I Think An Apology is in Order
State Department Official Outed Ex-CIA Officer
By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 28, 2006
A top State Department official, Richard Armitage, disclosed the identity of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to at least two prominent reporters and failed to tell prosecutors about one of those contacts for more than two years, according to an account in Newsweek magazine.
The confirmation of Mr. Armitage's role, which had been widely assumed in Washington, undercut claims by liberal activists that Ms. Plame was deliberately exposed in retaliation for criticism her husband, Joseph Wilson IV, had leveled at President Bush.
An investigation of the leak led to the indictment of the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, I. Lewis Libby Jr., for perjury and obstruction of justice. Neither Mr. Armitage nor anyone else has been charged for disclosing Ms. Plame's CIA ties.
Mr. Libby's backers argued that Mr. Armitage's alleged role and the lack of any charges against him indicated prosecutors had applied a double standard. "If you were against the war, it was okay to forget or to reveal details about Valerie Plame, but if you supported the war, you get indicted," a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration, Victoria Toensing, said in an interview yesterday. "It's a simple as that."
The latest report, based on a forthcoming book co-written by an investigative reporter for Newsweek, Michael Isikoff, and the Washington bureau chief for the Nation, David Corn, identifies Mr. Armitage as the primary source for the first article to out Ms. Plame, a July 2003 column by Robert Novak.
"The initial leak, seized on by administration critics as evidence of how far the White House was willing to go to smear an opponent, came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone," Mr. Isikoff wrote in Newsweek.
He said Mr. Armitage realized he was Mr. Novak's first source only after the syndicated columnist wrote a follow-up in October 2003, saying he learned of Ms. Plame's affiliation with the CIA in "an offhand revelation" from an official "who is no partisan gunslinger."
. . .
By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 28, 2006
A top State Department official, Richard Armitage, disclosed the identity of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to at least two prominent reporters and failed to tell prosecutors about one of those contacts for more than two years, according to an account in Newsweek magazine.
The confirmation of Mr. Armitage's role, which had been widely assumed in Washington, undercut claims by liberal activists that Ms. Plame was deliberately exposed in retaliation for criticism her husband, Joseph Wilson IV, had leveled at President Bush.
An investigation of the leak led to the indictment of the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, I. Lewis Libby Jr., for perjury and obstruction of justice. Neither Mr. Armitage nor anyone else has been charged for disclosing Ms. Plame's CIA ties.
Mr. Libby's backers argued that Mr. Armitage's alleged role and the lack of any charges against him indicated prosecutors had applied a double standard. "If you were against the war, it was okay to forget or to reveal details about Valerie Plame, but if you supported the war, you get indicted," a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration, Victoria Toensing, said in an interview yesterday. "It's a simple as that."
The latest report, based on a forthcoming book co-written by an investigative reporter for Newsweek, Michael Isikoff, and the Washington bureau chief for the Nation, David Corn, identifies Mr. Armitage as the primary source for the first article to out Ms. Plame, a July 2003 column by Robert Novak.
"The initial leak, seized on by administration critics as evidence of how far the White House was willing to go to smear an opponent, came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone," Mr. Isikoff wrote in Newsweek.
He said Mr. Armitage realized he was Mr. Novak's first source only after the syndicated columnist wrote a follow-up in October 2003, saying he learned of Ms. Plame's affiliation with the CIA in "an offhand revelation" from an official "who is no partisan gunslinger."
. . .
posted by rusty shakelford at 5:58 PM
2 Comments:
YEp, apology is in order, but doan hold yer breath. The plain fact is that libs warn't interested in Pame fer the sake of Plame, oly as a stick ter beat Bush and CO. wif'
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