Pincus: "Prosecutor in CIA Leak Casting a Much Wider Net"

[flpoljunkie]

It looks like the CIA is out for revenge...sweet revenge, I hope. And Novak is truly one rotten son of a bitch.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602069_pf.html

Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net
White House Effort To Discredit Critic Examined in Detail

By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; A01

<>Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.

Harlow said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified.

In a column published Oct. 1, 2003, Novak wrote that the CIA official he spoke to "asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties' if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name."

Harlow was also involved in the larger internal administration battle over who would be held responsible for Bush using the disputed charge about the Iraq-Niger connection as part of the war argument. Based on the questions they have been asked, people involved in the case believe that Fitzgerald looked into this bureaucratic fight because the effort to discredit Wilson was part of the larger campaign to distance Bush from the Niger controversy.

much more...stuff we didn't know before

[H2O Man]

1. There was a fight

between CIA and NSC about who would take the fall to protect VP Cheney and the Niger nonsense. Remember, while the president was in Africa, Rove and Libby were in Washington, writing the paper for Tenet in which he fell on his sword. The Sunday NYT (page 20-A) tells that Hadley was there helping Rove and Libby .... and, as we know, Hadley soon had to admit Tenet had called him, and sent two memos, in the previous fall regarding the Niger information.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Interesting, Hadley says Rove and Libby didn't help him in this article.

Sounds like he's covering for them-and of course, he's been promoted to Condi's old job. In the Bush administration, you f*ck up, and you are promoted--big time!

[Vitruvius]

2. They NEVER confirm classified info (e.g. that Ms. Plame was an undercover

operative) to anybody who does not have a clearance plus a need-to-know. Otherwise people could extract classified information by guessing and waiting for the gov't to confirm that it's true as part of asking them not to use it.

The standard formula -- as every reporter (and scientist) knows is for the gov't to tell NOT to use it and NOT to discuss it with anyone. That's all that's necessary to tell you that you would be disclosing some kind of national security info if you did either. Novak damned well knew this (I learned it when I was a college student), but Novak obviously places the interests of the Rethugnicans above the interests of the United States.

Again -- everybody knows the drill (it's so basic, I'm almost embarrassed to post it here), and Novak's lying thru his teeth when he claims he didn't know what was going on.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Article also confirms Plame did not arrange Wilson's trip to Niger.

Using background conversations with at least three journalists and other means, Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility. They said that his 2002 trip to Niger was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but CIA officials say that is incorrect. One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602069_pf.html

Rotten bastards!