Prometheus 6: The Plame Game

September 30, 2003

The Plame Game

This is my Plame Post for the day.

First, I want to point to the folks you can follow for the in-depth stuff. I especially like that Calpundit lined up all the observations about yesterday's developments I myself made. No point in doing all that typing when someone you're going to read before me is going to do it anyway. Add Josh Marshall's insider stuff and Mark Kleiman's in-depth digest and you should have a grip on the progressive view of all this.

For the Conservative view, see this.

Now, my favorite quotes that you may not have seen.

First, Josh busts Novak big-time:

Another big problem with Novak's comments on Crossfire today. Today he said ...

Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction.

But then there's this passage in a July 22nd article in Newsday ...

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

I'd say the story's changed.

Next, from my favorite news program, PBS' The News Hour. They run through the major networks' one hour presentation im roughly ten minutes (which s frankly all it deserves) and then do major interviews every night that are long enough for you to catch the body language of then interviewees.

Even if you miss the broadcast, though, the transcripts are cool.

Alleged White House leak of covert agent's name MARGARET WARNER: Senator Chambliss, let me shift gears here, if I may, and ask you now about the controversy over the leaking of this CIA agent's name, Joseph Wilson's wife. What do you make of this whole argument?

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS: Well, the main thing I make of it is it was a very serious breach. And I don't know what happened, none of us know what happened at this point in time, but it's pretty obvious that the White House has taken it just as seriously as Congress has taken it.

We've had this under discussion for the last several weeks. And it's time that we moved forward with having the Justice Department look into it to see what we can find out about it.

You know, back last year, we had a major leak from the joint inquiry of the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. We immediately had the FBI come in and take a look-see to see what they could find out. We need to do something similar at this point in time, because exposing individuals who are agents of the Central Intelligence Agency is a serious, serious breach in our intelligence community. And it needs to be looked into and to see exactly what happened. If somebody did intentionally leak this, then they need to be dealt with in the most severest manner.

MARGARET WARNER: And how damaging is it to have a name like this leaked?

Well, certainly it takes that individual out of doing any further covert action, and covert action is the way by which we gather our best intelligence.

It's not easy to find those people who can infiltrate terrorist organizations and any other groups around the world. So, it's critically important we have those individuals. They are in great demand and the supply is limited. So when you lose an agent like that, it's of critical importance to us.

MARGARET WARNER: Congresswoman Harman, weigh in on this, and I particularly want to ask you about something that Joseph Wilson has said repeatedly: He said he thinks it was done to intimidate people like him, who might have administration ties but also might have information, from being critical of the president or the administration in the handling of this war. And I'm curious to know whether you think it would have had that effect?

REP. JANE HARMAN: Well, what we have so far are allegations, but nonetheless, they're very serious. And clearly, Joseph Wilson's wife's name has been revealed. In fact, you just revealed it on your program. And that hurts her career. It may hurt, you know, put her in danger in some ways, hurt her contacts. And clearly, it sends a message to the CIA. That is a very, very bad message. And I applaud George Tenet for asking that this be fully investigated.

Will it have a chilling effect on others who might step forward? You bet it might. It surely might. I think Joseph Wilson, who I've never met, is right about that. This was wrong. And those who did it, if they did it, did something not just wrong, but they violated the law and they can be subject to imprisonment and stiff penalties.

And I urge the attorney general promptly to investigate this issue to decide whether he under his own authority should set up an independent counsel, or seek legislation restoring the independent counsel law, which has now expired. But whatever happens going forward, this administration has to prove that it can handle this investigation competently and quickly, or there certainly will be calls quickly in Congress to set up an independent investigator.

That ought to do it for today.

Posted by P6 at September 30, 2003 05:56 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1795

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