Plame Wilson: Leak severely hurt U.S. intelligence

Bush still a lying punk...Carl Rove still has security clearance.
What happened to "Anyone involved will be fired?", he lies worse than his press secretary, a first.

Plame Wilson: Leak severely hurt U.S. intelligence

POSTED: 6:39 a.m. EDT, March 17, 2007
Story Highlights
• Plame Wilson: Leak of CIA identity jeopardized, destroyed networks of agents
• Before leak, husband Joe Wilson investigated, contested a justification for Iraq war
• GOP congressman: It's "more like a CIA problem than a White House problem"
• Plame Wilson: Perjury case against ex-Cheney aide shows leak "purely political"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Valerie Plame Wilson told Congress Friday the leak of her identity as a CIA covert operative "has jeopardized and even destroyed entire networks of foreign agents."

For the first time since the 2003 leak, the central figure of the resulting scandal revealed her side of events that led to the conviction this month of a former vice presidential aide.

She told a House committee that Bush administration officials had "carelessly and recklessly" released her status as a CIA employee, which was first reported by columnist Robert Novak. (Watch Plame Wilson describe how she felt like she'd been "hit in the gut" )

"I felt like I had been hit in the gut," Plame Wilson told the panel.

Novak's column destroyed her position and classified status, she told the committee.

The disclosure also damaged U.S. intelligence efforts, she said. "If our government cannot even protect my identity, future foreign agents who might consider working with the Central Intelligence Agency in providing needed intelligence would think twice."

Plame Wilson testified her work involved gathering intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. (Watch whether there has been a White House investigation into the leak )

'A CIA problem'
The ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, suggested that it wasn't clear that Plame Wilson's role was classified at the time.

"No process can be adopted to protect classified information that no one knows is classified, just as no one can be prosecuted for unauthorized disclosure of information that no one ever said was protected," Davis said. "So this looks to me more like a CIA problem than a White House problem."

Plame Wilson rejected claims that her role at the CIA not covert when her identity was leaked.

She said she had conducted secret overseas missions within the past five years, and that much information about her career remains classified. (Read how Plame Wilson said she worked on secret missions during her time as an operative)

Although she was working at CIA headquarters in the United States at the time of the leak, Plame Wilson said, "a general is a general whether he is in the field in Iraq or Afghanistan; when he comes back to the Pentagon, he's still a general. In the same way, covert operations officers who are serving in the field, when they rotate back for temporary assignment in Washington, they too are still covert."

She added that her husband -- former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson -- protected her status "diligently."

Vanity Fair magazine published a photograph of the couple -- in which she was wearing dark sunglasses and a scarf -- in late 2003, after the disclosure of Plame Wilson's identity. "At the time that picture came out, my covert status was long gone," she testified.

"Having lived most of my life under the radar, my learning curve was steep," she added, saying the photo caused more trouble than it was worth.

Wilson accused the White House of intentionally leaking his wife's covert role as retribution for an opinion piece he wrote for The New York Times that contested a justification given by the Bush administration to invade Iraq. (Key players)

The leak sparked an investigation by a special prosecutor, which led to this month's conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

During her appearance Friday, Plame Wilson said, "testimony in the criminal trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, who has now been convicted of serious crimes, indicates that my exposure arose from purely political motives."

She said of President Bush's political aide, "Karl Rove clearly was involved in leaking my name, and he still carries a security clearance to this day, despite the president's words ... that he would immediately dismiss anyone who had anything to do with this."

'There was no nepotism involved'
Plame Wilson also said Friday that it was not her idea for her husband to travel to Niger to investigate an allegation that Iraq had sought yellowcake uranium. That allegation was used to help justify the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"I did not suggest him. I did not recommend him. There was no nepotism involved," she said, adding, "I did not have the authority."

It was the suggestion of another CIA officer who knew that Wilson had previously gone on other CIA missions "to deal with some other nuclear matters," she said.

She said she had later been asked to write an e-mail summarizing the discussion that included the possibility of her husband making the journey. A portion of that e-mail was later taken out of context to make it seem that she had suggested her husband for the assignment, she said.

[richlevy]

Victoria Toensing testified that "she was not, as a matter of law, a covert CIA agent." Republicans and Democrats "agree that this leak harmed [Comment: How about destroyed?] Plame's career, but there's intense disagreement about what the administration's motives were, or were not, in how her name was leaked."

I saw Ms. Toensing on Hannity and Colmes repeating her line about the non-covert status. Colmes pressed her by asking if she was accusing Ms. Plame of committing perjury for stating that she was covert. All she would say was that there were different meanings of covert and that Ms. Plame was not 'covert under the law'.

To me this hearkened back to the Bill Clinton 'it depends on what you mean by sex' defense. To me blowing the cover of Ms. Plame and by extension a whole group of agents overseas pretending to be employed by a fictitious company would seem to be the kind of action covered under such a law. I actually heard the phrase 'shame on the CIA' uttered by Hannity.

Both sides are gearing up their spin machines on this one. Personally, I would like to see a Plame-Coulter cat fight if someone could assure me that Plame had and kept a 'double 0' status.

[Happy Monkey]

There are three definitions of covert agent. Plame qualifies for one of them, but not the others.

Does this mean that both sides have a case? Perhaps, except for the fact that what separates those three definitions is the word "OR".

Originally Posted by the law

(4) The term “covert agent” means—

(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency—

(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and
(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or

(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information, and—

(i) who resides and acts outside the United States as an agent of, or informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency, or
(ii) who is at the time of the disclosure acting as an agent of, or informant to, the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; or

(C) an individual, other than a United States citizen, whose past or present intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information and who is a present or former agent of, or a present or former informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency.

[footfootfoot]

You'd think with all their hi tech gizmos, the CIA could at least fuck with Hannity's credit rating, or slip some visine into rove's Jamba juice. Maybe they aren't the fearsome bogeymen all my ultra liberal neighbors make them out to be.

[AndreaC]

Davis (R-VA) seems to be the go-to guy on lies and coverups. His defense of bullying climate scientists so the administration could manipulate and cover up their data is here. http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6973

You could not pay me to eat in the same town as that guy in about ten years... they will pwn his ass. They are just going to wait until people have forgotten this.
I don't care what her status was, Bush stated clearly that anyone involved was to be fired... he should be on the bricks, end of story.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Welcome to the Cellar, AndreaC
Your link (which is not allowed in your first post, but I'll let slide because it doesn't appear to be spam...yet) opens with a big yellow/orange/red, ball labeled, "Surface Air Temperature Increase 1960-2060". Neat trick, is that a crystal ball?
If you do some digging, you'll find even the most ardent critics admit their prediction models leave much to be desired. So yelling the sky is falling based on that, would be questionable.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

You'd think with all their hi tech gizmos, the CIA could at least fuck with Hannity's credit rating, or slip some visine into rove's Jamba juice. Maybe they aren't the fearsome bogeymen all my ultra liberal neighbors make them out to be.