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Tuesday, September 30, 2003


The Plame affair - a manufactured scandal?
As you may recall, I initially gave high credibility to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in his charges against the Bush administration that it had informed journalist Robert Novak that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA operative.

It's time for me to beat a fast retreat.

As it turns out, Novak said that not did two administration officials named her as an employee, so did the CIA itself when he asked.

Now the WaPo reports that

... numerous Democratic leaders demanded the administration appoint a special counsel to investigate the charges that a CIA operative's name was divulged in an effort to discredit her husband, a prominent critic of Bush's Iraq policy.
This fact is almost convincing in itself, IMO, that the entire affair has been contrived by Bush opponents from the beginning. First, it is not at all clear that federal law was violated in naming Plame as a CIA employee. The law concerned makes it a crime to reveal the identity of a "covert agent ... [whom] the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States. ..." The law does not criminalize naming those who are not so protected. No evidence has been offered, by Wilson or anyone else, that Plame's employment fits into the protected category. The fact that Novak says the CIA itself confirmed her identity and employment to him decisively proves, again in my opinion, that her identity was not legally protected.

The call for special counsel comes almost immediately on the heels of Wilson's complaints. Gee, that seems fast for "numerous Democratic leaders" to get their heads together on a matter so foggy. It almost seems like it was planned that way all along.

Bill Hobbs has been all over this issue, and Stryker agrees that the whole thing was manufactured to embarrass the administration, and that "Mr. Wilson has a major problem keeping his lies straight," which he documents.

by Donald Sensing, 9/30/2003 08:03:10 AM. Permalink |  





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