Feb 12 2007
Fitzgerald’s Disaster: Wilson Outed Plame
Listening to the full Woodward tape of Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaking the news about Plame must be giving Fitzgerald nightmares. CNN has posted the full tape played at the trial and it is astounding. The part that got me was when Armitage said “His wife named him”, and Woodward asks, “Why doesn’t this get out?”. Then Armitage says, on June 13th 2003, basically what Andrea Mitchell would say months later when she was talking off the cuff on CNBC. Armitage laughingly says “Everyone knows”. In the words of Mitchell.
MURRAY And the second question is: Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA?
MITCHELL: It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn’t aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.
But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”. I predicted long ago, and again just prior to the trial, it would come out that Joe and Valerie were both sources for Kristof and others. Armitage is not saying ‘everyone knows’ who Joe Wilson is (though they did). He is saying “everyone knows” who Plamne is because Wilson was calling everybody and spilling the beans on his wife! It is quite clear what Armitage is saying, and what I am betting he will testify too.
I have maintained the reason Fitz could not charge anyone with exposing Plame was because Plame had exposed herself (or Wilson had) to back up Joe’s wild claims about forged evidence. Seems I was right. Clearly Armitage is saying everyone is finding out about Plame because of Joe’s calls. Now Mitchell and Russert must be sweating right along with Fitz-Magoo. I wonder if Wilson called more than Grossman. We know by Wilson’s own admission he was calling the State Department. Wonder if he got hold of Armitage? Did Wilson blab to Armitage?
Update: Make that pretty much a given that Armitage heard about Plame from Wilson (or Grossman). As we know Wilson called Grossman right before the Woodward meeting with Armitage (June 8-9th). So what Armitage is saying is only a few short days after these calls and he confirms HE KNOWS it was Wilson blabbing about Plame. Now with a transcript we can see Armitage admits personal knowledge (H/T Atlas Shrugs):
1:15 ARMITAGE: [ ] Scowcroft is looking into
1:16 the yellowcake thing.
1:17 WOODWARD: Oh yeah?
1:18 ARMITAGE: As the PFIAB
1:19 WOODWARD: Yeah. What happened there?
1:20 ARMITAGE: They’re back together. [coughs] They
1:21 knew with yellowcake, the CIA is not going to be hurt by this
1:22 one—
1:23 WOODWARD: I know, that’s—
1:24 ARMITAGE: — Hadley and Bob Joseph know. It’s
1:25 documented. We’ve got our documents on it. We’re clean as a
2 3:2 2:1 Woodward & Amitage Interview –
2:1 [ ] whistle. And George personally got it out of the Cincinatti speech of the president.
2:3 WOODWARD: Oh he did?
2:4 ARMITAGE: Oh yeah.
2:5 WOODWARD: Oh really?
2:6 ARMITAGE: Yeah.
2:7 WOODWARD: It was taken out?
2:8 ARMITAGE: Taken out. George said you can’t
2:9 do this.
2:10 WOODWARD: How come it wasn’t taken out of the State
2:11 of the Union then?
2:12 ARMITAGE: Because I think it was overruled by
2:13 the types down at the White House. Condi doesn’t like being
2:14 in the hot spot. But she —
2:15 WOODWARD: But it was Joe Wilson who was sent by
2:16 the agency. I mean that’s just —
2:17 ARMITAGE: His wife works in the agency.
2:18 WOODWARD: — Why doesn’t that come out? Why does —
2:19 ARMITAGE: Everyone knows it.
2:20 WOODWARD: —that have to be a big secret?
2:21 Everyone knows.
2:22 ARMITAGE: Yeah. And I know [ ] Joe Wilson’s
2:23 been calling everybody. He’s pissed off because he was
2:24 designated as a low-level guy, went out to look at it. So,
2:25 he’s all pissed off.
3:1 WOODWARD: But why would they send him?
3:2 ARMITAGE: Because his wife’s a [ ]
3 3:23 3:2 Woodward & Amitage Interview –
That about nails it. Wonder when this will hit JOM?
Gee, where is SOOTH? Cat got his tongue?
Fitzmas is dying rapidly
Carol
For too long the CIA as head of the intel world played black budget blackmail with agencies of other ilk. When that was the way they were in a counter war with the State Department of which form of the left was right.
The making of DHS hit the CIA in the purse strings as much as ripping out their appendix with the benefit of even using local anesthesia.
Some would argue this is a worthy cause.
Typo alert that should be” without the benefit” in the post above. My bad.
Wilson Outed Plame…
The Strata-Sphere in following the Libby Trial closely has confirmed what I said, here, over a year ago:
Fitzg……
Hey Steve – Maybe AJ finally banned his IP address?
Steve? Nope, no banning of Steve.
This whole trial has brought out more than Joe Wilson’s war on the President. Look at the constraints the judge in this trial has put on the Libby defense team. I had no idea the judge or the prosecutor could refuse to allow defense to call pertinent witnesses to the stand. Or for the prosecutor to object and be sustained on just about every question the defense asks. It seems the judge is bending over backwards to be fair to the prosecution. I thought the judge was there to see that the defendant got a fair trial. As I said on JOM the judge is looking at the law much more than at justice. And he is talking to people (maybe some with an ax to grind) at night. I would not be surprised if he was influenced by big names to rescind his ruling about letting Mitchell testify. That smells. He needs to be sequestered more than a jury. Already Libby has many, many grounds for an appeal if convicted. But what happens if the jury is hung. Will there be a new trial? This whole thing is a travesty of justice and Libby should have never been charged. When Fitzgerald found that Armitage was the leaker and much ealier than even he thought, the case was over. He went on a fishing trip to bolster Wilson allegations and supported this Bush Lied meme.
[…] The Strata-Sphere in following the Libby Trial closely has confirmed what I said, here, over a year ago: Fitzgerald’s Disaster: Wilson Outed Plame […]