Mac over at Mac’s Mind has an intriguing post out on the Plame End Game and hints he may know the person who ran into Novak and was a friend of Wilson’s. At the end he cryptically refers to LCJ.

Well, one not to take this lying down I beleiev LCJ is Larry C Johnson: ex-CIA cohort of Plame and very vocal anti-Bush critic.

Larry Johnson always brags about his closeness to Plame:

Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover–in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover.

More interestingly is the apparent call by Johnson in 12/03 to an anonymous reporter to come clean with American people on the Plame issue. The description of that reporter is very interesting two years later and with a lot of hindsight:

LARRY JOHNSON: The reporters who did not file a story and promised, or given assurance to these individuals that they would be protected, they need to come forward. To hear Bob Novak parsing words like a Clinton lawyer defining sex is outrageous. Sure, they didn’t call him, he called them but they volunteered the information. They took the initiative to divulge the CIA officer’s name. And that is outrageous.

The only reporter who did not file a story we know of is Judith Miller. Johnson is pretty clear she ratted on Plame to Novak. But how would he know she knew – unless he told Miller and then learned Miller tipped Novak. This would make Johnson angry if he and his cohorts felt they had taken advantage of. And Johnson can dead pan lie with the best of them

LARRY JOHNSON: I say this as a registered Republican.

Yeah, he is a stalwart all right!

Publishing her name in that story added nothing to it.

Yeah, cronyism is not important to the story.

But to the point, Larry Johnson admits in this sworn Senate Statement he has been in touch with current CIA employees discussing Valerie Plame – possibly to assist reporters in their stories

To the contrary, those we have talked to have endorsed what those of us who have left the CIA are doing to defend her reputation and honor.

Who is ‘we’? And more possible falsehoods under oath:

Another false claim is that Valerie sent her husband on the mission to Niger.

Clintonesque parsing at its best I suspect.

What the Senate Intelligence Committee does not include in the report is the fact that Valerie’s boss had asked her to write a memo outlining her husband’s qualifications for the job. She did what any good employee does: she gave her boss what he asked for.
The decision to send Joe Wilson on the mission to Niger was made by Valerie’s bosses.

LOL! What a crock. If Valerie proposed her husband to her boss, his response is going to be ‘submit his qualifications so we can authorize it’.

Nice try Larry.

She did not have the authority to sign travel vouchers, issue travel orders, or expend one dime of U.S. taxpayer dollars on her own.

Few do, they need signatures from managers, accounting and contracts. The question is did she use a budget pool under her discretion.

When Joe went public with his information, which had been corroborated by the CIA in April 2003, the response from the White House was to call him a liar and spread the name of his wife around.

Anybody have a record on this CIA corroboration to Wilson?

Anyway, to rely on someone who could be involved to his eyebrows in this, and someone who needs the focus to be on the WH to avoid problems, it is hard to believe we can trust everything he says at face value.

More later if time permits.