Feb 12 2007
Fitzgerald’s Disaster: Wilson Outed Plame
Listening to the full Woodward tape of Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaking the news about Plame must be giving Fitzgerald nightmares. CNN has posted the full tape played at the trial and it is astounding. The part that got me was when Armitage said “His wife named him”, and Woodward asks, “Why doesn’t this get out?”. Then Armitage says, on June 13th 2003, basically what Andrea Mitchell would say months later when she was talking off the cuff on CNBC. Armitage laughingly says “Everyone knows”. In the words of Mitchell.
MURRAY And the second question is: Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA?
MITCHELL: It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn’t aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.
But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”. I predicted long ago, and again just prior to the trial, it would come out that Joe and Valerie were both sources for Kristof and others. Armitage is not saying ‘everyone knows’ who Joe Wilson is (though they did). He is saying “everyone knows” who Plamne is because Wilson was calling everybody and spilling the beans on his wife! It is quite clear what Armitage is saying, and what I am betting he will testify too.
I have maintained the reason Fitz could not charge anyone with exposing Plame was because Plame had exposed herself (or Wilson had) to back up Joe’s wild claims about forged evidence. Seems I was right. Clearly Armitage is saying everyone is finding out about Plame because of Joe’s calls. Now Mitchell and Russert must be sweating right along with Fitz-Magoo. I wonder if Wilson called more than Grossman. We know by Wilson’s own admission he was calling the State Department. Wonder if he got hold of Armitage? Did Wilson blab to Armitage?
Update: Make that pretty much a given that Armitage heard about Plame from Wilson (or Grossman). As we know Wilson called Grossman right before the Woodward meeting with Armitage (June 8-9th). So what Armitage is saying is only a few short days after these calls and he confirms HE KNOWS it was Wilson blabbing about Plame. Now with a transcript we can see Armitage admits personal knowledge (H/T Atlas Shrugs):
1:15 ARMITAGE: [ ] Scowcroft is looking into
1:16 the yellowcake thing.
1:17 WOODWARD: Oh yeah?
1:18 ARMITAGE: As the PFIAB
1:19 WOODWARD: Yeah. What happened there?
1:20 ARMITAGE: They’re back together. [coughs] They
1:21 knew with yellowcake, the CIA is not going to be hurt by this
1:22 one—
1:23 WOODWARD: I know, that’s—
1:24 ARMITAGE: — Hadley and Bob Joseph know. It’s
1:25 documented. We’ve got our documents on it. We’re clean as a
2 3:2 2:1 Woodward & Amitage Interview –
2:1 [ ] whistle. And George personally got it out of the Cincinatti speech of the president.
2:3 WOODWARD: Oh he did?
2:4 ARMITAGE: Oh yeah.
2:5 WOODWARD: Oh really?
2:6 ARMITAGE: Yeah.
2:7 WOODWARD: It was taken out?
2:8 ARMITAGE: Taken out. George said you can’t
2:9 do this.
2:10 WOODWARD: How come it wasn’t taken out of the State
2:11 of the Union then?
2:12 ARMITAGE: Because I think it was overruled by
2:13 the types down at the White House. Condi doesn’t like being
2:14 in the hot spot. But she —
2:15 WOODWARD: But it was Joe Wilson who was sent by
2:16 the agency. I mean that’s just —
2:17 ARMITAGE: His wife works in the agency.
2:18 WOODWARD: — Why doesn’t that come out? Why does —
2:19 ARMITAGE: Everyone knows it.
2:20 WOODWARD: —that have to be a big secret?
2:21 Everyone knows.
2:22 ARMITAGE: Yeah. And I know [ ] Joe Wilson’s
2:23 been calling everybody. He’s pissed off because he was
2:24 designated as a low-level guy, went out to look at it. So,
2:25 he’s all pissed off.
3:1 WOODWARD: But why would they send him?
3:2 ARMITAGE: Because his wife’s a [ ]
3 3:23 3:2 Woodward & Amitage Interview –
That about nails it. Wonder when this will hit JOM?
The real issue for the country is not whether Scooter Libby lied to a Grand Jury. If he did, he gets 5 months in Club Fed. The real story is how major segments of the American news media perpetuated a myth that the Bush Administration waged some kind of campaign against poor Joe Wilson. These news people knew who Wilson’s wife was, before the Novak article. Many of them no doubt knew that it was Plame who got him his junket to Niger. The news media knowingly promoted a false story – a story that seriously damaged an Administration in the midst of an overseas crisis. That’s what has fat Timmy Russert sweating. He knows that his news organization has been promoting a falsehood, and now he, and others, have been caught at it.
Libby Update…
There are so many tangled threads in the Lewis Libby trial I’m not even sure I’ll be able to intelligently critique the Post’s coverage tomorrow what do you mean tomorrow but let me thrown down a few markers: here’s the…
Joe Wilson was pissed off? He doesn’t know what pissed off is. This noxious little twerp spread the story that he was being persecuted by the White House, when it was him running his mouth all the time, to try to make himself out as a bigshot? And what of all the so-called journalists who joined him in attacking the Administration? They didn’t know this when they were publishing and broadcasting about the White House attacking Wilson.? How about it, news scribes? Your credibility has sunk. An apology would hardly be adequate.
Andrea Mitchell was right, “Everybody knew about Valerie Plame”…
When NBC’s Andrea Mitchell said that “It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger”, she w…
By George!
Armitage is telling Woodward that George Tenet is the “guy behind the curtain.”
I guess when Bush became president, George Tenet said, “SAME FIRST NAMES. I CAN DO THE JOB. BUSH DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO SHOW UP IN THE BIG WIDE HOUSE.”
DIsgusting. How the shadow government operates. They thought all George Bush was good for was publicity photos. And, hand-shaking donors. While the CIA was gonna run the country.
Then, when Bush decided to “get Saddam,” George Tenet went nuts.
What is PFIAB?
Armitage should be hung…and all who are of the same feathers…
He directly disobeyed THREE orders from the President of the United States.
I am disgusted with these traitors.
So now we know who outed Valerie Plame (who is married to Joe WIlson)!
It was Joe Wilson! And it was Ari Fliescher! And it was Dick Armitage!
So why haven’t Wilson, Fliescher, Armitage, or Grossman been indicted?
Oh that’s right. Scooter Libby worked for Vice President Cheney, and he’s a Republican.
So what happened with this big investigation to find out who leaked Valerie Plame’s (who is married to Joe WIlson) name (who was a non-covert CIA analyst) in the first place?
So do I understand this right? Joe Wilson outed his own wife, and then demanded that an investigation be launched to hunt down and punish those responsible?
Shouldn’t this be more like the Boston Terror Hoax story, and have an ending where Joe Wilson is indicted? As part of his restitution he should repay the costs of the investigation, trial, etc.
Ok, so that wouldn’t happen, but I’d love to see him (Wilson who is married to Plame) convicted, and sentenced to be a Wal-Mart greeter.
Smile big Mr. World traveler Atachee! Which aisle are the Huggie’s on?
I just commented on this, dropped in here and you are headlining what’s in my head. Exactly right. Joe outed Val with Val’s help.
It really helps to hear that tape. Poetic justice for them and Fitz.
So is the MSM too dumb to realize it? Nope. It is deliberate and this is how they lie to the public by not exposing the part of the news they don’t like. The Silence.
And the media says they bought into the Iraqi war with out asking enough questions——I wonder how they will spin how they bought into Joe’s story with out question. MSM has turned into tabloid media. They don’t care what they print. This same media wants us to with draw from Iraq, this country be damned. Yellow journalism raises it’s ugly hear again. We had better wake up.
It is important to keep in mind what Libby is on trial for. He is accused of committing perjury for telling the grand jury that he heard abotu Val from Russert. That’s it. Period. He said he heard it from Russert, Russert says the subject never came up. But the important thing is that they have to prove that it was an intentional lie. Perjury is when a person willfully tries to deceive the court (or grand jury in this case). All this “he said she said” stuff in the testimony is quite beside the point. I will be surprised if the judge ever lets this go to deliberation. At this point I believe justice would be best served by throwing the whole thing out. But Fitz needs something to justify the millions spent on the investigation, I suppose.
Dennisa & some others sound surprised at the shoddy reporting (I’m being kind here) on Plamegate. Maybe this is the most blatant example, but this mis-information campaign has been standard practice by the MSM almost from the start of the Bush presidency. It really is shameful and disturbing that much of the news is agenda-driven, almost lock-step with the dems and libs. Even worse, though, is the shadow govt that has obviously been at work undermining Bush, perhaps robbing Bush & the country of important momentum on many key fronts. And Tenet is a dolt … how he became DCI is amazing, and even more amazing he stayed so long (one of Bush’s mistakes for keeping him around).
Joe and Val’s case against Rove, Cheney Et Al
just went down the drain!!! Glug, Glug, Glug!!!!!!!!!
LOL
Cp
We have a man who tried to do his best and was caught up in a maze of others with so many agendas.
He may have made minor mistakes that have created this gel which everyone wants to seem to feast on, but I bet it was not intended.
Some things are right but many are wrong.
Some are following this story closely, but many are moved on past this and don’t even have a clue that the story is unfolding.
It is too much yesterday’s news.
The feeding frenzy has stopped, it is not a hottie topic.
Sad but true.
I am not a cynic but more a realist.
Does anyone expect the MSM to give coverage to this and poke their own eye out?
The coverage has been little and only of those who are close to the issue.
Please do not color me surprised.
They have gotten their 15 minutes of Phlame and walked on beyond that fountainhead.
Any coverage now will be looked on as so retro of what happened in the past that is so little to be regarded.
Short attention span theater is so much us as a nation, it explains a lot of things that nobody wishes to admit.
But then why and how can we turn this around.
A grave question that befuddles our nation with a lot of impacts.
Hopefully some will gain the answer, but will it be enough?
Just as a reminder, the MEMORANDUM OPINION on November 2, 2006 said,
“And as the Court has already indicated, it is prepared to provide the jury with an instruction that will remind them of factors they may consider in accessing the accuracy of memory.”
That instruction will play a major role in the outcome of the case, regardless of the Defense victories during the trial!!
SBD
while what AJ wrote has been the accepted truth by most folks who follow this mess have long understood–it still was a very successful campaign by wilson and his cohorts. their primary aim was twofold: to attempt to throw the election and to undermine the basis for the war. they got the senate and congress and turned public opinion against the war. it was their continued canard about the yellowcake sentance in the UN speech that was used to say the war was based on lies. the MSM was only too happy to go along–in fact they helped. once again giving truth to
“Lies come first, and drag along the gullible. Truth limps in long
afterward on the arm of time.” – Balthazar Gracian
Patrick
It is a well know truth that there are some people you shouldn’t trust with a salt shaker at a BBQ.
It is playing out here.
Wiley – Believe me, I’m under no illusions concerning the bias of whole sections of the news media. But the Armitage tape was the final piece of the puzzle concerning who told who what and when. As far as the news media is concerned, this is a major scandal. In effect, they lied to the public in order to create a story. I just can’t sit quiet on this one.
Sorry to be off-topic, but has anyone heard about George Tenet’s new book “At the Center of the Storm”? It’s supposed to be out this Sring. The NYTimes has a preview:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/washington/13tenet.html?ex=1171947600&en=354ff2c36574675f&ei=5099&partner=TOPIXNEWS
I wonder what effect this is going to have on a whole bunch of issues. It seems like anyone with an axe to grind writes a book these days. Hmmm.
Carol
Oops! My bad! It should be out this Spring not Sring. Jeez!