Sep 18 2006
Corn Caught Lying To Himself
[Not sure why my quotation marks and apostrophes are causing issues with the text. We will try and figure out what is up with WordPress]
David Corn is just not a mental giant. You can tell everytime he tries debate. The problem he has is he thinks he is much smarter than he really is. He gets to this view honestly, he thinks everyone else is dumber than they are. Therefore his latest excuses about how he did not expose Valerie’s covert status while he was exposing Valerie’s covert status must appear quite brilliant to him. Otherwise why would he provide proof positive he is the true source of exposing Val’s clandesting activities:
Here is Corn’s reminder of what Novak wrote:
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.
Note in this sentence all we learn is Val worked for the CIA and in area dealing with WMDs. We have no information whatsoever that she was ever undercover overseas. None. We have no indication she was undercover anywhere. We have no indiciation she was a NOC. Taken at face valuem and realizing state secrets at one time were very important to the press, no one would assume she was anything special. But two days after this sentence hit the streets this is what Corn says he says:
In my piece, I merely speculated that she might be a NOC and explored the possible ramifications of this outing (if indeed she was a NOC).
Corn is trying to claim this was a lucky guess. That the word ‘operative’ gave him incredible, never before seen (for him anyway) insight. But what about that article Corn wrote – is that all he said? Of course not:
Wilson caused problems for the White House, and his wife was outed as an undercover CIA officer.
…
That would seem to mean that the Bush administration has screwed one of its own top-secret operatives in order to punish Wilson or to send a message to others who might challenge it.
…
Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. “
…
Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent.
Emphasis mine. Corn is nuts if anyone is going to buy the idea he was able to hint at Val’s deep cover out of a lucky guess. And the fact he was talking to Wilson for this early article means it is more likely it was not Corn’s meager intellect but Joe (and possibly Val’s) leads that made Corn such a powerful seer. But there is more. Back to his post for more details Corn apparently learned in his magic crystal ball:
As is now known–thanks to Hubris, the new book by Michael Isikoff and me–Valerie Wilson had been chief of operations for the Joint Task Force on Iraq within the CIA’s clandestine Directorate of Operations. She was working under nonofficial cover (a deep version of covert status), but she no longer needed this NOC status and was shifting to official cover (meaning she would pretend to be a government official–say, a State Department officer–but not a CIA employee). In short, she was indeed an “operative.”
Corn clearly has access to a lot of classified information which did more to target Val’s old contacts than the Novak mentioning she worked at the CIA on WMDs. Corn uses his access to classified details few would know to define Novak’s word ‘operative’. But these are not Novak’s details – they are Corns. Theoretically, even Joe Wilson would not be allowed to know about her life’s efforts for the CIA prior to meeting him, so how is it Corn knows? Well, there is only one source who could reliably supply that information on Val’s deep cover antics and that is, of course, Val. It is more than likely Val is leaking out details through surrogates like Corn because the CIA will not allow certain information to be publicized in any book she writes. She could never out her efforts in Athens, etc. But somehow Corn was able to find out and he printed it all for the world to see. Corn is, in fact, the one leaking the most classified information regarding Val’s classifed efforts at the CIA. He has been doing it from the beginning. And he truly must be an idiot if he thinks his lame excuse about lucky guesses is going to hide the fact.
Update: Clarice Feldman has a blockbuster article out summing up the Plame Game and painting an accurate, if not unfavorble, light on all the key players. It covers the Wilson-Grossman connection (which I hoper this blog helped uncover a portion of that important aspect), and it covers many of the other reporters involved with the Wilson antics leading up to the Novak article. I especially liked the note about the EPIC convention on June 14the were Wilson admits to being the source for Pincus, Kristof and the Guardian stories (and probably the June 12th Knight-Ridder story as well). Including the fact that Valerie was named as his wife in his bio at this event. What is important to add to Clarice’s excellent summary is David Corn’s participation in exposing truly serious classified information. Just review what Corn exposed regarding Valerie’s covert efforts and you can see who SHOULD be investigated – not who is being investigated. If Fitzgerald is so concerned with exposing CIA efforts he should have hauled Corn in because now everyone knows where Val was when she was recruiting HUMINT sources for intel. Corn and the Wilsons have exposed all these people, and it was not derived from the use of the word ‘operative’ in Novak’s column. This alone shows why Fitzgerald needs to be shut down. He is so far afield players in this investigation ARE STILL exposing and crippling our intelligence sources. To this day.
Thank you, AJ
Thank you Clarice, that was a rivetting read!
what originally started out as a typical political hit piece engineered in the state department/CIA ended up morphing, beyond the wildest dreams of the perpetrators–corn, Wilson and armitage/Powell, into almost being a bloodless coup d’ tate. I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t planned that way but as it gathered its own momentum the players allowed it to go forward. in days past, during a time of war, this behavior may have been considered treasonous.
combined with the CBS memo just prior to the election they came very close to pulling it off. what they have done is cause an enormous sentiment shift toward the validity of our military response to 9/11. this we may never recover from.
When you read all the links, it is humourus to read how Corn, found Victoria Toensing to be so intelligent when he was having conversations with her, but now, he says” Any intelligent lawyer who bothered to peruse”
and since she doesn’t see it his way that she can’t be “intelligent”. I wouldn’t say he’s not intelligent, I’ve never tested his intelligence, but I can say that reading thru all these links, you can certainly put together a picture of a person that is twisting every element to “fit his story”
An example, he see’s no difference in this:”
“In Niger, he met with past and present government officials and persons involved in the uranium business and concluded that it was “highly doubtful” that Hussein had been able to purchase uranium from that nation.””
and the sentence in the State of the Union that said: “Saddam had attempted to by uranium from Africa”
There is a world of difference in “attempting” to do something, and actually doing that thing., But Corn sees no difference.
He was on Washington Journal this morning. Kinda makes you nauseous to watch, doesn’t it?
If you read his original article, it is clear at some points he is “supposing” and at other points he is not.
To paraphrase Corn, if you read this the way I intend it, you’re intelligent, if you don’t you are a dummy.
You can fool some of the people all of the time
Especially if it’s yourself
Just sitting here yelling ‘excellent’ back at you AJ.
Clarice mentioned Corn and Matthews (who I have always believed supplied the fuel ‘fair game’ to keep it in motion). Corn never received his true due until this post. Excellent and easily understood.
He (Corn) was on Washington Journal this morning. Kinda makes you nauseous to watch, doesn’t it?
Enforcement…yep. Just like watching his partner Isikoff team up one Sunday of PBS with Cooper. This took place as we were all holding our breath to see if Fitz was going for a 2-fer with Rove. Isikoff and Cooper were not interested in talking about Libby, instead their only purpose was a huge dump on Rove. Talk about all our ‘professional journos’ without active political bias who deserve shields so they can deliver the truth to power. HA!
I enjoy it when the reality of this situation is revealed and our stance on it was correct. Just shows the inept investigative reporting and their agendas.
Kinda of related – I’m sure a a lot of you have read about the attached “covert agent”. This is the first time I ever saw this.
http://www.gailsheehy.com/9_11/9_11_art3_11.html
See any differences in her and Val’s – “covert” jobs? See any differences in her and Val’s life being ruined?
Am I mistaken – or was this gal never mentioned in the Path to 9/11 movie? And why wouldn’t the 9/11 commission ever talk to her?
Up is down and down is up. Al Qaeda and Islamofcism has been remarkable in its campaign to terrorize our world. And we have weenie man Corn sticking to his story.
Valerie Plame is a joke. This charade needs to go up in flames so our country can focus on the Real World-
I believed from the first that Corn exposed Plame’s “status”. If democrats did not have the jobs theyjave, they would be excellent criminals…well, maybe they are criminals in the jobs they have. Who knows? I have always though Corn is one of the most disengenous of the dems, which is saying a lot. But…top secret operations (another category for “deep undercover CIA employee ? Is this guy for real? Does this man think no one reads his columns? He was definitely part of this cabal to bring down another republican president. This is appalling at any time, but in wartime it is treasonous. When was the bar lowered? When was it decided these people should not be
punished? That said, Corn is an expert at parsing words. As for Fitzgerald, he had his own axe to grind?
And the left wing cabal doesn’t see that the MSM is biased. Makes one sick hearing Pelosi (“stretch”) talk about the party of corruption. There’s plenty of disappointment with the Reps record, but the Dems & their BDS-infected lefties are responsible for a wasteful, shameful and really dark epsiode. To think that, in a time of war, so-called public servants in State, CIA & Justice would go to such extreme measures to undermine POTUS (much bigger than just Plame-gate) and conspire with a too-willing media to take down key administration officials who are simply trying to implement & defend our country’s duly elected president’s policies, is really disturbing. Mr. Broder didn’t go far enough — Rove & Libby and the Bush administration deserve more than apologies. Fitzgerald, Corn, Armitage, the Times, the Post & others need to be held accountable, but don’t hold your breath.
I judge people on “superficial” aspects. I have a SERIOUS problem with people who do not have demonstrable physical issues, who cannot speak clearly.
David Corn spent at least 4 years learning his native language in university, and now speaks to me like I’m retarded, but he does so with a lazy eye, an unfocused look in his good eye, and a lazy, untrained lisp in his voice.
I already admitted that it was “superficial” however, let me say this? I make jack shit, I’m well read, but poorly trained, I inform myself, and I am a scientific neophyte at BEST, yet I actually understand the small science I’m informed of, yet let me finish with this, NEVER have I been as inaffectualy articulate, or inaccurate as David Corn, no matter how much booze I have imbibed.
I can still speak clearly, and I don’t trust people who do not have specific physical impediments who cannot speak clearly.
I don’t think that makes me a jerk, I think it makes people who spend 4 or more years studying their native language, but never learning how to speak it without twisting their tongue everytime they make the “th” sound, or the “s” sound, or who poke their tongue out everytime they make a broad “o” sound, arrogant lazy retards. Or do they WANT? to sound like that?