Aug 28 2006
Plame Stupid, Now Get The Money
As usual, Ed Morrissey says it best: Fitzgerald’s prosecutorial abuse should be investigated as the only real scandal surrounding Joe and Valerie Wilson. The entire Plame scandal was as fact based as Joe Wilson debunking Niger forgeries in Feb 2002 – forgeries which the CIA did not have in their posession until Oct 2002 and which were not leaked to the UN IAEA until December 2002. But the forgeries were in the safe in Valerie Wilson’s section of the CIA for months. All you need to know is books are coming out so people are rumour mongering for money. Sadly, Michael Issikoff has sold away his credibility for a book with David Corn who still fantasizes about an administration out to get Joe Wilson – as opposed to challenging Wilson’s claim Bush went to war using known forged documents. Corn is a class A idiot and Issikoff has shown he will lay down with the dogs to make a buck.
I am also with Captain Ed with his frustration with Richard Armitage. One thing Issikoff and Corn note is Armitage had political reason to leak to Novak and Woodward – he wanted to distance the State Department from Wilson’s forged document claims and he had a Wilson long time friend in his midts – Marc Grossman. While people may like Armitage personally, his selfishness in leaving this scandal to fester for 3 years is criminal, and points to not so innocent motives. If Grossman convinced Armitage to leak the news or coordinated it in any manner then Armitage should have been indicted. Fitz-Magoo has been too biased to see how he has been played, but it is clear Armitage’s silence left this stupid ‘scandal’ holding headlines longer than was ever needed. Armitage has a lot of explaining to do.
Tom Maguire has an extensive summary regarding all the dots the can be pulled together now that it is nearly fact that Armitage leaked the news accidentally (twice on two different days). update:And Clarice Feldman weighs in at American Thinker.
What I want to see out of this is (1) an investigation into prosecutorial abuse by Fitzgerald. If Fitz is under DoJ oversight now is the time to prove it by someone determining how Fitz-Magoo could keep a closed case open so long and simply set perjury traps. I also think (2) we the people deserve to question Armitage in public to understand his motivations for leaking, for not coming forward and his relationship with Grossman. If leaking CIA officer’s identities is such a big deal (as the left maintained) then we need to get to the bottom of Armitage’s actions.
All I know is once the books come out people are trying to do nothing more than make a quick buck. Which is why I will not be buying these books. The last thing I want to do is reward the Wilsons and their allies at State for lying while working for the Kerry campaign and the shoddy, biased reporting that came out of the news media.
update: More by James Lewis, also at American Thinker. The only difference I have with him is I still say Fitz-Magoo needs to be removed and investigated himself.
Isikoff’s tendentious piece in Newsweek states:
“The disclosures about Armitage… underscore one of the ironies of the Plame investigation: that the initial leak… came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone.”
Isikoff’s piece should have stated: “… one of the ironies of the Plame investigation was that it was the White House itself that was being smeared.”
Also note how Isikoff lies by omission in this key paragraph:
“But officials at the White House also told reporters about Wilson’s wife in an effort to discredit Wilson for his public attacks on Bush’s handling of Iraq intelligence. Karl Rove confirmed to Novak that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA, and days later offered the same information to Time reporter Matt Cooper.”
Conveniently Isikoff leaves out the part where Robert Novak confirmed Plame’s identity by contacting the CIA. You would never know from reading Isikoff’s piece that Langley itself had outed Plame long before Rove ever opened his mouth one way or another. In Isikoff’s formulation, I guess, it’s the Bush White House’s duty to be more Catholic than the Pope. The CIA can leak about their own agents at the drop of a hat, but when Rove does it…
Interesting, about Armitage. That is highly despicable if he was the original source. How much money has has been poured in this investigation? For what? Does it do no harm to make a mockery of the legal system?
How ironic this new book is using the same word “Hubris” as Michael Scheuer used. [Michael Scheuer: an incredibly good shot of what is wrong with this country. This is the man we put in charge for keeping tabs on Bin Laden pre-2001. The same madman who is now peddling his far left story which includes such tidbits as ‘the Jews rule congress’. Yeah, the CIA needs an overhaul. A big one. I think monkeys could have picked a better man for the job. Monkeys. A shame for the good guys out there that have such people as bosses.]
These guys are all peddling stories the left leaning public wants to hear. It is a true shame.
I am still waiting on this case. If this man is found to be the leak, it will be a true shame which I am sure will not be touted loudly in the media to protect all of the Democrats that made political headway because of this whole mess.
How will this effect Libby’s trial?
The democrats are milking this thing for all they are worth. They are still trying to get the message out that the Bush aministration outed Plame for revenge. An idiot could see that the Bush administration was puzzled as to why Wilson was sent in the first place. The lies about this case are unbelievable and are only surpassed by the crooked intent of the prosecutor to make this thing go on so long. The reputations destroyed and the money spent are the least of it.
Dubious, Rove answered a phone call from a reporter (Cooper) about an entirely different matter. Before disconnecting, Cooper asked Rove something about Wilson, and Rove tried to steer him away from doing anything in print about Wilson, sort of “Careful, you could get burned if you buy into Wilson’s b.s.” type of thing. Cooper then said something to the effect that he’d “heard” Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA, and Rove responded, to the effect, “Yeah, I heard that, too.”
That is the extent of Rove “leaking” anything. Never happened. And, Libby was never accused of anything other than, essentially, lying to reporters. The idea of indicting Libby because his recollection differed from a reporter’s recollection just demonstrates Fitz’s bias and agenda. If anyone should be indicted, it’s Fitz.
MerryJ1, I agree that, based on what we know now, it appears that Rove did not leak. What I was arguing against was the Left’s (and Fitzgerald’s) selective outrage throughout this sorry affair:
“If Armitage leaked to Novak, yawn.”
“If the CIA spokesman (fill in appropriate name here) leaked to Novak, yawn.”
“But if Rove leaked to Cooper, or if Libby leaked to Miller, FIRE AT WILL!”