NEWS: White House Kicks Itself In The Balls

Intelligence sources say Valerie Wilson was part of an operation three years ago tracking the proliferation of nuclear weapons material into Iran. And the sources allege that when Mrs. Wilson’s cover was blown, the administration’s ability to track Iran’s nuclear ambitions was damaged as well.

Early in the case, Rove admitted to investigators that he outed Valerie Wilson’s identity to columnist Robert Novak - Novak was the first journalist to publish Wilson’s identity and the first to talk about it to investigators.

And last week, Karl Rove testified again he may have spoken about the Wilson’s with time magazine’s Matt Cooper.

FearTheReaper said:
On Monday’s Hardball MSNBC reporter David Shuster dropped a bomb: .

FearTheReaper said:
On Monday’s Hardball MSNBC reporter David Shuster dropped a bomb: That ex-CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed.

According to intelligence sources, Plame Wilson, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of WMD technology to and from Iran. Wow, that actually sounds important, maybe the White House shouldn’t have outed her since they are so worried about Iran pursuing nukes.

Intelligence sources say Valerie Wilson was part of an operation three years ago tracking the proliferation of nuclear weapons material into Iran. And the sources allege that when Mrs. Wilson’s cover was blown, the administration’s ability to track Iran’s nuclear ambitions was damaged as well.

UpTight said:

I'm sure they found someone else to sharpen the office pencils and make the tea.

attn_ho said:

nice mysogny there. so, she was only doing womans work? any proof there?

attn_ho said:

nice mysogny there. so, she was only doing womans work? any proof there?

UpTight said:
Actually - breaking from form - this post is actually quite newsworthy.... although not neccessarily for reasons that FearTheRehash might have intended.

Firstly, the pretext for revealing yet another secret CIA operation is disgusting. It is of minor relevence what case Plame was working on - the operation would have continued without her.
[Edited on May 02, 2006 by UpTight]

oyaji said:
The inescapable reality demostrated by this bit of news is that this adminstration cares more about petty politics and avoiding responsibility for its manifold fuck-ups than the safety of the nation.

UpTight said:
Actually - breaking from form - this post is actually quite newsworthy.... although not neccessarily for reasons that FearTheRehash might have intended.

Firstly, the pretext for revealing yet another secret CIA operation is disgusting. It is of minor relevence what case Plame was working on - the operation would have continued without her.

Of course, now that MSNBC has joined the Washington Post and the New York Times in their efforts to provide secrets to enemies of the USA, the operation is truly scuppered.

Good work!

Now we can just sit back and await the CNN/ABC/LA Times "whiste blowing", "public interest" expose of Stealth Bomber technology.

Secondly, who in the Intelligence community blabbed? And more importantly, were they part of the Liberal Plame/Wilson/McCarthy/Priest/William Goodfellow cocktail set?

Porter Goss has more house cleaning to do,

[Edited on May 02, 2006 by UpTight]

Brewster-Jennings & Associates was a CIA fiction, created to provide cover for agents like Valerie Plame.

The problem, says Marcinkowski, is that exposing Brewster-Jennings could lead foreign intelligence agencies to other spies. “There is a possibility that there were other agents that would use that same kind of a cover. So they may have been using Brewster-Jennings just like her.”
....
Valerie Plame was also exposed as a “NOC,” an agent working under non-official cover. That means she wasn’t attached to a U.S. Embassy or any other government agency when she worked overseas, which would have provided her protection if she was caught spying. In other words, she had no diplomatic immunity.

Working overseas as an NOC, without official cover, was a dangerous assignment, says Marcinkowski. “With diplomatic immunity, the worst that can happen is you get kicked out of the country. You don't have that kind of a protection when you're a NOC. You're out there, what they would call naked.”

“Out there” like Hugh Redmond, a NOC who was caught spying in Shanghai in 1951 and died after 19 years in a Chinese prison. To this day, the CIA denies he was an agent.
...
“We give our most sensitive cases to those officers serving under non-official cover,” explains Melissa Mahle, who spent 14 years in the Middle East as a covert CIA operative maintaining a series of fictitious “legends,” or cover stories, created by her superiors.
People have said, ‘Oh, well, Valerie wasn't serving in a sensitive position. So it's not really that serious.’

Well, I would say that's a very fallacious way of looking at this because a cover is for a clandestine officer can be different things at different times. We change cover. We modify cover based on how we need it,” says Mahle. “If you start to unravel one part of that, you can unravel the whole thing.”

Mahle says Valerie was working on important national security issues, like keeping tabs on nuclear material and the world’s top nuclear scientists. “She is an expert on weapons of mass destruction. These are the kind of people that don't grow on trees.”

The CIA has yet to conduct a formal damage assessment. The agency wanted to wait until the investigation by the special prosecutor was over.

Vampirate said:
Were I for the death penalty (which I am not), I would still only support it for people who are evil to their very cores, and Karl Rove would sure be at the top of that list.

FearTheReaper said:

UpTight, I never respond to your messages as you seem to suffer from a severe case of willful ignorance. But in response to Valerie Plame not being in a position that was important and then spinning, in a horrendously retarded fashion, to make Wilson the bad guy,
well

FearTheReaper said:



Brewster-Jennings & Associates was a CIA fiction, created to provide cover for agents like Valerie Plame.

The problem, says Marcinkowski, is that exposing Brewster-Jennings could lead foreign intelligence agencies to other spies. “There is a possibility that there were other agents that would use that same kind of a cover. So they may have been using Brewster-Jennings just like her.”
....
Valerie Plame was also exposed as a “NOC,” an agent working under non-official cover. That means she wasn’t attached to a U.S. Embassy or any other government agency when she worked overseas, which would have provided her protection if she was caught spying. In other words, she had no diplomatic immunity.

UpTight said:

so which nightmare hotspot was Plame based in when her cover was blown (by the Liberal press)?

Tehran?
Tripoli?
Damascus?

er...

Virginia?

oyaji said:

It's far more accurate and reliable than this administration. 60 minutes has been around for decades. Decades. Journalists make mistakes every now and then. At least 60 minutes apologizes when it makes mistakes.

Anyhow, attacking the source, as you well know, does not discredit the substance of the argument.

UpTight said:

Yeah - cos CBS 60 Minutes is just sooooo damn reliable, unbiased and jam packed with journalistic integrity.

MisterLinguist said:

Who do you want to report the news, Albion?

UpTight said:

There was no substance. Plame had a desk job in Langley. Her job title doesn't change that.

PointBlank said:

To be fair, "pencils and tea" is the top position in the British Military.

MisterLinguist said:

Who do you want to report the news, Albion?