Patterico's Pontifications

5/27/2014

L.A. Times: Leaker of Valerie Plame Identity Was Richard Armitage Scooter Libby

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:16 am



The L.A. Times tells us:

The CIA’s top official in Kabul has been publicly identified by the White House in an email accidentally circulated to thousands of journalists as part of President Obama’s surprise Memorial Day weekend trip to Afghanistan.

Whoops! Oh well. These things happen, as the Times reminds us:

In 2003, another CIA operative, Valerie Plame, was publicly identified by I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a top aide to Vice President Cheney, in an apparent attempt to discredit her husband, who had publicly raised questions about the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq.

Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, but his sentence was commuted by President Bush.

Wait . . . what?!

I could have sworn the leaker was a fella named Richard Armitage.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said yesterday that he believes he was the initial source for a 2003 newspaper column by Robert D. Novak that disclosed the CIA’s previously secret employment of Valerie Plame, the wife of a prominent critic of the U.S. war in Iraq.

That’s from 2006. This has been known for, what? 7 1/2 years?

Um, L.A. Times?

Thanks to G.H.

UPDATE: Another day, another correction. The linked article now begins as follows:

FOR THE RECORD

CIA name disclosure: An article in the May 27 Section A stated that former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby disclosed that former intelligence official Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Former State Department official Richard Armitage said he was the first to disclose that Plame worked for the agency.

Kudos to G.H. for catching this.

189 Responses to “L.A. Times: Leaker of Valerie Plame Identity Was Richard Armitage Scooter Libby”

  1. When history is recast, you will read about it in the LA Times.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  2. I thought it was the Koch brothers.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. Anybody who reads the LA Times looking for facts needs to turn to the cooking section and then read with care.

    Mike K (cd7278)

  4. You underestimate the subtlety of LAT propaganda.

    They didn’t say that Libby outed Plame, which would be parallel to what Obama did and would be the obvious implication of what they wrote. They only said that Plame was “publicly identified” by Libby. Did you get that? Publicly identified.

    Don’t read these things expecting explicit lies. What’s the point, what’s the fun, in printing those? No – what they print is merely misleading, in a way that is calculated to be read only as a lie but technically isn’t word-for-word a lie.

    The truth is like putty in their hands. And they are laughing at you.

    Amphipolis (d3e04f)

  5. Plame was never “publicly identified” until witch hunters in the establishment media and the Democrat Party started calling for Scooter Libby’s scalp for the imaginary crime of “outing a covert CIA agent” who had actually been outed a decade earlier by convicted CIA counter-intelligence turn-coat Aldrich Ames.

    Novak’s source was confidential, not public. And, the real leaker, Armitage, kept silent for years and declined to come forward even when Libby was driven from office in disgrace.

    ropelight (dfc178)

  6. Back @ ropelight.

    Well, Richard Armitage kept silent for years because (as the WaPost finally revealed years later):

    “The confirmation of Armitage’s role has provoked criticism of both him and the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who learned of it shortly after his appointment in 2003. Some have questioned why Armitage waited so long to speak up about it, and why Fitzgerald spent two years appearing to chase a question that had already been answered.

    Armitage said yesterday that he did not disclose his role before now because Fitzgerald had asked him not to. But word of his role eventually began to circulate, and on Tuesday, Armitage said, he asked Fitzgerald to be freed of that promise. Fitzgerald agreed.”

    End excerpt.

    G.H. (759bcd)

  7. Scooter Libby told Judith Miller of the New York Times that Joe Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA, but she never published this. This was NOT as any form of retaliation against Joe Wilson, who, by the way, was NOT telling the truth about having reported the claim he was sent to investigate was unfounded.

    The story that this was retaliation was spread in order to further muddy the waters. This was told by Scooter Libby to Judith Miller as the explanation, that had come from the CIA as to why Joe wilson was picked. It was a lie, but it was not a lie invented by any political appointee in the Bush adminsitraation.

    Sometimes, when this is discussed, they like to point out it was a lie, and that Valerie Plame in fact had nothing to do with [icking her husband, somethjing a lot of people on the right think is a lie and that she did. Which gets things all wrong.

    This claim that she was responsible for picking him being a lie, means that there was something very deeply dishonest about sending him there.

    And we have to get back to what this whole thing was about. He was sent there to come back with an ambiguous report.

    This was occasioned by Vice President Richard Cheney trying to double check a claim made by the CIA that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake (uranium ore) from Niger.

    Instead of re-examining their evidence, which was based on a forgery – they sent Joe Wilson to Niger to report on the question of whether or not Niger could in fact have actually sold yellowcake to Iraq.

    He reported, as everyone knew, that this was under strict controls, and this couldn’t be done without it being known (or the controls removed it goes without saying)

    Joe Wilson did not write a written report. The CIA was too areful to let that happen. The CIA then reported to Cheney that Joe Wilson could neither confirm or rebut the claim that Iraq had tried or wanted to to buy yellowcake from Niger.

    This claim, by tehe way, made the case against Saddam Hussein weaker rathe rthan stronger because it would mean that his nuclear program was back to Square One and that he didn’t even have access to his previously enriched uranium. Of course it was sort of like touted to President Bush alittle bit like it indicated the opposite – but nobody had ever dooubted that Saddam Hussein was interested in nuclear weapons.

    Now when Scooter Libby asked, upon he request of Judith Miller, why Joe wilson was picked, this answer got around to many people in the national security part of the federal government with access to classified information.

    The “Joe Wilson was picked because of his wife Valerie Plame” was leaked by Richard Armioitage to Bob Novak and he published it. By the way, Joe wilson did not keep the fact that his wife worked for the CIA such a big secret, and she was only technically covered, if she still was, by the law against revealing CIA agents under cover. Her cover was regarded as being probably blown years before, and she was removed from covert activity.

    When the fact that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent was made public, Democrats made a big complaint about it (conveniently ignoring in what context this was made public, and claiming this was “retaliation” against the honest Joe Wilson, who had published anew York Times Op-ed piece claiming he had rbutted a claim that Bush later made and that Cheney must have told wat his report was and I think e said aomething else too later) President George w. Bush appointed a special prosecutor and told everyone to co-operate, and that anyone who took the 5th amendment would be fired.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  8. There is no news in Pravda, and no truth in Izvestia.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  9. They aren’t the only ones. From The Washington Post:

    The disclosure marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover — the secrecy meant to protect his actual identity — pierced by his own government. The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed as officials of the George W. Bush administration sought to discredit her husband, a former ambassador and fierce critic of the decision to invade Iraq.

    Even the editors of the Post concluded that “the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame’s CIA career is Mr. (Joseph) Wilson,” her husband.

    The Dana who remembers that far back. (3e4784)

  10. The LA Times: Predicting The Past

    Correct me if I’m wrong here but wasn’t Valerie Plame already known and only a possible future candidate for being a CIA operative when Scooter identified her?

    CrustyB (69f730)

  11. Even Wikipedia has this right.

    “Novak had learned of Plame’s employment, which was classified information, from State Department official Richard Armitage.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  12. Novak wrote about this extensively in his book, “Prince of Darkness”, which was a damned good read.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  13. It should be pointed out that Wilson’s op-ed, (falsely) claiming he had reported Saddam was NOT trying to buy yellowcake, wasn’t published until after the Iraq invasion failed to produce WMDs.

    A cynical person would think he was trying to cover his ass. In fact his report had said that Iraq WAS seeking yellowcake and it bolstered the case for war.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  14. To hear Novak tell it, Joe Wilson was a mendacious weasel.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  15. The Wapo is at least reporting it, and putting it on the home page, above the fold. The NY Times has yet to mention it, so far.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  16. The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses. — Vladimir Lenin

    A lie told often enough becomes the truth. — Also Ilyich

    nk (dbc370)

  17. Sipping on sweet tea, and discussing cake…

    carlitos (e7c734)

  18. CNN gets it right, but not specifically:

    the Bush administration infamously leaked the name of former CIA officer Valerie Plame to a journalist in 2003.

    carlitos (e7c734)

  19. Tsar Nicholas the Bloody, who has dispersed the First and Second Dumas, who has drowned Russia in blood, enslaved Poland and Finland, and is in alliance with out — and-out reactionaries conducting a policy of stifling the Jews and all “aliens”, the tsar whose loyal friends shot down the workers on the Lena and ruined the peasants to the point of starvation all over Russia …. BUSH!

    nk (dbc370)

  20. Surprisingly, you miss the point every single time,
    Armitage was upset that Plame was interfering with
    INR’s operations, hence he commented to Woodward, and Miller, and others, re the tell tale memo

    narciso (3fec35)

  21. I would suggest flooding the reporter
    Paul Richter paul.richter@latimes.com with the correct information

    Peterk (c985d4)

  22. The AP did a similar job misleading readers (not news – I know). The AP included a sentence stating that intentional disclosure of a covert operative is a federal crime. It went on to state that the last time this happened a Bush administration official outed Valerie Plame in order to discredit her husband. The very next sentence says that Cheney’s top aide Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction leading the careless reader to presume that Darth Cheney’s aide had outed Plame and wrangled a plea deal. Richard Armitage’s name does not appear once in the article – let alone that the fact he was the leaker.

    As I recall Valerie Plame had long since taken up a non-covert role at the CIA, and therefore was not at risk or covered by the law.

    in_awe (7c859a)

  23. Comment by Kevin M (b357ee) — 5/27/2014 @ 8:50 am

    In fact his report had said that Iraq WAS seeking yellowcake and it bolstered the case for war

    There are three inaccuracies here:

    1) There never was any written “report”

    2) He didn’t say that Iraq was seeking yellowcake.
    That came from forgeries in Italy. He said that Iraq could not have successfully bought any, given the controls over yellowcake.

    3) It actually would have weakened the case for war if it were true. Because Saddam Hussein seeking yellowcake – and not getting any – would mean…he didn’t have any enriched uranium any more! And he didn’t even have the raw material to start over.

    That’s why Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency probably forged them.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  24. Comment by carlitos (e7c734) — 5/27/2014 @ 9:13 am

    the Bush administration infamously leaked the name of former CIA officer Valerie Plame to a journalist in 2003.

    That’s not true, actually. Judith Miller had her name in her notes as “Flame” and later added [sic] there.

    And she did not beleive that she had (first?) heard that name from Scooter Libby, but had only heard from him “Joe Wilson’s wife”

    She didn’t remember later where she’d actually heard the name from first. She did think it was before Bob Novak published it (after all, she had the name down as Flame.)

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  25. “And we have to get back to what this whole thing was about. He was sent there to come back with an ambiguous report.”

    Sammy – Seriously? His written orders were to come back with an ambiguous report? Do you have any sourcing for this claim or is it another after the fact Sammy Supposition?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  26. 26.“And we have to get back to what this whole thing was about. He was sent there to come back with an ambiguous report.”

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/27/2014 @ 9:34 am

    Sammy – Seriously? His written orders were to come back with an ambiguous report?

    I don’t think he got any kind of written orders. He wasn’t officially working for the CIA (buut the CIA may have paid for his trip)

    Do you have any sourcing for this claim or is it another after the fact Sammy Supposition?

    A Sammy Supposition, of course. The sourcing is the whole story. Do you think there is anything else that could explain the entire sequence of events, and the fact that there was this giant squirrel that everybody was given to chase?

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  27. Now we can go further and ask why this was going on. I think the CIA wanted to generate (dubious, but somewhat convincing) cause for invading Iraq.

    Then also remember the National intelligence estimate of 2007 about Iraq.

    What’s the common thread?

    I think the aim was to limit U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, and if they couldn’t prevent it, target it at a place that wouldn’t bother the Gulf states, which did not want to be next.

    They also did not want to see the creation of an Arab democracy. So started the insurgency. It wasn’t just Syria and Iran, and Al Qaeda in Pakistan, and certainly wasn’t organic.

    Trhe CIA’s policy has been consistent – the moles are still in charge – and they provided false information about the causes of Benghazi, and they got rid of a CIA director who might have shaken things up and interfered with them. (Jill Kelly who started the investigation that eventually revealed Petraeus affair – started it with probably emails that she knew Paula Broderick didn’t send but her co-conspirators did was friendly with Arab diplomats.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  28. “Do you think there is anything else that could explain the entire sequence of events, and the fact that there was this giant squirrel that everybody was given to chase?”

    Sammy – Yes. Hussein had been lying to weapons inspectors for a decade after the First Gulf War. There had been no proof he had destroyed his stock of WMD and rumors were out that he intended to restart his nuclear program. Wilson was dispatched to Niger in early 2002 to check on those rumors. He spoke with the former PM of Niger who told him of a visit of an Iraqi delegation in 1999 seeking to buy yellowcake.

    The British subsequently found additional evidence, some of which may or may not been forged.

    Wilson lied about what he found when he came public after the invasion. Your focus on whether there was a written report is irrelevant and a red herring as is that it would be difficult to get the uranium to Iraq because of controls. The question was whether Hussein was trying to restart his nuclear program and the answer was yes.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  29. 21. Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 5/27/2014 @ 9:22 am

    Surprisingly, you miss the point every single time, Armitage was upset that Plame was interfering with INR’s operations, hence he commented to Woodward, and Miller, and others, re the tell tale memo

    I need some links.

    One point: the only Armitage “knew” (it was a false story) that Valerie Plame was the reason Joe Wilson had been sent to Niger, and that Joe wiklson’s wife worked at the CIA, was because of Scooter Libby.

    He had, no doubt at Judith Miller’s instigation, – that would explain why it was so important to him to keep her name secret – because if Judith Miller had asked him not for information he already had but information he did not have and maybe asked him to find out (!) that would be maybe stepping close to espionage.

    He had asked the CIA who picked him. This was intended to get at why he was chosen. The story the CIA came back with – that his wife nominated him – was a lie.

    The CIA told this story around the government and that’s how Richard Armitage found out in the first place. scooter Libbym, very probably, and very probably at the instigation of Judith Miller, had been the first to ask the question: Who picked Joe Wilson for this job?

    The CIA tossed a giant squirrel into this whole thing later.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  30. Now I think Saudi intelligence (or maybe Qatar)
    plotted the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens.

    Aand provided some SOOPER SEKRIT INTELLIGENCE to back up the video story, and then later in the week of Sept 11, 2012 organized demonstrations in as many countriues as they could that were definitely about the video, to sort of retroactively prove the Benghazi assault was caused by a video..

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  31. “A Sammy Supposition, of course. The sourcing is the whole story.”

    Sammy – What is the purpose in your source’s mind of asking Joe Wilson to produce an ambiguous report about the Niger yellowcake? Who does that help? Who does that hurt?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  32. Covert agent my azz, she was a Langley paperweight.

    Married to soiled azzwipe Joe ‘Goatraper’ Wilson.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  33. They aren’t the only ones. From The Washington Post:

    No, the WaPo carefully doesn’t say that Bush officials exposed her, let alone name them. “Valerie Plame was exposed as officials of the George W. Bush administration sought to discredit her husband”. That’s certainly true. Libby and Rove were seeking, correctly, to discredit Wilson. And along the way the fact that Plame had a job at the CIA was exposed.

    In that sentence WaPo sticks to the facts to create a false impression. The lie is in the previous sentence. Plame was not “a CIA officer working overseas [who] had h[er] cover — the secrecy meant to protect h[er] actual identity — pierced by h[er] own government.”

    Milhouse (b95258)

  34. Was that the same covert operative that was on the cover of Vanity Fair?

    Gazzer (554004)

  35. So, if we focus on current events, someone in the Obama White House, as yet unidentified, committed a felony by revealing the name of the CIA’s Chief of Station in Afghanistan while agency officers, their local associates, and US forces are in the field and facing merciless terrorists.

    WH corespondents at today’s press conference should ask Jay Carney who did it.

    ropelight (dfc178)

  36. “WH corespondents at today’s press conference should ask Jay Carney who did it.”

    ropelight – Heh! He would refer them to Afghanistan.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  37. 33.“A Sammy Supposition, of course. The sourcing is the whole story.”

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/27/2014 @ 10:06 am

    Sammy – What is the purpose in your source’s mind of asking Joe Wilson to produce an ambiguous report about the Niger yellowcake? Who does that help? Who does that hurt?

    The purpose is not to answer Vice President’s Cheney’s question as to whether the report that Saddam Hussein wanted to buy yellowcake from Niger was accurate.

    This helps, first of all, the CIA officials who endorsed the original report. They don’t have to retract. Neither do they put themselves and their careers more at risk by re-affirming it.

    It also helps anyone who wanted George Bush to rely specifically on faulty evidence that could be exposed later.

    Giving him bad evidence about Iraq also helps other countries in the Middle East, because it focuses W’s attention there. And if he goes ahead, and it turns out he is wrong later, it helps them then because then it will not be so easy for George Bush to invade a third country.

    (Since George Bush seemed to want to do more, focusing his attention on Iraq, helped other dictatorships in the Middle East.)

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  38. 37. I don’t think it’s a felony if you do it inadvertantly. You could have a question if this is actually a plot on somebody’s part, maybe to get somebody out of the country.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  39. The yellowcake from Africa story in one way strengthened the case against Saddam Hussein

    He hasn’t given up! He’s still interested in building a nuclear bomb! Maybe somewhere he succeeded in getting some yellowcake!

    and in another, more thoughtful way, weakened it:

    He’s back to the beginning! He’s getting no place! It’ll take him more than ten years after sanctions are lifted to get a nuclear bomb!

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  40. “Do you think there is anything else that could explain the entire sequence of events, and the fact that there was this giant squirrel that everybody was given to chase?”

    Actually, I can. Here are my suppositions. I have no evidence for any of this, but it explains a lot of details that other explanations don’t.

    Let’s suppose Valerie Plame’s boring analyst job at the CIA was only a cover for her real job, which really was running a super-secret spy ring in Iran. Let’s suppose she regularly did slip off overseas to meet her contacts, and had done so within five years of Novak’s report, and in fact within months or weeks of it. But this was a well-kept secret.

    When Cheney’s people asked the CIA who the hell Wilson was, and why he had been sent to Niger, the CIA answered that his wife, who worked there, had got him the junket. This was not accompanied by any sort of warning not to tell anyone that the wife worked at the CIA, so nobody at the White House knew that it was meant to be secret. Libby told it to Miller, and Rove told it to some reporters, not at all suspecting that they were endangering anything or anybody.

    (The reason it was relevant at all was because Nick Kristoff had claimed that Wilson had been Cheney’s hand-picked envoy, and that just wasn’t true. Nobody in Cheney’s office had even heard of Wilson until he went public with his claims. So they had to discredit this claim, by telling the truth as they knew it about how he came to be sent.)

    Armitage didn’t tell this to Novak, because he didn’t know. All he told Novak was that Mrs Wilson worked at the CIA. And that’s all Novak knew, and all he wrote.

    Novak checked his story with the CIA’s PR office, and that was the point at which the CIA should have warned him off publishing this fact, because it would draw unwanted attention to her. But they didn’t know that, so they only put up the pro-forma resistance that they put up to any identification of CIA employees, right down to janitors. Novak took that as a de facto green light to publish.

    As I say, nobody who shouldn’t have know about Plame’s real job knew about it. But Wilson knew, as he had to. And when he read Novak’s story, he panicked. All Novak wrote was that Mrs Wilson was a CIA “operative”. He was simply using a fancy word for “employee”. But Wilson, knowing the truth, took it to mean “secret agent”, and assumed that someone deep inside must have told Novak all about it, and had thus endangered her and him and their entire family. So he went running to David Corn to complain about this malicious act of retribution, as he saw it, and Corn told the whole world. And now Plame’s cover really was blown.

    This explains why the CIA demanded the Fitzgerald inquiry, but also why it refused to confirm or deny that she was covert, or that she had been overseas. It was still secret, and they were trying to salvage whatever was still salvageable.

    This was not the only time Wilson made unwarranted assumptions, and jumped to exaggerated conclusions, thus causing trouble.

    How did he come to tell Kristoff in the first place that Cheney had sent him? Well, he didn’t, really. What he said was that he had been sent at Cheney’s “behest”. Everyone assumed this meant Cheney had picked him, but as we now know all it means is that Cheney asked the CIA to look into the Niger story, and the CIA decided the best way to do that was to send Wilson to Niger. We also know that the CIA never told Cheney or anyone in his office that someone had been sent, just that they were looking into the story.

    But Wilson wasn’t in on this loop. He was told that the VP wanted to know about Niger, so he should go. He assumed that Cheney had asked for someone to be sent, and therefore that his report would be passed back verbatim to Cheney’s people. So when Cheney denied that he had had anyone sent anywhere, he assumed it was a lie, and went public to challenge it.

    On top of that, Wilson and a lot of other people who should have known better ignored the difference between “sought” and “bought”. Wilson had been sent to Niger to find out whether Iraq had bought any uranium there He reported that they’d tried but failed, and any report that they’d succeeded was wrong. The CIA correctly reported this to the White House.

    But Bush wasn’t all that interested in whether the attempt had been successful. What mattered at the time was that it had been made. This proved that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program running, which it had no right to have, and there was no way to know how far along it was. So in his famous “16 words” he truthfully said that Iraq had “sought” uranium in Africa. Wilson, focused on what he had been sent to find out, heard “bought“, and went apeshit. After all, he had personally reported to Cheney…well, to Cheney’s office…well, to the CIA who had surely passed it on to Cheney’s office, that Iraq had not bought uranium in Niger. (He also ignored the possibilities that 1. Iraq had bought uranium elsewhere in Africa, or 2. that he had been misled and Iraq really had bought some in Niger.)

    My conclusion is that Wilson is an idiot who created that whole mess because he’s incapable of hearing what is being said, and instead hears what he thinks the person must surely mean.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  41. Saddam was not trying to buy yellowcake? Apparently, he not only tried but succeeded, though I don’t know whether his source was Niger or some other country. This NBC/AP story from 6 years ago begins:

    “The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

    “The removal of 550 metric tons of ‘yellowcake’ — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy.”

    That was the first result when I Binged ‘yellowcake found Iraq’. Am I the only one who remembers reading that at the time, or are others pretending not to remember?

    Dr. Weevil (0fbc62)

  42. No you’re right Beldar, and the Parliament report,
    into the matter, affirmed the African source for the yellowcake, might have been Niger, which had supplied Libya’s nuclear program, or the Congo, or
    some third country,

    narciso (3fec35)

  43. He’s back to the beginning! He’s getting no place! It’ll take him more than ten years after sanctions are lifted to get a nuclear bomb!

    Sammy – That argument works only if you believe sanctions can’t be circumvented, sort of like the people who believe the weapons inspections and Iranian nuclear inspections have been effective.

    Reminds me of a P.T. Barnum saying. It’s on the tip of my tongue……

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  44. There are three inaccuracies here:

    If you say so, Sammy. The Senate Committee says differently. And, sourced, from Wikipedia:

    After the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Joseph C. Wilson wrote a series of op-eds questioning the war’s factual basis (See “Bibliography” in The Politics of Truth). In one of these op-eds published in the New York Times on July 6, 2003, Wilson argues that, in the State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush misrepresented intelligence leading up to the invasion and thus misleadingly suggested that the Iraqi regime sought uranium to manufacture nuclear weapons.[8]

    The Iraq Intelligence Commission and the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at various times concluded that Wilson’s claims were incorrect. The Senate report stated that Wilson’s report actually bolstered, rather than debunked, intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq.[5][6] Wilson later took strong exception to these conclusions in his 2004 memoir The Politics of Truth. The State Department also remained highly skeptical about the Niger claim.[5]

    Former CIA Director George Tenet said “[while President Bush] had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound”, because “[f]rom what we know now, Agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct – i.e. that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa,” nevertheless “[t]hese 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President.”[9] With regard to Wilson’s findings, Tenet stated: “Because this report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not brief it to the President, Vice-President or other senior Administration officials.”[9]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair#.22What_I_Didn.27t_Find_In_Africa.22
    5. Susan Schmidt (July 10, 2004). “Plame’s Input Is Cited on Niger Mission”. The Washington Post.
    6. “Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence (PDF)” (PDF). July 9, 2004. pp. 39–46, 208–222.
    8. Joseph C. Wilson 4th, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa”, The New York Times, July 6, 2003. Retrieved June 10, 2007.
    9. “Statement by George J. Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence”. Retrieved 2003-07-11.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  45. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701888_2.html

    The letter to Grossman discussed the reasons the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) did not believe the intelligence, which originated from foreign sources, was accurate. It had a paragraph near the beginning, marked “(S),” meaning it was classified secret, describing a meeting at the CIA in February 2002, attended by another INR analyst, where Plame introduced her husband as the person who was to go to Niger.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  46. He said that Iraq could not have successfully bought any, given the controls over yellowcake.

    In Niger. Right. Ten crisp Benjamins and those “controls” are forgotten.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  47. I need some links.

    Don’t we all. You first.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  48. So, right after the Iraq invasion failed to produce WMDs and Democrat senators who voted for the war are desperately trying to walk back their votes, this Wilson guy comes out with an op-ed that implies that Bush knew all along and that Wilson had told him so. How fortuitous for those backpedaling Senators.

    Doubly fortuitous since it was a bald-faced lie. And it would have been exposed as a lie had not Armitage (a war opponent) planted a SQUIRREL by outing Plame and getting it blamed on Cheney for several years. Yet another lucky coincidence for the Dems.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  49. “In Niger. Right. Ten crisp Benjamins and those “controls” are forgotten.”

    Kevin M – Plus, HE DID NOT PRODUCE A WRITTEN REPORT or so some claim. OMIGAWD!!!!!!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  50. Pakistan – We Take Nuclear Nonproliferation Seriously!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  51. He’s back to the beginning! He’s getting no place! It’ll take him more than ten years after sanctions are lifted to get a nuclear bomb!

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/27/2014 @ 11:49 am

    Sammy – That argument works only if you believe sanctions can’t be circumvented, sort of like the people who believe the weapons inspections and Iranian nuclear inspections have been effective.

    No, that’s the argument for what happens if they are circumvented or abolished – if he’s got to start over from scratch, and the only sanctions that remain are those that are on every country. (i.e. not buying enriched uranium or a ready-built complete nuclear bomb.)

    If the sanctions are maintained and not circumvented, it would take him, not ten years or so, but forever!

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  52. You were correct Beldar;

    http://www.bloggernews.net/116579

    seeing how the OFF program, yielded a whole series of palaces, and sinecures on three continents, it’s not out of the questions, that a similar effort could yield valuable results

    narciso (3fec35)

  53. 42. Comment by Dr. Weevil (0fbc62) — 5/27/2014 @ 11:32 am

    Saddam was not trying to buy yellowcake? Apparently, he not only tried but succeeded,

    When when, when, did he get that yellowcake??

    You notice that particular article doesn’t say where it came from.

    I think he had had that yellowcake since the 1980s.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/world/africa/07iht-iraq.4.14301928.html?_r=0

    The yellowcake removed from Iraq – which was not the same yellowcake that President George W. Bush claimed, in a now discredited section of his 2003 State of the Union address, that Saddam was trying to purchase in Africa – could be used in an early stage of the nuclear fuel cycle

    though I don’t know whether his source was Niger or some other country.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/18/world/mideast-tensions-iraq-could-have-atomic-arsenal-by-2000-intelligence-experts-say.html

    Iraq already possesses substantial stocks of crude uranium. Most of it is imported, but some reports say Iraq is also trying to exploit deposits of low-grade uranium ore in the far northwestern part of the country.

    According to a study by Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Iraq bought some 250 tons of a uranium-bearing mixture called yellowcake in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s from Brazil, Portugal and Niger.

    Saddam Hussein had no shortage of yellowcake.

    But he wanted the United States to think he did.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  54. 48. The uranium in Niger was actually under the control of the French.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  55. “If the sanctions are maintained and not circumvented, it would take him, not ten years or so, but forever!”

    Sammy – How do we know what capability he had in country for enrichment? He was lying to inspectors just like Iran.

    All you are doing is layering assumption onto assumption and compounding potential irrelevancies. It is what you do to avoid simple yes or no questions.

    Why you do it a mystery to me.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  56. One comment at that bloggernews.net post says that that stock of uranium was all declared to the IAEA and has been a matter of public record since before the first Gulf War, and was also under IAEA seal, and was subject to IAEA safeguards inspections EVEN DURING THE PERIOD that Saddam did not allow UNSCOM and IAEA inspectors to go to other sites.
    ———————————-

    I suppose you could say, maybe they found more there than there was supposed to be, and even if that were true it still wouldn’t mean he’d bought any after 1991.

    Another commentator quotes an LA Times story (no date or title given, some someone with access to the LA Times archives will have to search for the article) as saying:

    U.N. inspectors had documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Persian Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the senior U.S. official said.”

    Now maybe nobody wanted to say it was later, but it would ave been very hard for Saddam Hussein to smuggle it in after 1991, nor would he have had much of a reason to add to his stockpile.

    Another commentator writes:

    Fact is, after Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981, it was placed in storage and has been there ever since. The UN inspected it after the 1991 Gulf War.

    He said yellowcake is not very radioactive, and is only a little more radioactive than granite, but because it is a powder, it can be inhaled, and that’s the hazard.

    Another commentator quotes someone as saying:

    Iraq already had far more uranium than it needed for any conceivable nuclear weapons programme. … Nuclear weapons are difficult and expensive to build not because uranium is scarce, but because it is difficult and expensive to enrich U235 from 0.7 per cent to the 90 per cent needed for a bomb. Enrichment plants are large, use a lot of electricity and are almost impossible to conceal. Neither British security services nor the CIA seriously thought Iraq had a functioning enrichment plant that would have justified all the noise about nuclear weapons we heard before the war.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  57. Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/27/2014 @ 12:26 pm How do we know what capability he had in country for enrichment? He was lying to inspectors just like Iran.

    Well, we know now for a fact there were no such enrichment facilities operating.

    saddam Hussein was afraod to start anything for fear that as soon as it got going and got detected, it would be bombed. We had a no-fly zone and we regularly bombed Iraq. (this would work with Iran, too. Why are we limited to only one bombing raid??)

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  58. 50. The SQUIRREL was to avoid answering the question as to what was the whole purpose of the trip by Joe Wilson, and who selected him, because in fact, it was NOT Valerie Plame, and why he was selected, and to do what, and why there was not an honest review of the intelligence that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake from Niger, and instead this nonsense was done, and how such faulty intelligence from the CIA became part of the official U.S. government position.

    The SQUIRREL sidelined that whole line of investigation.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  59. colin powell

    what a coward

    he just sat there like a whore

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  60. I thought her cover at the CIA was as an interior designer, though she actually worked as an analyst. Obviously the CIA wasn’t trying to hide this fact or they would have given her a plausible fake assignment i.e. away from Langley.

    East Bay Jay (a5dac7)

  61. i thought she was some kind of energy trader

    but I don’t really have a great depth of knowledge of America’s pitiful cia flunkyslut community

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  62. i know a lot about the cast of game of thrones though

    ask me anything

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  63. Statement released by then-CIA Director George Tenet about what happened after ” C.I.A.’s counterproliferation experts, on their own initiative, asked an individual with ties to the region to make a visit to see what he could learn”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/12/world/after-the-war-in-tenet-s-words-i-am-responsible-for-review.html

    Because this report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials.

    Nowhere does he say Wilson submitted any kind of a written report, nor, of course, was he working for the CIA.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  64. If your goal, is to protect the Sauds. like Bandar’s tennis partner Colin, it makes perfect sense,

    narciso (3fec35)

  65. Interview with David Kay published: February 24, 1992:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/24/news/24iht-qand_1.html

    Q. Weren’t you surprised to read earlier this month about the large amounts of uranium, including enriched material, in Iraqi hands?

    A. I was not surprised. It was a case of being able to prove what is there.

    Q. But how was it possible for the Iraqis to amass so much material? Is there no register of uranium shipments?

    A. Only after uranium reaches a certain point in the conversion process is it subject to international safeguards. If you are a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, you are obligated to report movements of yellow cake, the primary natural ore concentrate. But Brazil, which shipped 27 tons to Iraq, is not an NPT signatory. The Iraqis are signatories and were required to report its receipt, and they simply did not do it. They also produce a considerable amount of uranium on their own.

    I still don’t have a figure for how many tons of unenriched yellowcake Iraq acknowledged having from 1991 to 2003 and if there was any extra found.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  66. 67. Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 5/27/2014 @ 1:13 pm

    If your goal, is to protect the Sauds. like Bandar’s tennis partner Colin, it makes perfect sense,

    Colin Powell was a pal of Prince Bandar?

    What about CIA Director George Tenet?

    ….the Saudi Arabian Ambassador’s compound…..The enormous compound – with a 38-room main house, 12-bedroom staff house, tennis court, and guard house at its front gate – has long been the scene of Washington intrigue.

    Its last occupant, Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, used to informally host visitors like New York Times reporter Judith Miller, and [George] Tenet, who sometimes stopped off for a drink on his way home from CIA headquarters.

    – article by Michael Crowley on page 21 of the September 11 & 18, 2006 issue of the New Republic (GOPtopia, starting on page 17)

    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/archive/welcome-mclean-home-americas-ruling-class

    Use Ctrl-F to find it. I don’t know what you would do on a tablet.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  67. The Los Angeles Times has a “historical IQ test” for its reporters. It’s sort of like a high jump bar. If you’ve got enough historical knowledge to jump over the bar, you’re rejected.

    On the other hand if you are such a historical moron that you crawl under the bar, well “Welcome to the LA Times newsroom!”

    Skeptical Voter (12e67d)

  68. Don’t you like the way some source mixed in CIA Director George Tenet and Judith Miller in the same snippet?

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  69. Avert your eyes;

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2008/12/tenet-bandar-sc/

    now since I had read about the background of the new station chief, who arrived on station last year, it wasn’t that hard to spot him, no need to make it easier for AQ however,

    narciso (3fec35)

  70. Actually it is misleading to only read Wilson’s op-eds AFTER the invasion. He wrote two before it happened, warning that Saddam would use his chemical weapons – and possibly biological agents as well – against US servicemen.

    Remember, before the war, the anti-war crowd’s main argument was that invading would “provoke” Saddam to use the weapons that everyone was certain he did possess.

    In Niger, Wilson stayed in the best hotel for a week and had two meetings with top government officials, none of whom were directly involved with uranium mining or security, only diplomats. The information he brought back could have been gleaned from a press release.

    Estragon (ada867)

  71. He brought back one piece of useful information: One of his diplomat friends told him that the Iraqis had come buzzing around, looking for uranium. Well, they didn’t say they were looking for uranium, but they were unlikely to be looking for pigeon peas or goats, and we don’t sell anything else. And we’d have sold them some, too, if it weren’t for those pesky French. Can’t get anything past those bastards.

    As Bush accurately said, the Iraqis sought uranium in Africa. That this one attempt failed doesn’t mean there weren’t others that succeeded, but more importantly the mere fact of the attempt was a breach of the surrender terms and justified a resumption of hostilities.

    Milhouse (50cb78)

  72. 72. Previously, New York Times reporter Patrick E. Tyler had written about Prince Bandar in June 1992 in the New York Times Magazine:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/07/magazine/double-exposure-saudia-arabia-s-man-in-washington.html?pagewanted=all

    Bandar handled projects he considered so sensitive that he could not take his work to the Saudi Embassy. That’s why at least 30 briefcases with combination locks are strewn over one corner of his small office at the Ambassador’s residence. Most contain the paper trail of royal secret missions: files, notes and royal instructions, all of them preserved as a single authoritative record known only to the King and his envoy. (One of the briefcases contains a small machine gun, part of the anti-assassination kit Bandar must live with).

    You can believe that that’s where Bandar kept his most secret files….or you can believe that some of these briefcase contained money.

    Earlier, Bob Woodward, in his book The Commanders had placed the number of
    briefcases at 15 to 20: (bear in mind that of course Woodward is a professional liar, but here he seems to be protecting Colin Powell so he includes a lot about Bandar, although maybe some stories still protect Bandar here by for instance, shifting blame and misdescribing what happened)

    . . .In Bandar’s office in his lavish ambassador’s residence, he kept
    15 to 20 locked attache cases containing the details of covert operations or confidential arrangements with individuals or countries.

    Bandar’s fingerprints were all over the Iran-contra affair; he had been the go-between with the Reagan Administration arranging the controversial $25 million in secret Saudi funding for the Nicaraguan contras; he had worked with Reagan CIA Director William J. Casey to set up the
    assassination of a suspected Middle East terrorist leader in Beirut with a car bomb which instead killed at least 80 bystanders and not the
    terrorist leader; he had arranged a huge secret, $3 billion Saudi purchase of ballistic missiles from China.

    Bandar worked hard to keep in touch with five key people in the Administration – Bush, [the Elder] Baker, Scowcroft, Cheney and Powell. No more
    politically oriented group could be running the government, he felt

    – The Commanders by Bob Woodward (Simon and Schuster, 1991) page 213.

    I included the last sentence to indicate that Prince Bandar was a Woodward source.

    What’s in there is tilted IN FAVOR of Bandar.

    As for his briefcases, that must be what Bandar said they contained, but
    actually I suspect that they contained money as a rule, and that was NOT his filing system. And that, on July 20, 1993, Vincent Foster was trying to blackmail Bandar into giving him some of that money because he thought Clinton was going under and he needed it for lawyers, but he forgot that Prince Bandar had diplomatic immunity, and might, you might say, exercise it..

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  73. I gotta admit, Valerie did herself proud on that Vanity Fair cover, and at the Oscar’s.
    A lot of exposure for a CIA ‘operative’.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

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  76. The LA Times report which occasioned this post asserts that “Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, but his sentence was commuted by President Bush.”

    But not even that simple sentence is accurate, and indeed I believe it is misleading.

    From the operative document itself — the Grant of Executive Clemency — as preserved in the White House’s permanent online archives:

    A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

    WHEREAS Lewis Libby was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the case United States v. Libby, Crim. No. 05-394 (RBW), for which a sentence of 30 months’ imprisonment, 2 years’ supervised release, a fine of $250,000, and a special assessment of $400 was imposed on June 22, 2007;

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, pursuant to my powers under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, do hereby commute the prison terms imposed by the sentence upon the said Lewis Libby to expire immediately, leaving intact and in effect the two-year term of supervised release, with all its conditions, and all other components of the sentence.

    IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

    GEORGE W. BUSH

    Libby was not pardoned; his conviction stands intact as a final judgment no longer subject to appeal. Contrary to the impression left with readers of the LA Times’ description, only the imprisonment portion of the sentence was commuted; the remainder of the sentence remained intact. As President Bush explained in the official statement accompanying the Grant of Executive Clemency:

    My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  77. “Nowhere does he say Wilson submitted any kind of a written report”

    Sammy – Nowhere does it say he didn’t and in any event, the CIA widely distributed its conclusions about his trip through the government, so whether there is a written report is irrelevant.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  78. We need to go back to talking about phony scandals such as global “warming” and income “inequality.”
    Or something.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  79. …The disclosure marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover — the secrecy meant to protect his actual identity — pierced by his own government. The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed as…

    Dana @9, I remember that far back, too. And Plame had already been exposed at least twice. The Cubans already knew she was a NOC, working under non-official cover, years before Scooter Libby or Richard Armitage talked to the press. If memory serves her identity was accidentally revealed to the US Interests Section at the Swiss embassy in Havana, and then (Cuban Secret Police) nature took its course.

    The fact of the matter is neither Armitage or Libby could have blown Plame’s cover because the CIA already had. Not only through sloppy work, but she hadn’t been stationed overseas for the requisite number of years and the CIA was no longer taking any steps to conceal Plame’s intelligence relationship to the USG. She was commuting from her home to CIA HQ in Langley. That is the definition of “overt.”

    (b) Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identity of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

    Fitzgerald never could have prosecuted either Armitage or Libby for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Which is why neither of them were charged with that crime. Libby was charged with perjury and obstruction, not for revealing the identity of some sort of secret agent. She was simply no longer covert.

    Not that I expect the facts to even be a speed bump in the way of the MFM narrative.

    Steve57 (3cdbc3)

  80. How about phony burglaries by Sandy {thats no salami in my pants} Berger.

    mg (31009b)

  81. Well, I certainly think that after the latest example of the incompetence of the White House which outed a genuinely top CIA guy and has put him and his family in extreme danger, we should be talking about that–and not Plame, Wilson and Libby.

    This was all so the preezy could get a cheap photo op. And Karzai would not, or was too busy to even meet with him. What a waste.

    elissa (550033)

  82. Dear America,

    If you don’t study and do your homework, you end up getting stuck in Iraq. And if you end up getting stuck in Iraq, then when you come home you’ll end up getting stuck on a waiting list to see a doctor at the local VA hospital. So my advice to you is to marry an heiress.

    Love,
    Signed,

    John F. Kerry

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  83. Excellent advice, but realistically there are only so many plane crashes, Elephant Stone.

    elissa (550033)

  84. Dear elissa,

    I’ll have you know that I actually struck gold twice. After all, my first wife was worth a couple hundred million dollars.

    Love,
    Signed,

    John F. Kerry

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  85. It must be his hair, cuz it’s certainly not his brains.

    elissa (550033)

  86. Well, if we’re wandering a bit off topic:

    I have nothing but compassion for Kerry’s first wife, Julia Thorne, who married him in 1970, bore him daughters in 1973 and 1976, and divorced him in 1988 after a six-year separation.

    The details of their marriage and divorce are still closely guarded by the Kerry camp. Ms. Thorne endorsed Kerry in his 2004 presidential bid but otherwise she stayed, or was kept, out of public view.

    However, they honeymooned in Jamaica and Paris, at the latter of which locations Kerry somewhat famously met with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong representatives who were attending the Paris Peace Conference, including the Viet Cong representative, Madame Nguyen Thi Binh. Kerry then returned to the U.S. to give his famous testimony in the United States Senate, as part of which he endorsed Madame Binh’s “seven-point plan” to end the war. (The seven points amounted, of course, to a U.S. capitulation and withdrawal.)

    So I’ve always wondered what light Julia Thorne could have shone on the subject of Kerry’s fidelity to this oath as a officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, the uniform of which was still hanging back in his closet in Washington while he was meeting in secret with his country’s enemies during wartime.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  87. elissa @84, concur.

    But we all know how the press narrative will go. It’s a non-scandal, just an accident, and conservatives are hypocrites because they weren’t calling for Dick Cheney’s head on a platter and George Bush’s impeachment for doing the same thing only deliberately. Which makes it worse.

    In fact, it’s not a crime since you have to prove intent to be guilty of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. It should be a scandal because through sheer amateurism and incompetence this administration has revealed a real, no kidding, overseas covert agent (unlike overt CIA analyst and inside-the-beltway cocktail circuit fixture Plame). Thus certainly damaging his career and endangering his life.

    As I said earlier, though, I don’t expect the facts of the matter to get in the way of the narrative.

    Steve57 (3cdbc3)

  88. I should clarify; it’s not a crime under the under the statutes created by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

    But there are statutes criminalizing the mishandling of classified information that don’t require any proof of intent to compromise the information.

    Steve57 (3cdbc3)

  89. Dear Conservatives,

    By talking about the accidental unintentional leak of the CIA agent’s name, you’re only bringing more attention to the situation. If you wouldn’t discuss it, nobody would discuss it. Or something. So, if you don’t want people to know his name, then why do you keep talking about it ?

    Signed,

    any Democrat shill

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  90. I’m generally not their biggest fan but I just hope the CIA is really really really pissed off about this. Because that could make things quite interesting.

    elissa (550033)

  91. Koch Brothers ! Global “warming” ! Income inequality !

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  92. narciso – Regarding White House probe – They’ll probably find out it was rogue employees in Cincinnati once again, a recurring problem.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  93. President Obama is angry about this. In fact, nobody is as angry as he is. Not even the family of the outed agent.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  94. It was caused by a YouTube video.
    I hope they catch the filmmaker.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  95. Maybe they’ll “out” Barry, IYKWIMAITYD. Reggie L call your office…

    Gazzer (554004)

  96. Do these numbers add up?

    1. “Iraq bought some 250 tons of a uranium-bearing mixture called yellowcake in the late 1970′s and early 1980′s from Brazil, Portugal and Niger” (New York Time, quotes by S.F.)

    2. The U.S. hauled away 550 tons of yellowcake in 2008. (my previous link).

    3. S.F. writes “I think he had had that yellowcake since the 1980s.”

    As the Mayflower movers I worked with back in the 1970s used to say: “If you think that, you better think again.”

    Dr. Weevil (d80bf4)

  97. UPDATE: Another day, another correction. The linked article now begins as follows:

    FOR THE RECORD

    CIA name disclosure: An article in the May 27 Section A stated that former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby disclosed that former intelligence official Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Former State Department official Richard Armitage said he was the first to disclose that Plame worked for the agency.

    Kudos to G.H. for catching this.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  98. #93… teh only “internal probe” this administration would recognize is a suppository, narciso.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  99. #101, I fully expect the next time the LA Times mentions the Plame affair they report Scooter Libby outed her and neglect to mention Armitage.

    ropelight (dfc178)

  100. Or an anal pork probe or hot beef injection, per National Lampoon, circa 1980.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  101. If we could only get the LA Times to get on that video of Barack Obama toasting Rashid Khalidi.
    Oh wait.
    They already have that video.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  102. For those (and you know who you are) who regularly bash Chicago, I thought I’d let you know that when Former President George W Bush needed a partial knee replacement he came here to have it done at one of the best joint replacement joints in the world.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-george-w-bush-surgery-20140527,0,7940330.story

    elissa (550033)

  103. He went to Chicago because that’s where so much knee-capping takes place, so naturally the orthopedic surgeons in Chicago have tons of expertise.
    Or whatever.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  104. The Gang That Couldn’t Think Straight… Obama administration outs CIA station chief #WarOnCIAStationChiefs #MoronsOnParade #ShitOrGoBlind

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  105. Well Chicago, has a lot to commend it, in the same sense, as Harry Lime, noted about Italy in the ‘Third Man’

    narciso (3fec35)

  106. It was good the SCOAMF sneaked into Afghanistan to visit the troops instead of into Andrews AFB to play golf. Good politics and good Commander-in-Chiefics. I agree with elissa that it’s good for the bureaucracy, and especially the CIA, to be pissed off at politicos.

    nk (dbc370)

  107. Ah, yes. The LA Times, the publication formerly known as a newspaper.

    Peter B (53206f)

  108. Mr 57 wrote:

    Dana @9, I remember that far back, too. And Plame had already been exposed at least twice. The Cubans already knew she was a NOC, working under non-official cover, years before Scooter Libby or Richard Armitage talked to the press. If memory serves her identity was accidentally revealed to the US Interests Section at the Swiss embassy in Havana, and then (Cuban Secret Police) nature took its course.

    The fact of the matter is neither Armitage or Libby could have blown Plame’s cover because the CIA already had. Not only through sloppy work, but she hadn’t been stationed overseas for the requisite number of years and the CIA was no longer taking any steps to conceal Plame’s intelligence relationship to the USG. She was commuting from her home to CIA HQ in Langley. That is the definition of “overt.”

    Exactly.

    Supposedly, the lovely Mrs Wilson took diferent routes to work, but if you’ve ever been in the Washington metropolitan area, you might have seen the great, big, green highway sign directing people to the exit for CIA headquarters in Langley. It’s open, public property, and you can bet your last farthing that the British and the Canadians and the French and the Russians and the Chinese and the Germans and the Israelis and the Saudis and the Iranians have all had people and equipment there to photograph license plates of cars entering, making notes of the ones which appeared multiple times. They track down the license plates, and voila! they know who’s working at the CIA.

    If they didn’t do this, they’d be sloppy, and those aren’t sloppy people. Anyone who thinks that we don’t spy on our allies and our allies don’t spy on us is wholly naïve . . . at best.

    The very realistic Dana (af9ec3)

  109. The Colonel errs:

    #93… teh only “internal probe” this administration would recognize is a suppository, narciso.

    Nahhh, they support homosexual marriage now, so my guess is that some of them are very familiar with an internal probe that isn’t a suppository.

    OK, OK, that was wrong of me, and I denounce myself!

    The mean-spirited Dana (af9ec3)

  110. Peter Fitzgerald should be in prison for perpetrating that scam of a prosecution against Scooter Libby.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  111. I don’t know if I’m allowed to reveal this, but Flo works for Progressive Insurance.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  112. not Peter. different Fitz. (pat)

    elissa (550033)

  113. 100. Comment by Dr. Weevil (d80bf4) — 5/27/2014 @ 5:17 pm

    Do these numbers add up?

    1. “Iraq bought some 250 tons of a uranium-bearing mixture called yellowcake in the late 1970′s and early 1980′s from Brazil, Portugal and Niger” (New York Time, quotes by S.F.)

    2. The U.S. hauled away 550 tons of yellowcake in 2008. (my previous link).

    3. S.F. writes “I think he had had that yellowcake since the 1980s.”

    As the Mayflower movers I worked with back in the 1970s used to say: “If you think that, you better think again.”

    Not so simple. I saw that too, but….

    1. The figure of 250 tons is an estimate made before Gulf War I.

    2. After the war, Saddam Hussein disclosed a number.

    3. I cannot very readily find out what the number of tons was that he disclosed, or

    4. if anybody was surppised at the number of tons of yellowcake found in Iraq after the invasion of 2003.

    5. If the real number was higher, there are better explanations than that he bought it after the Gulf War.

    a) Maybe he didn’t disclose the full quantity – and this actually would be expected to occur.

    b) When he disclosed it, it could be he never said where he had bought it, so they always knew some of it came from unknown sources, and they could only rely on him for the exact amount.

    c) Some of it was mined in Iraq.

    So, it’s not tight, but I still think he had had nmost of that yellowcake since the 1980s, and probably didn’t get any more after the invasion of Kuwait.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  114. Another update on another Dem scandal—the return of the smarmy ambulance chaser with good hair, a dead wife, and a love child:

    http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/27/john-edwards-tanned-rested-and-ready-to-take-your-call-if-youve-been-injured-in-an-accident/

    elissa (550033)

  115. The execrable Seattle Times comes right out and says Libby was convicted of leaking Plame’s identity in a simple declarative sentence that is objectively false. That a falsehood that blatant could slip by any newspaper Editor only 11 years after the fact tells you that the value of anything you read in the Seattle Times is worse than worthless – it is probably a purposeful lie.

    The Editor of the Seattle Times should be fired for incompetence or malfeasance, and probably both.

    Ray Van Dune (601cf5)

  116. 6. The international trade in uranium is watched pretty carefully, and people would have been very way of selling to Iraq after 1991

    And I haven’t encountered any kind of report of any specific country having been discovered to have violated it, and if any was bought by Iraq after 1991, in violation of sanctions, there’s a good possibility this would have been discovered after 2003, because some people would talk, and it might have made it into the press.

    A Wikipedia article has:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War

    In 1990, before the Persian Gulf War, Iraq had stockpiled 550 short tons (500 t) of yellowcake uranium at the Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Baghdad.[104]

    Footnote 104 is:

    http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2008/07/05/saddams_uranium_headed_for_ontario_processing_plant.html

    It doesn’t say how they knew it was from before, but apparently it was all in “Saddam-era containers, some leaking or weakened by corrosion” and dated, not just from before 1991, but from before the Israelis bombed the reactor at Osirik in 1981, 33 years ago now, and 27 years then.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  117. Sammy, are you an FSB agent assigned to spread tedium on Patterico’s threads? Dude, all the material questions were answered like nine years ago. It doesn’t matter if Valerie wore Playtex Cross Your Hearts or Victoria’s Secret peekaboos, although that’s way more interesting than whether Wilson flew coach or business to Niger and traded a cigarette for a shoeshine.

    What we really have are the incompetent White House red diaper babies outing a Chief of Station in the most dangerous country in the world, and their propaganda lackies in the MFM yelling “Squirrel”.

    nk (dbc370)

  118. An Iraqi trade delegation visits Niger in 1999 an talks about expanding trade, which the former PM took to mean uranium exports.

    The geniuses at the CIA are somehow in doubt because they think there was something else dirt poor Niger was producing back then that Iraq wanted???? Who are they trying to kid?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  119. 121. The point is, this would have been very preliminary.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  120. the outed CIA flunky is gonna have to get a real job now

    no more fun-filled days of gay porn and free twizzlers

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  121. Was there ever an accounting of where the uranium came from and how much there was supposed to be?

    There’s a 2003 usenet post in alt.prophecies.nostradamus with the title:

    Iraq’s 641 Metric Tons of “Yellow Cake”, where is it?

    – so maybe we’ve got, not extra yellowcake, but missing yellowcake, (!) maybe sold to Iran or Syria.

    One of the posts links to an article (the link is now dead) called

    PART 1: HOW IRAQ REVERSE-ENGINEERED THE BOMB
    Date: 19 April 1992
    Bibliography: IEEE SPECTRUM, 19 April 1992, PP. 20-24, 63-65 BY GLENN ZORPETTE

    And copies the abstract, which says:

    During the 1980s, Iraq bought some 450 metric tons of yellowcake from Brazil,
    Portugal and Niger.

    So, after the Gulf War, the estimate had been upped from 250 tons to 450 tons.

    We’re getting closer to 550.

    Or was it 600 tons?

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?ref=middleeast

    American military personnel helped move about 600 tons of uranium in the form called yellowcake. It had been stored at Tuwaitha, an installation 12 miles south of Baghdad, which had been the site of Iraq’s nuclear program … After the American invasion in 2003, Tuwaitha was looted. Barrels used to store the yellowcake were stolen and sold to local people, who used them to store water and food and to wash clothes, according to a report by the atomic energy agency.

    Most of the barrels have been recovered…

    In 2004, the New York Times had reported it was 500 tons:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/world/struggle-for-iraq-nuclear-materials-us-announces-it-intends-move-tons-uranium.html

    The International Atomic Energy Agency had taken the position that the uranium is Iraqi property and that the agency cannot give permission to remove it, a diplomat said. (it was in fact, eventually sold by the government of Iraq)

    The repository, at Tuwaitha, a centerpiece of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program until it was largely shut down after the first Persian Gulf war in 1991, holds more than 500 tons of uranium, none of it enriched enough to be used directly in a nuclear weapon.

    The repository was an object of widespread looting by villagers after the American-led invasion last year. The villagers were for the most part apparently interested in using the barrels that hold the uranium for activities like cooking and storing water. They simply dumped out the uranium sludge and took the barrels. Although most of the barrels and all but a small amount of the uranium were recovered, the episode was an embarrassment to the United States and left traces of radioactive contamination throughout the village.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  122. Despite my best intentions I occasionally, often by accident, scan Sammy’s dreck. Usually ’cause its impossible to see the handle from the first paragraphs.

    The flesh is weak.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  123. But, they might have meant expanding trade in chia pets, daley. You must keep your mind open to all possibilities as Sammy does.

    elissa (550033)

  124. the burning of the station chief, fits this Kabuki

    http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/05/27/retreat-from-kaboul/

    narciso (3fec35)

  125. Sammy Finkleman
    I recall back in the day that the libtards were claiming that there was no yellowcake and Bush was a dummy for not guarding it against looters.
    And that there were no plans for making a bomb and Bush was a dummy for letting the plans into the public domain when shoveling Iraqi documents out willynilly.
    Stupid Bush.

    Richard Aubrey (0605ef)

  126. 127. “When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, they only had to travel to Uzbekistan which had a border with Afghanistan to get out. Nevertheless, ”the whole time, during the withdrawal over the border, troop convoys were coming under attack by Afghan fighters. In all 523 Soviet soldiers were killed during the withdrawal.”

    No wonder Long Dong JEF wouldn’t leave the base to travel to Karzai’s digs.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  127. The story was also in today’s New York Daily News. A 7-paragraph story on page 2, that did NOT mention Valerie Plame.

    It happened this way:

    The Obama Administration press office handed out a list of officials whom Obama had met with at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan on Saturday, May 27, 2014.

    The list included the name and title of (CIA) station chief (without, I think, the word “CIA”)

    Just “station chief”

    That’s not in the Daily News, but I think I got that from somewhere else.

    Washington Post reporter Scott Wilson drafted a “pool report” to about 6,000 media recipients.

    In that report, he copied the list of officials wholesale.

    This pool report was approved by the White House press office

    It was then e-mailed (Sunday) to about 6,000 recipients.

    After it was e-mailed, Scott Wilson noticed (or was told) that it seemed to reveal the identity of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan, there being no other kind of U.S. official with the title of “station chief.”

    He then notified the White House.

    “Senior White House officials” took it very seriously.

    They then contacted news organizations and asked them not to reveal the station chief’s name, and they agreed.

    They may have had no other legal option anyway.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  128. They should have given out the station chief other, State Department, title, or not mentioned him.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  129. Thanks, Sammy.

    JD (f87e90)

  130. Why the f*** should they give out the names of ANY f***ing officials. This is f***ing DEPLOYMENT of assets in a f***ing theater of war. YOU DON’T REVEAL THAT! WTF?

    nk (dbc370)

  131. I don’t know if I’m allowed to reveal this, but Flo works for Progressive Insurance.

    In the middle of all the many posts about Plame, Armitage and Wilson (a leftwing dope, btw), etc — and the astonishing ineptitude this nation has allowed to enter its White House — that one comment made me laugh.

    BTW, I recall reading that Progressive Insurance is named for the political orientation of its owner. Knowing that, such a company had better offer very good — very do-gooder — insurance rates to all we shlubs and proles throughout America.

    Mark (99b8fd)

  132. In September 2009, a few months into Obama’s first term, here’s how I summed up the Obama Administration to that date:

    Amateurs. Incompetents. Ideologues. Full-time politicians turned half-wit government officials. Brilliant leftists who, confronted with the real world, are exposed as clueless idiots and children.

    Alas, they’ve regressed since then.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  133. I feel bad for the CIA officer. His career is over and he and his family will be in constant danger.

    It’s all good, though, because the First Lady defended her lunch program that she signed into law according to CNN.

    Plus, BUSH! We live in a tragic comedy.

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  134. gary @ 125, I do the same thing cos sometimes it’s Steve57 and he’s usually worth a read.

    Gazzer (554004)

  135. What else has FLOTUS “signed into law” I wonder, Ag80. Which CNN shill/talking dummy was this? There are so many to guess from.

    elissa (550033)

  136. Does FLOTUS have the power to sign bills into law? If she did, can that be challenged in Court?

    JD (f87e90)

  137. In September 2009, a few months into Obama’s first term

    There was perhaps only one — one (1) — editorial I recall published in any newspaper here or anywhere else right after the election in November 2008 that uttered a basic truth: That Obama was the first US president in history to come with such a disreputable, flaky background.

    The candor of that editorial stood out to me, partly since everyone else in 2008 was full of PC BS (eg, Republican Peggy Noonan, etc) or dazzled in a way that would shortly thereafter lead to the Nobel being given to Obama, and partly because it was from a newspaper based in far-off Japan, a land supposedly very culturally “inscrutable” yet containing at least one person (or whoever wrote that editorial) capable of calling it like it is.

    Mark (99b8fd)

  138. “121. The point is, this would have been very preliminary.”

    Sammy – We already covered what the point was. It didn’t matter if Wilson produced a written report. The CIA did. Hussein wanted to restart his nuclear program, but that did not mean his ability to produce a bomb was imminent or that sanctions would prevent him from acquiring yellowcake just as the oil for food program was rife with fraud.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  139. elissa: It was Carol Costello.

    I don’t know anything about her except she might be confused about how government works.

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  140. JD please refer your FLOTUS question to CNN 🙂

    elissa (550033)

  141. I think I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Could it be that Sammy IS Joe Wilson? Consider their shared incapacities.

    bobathome (65fa49)

  142. Yeah, Ag80, Carol might have missed a civics class or two along the way. >For sure she missed Schoolhouse Rock. And people like her are “informing” the proles from a position of authority. God help us.

    elissa (550033)

  143. Poor S.F. can’t seem to admit (a) the fact that the post-war total was higher than the pre-war estimates means that Iraq may well have gotten hold of more yellowcake in the interval, (b) the fact that quite a few countries have gone nuclear in the last few decades, countries that the rest of the world would very much prefer not to have done so, so controls on exports of nuclear materials are obviously far from foolproof, and (c) that, whether they got any or not while Wilson was investigating, it’s hard to see what else Iraq could have wanted from Niger except yellowcake. I recall reading years ago that Niger only exports three things, and that Iraq has no shortage of the other two, which were goats and . . . I don’t recall – maybe dates? I do recall that the other two were readily available in countries much closer to Iraq if they ever ran out of their own, so they would have had no need to go all the way to Niger. So what was the Iraqi delegation looking for in Niger? I’m sure if you’d asked them they would have told you discount goats or cut-rate dates, but why would anyone believe such assurances?

    Dr. Weevil (d80bf4)

  144. Happyfeet @ 126 in the Clarifying thread mentioned that MayBee made the blog comment of the day at Instpundit.

    The comment was at Ann Althouse,

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2014/05/you-wont-believe-this-or-maybe-you-will.html?showComment=1401244428259#c6620789733713095116

    Beldar linked this thread at Althouse, so Althouse maybe ought to be linked back.

    I don’t remember what it was that first called attention to Judith Miller. She spent a lot of time in jail for not revealing her source, which was Libby. But she never published it. So how did she get questioned? Libby’s call logs, I think.

    And then I don’t remember what was the issue with Tim Russert. somebody needs to research this or refresh my memory, or I’ll try to do this maybe another day.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  145. 146. Comment by Dr. Weevil (d80bf4) — 5/27/2014 @ 8:55 pm

    Poor S.F. can’t seem to admit (a) the fact that the post-war total was higher than the pre-war estimates means that Iraq may well have gotten hold of more yellowcake in the interval,

    No, because I haven’t found anything to say that the pre-war, or the early postwar, total was a hard figure. Or that they ever had any.

    (b) the fact that quite a few countries have gone nuclear in the last few decades, countries that the rest of the world would very much prefer not to have done so, so controls on exports of nuclear materials are obviously far from foolproof,

    There weren’t such controls over uranium. The countries that went nuclear always had uranium. Getting uranium is far from the most difficult things, and they could do this even openly.

    Butm after the Gulf War, there were lots of controls over exports to Iraq – and also controls in Niger.

    Plus it wouldn’t have made too much sense to add to the stickpile of yellowcake, which was plenty big for a few bombs.

    and (c) that, whether they got any or not while Wilson was investigating, it’s hard to see what else Iraq could have wanted from Niger except yellowcake.

    The question is whether Iraq wanted anything!

    Wilson told a story about a visit in 1999 (3 years earlier) but, even if true, it sounds like a very preliminary inquiry.

    Saddam Hussein was trying to get the sanctions lifted and was making some plans for what happened afterwards.

    He wouldn’t have been interested in reviving his nuclear program until he got the no fly zone ended and the sanctions lifted, and he hadn’t done a thing with anything since the Gulf War, or almost nothing. He knew if anything was detected, it would just be bombed. So he waited.

    So what was the Iraqi delegation looking for in Niger?

    To get ready for when the sanctions were lifted.

    It’s not like Saddam Hussein would have had any use for more yellowcake in 1999 or 2000. He wasn’t
    doing anything with what he had.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  146. Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/27/2014 @ 8:15 pm We already covered what the point was. It didn’t matter if Wilson produced a written report. The CIA did.

    After a while. Joe wilson claimed that he reported that the story was unfounded. well, there never was any report cming from him.

    He claimed Cheney had to have known what he reported. Late, Tenet issued a statement (and this had to be truthful on some hard and fast things) that they had never briefed anyone at the White House, although they had circulated a report. Now he report actually was ambiguous – it just said Iraq could not have actually purchased it. Maybe it had that little bit about a feeler in 1999.

    Hussein wanted to restart his nuclear program, but that did not mean his ability to produce a bomb was imminent

    Exactly, and he wasn’t going to start anything till the aerial survellance and threat of bombing by the United states was gone.

    tor that sanctions would prevent him from acquiring yellowcake just as the oil for food program was rife with fraud.

    The biggest fraud was selling more oil.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  147. Good Lord, Sammy, the whole Plume affair was a calculated distraction intended to discredit Bush and divert attention. It is funny, tragic and typical how these fierce moral stories tend to fade. It’s too bad how Cindy Sheehan is forgotten while the Wilson’s get to live in the lap of luxury in New Mexico.

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  148. 150. Comment by Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 5/27/2014 @ 9:29 pm

    Good Lord, Sammy, the whole Plume affair was a calculated distraction intended to discredit Bush and divert attention.

    To divert attention from the question: Who picked Joe Wilson?

    And the follow-ups to that.

    Why was Wilson selected, and to do what, and why there was not an honest review of the intelligence that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake from Niger, and instead this nonsense was done, and how such faulty intelligence from the CIA became part of the official U.S. government position.

    Milhouse @42 has a proposal, which pre-spposes honesty, only I don’t think it was at all like that, and that does not explain why anybody would think sending Wilson to Niger was a way of checking out the story. This also assumes there was some real secret Valerie Plame had that needed to be protected, that maybe she was still leaving the country.

    And if Nick Kristoff claimed that Wilson had been Cheney’s hand-picked envoy, somebody had to have told him that, unless Kristof is a big liar or bluffer. Anyway getting that story out may have motivated Libby et al to get the “his wife picked him’ story out, which also wasn’t true.

    All this is a distraction from the question of who did pick him. And why the CIA endorsed patent forgeries.

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  149. Another update on another Dem scandal—the return of the smarmy ambulance chaser with good hair, a dead wife, and a love child:

    http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/27/john-edwards-tanned-rested-and-ready-to-take-your-call-if-youve-been-injured-in-an-accident/

    How is he still allowed to practise law? I thought lawyers weren’t allowed to lie.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  150. Get caught lying, I mean.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  151. The LEFT will never admit they are lying liars. That’s what LIARS do.

    Gus (70b624)

  152. The ftard media is reporting that the CIA director in Afghan was accidentally outed. NO harm, no FOUL. Has NO ONE made the connection that our CIA CHIEF IN AFGHAN is no longer OUR CIA CHIEF in AFGHAN?????? Valerie Plame is and was NOBODY. Our CIA STATION CHIEF IN AFGHAN is/was QUITE MOTHER FU#$ING IMPORTANT??? WTF is wrong with us???

    Gus (70b624)

  153. I love it when known facts get in the way of Sammah’s suppositions, ramblings, and asspulls.

    JD (e5a0fa)

  154. You’re late, Gus. I had to fill in for you, earlier.

    nk (dbc370)

  155. Blood pressure medicine for all!

    elissa (550033)

  156. A comment at the boggernews website says he added up all the 1991 IAEA inventory list of Iraqi yellow cake and uranium they identified and tagged and it only came up to 229 tons. This is linked:

    http://www.iraqwatch.org/un/IAEA/s-23283.htm

    Later you have an additional 45 tons or so:

    http://www.iraqwatch.org/un/IAEA/s-23283.htm

    The Iraq Survey Group (“Duelfer report) says Iraq bought about 486 tons of yellowcake.

    http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/isg-final-report_vol2_nuclear-03.htm

    Sammy Finkelman (f1bb90)

  157. ‘crossing the streams (threads)’

    http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2014/05/27/hollywood-versus-hornaday/

    you know considering they say it takes about 10 kilos to make a bomb, it’s not reassuring the inventory is so irregular,

    narciso (3fec35)

  158. Gazzer @137, I appreciate the compliment. I’ll try to cut down on the length.

    Beldar@135, that was an excellent insight. I merely tried to warn people that Barack Obama was only trying to become president of his enemies to provide aid and comfort to his friends.

    When his eurosocialist friends gave him a Nobel Peace Prize for achieving exactly that in 2009, I felt more than a bit vindicated. But by then it was too late.

    Iowahawk wrote this in November 2008. It remains a classic, every bit of it.

    Election Analysis: America Can Take Pride In This Historic, Inspirational Disaster

    …Yes, I know there are probably other African-Americans much better qualified and prepared for the presidency. Much, much better qualified. Hundreds, easily, if not thousands, and without any troubling ties to radical lunatics and Chicago mobsters. Gary Coleman comes to mind. But let’s not let that distract us from the fact that Mr. Obama’s election represents a profound, positive milestone in our country’s struggle to overcome its long legacy of racial divisions and bigotry. It reminds us of how far we’ve come, and it’s something everyone in our nation should celebrate in whatever little time we now have left.

    …When Russian tanks start pouring into eastern Europe and Iranian missiles begin raining down on Jerusalem, their leaders will know they will be facing a man who not only conquered America’s racial divide but the hearts of the entire Cannes film community.

    Steve57 (3cdbc3)

  159. 133. Why the f*** should they give out the names of ANY f***ing officials. This is f***ing DEPLOYMENT of assets in a f***ing theater of war. YOU DON’T REVEAL THAT! WTF?

    Comment by nk (dbc370) — 5/27/2014 @ 7:50 pm

    Don’t worry, it was an accident. The guy will be OK. They’re good at this. Really. They’ll hide his identity and make him disappear.

    In fact, I can hardly wait until the Obama administration announces the new replacement for “Kabul station chief.”

    Genius.

    Steve57 (3cdbc3)

  160. Seriously, look on the bright side. Now the Obama administration gets to to publicly appoint someone new to the position of clandestine spy chief.

    That’s gotta be an exciting moment.

    Steve57 (3cdbc3)

  161. Considering that his boss, burned the best double agent, in a generation, and blamed it on a part time FBI contractor,

    narciso (3fec35)

  162. Valerie Plame did suggest her husband go to Niger. He had done trips like this before for them, although one in the past hadn’t gone well (for reasons we don’t know). When she overheard someone talking about sending someone there, she popped her head up and said Joe would go. They paid for his flight but didn’t pay for his time, because in reality he was starting a consulting business and this trip was a way for the Wilsons to get his business up and running with some help from the government.

    He also got in touch with the Kerry campaign before he started writing his anti-Bush screeds. They were also seen out to dinner with Hillary Clinton, for whom they campaigned in 2008. The original targets were Cheney (whom Wilson lied about sending him), Rove, and Hadley.

    The reason he went was a personal business opportunity for him, the reason he lied and turned it into a big deal was all about pro-Democratic partisan politics.

    MayBee (846936)

  163. Oh wait I’d forgotten she said someone stopped by and suggested him when he heard her and someone else talking about Niger, She wrote up the email recommending Wilson, even though she had tried to claim she hadn’t recommended him or suggested him.

    MayBee (846936)

  164. Remember that film ‘Inside Man’ about a heist, that was about something else;

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1256475/posts

    well this is what it was about,

    narciso (3fec35)

  165. Wasn’t this the guy, that caused the last DC mayor to lose;

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/07/the_african_connection_rep_jef.html

    narciso (3fec35)

  166. JD asked:

    Does FLOTUS have the power to sign bills into law? If she did, can that be challenged in Court?

    Actually, it could happen, in a weird way. Since her signature wouldn’t be valid, just ceremonial, such a law would be valid, ten days after passage, in the same way any law would become valid without the President’s signature, under Article I, Section 7, as long as the Congress does not adjourn in fewer than ten days after passage; that would be a pocket veto.

    The political scientist Dana (3e4784)

  167. All First Ladies have some power to get bills signed into law, and I imagine this one more than most. You see it’s like this: The Senate has the Majority Whip and the Minority Whip; the House of Representatives has the Majority Whip and the Minority Whip; and the White House has the ….

    nk who knows what "uxorious" means (dbc370)

  168. MayBee!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  169. Hey Daley!

    MayBee (846936)

  170. Going from one travismockasham, to another, Snowden tells Brian Williams he was trained as a spy, Chloe O’Brien had more operational experience, he managed the servers for the CIA,

    Hey Maybee,

    narciso (3fec35)

  171. not Peter. different Fitz. (pat)

    Comment by elissa (550033) —

    Good catch. When reading the comments, I had to do a double-take myself. A side effect of studying Chicago politics is seeing lots of Irish surnames. I love the stories of Italian or black guys changing their names to O’Halloran or whatever when they run for judge.

    carlitos (e7c734)

  172. MayBee!!!!

    JD (f87e90)

  173. Has MayBee been on a carlito-like sabbatical?

    carlitos (e7c734)

  174. Days that MayBee and carlitos are here are good days. Period.

    JD (f87e90)

  175. One wonders if the nk who knows what “uxorious” means learned it in school, or from experience. 🙂

    The snotty Dana (3e4784)

  176. The “whip” part may the dead giveaway to Mr. nk’s mindset I think, Mr. Dana. Mercy.

    elissa (550033)

  177. Dana, obviously from the School of Hard Knocks.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  178. Well, of course I know where our Windy City Barrister learned this! 🙂

    Happy wife, happy life!

    The Dana who has been married for 35 years and 9 days (3e4784)

  179. Comment by carlitos (e7c734) — 5/28/2014 @ 6:53 am

    I love the stories of Italian or black guys changing their names to O’Halloran or whatever when they run for judge.

    And then there was Irish politicians who had signs were printed out in his Chicago neighborhood asking people to vote for O’Bama, when he was running for some lower office.

    More recently:

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/first-family-explores-obamas-irish-roots-in-dublin/

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  180. Love the non-correction correction. For all we know Libby disclosed it as well, so maybe the Times wasn’t wrong.

    Kevin M (56aae1)

  181. A side effect of studying Chicago politics is seeing lots of Irish surnames. I love the stories of Italian or black guys changing their names to O’Halloran or whatever when they run for judge.

    Ditto for Boston. I doubt that John F. Kohen, or however his grandfather spelled it, would have been quite so electable as a senator from Massachussetts.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  182. Valerie Plame is out doing her Susan Rice impression to cover for White House “treachery”:

    “My understanding is … it was a military aide who compiled this list of those that were greeting the president when he came,” Plame said. “Colossally stupid, but I think it was inadvertent. It was an error … really stupid. The White House apparently has said that they’re going to do an investigation, and they’ll find someone who’s really embarrassed at the end of it.”

    Scooter Libby could not be reached for comment.

    ropelight (943512)

  183. milhouse @186.

    John Kerry’s grandfather, Frederick Kohn, changed his name while still in Austria-Hungary. He wanted to go somewhere where there wouldn’t be any record of his Jewish ancestry. He was a real assimiliationist. John Kerry did not know his grandfather was Jewish until 2003. He learned about 1998 that his paternal grandmother, Frederick’s wife, was Jewish, although he had known she was a Catholic convert (because the Catholic Chirch keeps or kept track of that) for longer. But he hadn’t known her name was Ida Lowe. He also hadn’t known that Frederick had started his U.S. life in Chicago till 2003.

    To disappear, and leave your past behind, was one reason some people immigrated to the United States from Central Europe in the late 19th century and after. It could be a local scandal, too.

    Frederick (or Fritz) Kohn changed his name to Kerry while still in Vienna. The name was originally chosen by his 3 years younger brother Otto. Otto chose the name Kerry because of the County. Both had already converted to Roman Catholicism sometime after their widowed mother moved to Vienna in 1876, when he was Fritz was 3 and Otto was a newborn. In Fritz’s case at least this was after he got married.

    Otto changed his name to Kerry in 1897, and in 1901, Fritz did likewise. Fritz’s wife was Ida Loewe, a Jewish musician from Budapest, and she was a descendant of Sinai Loew, a brother of Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague.

    Freerick arrived in Chicago (after first going through Ellis Island) on December 21, 1905. He committed suicide in a Boston hotel washroom in 1921. He stayed in Illinois long enough to become naturalized there. (at some point he left Chicago to hide even that. In Brrokline, Massachusetts, Fred regularly attended Sunday Catholic church services and did not tell anyone he and his wife were converted Jews.)

    http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/122543/john-kerrys-jewish-grandfather

    Richard Kerry, John F. Kerry’s father, was 6 years old when his father killed himself. He married Rosemary Forbes, whose family had huge made a fortune from the China trade. so there already you have marrying a heiress.

    John Kerry’s brother, Cameron, born in 1950, married a Jewish woman and converted to Judaism in 1983. http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishgenealogy/a/jewpas_kerry.htm doesn’t say Orthodox, Conservative or Reform.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  184. The interviews Valerie Plame and her “publicity-seeking preening blowhard” husband do not want you to know about

    http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2014/05/27/the-interviews-valerie-plame-and-her-publicity-seeking-preening-blowhard-husband-do-not-want-you-to-know-about/

    Whistleblower (f6ef96)


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