Valerie Plame

[therealUT]

By Eric M. Weiss and Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 14, 2006; A03

Former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, filed a lawsuit yesterday against Vice President Cheney, presidential adviser Karl Rove and former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, accusing the three of violating their constitutional rights in retaliation for Wilson's criticism of President Bush.

Plame and Wilson say that, after Wilson accused Bush of twisting intelligence about Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, Cheney, Rove and Libby conspired to "discredit, punish and seek revenge against the plaintiffs that included, among other things, disclosing to members of the press Plaintiff Valerie Plame Wilson's classified CIA employment."

Funny thing is, courts have already found Cheney and Rove not guilty of anything...

 

[OWB]

Funny thing is, courts have already found Cheney and Rove not guilty of anything...

Was that before or after Robert Novak said Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer?

 

[therealUT]

Being a confirming source, after the name is already out there, is not leaking the name. Especially when Plame is no longer covert!

 

[orange+white=heaven]

I've tried, but I just can't seem to get my dander up over this issue.
I cannot get over my own perception that it is nothing more than beltway politics.

 

[GAVol]

Was that before or after Robert Novak said Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer?

It was AFTER. Due to the gag order Novak is just now talking about stuff that the Special Prosecutor has known about for literally a couple of years.

 

[OWB]

Well regardless, President Bush is a very honorable man and sticks to his word. So I expect him to fire the person who leaked that info.

 

[GAVol]

I agree.

Man . . . that's twice now.

 

[orange+white=heaven]

Well regardless, President Bush is a very honorable man and sticks to his word. So I expect him to fire the person who leaked that info.

Look for that right after Hat posts a glowing summation of the talents of the current head football coach at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

 

[vader]

Look for that right after Hat posts a glowing summation of the talents of the current head football coach at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[volinbham]

Was that before or after Robert Novak said Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer?

Interesting the way this went down - Novak said that he heard VP worked for the CIA and Rove said oh, you heard that too.

Some conspiracy.

 

[OWB]

Interesting the way this went down - Novak said that he heard VP worked for the CIA and Rove said oh, you heard that too.

Some conspiracy.

I know you wish it was that simple.

 

[volinbham]

I know you wish it was that simple.

Yes clearly Novak is lying...

 

[MyBloodRunnethOrange]

Funny thing is, courts have already found Cheney and Rove not guilty of anything...

Funny thing is, courts had already foung O.J. Simpson not guiltuy of anything before the Goldmans filed lawsuit.

 

[volinbham]

If Plame and Wilson are claiming damages then the courts should factor in the book deals (latest one rumored at 2 million plus) that they've gotten since her name was revealed.

Interesting also that they claim they were personally attacked to discredit them for daring to dispute the Whitehouse view of WMD. Read the report from the senate committtee on pre-war intelligence and it appears Wilson and Plame were seeking to discredit the Whitehouse for political reasons. Goose and Gander.

 

[BHAMVOLFAN]

I've tried, but I just can't seem to get my dander up over this issue.
I cannot get over my own perception that it is nothing more than beltway politics.

I have a friend that worked until his retirement with the agency. His take on this, and he's a Republican, is that the outing of Plame is certainly political and in that line of thought, very dangerous and even treason. If a covert wants to out themselves, they do it with full knowlege that anything they did behind the scenes could come back to haunt them. An outing by a political operative in his opinion should bring about the most severe of consequences. He feels that the lack of outrage over this is due to the current administrations ability to spin this in their favor. He says this has caused quite a bit of outrage and behind the scenes with our operatives and has killed morale.

 

[volinbham]

While I don't doubt that effect the outing has had, it appears that it wasn't the conspiracy as alleged. It looks like the person who leaked the name was Armitage in the State Dept. (a critic of the Iraq war) and that it was not an intentional leak but rather popped out in a much larger conversation. Rove's contribution appears to be a semi-confirmatory statement in a discussion with Novak. In short, this wasn't a planned attempt to get revenge on Wilson.

 

[BHAMVOLFAN]

Probably right in your comments but I must assert that conversations whether they be from Armitage and or Rove's confirmation are wrong, out of place and illegal. That's MO and I suspect the damage is much more severe than just political. Overall this seems to show how self motivated Armitage and Rove are....totally careless, wreckless and injurious action with political agenda. I'll be glad when Rove is in DC no more. I have never trusted the guy.

 

[therealUT]

Probably right in your comments but I must assert that conversations whether they be from Armitage and or Rove's confirmation are wrong, out of place and illegal. That's MO and I suspect the damage is much more severe than just political. Overall this seems to show how self motivated Armitage and Rove are....totally careless, wreckless and injurious action with political agenda. I'll be glad when Rove is in DC no more. I have never trusted the guy.

I do not think the damage is as severe as you think...There are plenty of agents that are still operating covertly, whose names appear in multiple books covering historical incidences. Read into the Iran-Contra situation especially, when most of those agents were 'outed' before congressional committees concerning our arms trades in South America. Most of those agents are still operating 'covertly' in regions across the globe.

 

[volinbham]

Overall this seems to show how self motivated Armitage and Rove are....totally careless, wreckless and injurious action with political agenda.

Look into Plame's and Wilson's role in this and you'll reach the same conclusion (the Senate Committee on Pre-war Intelligence Report is a good place to start). Doesn't excuse the leak but it is clear that they were dirty dealing in this matter.

 

[BHAMVOLFAN]

yeah, I just took the words of my bud and ran with them. But since he is/was directly connected to the organization I suspected his views were worthwhile.

 

[therealUT]

“She vehemently denies that she had anything to do with suggesting Joseph Wilson do this,” says Erwin Chemerinsky, the Duke University law professor who is representing the Wilsons.

“She has said to me that she had nothing to do with sending Joseph Wilson to do the investigation.”

The CPD reports officer told committee staff that the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’ and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from the former ambassador’s wife says, ‘my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’

It appears that the Wilsons and their legal team are basing their claim of a “concerted effort” not so much on the statements of Patrick Fitzgerald but on a Washington Post report on the statements of Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald used the phrase “concerted action” once, in a footnote on page 30:

The existence vel non of concerted action by White House officials is not dispositive of whether defendant committed perjury…”

The Rest

Waiting for the takes from some of our resident legal experts...

 

[volinbham]

While I'm not a legal expert - the paper trail showing Plame offering up her husband to go on the trip clearly disputes her denial.

Per the Senate Committee on Pre-war Intelligence Report, she also told her husband that he was going to investigate "some ridiculous claim that Iraq was seeking uranium". Any doubt she already decided what answer she was looking for? Further, the CIA reports that Wilson's information was of little use and if anything CONFIRMED their views that Iraq was seeking uranium. Wilson filed no written report --- to the CIA that is. His "report" went to the NYT. He was also on the payroll of the Kerry campaign at the time. Finally, he admitted under oath that he took "artistic liberties" with some of his conclusions.