Did the Bush junta hit at Amb Wilson via his wife?

[RainDog]

http://thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823

according to The Nation, Amb. Wilson's wife was outed as a CIA operative in a piece by Novak.

In other words, because Wilson spoke the truth, they outed his wife to destroy her career?

Does anyone who knows CIA people know if this is true or not?

I didn't see this on here...sorry if it's a repeat.

[lanlady]

1. goddamn

I think Novak broke the law here. What a low thing to do.

[Peachhead22]

4. but...

How did Novak get the info about Wilson's wife? The person who leaked it is the real criminal (not to minimize Novakula's complicity). Damaged her career, hell. Put her life in jeopardy.

[nostamj]

20. "Damaged her career" ???

whatever Novak's lapses, the ending of her career IS the story...

there's nothing to damage now. except BushCo of course!

my head spins. is it just the HEAT? :wow:

[RainDog]

6. apparently journalists are exempt unless

exempt unless they show a pattern of outing undercover agents.

however, this White House, which thinks everything should be top secret sure sings a different tune when they want to harm someone who's telling the truth.

Thugs.

Bush is a thug. Cheney is a thug.

Can they be anymore repulsive?

They go to war to win an election, put troops in danger (and tell our enemies to 'bring 'em on") while they use our troops to guard their corporate whores (Halliburton, Brown and Root).

Cheney refused a subpeona to release the Energy policy papers. Why isn't he in jail?

Bush is an awol brat who has no problem killing others, as long as someone else is taking the risk while he shakes down America and the world.

Hey, dems, we pay you to stop tyranny. get the Bush junta the fuck out of Washington.

[RainDog]

2. and here's a quote from the article

The sources for Novak's assertion about Wilson's wife appear to be "two senior administration officials." If so, a pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what's known as "nonofficial cover" and who has had the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material. If Wilson's wife is such a person--and the CIA is unlikely to have many employees like her--her career has been destroyed by the Bush administration. (Assuming she did not tell friends and family about her real job, these Bush officials have also damaged her personal life.) Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, "Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames." If she is not a CIA employee and Novak is reporting accurately, then the White House has wrongly branded a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm as a CIA officer. That would not likely do her much good.

This is not only a possible breach of national security; it is a potential violation of law. Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent. The punishment for such an offense is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to ten years in prison. Journalists are protected from prosecution, unless they engage in a "pattern of activities" to name agents in order to impair US intelligence activities. So Novak need not worry.

Novak tells me that he was indeed tipped off by government officials about Wilson's wife and had no reluctance about naming her. "I figured if they gave it to me," he says. "They'd give it to others....I'm a reporter. Somebody gives me information and it's accurate. I generally use it." And Wilson says Novak told him that his sources were administration officials.

[charlie]

5. Destroy her career?

How about endangering her life? Isn't this the sort of thing that had the wingers howling for Philip Agee's head?

[DUreader]

3. Seems like 2 senior Admin. officials violated usapatriot act

no?

[Divernan]

7. If Bush's people did that to a CIA operative, what would they do tof

any one of us - as long as they could get their hands on personal information - medical, economic, education records or whatever.

[Peachhead22]

9. How will CIA respond?

The administration outing one of their coworkers for revenge?! You can expect them to be f*cking furious! We ain't seen nothing yet.

[RainDog]

15. whoa

I didn't think about this in larger terms...

...as in her job and the betrayal of an operative.

I was thinking of it in terms of damage to Wilson and getting at him via her.

if she is part of intel, the Bushies have hopefully hung themselves but good.

[RainDog]

8. These thugs care more about themselves

than this country if she was someone who helped find out about WMD, they have compromised every operation she was involved in...

this while they used WMD as a reason to pre-emptively invade another country...

this when we are supposed to be fighting against the threats of terrorism??????

I don't know if Ambassador Wilson's life would be endangered, but they would've definitely endangered any project of hers.

These people are putting America at risk, yet again, with their power plays.

That they would do this makes me think it's all the more likely that they would also allow 9-11, ala operation northwoods.

[oldcoot]

10. This is why they win

It is very difficult to oppose an enemy who has no moral boundaries and is willing to target your family. I urge everyone to send a link to this story to their elected officials.

[Lostnote03]

11. Sen Graxley"""

.....In wonder if this imfo will motivate the good Senator to initiate action????

[Generic Other]

12. An ambassador's wife is a spy and the administration admits it

Isn't the point of an embassy to establish trust and goodwill? Or are they all fronts for intelligence gathering?

[Gin]

14. Beam me up Scotty....this whole thing is mind blowing.

May they all rot in hell.

[brook]

17. Trust and good will...

that's the *cover*- and to some extent, a good Ambassador will accomplish that...yet I have never known an Embassy that wasn't crawling with various *intelligence* agents who were there under the guise of *Agriculture* attache, *Trade* attache, etc.

[oldcoot]

18. I hope so

Imagine if the Clinton administration had done anything like this. We would have investigation after investigation.

[berry]

13. Can we assume that the Dems on the intelligence committee

questioning Tenet knew about this? Should we be sending them this article, just in case?

This is SO slimy--besides being illegal. Are they so sure they won't be charged for this crime? Or was it just desperation? but no, it had to be planned, because they had to have investigated Wilson to find any chinks in his armor.... (If my reading of Corn's article is right, Wilson is being incredibly cool about this--saying the intimidation wasn't of him, but of potential others who might speak up/out.)

And, RainDog, thanks. I hadn't seen this (even though I subscribe to The Nation--so much going on, it's hard to know what to read first!).

[DagmarK]

16. And the score is: CIA: 1; Bush Junta: 2

Somehow, I don't think THREE strikes applies when you are screwing the with CIA.

This is outlandish.....

First, if Wilson's wife is an undercover CIA specializing in uncovering WMD trafficking...then that lends even MORE credence to Amb. Wilson's work to ferret out the Niger letter as a forgery. I mean.....his WIFE, for god's sakes, helping him out. And no doubt at the bequest of the CIA.

Second, this puts every single AMBASSADOR from the USA at risk. Can't you just see the murmurrings in countries the world over talking about the US ambassadors to their countries? I mean.....I sure don't think it's a unique thing to have the spouse of just one amb be in the CIA. Now EVERYONE is under suspicion. GREAT! Smooth move.

Third, the thing about the "senior administration officials" is...we don't know who they are, but NOVAK sure does. We need to definitely ask our senators to question Novak -- behind closed doors of course. Cause, honestly, if we can find the admin officials who would turn over a spook, we might just find the 1st link in the use of that forged intelligence in the SOTU.

Whoa.......Bush screwing over the CIA twice in less than a week.

I would have never dreamed that any administration would *ever* screw with the CIA like this cabal. And never dreamed that the CIA of all oranizations could very well be the primary factor in taking down Bush. AMAZING. Karma and poetic justice all wrapped up in this caper.

[RainDog]

19. From Time mag

"Some government officials, noting that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, intimate that she was involved in his being dispatched Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's government had sought to purchase large quantities of uranium ore, sometimes referred to as yellow cake, for the purposes of building nuclear devices."

-this is from an LBN thread.

why no mention of the felony...who is this reporter for Time, and why is he or she also trying to discredit the Wilsons while not acknowledging the issue of a felony and a serious breach of an agent's cover???????

[RainDog]

21. not to mention what you said, TS

about her background being of use rather than harm.

So now they're trying to play it that Wilson is working against them as some "rogue" element????

This is crazy.

We need to email our reps about this one.

The Bush junta needs to be in padded cells, not simply behind bars, because they are insane to do this to Wilson and his wife.

[MetaTrope]

22. Maybe the CIA will do for Bush as they did for JFK

:kick:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

23. They didn't just compromise her but all the intel she gathered

and everyone she gathered it from.

This is our deep throat....

[WillyT]

24. Calling Daddy Matcom... Calling Matcom... Calling Will Pitt...

Would just LOVE to hear all your views on this development!!!

:bounce::kick::bounce: