I've been patiently waiting for this story to break as it seems like the best (only?) hope of disrupting our beltway overlords. Next week Josh Marshall is going to post an interview with Joseph Wilson. If you don't know who he is you hopefully will soon. Here's the starter piece, but it gets way more interesting from there. After the Niger debacle described in the first piece, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was identified as an undercover CIA agent by "senior administration officials" to Robert Novak as reported in this article. Yes, she was outed by her own team! My understanding is that whether or not this was done to take some revenge on Wilson, the act of revealing a CIA agents identity is, shall we say, highly illegal. Like go to jail style illegal. And now Wilson himself is suggesting that the "senior official" in question is Karl Rove.
I am very much looking forward to this interview. I believe the press is dodging this story because it is just too incredibly hot. The pressure to keep the lid on this must be intense, as we are talking about the puppet master himself. But they won't be able to keep it quiet if people like Josh Marshall keep digging. This could be a very important story.
I've been wondering about this too. Didn't it cause a minor ripple in the mainstream media for like, one day this summer? Guess I'll read the articles.
did anything happen??
Not really. It's a two part interview. The first is up, but it doesn't cover the specific charge against Rove. And now people are saying (where did I see this? Calpundit?) that maybe Wilson is backing away from the Rove charge. The second part should be up soon. I'll post here when it is.
Part two is up. It's long. Interesting as background, but probably not a necessary read unless you're really into this stuff. The short version is that he can't really say anything directly about the interesting part (possible criminal activity by "senior white house officials") because if it is true then it would presently be under investigation and he wouldn't be able to comment on it. There are lots of hypotheticals in this interview. I guess it's wait and see.
The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman’s husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush’s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned.
do we have a hope that truth will be told??
Wow. The Washington Post has added a lot more meat to this story. Here's the Josh Marshall analysis of the Post piece. The key is that the Post has a "senior admistration official" who is supposedly fingering 2 senior "white house officials" as having made calls to "at least 6" reporters outing Valerie Plume as a CIA agent. "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak. Holy cow. I've always thought these guys were this bad, but to see it actually unfolding is amazing.
Here's Marshall's very early speculation that the leak could be George Tenet turning his guns on the White House. Hmmm. They did make a pretty big fool out of him in the run up to the war.
Is it possible for Ashcroft to just bury this? The CIA has passed it to Ashcroft's justice department which must now decide if the FBI should open a criminal investigation.
I thought this little bit, from an article about Rove that appeared in Esquire (January, 2003,) was very interesting: Sources close to the former president say Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted.
Just for thoroughness, here is:
NY Times article
CBS article
and the AP article.
All aboard! Next stop Ashcroft Junction.
I don't think Tenet is the "senior administration official."
Marshall reproduces this quote: It is rare for one Bush administration official to turn on another. Asked about the motive for describing the leaks, the senior official said the leaks were "wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility." but it's doubtful Tenet would phrase it that way. That sounds more like a Bush insider disagreeing over strategy.
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I am very much looking forward to this interview. I believe the press is dodging this story because it is just too incredibly hot. The pressure to keep the lid on this must be intense, as we are talking about the puppet master himself. But they won't be able to keep it quiet if people like Josh Marshall keep digging. This could be a very important story.
- jim 9-09-2003 3:57 pm
I've been wondering about this too. Didn't it cause a minor ripple in the mainstream media for like, one day this summer? Guess I'll read the articles.
- steve 9-09-2003 8:05 pm [add a comment]
did anything happen??
- Skinny 9-22-2003 4:24 am [add a comment]
Not really. It's a two part interview. The first is up, but it doesn't cover the specific charge against Rove. And now people are saying (where did I see this? Calpundit?) that maybe Wilson is backing away from the Rove charge. The second part should be up soon. I'll post here when it is.
- jim 9-22-2003 4:28 am [add a comment]
Part two is up. It's long. Interesting as background, but probably not a necessary read unless you're really into this stuff. The short version is that he can't really say anything directly about the interesting part (possible criminal activity by "senior white house officials") because if it is true then it would presently be under investigation and he wouldn't be able to comment on it. There are lots of hypotheticals in this interview. I guess it's wait and see.
- jim 9-23-2003 6:16 pm [add a comment]
- jim 9-27-2003 4:02 pm [add a comment]
do we have a hope that truth will be told??
- Skinny 9-27-2003 6:09 pm [add a comment]
Wow. The Washington Post has added a lot more meat to this story. Here's the Josh Marshall analysis of the Post piece. The key is that the Post has a "senior admistration official" who is supposedly fingering 2 senior "white house officials" as having made calls to "at least 6" reporters outing Valerie Plume as a CIA agent.
Holy cow. I've always thought these guys were this bad, but to see it actually unfolding is amazing.Here's Marshall's very early speculation that the leak could be George Tenet turning his guns on the White House. Hmmm. They did make a pretty big fool out of him in the run up to the war. Is it possible for Ashcroft to just bury this? The CIA has passed it to Ashcroft's justice department which must now decide if the FBI should open a criminal investigation.
- jim 9-28-2003 8:22 pm [add a comment]
I thought this little bit, from an article about Rove that appeared in Esquire (January, 2003,) was very interesting:
- jim 9-28-2003 9:29 pm [add a comment]
Just for thoroughness, here is:
NY Times article
CBS article
and the AP article.
All aboard! Next stop Ashcroft Junction.
- jim 9-28-2003 9:50 pm [add a comment]
I don't think Tenet is the "senior administration official."
but it's doubtful Tenet would phrase it that way. That sounds more like a Bush insider disagreeing over strategy.Marshall reproduces this quote:
- tom moody 9-28-2003 9:59 pm [add a comment]