PlameGate: The scandal that never was.
POSTED BY: AURaptor
UPDATED: Saturday, September 9, 2006 23:36
VIEWED: 3153
PAGE 1 of 3
From the Washington Post
End of an Affair
It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband.
Friday, September 1, 2006; Page A20
WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.
Mr. Armitage was one of the Bush administration officials who supported the invasion of Iraq only reluctantly. He was a political rival of the White House and Pentagon officials who championed the war and whom Mr. Wilson accused of twisting intelligence about Iraq and then plotting to destroy him. Unaware that Ms. Plame's identity was classified information, Mr. Armitage reportedly passed it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey.
......It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue
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I trust those who saw fit to accuse the Bush administration of wrongful outting of Ms Plame will now post their apologies to President Bush here for all to see.
So, who's first ? 
People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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In the interest of full disclosure, this editorial also says:
Quote:
That's not to say that Mr. Libby and other White House officials are blameless. As prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has reported, when Mr. Wilson charged that intelligence about Iraq had been twisted to make a case for war, Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney reacted by inquiring about Ms. Plame's role in recommending Mr. Wilson for a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger, where he investigated reports that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium. Mr. Libby then allegedly disclosed Ms. Plame's identity to journalists and lied to a grand jury when he said he had learned of her identity from one of those reporters. Mr. Libby and his boss, Mr. Cheney, were trying to discredit Mr. Wilson; if Mr. Fitzgerald's account is correct, they were careless about handling information that was classified.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006
083101460.html
-Edit- Although, the original leaker being Armitage does indicate that many of the allegations made by the left are unsubstantiated...
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Well then, thank god I never said it was Bush. Bush is too isolated and clueless.
So, no apologies offered. 
PS SignyM posted a long time ago that an anon. CIA source said it was leaked from the Old Exec. Bldg. And that after much searching, he was able to find it houses the Office of the VP and Sec. State. That convinced me at the time that either, or both, were the sources of the leak. And it was both.
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And Matthew Cooper's original source?
And Judith Miller's original source?
Hint: Two different people. Neither of them are Armitage. Both are prominent White House officials. Both of them were not engaging in idle gossip.
And, as has been noted elsewhere, you've got to love the writer of the editorial saying that Plame getting outed was Wilson's own fault. Talk about blaming the victims.
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I'm confused. Armitage was part of the Bush administration...armitage came by classified information and leaked it? Now either he came by that classified information because he had clearance for it, and as such should have damn well frigging known it was classified, or he didn't have the clearance and shouldn't have known the information himself.
I don't claim to know the half of what this was all about - but the white house has been consistently dishonest about this case.. People are constantly all of a sudden remembering information that they never came forward with years ago, Rove has had to rectify and clarify previous testimonies in front of a grand jury on a number of occasions, the Bush administration has suggested that "any involvement" would have resulted in a person no longer working for them, and that involvement seems to be all over the place.
Why the hell has libby been obstructing justice?
This administration gets absolutely no appologies from me for asking questions that have yet to be adequately answered, Auraptor.
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This, also, might be of some significance:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/washington/02leak.html?ex=1314849600
&en=f16511ae331f97d8&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
Quote:
...Mr. Fitzgerald may also point out that Mr. Armitage knew about Ms. Wilson’s C.I.A. role only because of a memorandum that Mr. Libby had commissioned as part of an effort to rebut criticism of the White House by her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV...
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Why apologize to Bush? Whether they leaked info out their ass or snarfed it out their nose- or most likely both- doesn't change the fact that multiple people in the administration tried multiple times to discredit Joe Wilson by "outing" his wife.
And BTW- Joe Wilson was correct. The Bush administration lied about the yellowcake story, just like they lied about everything else related to Iraq. And they're STILL lying! But for some reason that- try as I might I can't fathom- you have a desperate need to believe that the Administration is some giant daddy figure that will protect you from harm.
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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
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Select to view spoiler:
The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir (Hardcover)
Quote:
but the white house has been consistently dishonest about this case..
Wait.
"but the New York Times has been consistently dishonest about this case..."
Fixed.
The meme persists.
Joe Wilson fabricated, from whole cloth, a conspiracy theory that starts in Niger involving yellow cake and ends with the Bush administration screwing over his wife.
Soon after.
JoeVal become famous as "Truth to Power" dissenters and the New York Times hails them as victims of BuShEvil.
Fast Foward.
ValJoe launch a nationwide speaking tour which is butressed by the release of a tell-all book. JoeCo make thousands of dollars from speaking fees and book sales but in the end its nearly all a hoax. They benefited monetarily from the lies they have disseminated and bilked thousands of dollars from innocent people. How the heck is that ever right?
Now that the dust has settled - people are stuck backing the Joe Wilson story because it fits into a false political narrative that has taken close to three years to be fully developed and internalized.
Fake but Accurate. Dan Rather needs you more than ever.
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MalBadLatin- Apparently you haven't gotten or even read the memo. The internal one. Look it up before you make a complete fool of yourself.
Oh, that's right... too late!
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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
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Propagate the signal SignyM, cognitive dissonance is your specialty.
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