I did ask … thanks for being obsessed, it helps us all

Mr. Murder, your comments are very interesting.

“There’s additional suspiscion to believe our rendition gulags also took out Brewster assets by rendition.”

Holy crap! I never thought of that. These guys are unbelievably sinister. The CPD was too effective at preventing weapons smuggling and other black-ops neocon provocations to war. For the whole Total War thing to come off, CPD had to be stopped. The CIA has been witnessing a covert coup d’etat, starting with the kneecapping of their own agency—and they couldn’t say anything about it to the public because everything harmed by the neocons was too secret to acknowledge. Cheney’s and Rove’s guys have gone all through government with baseball bats and tire irons, maiming and crippling the institutions and honest people that might stand between them and permanent one-party rule. Treason is too tame a word for it.

Welcome, 873450! I almost giggled at your mention of RICO. No reflection on you at all, but the word “racketeers”, when applied to people such as these, sounds almost like “Mouseketeers”, doesn’t it? It doesn’t seem sufficiently weighty to describe people who lust after not just local or national power, but global empire and genocide and transformation of the world’s greatest republic into a feudal police state, while looting the world’s largest treasury in the process and transforming the mighty middle class into a great sea of desperation and homelessness.

I guess somebody will have to think of a new term for crimes this big?

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.

“A few days after the WaPo article, Novak responded with a rebuttal. First, he denies using the phrase “authorized” when he spoke to Harlow.” -marcy

There never was any question of me talking about Mrs. Wilson “authorizing.” I was told she “suggested” the mission, and that is what I asked Harlow.

Goss was at the meeting as a Principal(Ranking House Republican INTEL Committee, majority Chair). This would be consistent with his familiarity of Plame, he worked with her when she lived by that name. Her name is Wilson, but he knew her as Plame, thus the name stuck with him so.

The entire flap over Flame was a plausible attempt to evade the strict construction of the IIPA, and also an effort to somewhat slow the investigation while the other leaks and main story lede got out.

Thus Novak simply confirmed with Harlow what he heard elsewhere, three days before his story he was asking, he was around the phishing expedition, and got her original Company contacts from someone else. Armitage inadvertantly confirmed it.

Goss was a Crossfire guest that week.

Glad to have you here at the Lake. Hope you will stick around for some of our conversations.

——egregious

It’s too bad this case isn’t prosecutable via RICO statutes because it truly appears that a gang of racketeers has successfully hijacked the executive office and very nearly seized the congress and judiciary. In addition to Libby, a RICO investigation would have swept up many conspirators taking part in this coup. We now must hope Plame’s civil suit will flush them out.

What is most unusual, however, is Novak’s claim that he didn’t take notes, and “recalled” what Armitage had told him a week later. (clearly implying that he didn’t write up the interview immediately after it occurred either.)

This raises a number of questions and possibilities — including one that up until this time I’d considered unsubstantiate speculation, namely that Novak knew the whole story before he talked to Armitage…and Armitage confirmed the story.

Posted by: p.lukasiak | September 13, 2006 at 15:08

TNH comment

Goss and WH talked, Rove and Novak talked, Armitage confirmed, Novak and Goss talked somewhere in that chain leading up to the Crossfire program that week, on the outing’s eve.

Google delivers too many looks on a search, but if you Nexis it you’ll nail that lead.

Porter Goss was a guest to nearly the day Crossfire leaked Plame’s name. The days leading to her leak Novak hinted at it, mentioning people whose wives or husbands donated to Democrats as perhaps being enemies of Bush and loyal to Kerry.

There are some complex overlying justifications created to accomplish spying on Valerie Wilson once they determined she was playing a role alongside her husband. Porter Goss worked with her previously in the CIA and did much talk at the White House in creating DoHS and with the INTEL committee as a ranking member for the House.

Thus Goss’ later appointment was with intent to create additional hurtles there, and in other areas, particulalry Dukestir’s card buddies, etc.

Look close to Porter Goss.

As for the investigation, and the underlying reasons the meeting took place, until Fitz started pushing the questions with the DoE(Energy was given the same status as CIA and FBI within the DCI on the Intelligence Community overhaul preceding 9-11). Energy people started to verify their contacts with the Niger Ambassador and a Four Star General’s corroboration on the Niger conclusions. Internally the override apparatus was stovepiped by Bolton with help from OSP leads in media, often with journalists directly traveling abroad aboard Executive flights to Africa(such as Dubya’s trip there where the first documented mention of Plame occurred via deliveray of Fax).

The White House is PR driven, Rove had view of all Communications, itself a violation of her own status. Plame was being phished out deductively in efforts to verify her role(that is where the Who’s Who reference came from). She was already a known known in that she was married to Wilson and confirmed by Gossparticularly.

That she was CPD came later, minutes of the Principals communicated along the lines of OVP is where you need to look. Senate INTEL meeting along Goss/House in the need to send Wilson, the President of the Senate’s office, most likely Communications director, can confirm earlier Plame delivery verifies.

The ability to clearly draw this out lies in double sealed. Fitzgerald saying he’s done to this point is true, given classification nature of such indictments and political tact he’s learned in pursuit of Justice. Discovery can drive this further past such a point, I’m not familiar with sentencing but it may simply await offical lockdown status to go past this point, and it may simply await discovery which he knows the Wilsons’ civil suit will drive forward.

The interesting item is that Fitzgerald could perhaps be called to witness the Civil Trial, and can certainly use its discovery items(sealed or otherwise).

Libby’s going to be nuclear off the casualty count. There’s additional suspiscion to believe our rendetition gulags also took out Brewster assets by rendition. That will be talked about later, the most possible verifies for its network were Americans living overseas who died violently and worked in areas of interest to Plame’s capacity NOC in the official business field or within the agency regarding profiles likely to match the intelligence background of recruits.

Jeff — you’re right, of course, about Novak’s July 14th column not mentioning CPD.

I found a video of Armitage’s CBS interview at the time, and he didn’t address the CPD angle (nor was he asked to)… he said Novak raised the question of why Wilson was sent at the end of their interview, and he (Armitage) said, “I don’t know, but his wife works at the agency.”

I was specifically watching for a CPD mention, so I don’t think I missed it.

If Armitage has denied knowing she was CPD, that’s news to me; in the update here, he’s quoted as saying he can’t remember whether he told Novak. That implies he did know, although we can’t be sure.

For me, the question has always been whether the INR memo mentioned CPD, since that seems to have been Armitage’s sole source of information about Wilson’s wife. But then, maybe he got curious and checked around, or just learned more by informal gabbing.

Thanks, interesting. Not a very convincing pushback from Armitage on CPD, is it? Part of what’s interesting is that, unless there’s some other part of the INR report that contains info identifying Plame as CPD or a knowledgeable official would be able to tell in a way I can’t, it would pretty much confirm that Armitage had other sources of information on Plame – not surprising, but interesting. Obvious candidates include Tenet, whom I take Armitage to have gotten the information on the 16 words he fed to Woodward on June 13 from; and Ford. But it could be anyone, I suppose.

Note that, as ew observed, Novak does sort of refer to CPD, though it’s clearly identified as coming from the CIA, which probably means, in this instance, Harlow.

Cassandra- see my comment above.

I had exactly the same thought, but you have stated it better than I did.

Bottom line- I, too, am waiting for Fitz to say “the case is closed”.

Exactly, VG! He’s in a tricky situation, isn’t he? Can’t say it’s closed and can’t say it isn’t.

Reminds me of the way the CIA wants the leakers punished, but they are loath to give up any information about just how important Plame was, how much damage was done when her cover was blown, how many died—because that would only add to the damage, by giving enemies even more information. So they’ve been very low-key about it, allowing Toensing and other idiots on the right to harrumph about her being just a desk jockey….UNTIL the CIA issued a brief summary for Fitz to use at Libby’s sentencing hearing. THEN we learn that she traveled overseas, under cover, between 7 and 10-plus times in five years, sometimes under her own name and sometimes an alias. And they won’t even talk about how many years, “if any”, she worked for them before 2002! (But pssst. She’s been with them for 20 years.) So her job with CPD was so important that they can scarcely admit they know her, even after the whole world knows she worked there.

I know if I were in Fitz’s shoes, I’d do everything in my power not to let the bastards get away with this. And if that meant getting some sealed indictments and keeping silent while the public bloviates endlessly about things they don’t know, and enduring criticism for failing to accomplish much with my investigation, then that’s what I’d do. Anything to keep the perpetrators complacent, to keep them thinking they’ve gotten away with it, AGAIN.

If there was no “underlying crime,” then wouldn’t the Bush administration have declassified and released long ago the CIA’s after-incident damage assessment report findings?

Furthermore, if the CIA’s initial internal investigation had found “no harm, no foul” then why would they have referred the leak investigation to the DOJ, demanding that legal action be taken against all the persons responsible for divulging the identity of one of their operatives?

In other words, the very act of the Bush administration NOT releasing (i.e. the dog not barking) the CIA’s initial internal investigation findings indicates that there was a crime committed in the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson.

Secondly, the non-releasing of this internal CIA assessment report from 2003 (full, redacted or just a summary) is further evidence of obstruction of justice, part of the overall attempt, in my opinion, of the Bush administration trying to play-down the significance of this breach in national security.

I presume Patrick Fitzgerald saw the complete, unredacted CIA internal investigation “damage” report shortly after he was assigned and began his own DOJ investigation. However, he wouldn’t be able to talk about it (except in a roundabout way) unless this report were declassified in whole or in part.

Thus, Fitzgerald’s hands are still tied, and the obstruction of justice continues.

And the dog still hasn’t barked.