Reply #83: That's an interesting theory ~ it fits the 'WH official, but not in the

[Catrina]

WH' claim we have heard. Still, of all those involved, Tenet was the most likely to understand the consequences of leaking the ID of one of his own agents. Why would he risk committing such a crime? While he appears to have had a lapse of judgement for a while regarding going along with the WH to 'gain access' according to 'Dead Wrong', no one has ever said that he was not conflicted. Iow, he was not a 'true believer' in the need to go to war, mainly because he knew the 'evidence' wasn't there.

Colin Powell's aide, Wilkerson, again in 'Dead Wrong', told how Colin Powell made Tenet sit behind him when he made his UN presentation, basically admitting that he was not happy with the 'evidence' but since he was going to go along with it, he wanted Tenet there to show that he, Colin Powell, had the back-up of the CIA and would not take the responsibility alone.

To me, that said that neither of them believed in what they were doing ~ yet did it anyway, with Powell demanding cover for his own role.

What I'm trying to say is that, while Tenet was willing to go along up to a point, I'm not sure that he was so addicted to being part of the inner circle at the WH, that he would have been willing to risk committing an act of treason to be there. But it's possible, I suppose.

Your point about Novak ignoring the advice of the CIA spokesman to not reveal Valerie Plame's identity, because he had the okay from the Director, makes sense though. I always wondered about that. That he acknowledged being told that revealing her name would 'hurt her', yet did it anyway. Your scenario does give an explanation for that.

How about Bolton? He went to see Judith Miller while she was in jail ~ didn't he have access to the information also? Remember at his confirmation hearings Democrats wanted documents which showed him asking for information about individuals, I don't remember if they were CIA agents, and Condoleeza Rice ordered the State Dept. not to hand them over? Why would she want to hide these documents from the Senate? He could have received the information through different channels and then passed it along to Novak and to Judith Miller. I wish I could remember the dates of his inquiries to see if they fit into the timeline. This refusal held up his confirmation, AIRC. He has yet to be confirmed ~

I know that we've been told about Judith Miller's meeting with Libby, which was the earliest mention of Plame's identity to a reporter, but that doesn't mean Judy didn't already know, from Bolton, eg. I'd still like to know why he visited her twice while she was in jail ~

Tenet is in big trouble, if you are correct. He is giving no interviews to the press, which could indicate that his lawyers have instructed him not to. But he is writing a book, I believe ~

And most mysterious of all is why Novak, the only reporter who actually did print the information he received, has had the least amount of legal trouble, as far as we know ~