That Settles That on L’Affaire Plame
By Mona
I’ve been studiously agnostic on Plamegate, which ends today. The idea that Patrick Fitzgerald would make court filings pertaining to the Scooter Libby sentencing that are false is preposterous, and as Larry Johnson sums it up, Fitz sez:
- Valerie Wilson was an operations officer working in the Counter Proliferation Division (CPD) of the Directorate of Operations and headed a unit that covered weapons proliferation issues concerning Iraq.
- While in CPD Valerie traveled overseas seven times to more than ten countries always, repeat always, undercover.
- Valerie was a covert officer on 14 July 2003, when Novak identified her as a CIA employee.
- The CIA was taking “affirmative measures to conceal her intelligence relationship to the United States.”
Meanwhile, Dan Froomkin reports in Wapo, his emphasis
Not clear on the concept yet? Fitzgerald adds: “To accept the argument that Mr. Libby’s prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President.”
I’d say that about resolves matters, and the Bush Administration really did wantonly out a covert agent for political reasons. Isn’t that sort of, like, unpatriotic and treasonous, ‘n stuff? Tim F. at Balloon Juice has a Bush 41 quote that would suggest so.
Comment by Rob —
May 30, 2007 @ 7:10 am
That’s rather naive of you. It will soon be another matter of fact on the right, like how Rachel Carson killed millions by saying mosquitoes can develop resistance to DDT, that Valerie Plame was never undercover.
Comment by Jim Henley —
May 30, 2007 @ 7:24 am
Early perusal of second-tier warblogs and comment threads in first-tier ones leads me to believe that Rob is correct, actually.
Comment by Lawrence Krubner —
May 30, 2007 @ 10:41 am
“the Bush Administration really did wantonly out a covert agent for political reasons”
typo?
hard to parse
Comment by Mona —
May 30, 2007 @ 11:23 am
Lawrence, I dunno, just typing while tired.
Rob and Jim: Of course the die-harder’s will never admit it. I was only speaking for myself, as one who never took that much interest in the matter and had not formed strong opinions about it.
But Patrick Fitzgerald is a straightshooter, as even Andy McCarthy has admitted. So while the delusional will continue in their delusions, these events settle it for me: Valerie Plame was covert.
Comment by ofom —
May 30, 2007 @ 11:42 am
now we can sit back and enjoy the second stage, where the Bush supporters watch a parade of witnesses lie under oath, pretend not to know, and refuse to answer questions in order to cover up a crime, note to themselves the success of the cover-up, and then say “but there’s no *evidence* of any wrong-doing!”
yeah, funny how successful cover-ups tend to minimize evidence.