied for a living, and advocated lying to the public to further the agenda of your employers? And who are you working for now?")

[Gary Maxwell]

Gosh P Luk seems like that the question, Libby's attorney and if he files also Vallely's attorneys, are going to ask Joe Wilson.

[AlanDownunder]

more remedial reading

[kim]

One remedy for you might be to read Kerry's records. I know, why don't you link to them?
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[clarice]

I don't think he was lying..they shared the green room on many occasions..I expect that when he got his records and reviewed them with his wife he narrowed it down--

And I don't think he is or should be concerned about any lawsuit from Wilson.
Puhleaze--

[p.lukasiak]

I don't think he was lying..they shared the green room on many occasions..

so why is Vallely retracting his original claim that wilson discussed his wife MULTIPLE times?

...after retracting the claim that Wilson outed his wife in the SPRING of 2002...

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what I'd like to know is where Brit Hume got the info that Vallely says Wilson told him about his wife three times?

World Net Daily appears to be the original source --- is Brit Hume actually using WND as a source for his reporting, or did he confirm the story with Vallely himself?

[p.lukasiak]

I don't think he was lying..they shared the green room on many occasions..

oh, and btw, do try and keep up. The only day where its at all likely that they "shared the green room" was 9/12/2002. Other appearances on the same day were all hours apart.

[clarice]

Not so--he was there over 100 times in that period as a consulting commentator and those appearances are not all findable by googling--only a handful of his appearances are.

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