Hot Stuff: Plame Update

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Murray Waas.

"On TAP Online, I have a story with new disclosures regarding the federal grand jury investigation of the Valerie Plame affair. The lede to my story:

"Two days before columnist Robert Novak named Valerie Plame as a covert CIA operative, a Bush administration official told a reporter for the Washington Post that Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, had been sent to Niger on a sensitive diplomatic mission only because his wife recommended him for the job. The administration official admitted his role to federal prosecutors during their investigation into the leak of Plame's identity.

"The Bush administration official, according to attorneys familiar with his testimony, told a federal grand jury that he made the claim to the Post reporter and others in an effort to undermine Wilson's credibility, who was alleging at the time that the Bush administration was relying on faulty intelligence to bolster its case to go to war with Iraq. But the official just as adamantly denied to federal investigators... that he ever told the Post reporter, Novak, or anyone else that Plame was a clandestine CIA operative."

"The Post reporter, Walter Pincus, confirmed in an interview that the administration official attempted to discredit Wilson by claiming that Wilson had been sent on a boondoggle arranged by Wilson's wife. But Pincus says that the official did not tell him that Plame was anything other than an analyst."

More than one of my readers-- and bloggers-- have already made the observation that I appear to have buried the lede in my story. They are absolutely correct! Down lower in my story, I write: "The grand jury uncovered evidence that several administration officials engaged in an aggressive and organized effort to discredit Wilson." And even lower, I write that federal investigators have believed for some time that columnist Novak has very likely lied to shield his sources from potential criminal culpability."

http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2005/04/reading-for-monday-morning-new-plame.html


On Edit: Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky? I think I know just who he's talking about. Someone vindictive. Someone mean and with access to a lot of intelligence information.

Edit2, new addition:

"For those of you who have wanted me to write, report, or blog about the Bolton nomination, I recommend that you read Laura Rozen's indispensable warandpiece.com blog, as well as Josh. For those not following the story as closely, the entire saga can perhaps be summed up in this single sentence in this lengthy Time magazine article out on newsstands today: "There is a saying in Washington that you meet on the way down all the people you stepped on the way up."

Man. Could he be any clearer?

[Jim Sagle]

1. w?

[MADem]

2. Does he look like psycho Cap'n Kangaroo on acid?? n/t

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Gawwwwwwwleeeee!

You sure are a smart one! ;-)

[MADem]

6. It sure fits

And you have his old boss, Colin, making phone calls like crazy. Bet he had those dots connected, way back when.

I just figure when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. When you see someone get crapped on, big time, like Plame, don't look for a clever turd or a little shit, look for the biggest, most out of control, asshole!

[Jim Sagle]

4. I don't recall reading Bolton's name in connection with this before, but

it makes perfect sense.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Is it possible Karl is making Bolton the fall guy for Plame

Since his nomination seems doomed anyway?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. Moreover:

Is it possible he was tasked to out Ms. Plame, by those above him?

Likely.

[GetTheRightVote]

7. I hope they get to the bottom of this matter, our country's security

depends on it, no leaks of this type can be accepted by us.

:kick:

[struggle4progress]

9. kick