John Dickerson, one of Matt Cooper's less well known co-authors on the article that made Matt a near-household name, steps forward with his story. Mr. Dickerson came to people's attention last week when he received an unexpected mention in some correspondence from Special Counsel Fitzgerald to Libby's defense team. Let's repeat that to build suspense:
"We also advise you that we understand that reporter John Dickerson of Time
magazine discussed the trip by Mr. Wilson with government officials at
some time on July 11 or after, subsequent to Mr. Cooper learning about
Mr. Wilson’s wife," Fitzgerald writes. "Any conversations involving Mr.
Dickerson likely took place in Africa and occurred after July 11."
We eagerly awaited an account from Mr. Dickerson of his interaction with the FBI investigation; our curiosity was especially piqued by his non-denial to Raw Story:
“I didn't know I was mentioned in the court filings until I saw it on
the web,” he said. “I've never been contacted by anyone in Fitzgerald's
office.”
Ahh! Since Fitzgerald's office was not established until Dec 30, 2003, this left open the possibility that Mr. Dickerson chatted with the FBI in the fall of 2003.
And now he has stepped forward with his story on Slate. Intrigue, secret meetings, glamorous locales, hard-boiled interrogations - it might all be here!
Or not - Mr. Dickerson *seems* to be telling us that he has not had contact with the FBI at any point:
After the special counsel went after Matt so enthusiastically, the
arrival of men in trench coats asking what I knew seemed imminent. But
I never got to try out any of my Dashiell Hammett lines on them. When
my other former Time colleague Viveca Novak got tangled in Fitzgerald's hunt last year, I thought, OK, they're coming now for sure. Nope. No Fitzgerald; no FBI; no nothing.
However that passage does not exclude the time period prior to the creation of the special counsel. Oh, well - if he does not want to tell us, waddya gonna do?
Mr. Dickerson does provide an interesting hint about sources - Mr. Dickerson was on the President's trip to Africa, and Condi Rice, Colin Powell, and Ari Fleischer are the only three senior Administration official named in the article as accompanying them on the trip. Two different senior Admin officials exhorted Mr. Dickerson to look into who it was that sent Wilson on his trip to Niger, but neither mentioned Valerie Plame.
From that short list, it has to be Condi Rice and Ari Fleischer, who teamed up to make the "Look at Wilson" point in late this July 11, 2003 press gaggle:
DR. RICE: The IAEA reported it I believe in March. But I will
tell you that, for instance, on Ambassador Wilson's going out to Niger,
I learned of that when I was sitting on whatever TV show it was,
because that mission was not known to anybody in the White House. And
you should ask the Agency at what level it was known in the Agency.
Dr. Rice was speaking there, yet Mr. Dickerson wrote this last fall:
More astonishingly, we learn from the Fitzgerald indictment that Ari
Fleischer knew about Plame and didn't tell anyone at all. He walked
reporters, including me, up to the fact, suggesting they look into who
sent Wilson, but never used her name or talked about her position.
Pretty easy to believe that Ari Fleischer was one of Mr. Dickerson's sources.
OK, did anyone with the investigation ever contact Mr. Dickerson? One last hint is here:
Where did Fitzgerald learn about my activities? Matt told me he briefly
mentioned me in front of the grand jury and Viveca Novak said my name
came up in passing when she talked to Fitzgerald. He also subpoenaed
White House e-mail records that included, White House officials tell
me, e-mails I sent to them about the Wilson business in the days and
months after that July trip to Africa. Those officials also told
Fitzgerald and his grand jury about conversations we had.
Well. If Fitzgerald's tip came from Matt Cooper, then Mr. Dickerson's denial is conclusive.
On the other hand, one might presume that Ari Fleischer, Condi Rice, or both are the officials mentioned in the last sentence:
Those officials also told
Fitzgerald and his grand jury about conversations we had.
So think about this - assuming that Ari Fleischer is one of the two senior Administration officials, then Ari Fleischer told Fitzgerald that he had discussed the background of the Wilson trip with John Dickerson, but had *not* leaked info about Valerie Plame. And Fitzgerald did not even attempt to verify that with Mr. Dickerson. That certainly speaks well of Mr. Fleischer's ability to convince people (a useful knack for a press secretary), and it explains Fitzgerald's "abundance of caution", but it leaves us wondering about how this investigation was handled.
Now, the alternative theories might be, the two officials with whom Mr. Dickerson spoke are Powell and Rice. Powell? C'mon. Or maybe there is an unnamed senior Admin official hiding in this story. Possible. But Ari Fleischer was at the July 11 press conference putting out the story on which Mr. Dickerson was following up.
Mr. Dickerson adds this:
I came back from the trip harboring a suspicion that only fully made
sense when I learned Plame's CIA cover had been blown. It seemed
obvious that the people pushing me to look into who sent Wilson knew
exactly the answer I'd find. Yet they were really careful not to let
the information slip, which suggested that they knew at the time
Plame's identity was radioactive.
Hmm. That might explain Tim Russert's "wow".
MORE: Re-emphasizing the obvious - if Ari Fleischer had leaked to Pincus or Novak, do you think Fitzgerald would have let the Dickerson piece slide? I don't, either.
UPDATE: Tear out the front page! Per ReddHedd at firedoglake, now that Fitzgerald the Omniscient Master is armed with this new info from Mr. Dickerson (which Fitzgerald the OM overlooked for two years), the full conspiracy will be unmasked. At Last! It must be great to live in a world without contradictions.
Meanwhile, in my world, Fitzgerald ignored this for two years because he didn't care, not because he is an idiot. And the sun is yellow. it's the glasses that are rose-colored.
[And a final guess - Fitzgerald got consistent stories from Cooper, Fleischer, and someone (Rice?) about what Dickerson knew and didn't know, so he quite reasonably gave him a pass. However, in "an abundance of caution" he noted his own ignorance in his correspondence with Libby's attorneys. And well he might be cautious - here is what he wrote (Exhibit C):
...we were not aware of any reporters who knew prior to July 14, 2003,
that Valerie Plame, Ambass. Wilson's wife, worked at the CIA, other
than: Bob Woodward, Judith Miller, Bob Novak, Walter Pincus and Matthew Cooper."
Well, since Cooper told Dickerson, I guess we can add him to that list - reporter to reporter communication ought to count, even if Fitzgerald did not pursue it. And, one wonders, didn't Cooper mention to Fitzgerald that he told Dickerson? Guess not.]
FWIW: On the off chance that evidence matters, here is Andrea Mitchell on July 8, 2003, citing CIA sources for the news that "low-level CIA operatives" planned the Wilson trip. Gee, that was three days before Dickerson got that beaten into him by "Senior Administration officials". And Reuters had a similar leak (involving mid-level CIA folks), also on July 8.
Andrea Mitchell:
MITCHELL: Well, people at the CIA say that it's not going to be George
Tenet; and, in fact, that high-level people at the CIA did not really
know that it was false, never even looked at Joe Wilson's verbal report
or notes from that report, didn't even know that it was he who had made
this report, because he was sent over by some of the covert operatives
in the CIA at a very low level, not, in fact, tasked by the vice
president.
Reuters:
A U.S. intelligence official said [Joseph] Wilson was sent to
investigate the Niger reports by mid-level CIA officers, not by
top-level Bush administration officials. There is no record of his
report being flagged to top level officials, the intelligence official
said.
"He is placing far greater significance on his visit than anyone in the
U.S. government at the time it was made," the official said, referring
to Wilson's New York Times article.
Well, at the time (July 8, 2003) Josh Marshall was imploring reporters to poke into this. So the White House conspired to respond to press inquiries? Cool. Someone tell Fitzgerald.
FINALLY: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Well, this won't be over until we hear from Cliff May!
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