The CIA Damage Assessment after Valerie Plame's outing

[journalist3072]

I've been really curious about this. I know that after an operative is outed, the CIA always conducts a damage assessment to see what was the fall-out from that operative's outing, i.e. was anyone killed as a result of their association with the outed operative.

And so I wanted to know: was there ever any information released from the CIA's damage assessment after Plame's outing? Do we know if any individual was injured or killed as a result of their association with her?

Besides the fact that the CIA's "front" company Brewster Jennings was exposed and had to fold shop, do we know what other damage was caused as a result of Plame's identity being exposed?

[Olney Blue]

1. I've been wondering about this too.

[annabanana]

2. I doubt that we will ever find out.

We may never know how many operatives were associated with Brewster-Jennings, or what intelligence was lost, or what operatives were left exposed. We do know that it was a "counter-proliferation" unit, and that it tracked loose nukes in the mideast black market.

heckuva job Cheney

[H2O Man]

3. No.

You may have noticed that even within the context of the Libby case, Agency documents that deal with intelligence are not declassified. That was what the "grey mail" issue, with Libby's attorneys, was all about. In fact, even if anyone had been charged with exposing Valerie Plame, a damage assessment would not be included in any trial that resulted. The charge and the penalty do not depend in any way on the amount of damage that may have been done.

[magellan]

4. Here's a report from Raw Story

The Raw Story | Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say

snip...

While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.

snip...

Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.

Plame's team, they added, would have come in contact with A.Q. Khan's network in the course of her work on Iran.

While Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss has not submitted a formal damage assessment to Congressional oversight committees, the CIA's Directorate of Operations did conduct a serious and aggressive investigation, sources say.

snip...

One former counterintelligence official described the CIA's reasons for not seeking Congressional assistance on the matter as follows: "(The CIA Leadership) made a conscious decision not to do a formal inquiry because they knew it might become public," the source said. "They referred it (to the Justice Department) instead because they believed a criminal investigation was needed."

The source described the findings of the assessment as showing "significant damage to operational equities."

Another counterintelligence official, also wishing to remain anonymous due to the nature of the subject matter, described "operational equities" as including both people and agency operations that involve the "cover mechanism," "front companies," and other CIA officers and assets.

Three intelligence officers confirmed that other CIA non-official cover officers were compromised, but did not indicate the number of people operating under non-official cover that were affected or the way in which these individuals were impaired. None of the sources would say whether there were American or foreign casualties as a result of the leak.

Several intelligence officials described the damage in terms of how long it would take for the agency to recover. According to their own assessment, the CIA would be impaired for up to "ten years" in its capacity to adequately monitor nuclear proliferation on the level of efficiency and accuracy it had prior to the White House leak of Plame Wilson's identity.

more... http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. Thanks for this.

I'd been wondering about this, as well.

What disasterous, treasonous pond-scum the neo-cons are!

[magellan]

8. They managed to destroy the CIA's Iran counter-proliferation team

...and now seem to feel safe throwing out BS about Iran's nuclear weapon ambitions. How convenient for BushCo.

[Spazito]

9. Here is a further irony to be found in the Wilson filing

where the defendants Cheney, Rove, Armitage and Libby assert the plaintiffs' (the Wilsons) claim should be dismissed because of the sensitive nature of the information involved.


"The defendants also argue that the sensitive nature of the information makes the a non-judicial, political question."

http://www.citizensforethics.org/filelibrary/011607WilsonPlaintiffsOpposition.pdf

The pages dealing specifically with this claim by the defendants can be found beginning on page 58 (pdf numbering).


The hypocrisy inherent in their request for dismissal for this reason is breathtaking, imo!

[Ilsa]

12. How ironic indeed!. Makes one wonder if someone

didn't go back to the defendants' attorney and tell him he shot his clients in the ass with that one.

[Spazito]

13. LOL, I am beginning to think the lawyers for the defendants

are irony impaired, there could be no other excuse. I've heard of throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, into motions to dismiss but, geez, this goes beyond any sink I have seen!

I have to admit I LOVE seeing the word defendent used to describe Cheney, Rove, Armitage and Libby!

[Ilsa]

15. Defendant Bushco: I'd love to see that. If we go to war with Iran

over "nukyuler" stuff, I wonder if we'd have a strong basis for a suit: citizens of the USA vs Bush, Cheney, Rove, etc.

[al bupp]

14. Phew, for a second there her outing might have some...

negative effect on CIA activities. fnord.

[Lerkfish]

5. I wonder if telling us that would compromise the situation further, though.

[walldude]

6. If we find out at all it'll take years

Brewster Jennings, from what I understand, was a front company trying to track what happened to all the nukes after the Soviet Union broke up. Which means it was a 20 year operation that got flushed down the toilet so the Administration could cover their asses. I'd bet money, a lot of money, that the damage to national security was incalculable.

[Missy Vixen]

10. Repeat after me, boys and girls

>I'd bet money, a lot of money, that the damage to national security was incalculable.<

At least nobody got a blow job, though! :sarcasm:

It's amazing to me that those on the other side of the aisle are so desperate to protect the Boy King that they will allow the security of our country to be compromised for their own agendas.

Julie

[melissinha]

11. amen brother walldude

The implications to the entire operation and the resulting implications regarding our safety are rarely mentioned in the MSM.