Of course you’re right. This is what it has been about from the start. They knew she was covert and Cheney said to Libby, “I can declassify her because I’m me. Throw her to the wolves.”[1]

Then, they found out about the Law George H.W. Bush shepherded through, and panicked. That’s what all the cover-up has been about from the start. It’s been as plain as the nose on our collective face, but it took your persistence to figure it out.

Great piece of sleuthing…

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time…

Something that you covered but that I’d find helpful to see summarized is a flow diagram of the universe of possible intelligence reports (NIE, PDA, SSCI, DIA, NSA bulletins, SPWR?, others?), the agency that crafts the report, how these reports have traditionally moved through the intelligence and politcal/military communities and how they routinely may differ (same or different intelligence sources?).

I’ve wondered about this as well… on a wide variety of subjects related to Libby trial and beyond (eg: trail of GWB’s evidence for war, veracity of, what was true/false etc etc.)

There was a MSM news paper (forget which one) interview w/EW which mentioned (from memory) “binders of info all over the place”. I wonder if all Marcy’s work is done on paper?

I’ve written software to manage cooperative medical research from widely disparte locations/teams. Done properly, it’s possible to build this stuff such that all kinds of pertinent data can be represented graphically (eg: different types of charting techniques) from a well designed database. Following this thing mostly as a lurker, there’s soooo much from this trial, outside immediate context of Fitz’ charges, which could/should be available to public in a way that communicates critical ideas w/out having to read volumes of transcripts (since most folks don’t have time and/or interest).

EW: if such software is something that would interest you, drop me a mail & we’ll see what we can do.

– it’s very ingenious to see that the NIE might be a misdirection away from a different declassification re:Libby’s talk with Addington (from my memory of your live blogging the NIE was actually declassified on July 18). Why do you think he was interested in the paperwork at the CIA?

– It also seemed to me that when Fitz mentioned the President in the trial regarding the declassification it was more to raise the spectre of his involvement rather than to discourage speculation.

– from the Libby GJ tapes on C-SPAN I noticed Fitz’s suggestion that Tenet objected to the mystery declassification but it happened anyway, the President must have become involved in some way then. I’m still wondering about that funny “meatgrinder” note of Cheney’s, W tasked Scooter?

– listening to the Armitage tape with Woodward it seemed to me that he was just pushing the WH talking points “Wilson is a jerk” “his wife sent him”, perhaps these were developed in May, interesting and inconsistant that Armitage would be covering for the OVP origin of the trip back in June.

As someone said earlier, I’m looking forward to your Cheney post.

emptywheel @ 33

PeppermintPatti @ 24

Hi Marcy– First of all, thanks so much for yeoman’s work on the live blogging..I’m addicted and have no desire to enter rehab.

Second, although I bought the book while it was still on pre-order, current health issues have kept me from reading it..

So forgive me if I’ve got this all screwed up but, can you speak to a pet theory of mine about the possibility that a never-really-declassifed-at-all Plame leak occured via Cheney (either directly or indirectly thru surrogates like Libby or Armitage), and that every leak thereafter to members of the media was part of an orchestrated effort to hide what Cheney (or even Bush) had done…To me, the Air Force Two trip seems the likely time and place to hatch the cover up…

Does that fit your timeline?

I think it highly likely that Armitage was set up.

And I think Cheney knew about that–and gave sort-of approval for the June 23 leak.

But I think the July 12 leaks come bc they could hide behind Novak’s article.

Well, I think that at best Armitage was a “willing dupe”, emptywheel.

Considering that he told two reporters, in a quite “robust” manner about Plame sending Wilson to Niger…and even offering up that she worked in the CPD Division of the Directorate of Operations…makes it in my mind obvious that he wasn’t unaware of what he was doing.

Armitage’s background is such that he would hardly be unaware of what CPD or the Directorate of Operations does and the need to maintain secrecy of their activities and staff.

His statement to Grossman after the Novak article and the beinning of the investigation…that he screwed up by letting something “slip” is disengenous. He knew precisely what he wanted the reporters to think; he did it intentionally and repeatedly.

I don’t understand why you say he offered up CPD. We know he DIDN’T with Woodward. THe only person who says he did is Novak–and that’s a topic on which his story has changed 5 times.

I don’t see anything in this report of Addington’s testimony that he said anything about Libby asking about a spouse and CIA? Is it just missing from the liveblog?

Yes. That’s why they did the stipulation that it was excluded.

Big Mitch @
135

As I wrote on April 9, 2006 on the Schapira blog, What we know so far … in a note entitled, Where is this all going?:

A logical question that may be asked is whether or not, President Bush complied with Sec. 4.1(e) of Executive Order No. 13292, which may be found at Fed. Reg. Vol 68, No. 60, Page 15325 (March 28, 2003). 

In case you don’t remember what it says, or don’t have easy access to the Federal Register, here it is:

“Persons authorized to disseminate classified information outside the executive branch shall ensure the protection of the information in a manner equivalent to that provided within the executive branch.”

Well, obviously, that doesn’t apply to documents that were declassified. So before you close your Federal Register, take a gander at Sec. 1.5(h) of Executive Order No.13292:

“Prior to public release, all declassified records shall be appropriately marked to reflect their declassification.”

Ibid. at Fed. Reg. Vol 68, No. 60, Page 15317 (March 28, 2003).

Did this occur? I doubt it. . . .

This insta-de-classification crap is nonsense.

Visit the Schapira blog, What we know so far …

I’ve been wondering about all this for some time. You just can’t wave a wand and start blabbing.

But who’s to hold the executive accountable???

Is the director of the CIA going to sue the President for failing to follow Executive Order No.13292??? I don’t think so. Who has standing?

It seems to me that the only check on this kind of Executive mayhem is impeachment, isn’t it? What else is there???

What about Fitzgerald? Does he have standing?
If he does, what if it happened and there’s no special prosecutor? Is this a whole new domain of law?

Bob in HI

P.S. Being a researcher myself, I can see another researcher’s nightmare. How does one properly cite in a bibliography cinnamonape @84 and then Big Mitch @135 which are on the thread of FDL Book Salon: Anatomy of Deceit on the NIE By: emptywheel???
I’m new to this. Is there some trackback system that one can use to keep track of one’s favorite comments???

Plame and Brewster Jennings Assoc. and PEAK OIL:

Perhaps Plame/BJA via CIA were outsiders meddling wth Big Oil/Cheney’s bedfellow Saudi Arabia? If so, then outting Plame/BJA would destroy those meddlers.

It is a given that Saudi’ supergiant, old Ghawar field [abt 5 Million bbl/day] impacts global oil production more than any other. Far more. Ghawar production status is unknown WRT whether it has gone into decline…bec, of all 1 Million bbl/day fields, it is the ONLY one not admitted to be in decline, even though there is strong reason to believe it has recently started declining output.

SA will not release any raw data, just obfuscation and generalities. If it is declining, then in fact Peak Oil has already been reached and it is GAME OVER for my lifestyle and yours.

Has the possible Plame/BJA connection with ferreting Saudi production data been vetted on this thread? It is a vital matter. There are internet links pointing in that direction, but I have no personal knowledge. Just GOOGLE ‘ Plame oil’ , or JJA, or somesuch..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_RoveWhile the breaking of Valerie Plame’s cover as a NOC operative of the CIA may be regarded as serious in and of itself, there has been some speculation that the damage caused by the leak may extend in very specific directions related to Plame’s work with her cover company, Brewster Jennings & Associates. While the majority of commentators felt that her husband was the target for the smear, a body of evidence points to another motive for the leak. The leak may have been instigated as a move to end Plame’s work spying on the Saudi royal family, and more specifically her investigation into whether the Saudi oilfields had passed their peak of productivity (see peak oil). In this view (found for example in Michael Ruppert’s From The Wilderness news service) the leak was an attempt to silence and/or discredit Plame’s findings on the state of the world’s oil supply, thereby impairing the functioning of the CIA’s ability to inform the administration, in turn reducing its ability to act usefully.

From a blogger:
Plame was apparently operating a CIA fronted business intended to inflitrate the Saudi oil industry. From what was reported about Plame and her company, the CIA operation was long in the making and apparently very successful, and ultimately infiltrated numerous energy sectors in the ME and possibly elswhere. Its been awhile since I’ve read these articles.

form a blogger at Juan Cole website
…This “cover company” was known as Brewster, Jennings & Associates (BJA). It took years for this cover company to really start paying off as far as intel, since it took time for the foreign countries and companies they worked with to start trusting them. A key company BJA worked with was ARAMCO – Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, which supplies somewhere around 12% of global oil production.

“Innocent” Armitage could easily take the heat of being first leaker, albeit ever so, innocently. My! could he be useful to neutralize the situation.

Fathom, perhaps, that whoever enters the operations end of the intell game never really leaves it; he/she is covert by nature. Armitage, Woodward, etc. remain assets that have been re-located. Stqndard Operating Practice; and very effective, too.