Valerie Plame Wilson and others can testify til they are purple in the face. It will not change the notion that most Republicans, conservatives, moderate, or liberal, will say that the administration did nothing wrong. They will do and say everything to make her and her husband out as villains. I was delighted to see the peron in the background with the Impeach Bush shirt on. The attitudes, who take this security breach so lightly shows how self-righteous and arrogant they are. Thank goodness the Democrats have the power to call investigations that should have been held years ago.

Perhaps if she hadn't arranged for her husband to take a vacation to Africa, none of this would have happened.

Another bogus Mark Silva story setup.

The question with Plame is whether she was a "covert agent" under the definition of the law such that knowingly naming her might violate the law.

And she wasn't. No law broken. Zealous prosecutor Fitzgerald didn't even try and indict anyone for Plame's "outing".

Recently, the "Project for Excellence in Journalism" reported that "less than one in five believe what they read in papers". The above article is one example of why the public simply doesn't trust newspapers any more.

Republicans & conservatives need to admit that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was right when he came back from Niger & no evidence of uranium cake was being pursued by Sadam. Admit Bush using uranium cake as one of his excuses for going to war with Iraq was wrong & he knew it all along. And admit it was a federal crime to reveal the identity of Valarie Plame & those in the White House who are responsible need to be brought to justice.

Come on conservatives, take ownership for your screw-ups for once. Trying to blame Clinton for all your problems is getting you nowhere.

Cheney,Rove and Scooter should all be going on trail for Treason.

Scooter "saved" them all by lying to a Federal Grand Jury and becoming the "fall guy" for this trool-like administration.

My guess is that W. has already signed Scooter's pardon and will give it to him over the X-Mas holidays when no one is paying attention.

The administrations' eagerness to involve us in an unjust and immoral war has been demonstrated several ways. But this one: exposure of classified agents strikes me as something near to treason. Our rush into war, the distortion of facts and sanctimonious promises of "freedom" for Iragis turns my stomach. The Bush administration has dome grave injusry to our nation and brought it closer to peril.

The administrations' eagerness to involve us in an unjust and immoral war has been demonstrated several ways. But this one: exposure of classified agents strikes me as something near to treason. Our rush into war, the distortion of facts and sanctimonious promises of "freedom" for Iragis turns my stomach. The Bush administration has dome grave injury to our nation and brought it closer to peril.

If she was so concerned about her so-called "career", she probably should have told Joe to keep his mouth shut, and stop telling lies about who sent him to Niger. I hope they enjoy New Mexico. GOOD RIDDANCE!

And there should be heads rolling for exposing a covert agent and endangering other CIA agents still in the field that were affiliated with her. During a time of war, since that is what they choose to call it, it’s considered treason.

Please, if anyone is a career wrecker it's Plame and her husband. They are liars and BS artists.

Hey Mark, how about writing about all the ties Plame/Wilson have to Terry McAuliffe, Paul Begala and all the other Democratic powerhouses in DC?

These people are nothing but political operatives given cover by the mainstream media.

It's interesting how the Tribune photos were cropped to show the "impeach Bush" t-shirt in the background. No, there's no bias in the media.

Good one, Kasha. How exactly could that photo been "cropped" (a word you clearly don't understand)to not show the t-shirt. Seems to me you'd have to cut Plame's head off. Oh...never mind.

And she wasn't. No law broken. Zealous prosecutor Fitzgerald didn't even try and indict anyone for Plame's "outing".
Posted by: bruce | Mar 16, 2007 12:04:17 PM

For someone who likes to profess having the ruth, you really need to check your facts again. Court papers presented in court on the 13th(I believe) of Feb. 05, gave proof that she was indead covert and in a sensitive position. You can read about it in News Week of that same month and year. research...Bruce...do it...just don't complain about it.

1. Joe Wilson told the truth, exposing the administration's lies.

2. His wife was exposed in retaliation.

3. Anyone who doesn't have a problem with this is soft on intelligence and hates America.

Given the way liberals are going at conservatives and vice versa, I would guess the fanatic Muslims are having a pretty good laugh. We are doing a better job destroying our society than they are.

Rory M.
Not sure what country "rolls heads" for not committing a crime??

If Plame were covert, Armitage would have been the person to be prosecuted by Fitzgerald... she did not meet that criteria, so he wasn't prosecuted AND Armitage is the person who leaked her name to Novak.

Fitzgerald knew this before or very near the beginning of his excellent adventure dude!

Fitzgerald knew from the beginning of the investigation that his original reason for being appointed was to pursue the exposing of a covert agent charge - when it was made clear that Plame did not meet the criteria he had nothing else to pursue..
so what does he do..
Keeps asking questions, fishes, engages in public hyperbole about the "cloud around cheneys office" and in the end sets his perjury trap, catches Libby either lying or not remembering what turns out to be a non- issue and gets his successful prosecution...thats nuts!

how covert do you want to be if your husband is filing his CIA reports in the NY Times anyway??

Sure heads should roll- but it should be the special prosecuters not Libby's

I love how the main sheeple, John D and Bruce,
decide it's all her fault. They are now scum declares John D. don't think that just because you worked for the USA in a dangerous job, that that would excuse you from the scum label from John D.
Boy...talk about mis-directed anger.

I know you didn't exactly use that word scum...but liars and BS artists are just about the same in your journalistic view.(your post with Janet). Right?

Hans,

She specifically said, in this hearing undeer oath. that she did not send her husband to Niger nor did she have the authority to do so.

Bruce,

As is your fashion, you'e wrong again. The focus isn't on COVERT as you state. The focus is on the word KNOWINGLY, which is next to impossible to prove in court. If not, Libby, and possibly soon others, would be making a lot more license plates as Patrick Fitzgerald himself has stated that that's the key to much more serious charges.

Kasha,

Those aren't photos, they're videos, and they're not the Trib's, they're the same ones used on C SPAN.

Even if Plame wasn't covert, the White House had no business discussing CIA ops to reporters.

The only reason no one was prosecuted was because so many people leaked the information, it was hard to determine who leaked it FIRST.

The prosecutor lined up all of the most likely suspects and asked, "Okay, who leaked this FIRST?" Everyone in the White House line up took one step back except Scooter. He apparently didn't get the memo. That's why he was prosecuted, and rightly so.

He was caught lying about how he found out - when, in fact, it became clear that he was part of a larger conspiracy. They couldn't prove the conspiracy, but they could prove Scooter was trying to b.s. his way out of the situation.

"1. Joe Wilson told the truth, exposing the administration's lies."

REALLY? The administration lied that British Intelligence said Iraq was trying to aquire uranium from Africa?

You should have been a witness for the Butler Report Captain Reality, because they stated the claim was "well founded"

I guess they never bothered to ask Captain Reality.

I guess Fitzgerald will be indicting those who leaked Plame's name....oh wait, he didn't and the case is now closed. Damn Captain Reality.....I'm beginning to question your name.

Hey look, Plame testified that she never recommended Wilson for the trip to Africa. That's not what senior officials at the CIA and State Department said.

Uh oh...is Plame going to be in trouble like Libby?

How much do you think the RNC and Fox News pay bruce for his irrational postings?

John D is posting on this issue as well. The man with the brilliant ideas that mirror Saddam Hussein's tactics. His next suggestion may may to "disappear" both of them to make the problem go away. Thank goodness we don't actually live in John D's version of America.

Plame and her husband have strong ties to the Democratic party. She was even present when her husband gave off the record information to a Times reporter. Plame and Wilson decided to play politics by first leaking stories and then by going public. After they leaked stories to hurt the White House, they scream political smear when the White House did the same. What everybody did was legal, just rough politics. If Ms Plame wanted to remain a covert agent, she and her husband should have stayed out of politcs.

The picture above does show a Tribune bias on the issue.

English spies were the source of the Niger story and just because Wilson, 007 spy that he may think he is, failed to confirm the story does not mean that the CIA or the White House should give Mr Wilson the final say on the story. He was a single view on the issue. With conflicting stories going to the CIA and the White House why should they assume thta Mr Wilson is the leading expert on this issue? Please, if most of us had Mr Wilson sitting at a table giving his views, he would privatley think - what a self serving pompous ass.

Didn't Wilson lie and do harm to the intelligence community when he said Cheney sent him to Niger? When it was, in fact, his wife? Wilson and Plame politicize intelligence information and then cry foul whenever they get called on it. They had to know the dangerous game they were playing.

Plus, she does not fit the legal definition of covert. She was a paper pusher.

Valerie Plame is as phony as her husband Joe Wilson. She was not covered by the law that controlled what it means to be covert since she worked at CIA Headquartrers in Langley, VA every work day. Joe Wilson worked on John Kerry's campaign for President and when he was caught lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee John Kerry fired him. Quick to the rescue was Sen Chuckie Schumer who provided a news conference at the Capitol to trot Joe Wilson to tell his story about Valerie being uncovered to punish him for being a Iraq War critic. Schumer used Wilson to help Dem Senators get re-elected in 06. He is a glib bully who screams and is a whiner on steroids to bash Bush.
Robert Novak got her name from Joe Wilson's listing in Marquis Who's Who in America not from the government. It's all Joe's fault he leaked his wife's name by being vain. Richard Armitage a friend of Wilson's leaked his name but, Pat Fitzgerald would not proseecute him because after spending some $15 million on his special prosecutors investigation he decided Valerie was not covert in the legal interpretation and could only pin the tail on Scooter Libby for perjury. If there was no crime how could there be perjury?As Joe Wilson said in San Francisco in a speech I could never be elected President because I have been married too many times and I have inhaled too much. Now, this dynamic duo are writing a book, having a movie made about them and using Bush to bash they will be celebrities otherwise they would be nobodys in America, Jerry White, Springfield, IL

All the usual lock steppers are falling in line like little puppets.This will do Scooter a lot of good when he has to negoiate with Bubba in prison for a pack of smokes.

Something often neglected in this sordid tale: There may not have been anyone in the U.S. better qualified than Wilson to make that trip to Africa.

Wilson had been the charge d'affaires in the Baghdad embassy. That's the second ranking diplomat, after the ambassador. When the ambassador to Iraq was recalled to Washington, he was in charge of the Baghdad embassy during the run-up to the war to kick out Iraq from Kuwait. President GHW Bush gave him the State Department's highest decoration for heroism.

Then Wilson served as ambassador to a central African country that borders Niger.

And as Captain Reality notes above, Wilson was right.

Iraq did not acquire yellowcake from Niger. Wilson went public only after it was clear that the administration was making claims he knew to be untrue.

It's a mistake to focus on Plame's personal loss. Sure, she will have to find some other kind of work to do. But the real loss is to the national security. Here was a highly trained operative, who had risen through the CIA ranks on merit. An elaborate cover had been created to disguise her, including establishing a front company as her employer. She built a network of informants.

Her job was to track transfers of technology useful in constructing nuclear weapons, for crying out loud! That training and experience is not easy to replace and it isn't replaced immediately.

The CIA has had to start all over. Train someone else. Build a new cover identity. Recruit new informants. God knows what happened while the CIA was temporarily blinded.

The Pakistani nuclear entrepreneur A.Q. Khan and the North Korean and Iranian regimes were all quite happy to see Plame exposed.

Mayberry Machiavellis.

John D.

The Bush administration itself said the Niger claim shouldn't have been in the State of the Union and retracted it.

Why do you hate America?

Plame and her husband have strong ties to the Democratic party.Posted by: LittleBoss | Mar 16, 2007 2:05:34 PM

After indepth research...LittleBoss has found ties to the democratic party. Upon further research, it was found that those leaking the info had strong ties to the republican party.
Imagine that!

If Ms Plame were not covert, why was outing her the end of her career?

One more thing. Libby had already lied to federal investigators when Fitzgerald began working on the case.

If something like this had happened during the Big Dog's administration,the Winger's would have blown off the stain on Monica's dress and started up the drumbeat for Impeachment of Bubba for Treasonist acts committed under his watch,while at the same time all of the "faithful followers" Crazy John Davola,Bruce etc., would be drumming up support for his public execution.

The Wingnut Party needs to start holding their office holders accountable for the crimes and distortions that the GOP has been responsible for during the W. administration or they will soon become the very,very,very minority party.

The GOP is so disorganized and defeated that they have a Democrat (Rudy) leading in the polls for their losing nomination.

Buck up or go away GOP.......

Are you kidding, John E.? The GOP survived Watergate and it'll survive Pelosiville. Rudy still leads all comers in the polls and Rahm is scared silly that any of his charges appearing on Steven Colbert's show will cause him to lose the House. The Democrats are already setting the stage for their latest defeat. You are, by far, the proudest Papa of a 1-4 record that I've ever seen.

No story here.When does reality set in with you morons? The Wilson family is at fault because your Prez lied to the American people and Congress.Even Colin Powell,the only sensible one in that group has admitted they lied.

Are you still blaming Hans Blick for the 3195 dead and 24000 wounded?

Sorry, losers, but it has been proven over and over again that Iraq IN FACT was in Niger looking for yellowcake. Read the Senate Select Intelligence Committee Report, Bob Woodward and others.

The Loony Left is such a joke. It should be funny, but it's scary that dumb--- morons like the Loony Left actually populate the planet.

Captain Reality. How daaaaaare you question my patriotism.

Saying it shouldn't have been in the speech is a far cry from what you wrote:

"Joe Wilson told the truth, exposing the administration's lies."

Some in the CIA believe that Joe Wilson' report lent more credibility to the claim.

More like Captain Alternate Reality.

Your not hangin' around with John E. at Huskie stadium are you?

John D,

Proven over and over again? Do you have a link to back that up?

If it's been proven over and over again, then why did the administration back off the claim and say it shouldn't have been in the State of the Union speech, hmmmm?

Give us the link. Surrender the link, sir! We beesech you.

Billy/Jeff,

You'll be the first one I come after for a comment after the Wingers lose the 08 Prez election and more seats in the Senate.....and don't change your post name after you lose this next election.......Bill....

That's the problem with the GOP,they've become so comfortable with being in power that they've fooled themselves into believeing that they're above the laws of our land.

Dilligent Fact-checking Johnny D,
"it has been proven over and over again that Iraq IN FACT was in Niger looking for yellowcake" AND the White House says they should have never had those 16 words in the State of the Union address. That only makes sense to a moron.

Keeps asking questions, fishes, engages in public hyperbole about the "cloud around cheneys office" and in the end sets his perjury trap, catches Libby either lying or not remembering what turns out to be a non- issue and gets his successful prosecution...thats nuts!
Posted by: heartburn | Mar 16, 2007 1:32:26 PM

Did Fitzgeralds "trap" involve the five or six people who directly contradicted Libby's testimony? No. Where's the trap?
Let's not forget that a jury determined that Libby was lying and did not suffer from faulty recall. Libby's perjuring himself - not public hyperbole - was the reason he was convicted. I would not call that "nuts". I would call that fair enforcement of the law.
Lastly, Libby has the right to appeal his conviction. Let him do so if he feels he can offer further proof of his innocence. This seems to be most unlikely.

how bleeding stupid can you people be?

The CIA backs up the fact that Plame was a covert agent, and that she had been on "secret missions" outside of the US within the 5 years prior to Novak's treasonous column.

That proves without any room for wiggling that Plame was indeed covert and the law was broken when she was outed. Not only that, but her outing jeopardized other covert operatives that she had worked with, because their association to her puts them at risk of having their cover blown too.

"Case closed" regarding treason? The ignorance of you brainless, spineless cowards blindly supporting Bush is sickening. The focus on "knowingly" is why it has taken so much time to build a case. it's not impossible to prove it in court. not at all. they just need time to compile evidence.

Believing that Plame wasn't covert or that the administration did no wrong is a pathological denial of reality. You are the same kind of braindead authoritarian chest thumping parrot-monkeys that allowed Hitler to rise to power in Germany.

And King Moron John D is citing years old "sources" that at best only tentatively supported the administration's position that Iraq was seeking yellowcake from Niger. John D, there's such a thing as adjusting your opinion of something based on new information. It's called being rational. I would say you should try it, but you're clearly incapable.

Do the swamp a favor and unplug your computer and never touch another one again. You are sincerely pathetic.

"Do the swamp a favor and unplug your computer and never touch another one again. You are sincerely pathetic.

Posted by: Ethan R. | Mar 16, 2007 5:57:37 PM"

That'll never happen.

JD,

I notice you are back.
You seemed to lay low for a while.

Catch any of the Invasion of the Fundies on 'Warner hits Pace' a couple days ago? Nearly 800 posts and it hit the top of Google list.

I actually whipped out the old 'Imagine' lyrics on them!
You'da been proud.

Like shootin' a hornets nest with a BB gun.

Lot's of fun had by all.

EthanR.
You're the moron.Everything you posted is either a lie or the thoughts of a radical lefty.
The CIA never said V.Plame was a covert agent,infact Victoria Toensing who co-authored the 1982 Agent Identy Act said Plame doesn't qualify because she's not covert and she helped write the law....not EthanR.
I know this will be tough for you to figure out,but when V.Plame drives to the same building everyday and takes the same route to it,plus her husband let's everyone on the cocktail circuit know she's a CIA agent....that's not covert.
Try other sources besides The DailyKos and High Times magazine you dope.
Paulo

Why John E., you're going to come after me? oooh, I'm scared. Are you going to bring your toy soldiers with you from mommy's basement. For the last time, I don't know who Bill is, but it CERTAINLY is refreshing that at least one of your sock puppets is gone, John E. I can't begin to describe how great this forum has been since me and JD posted the facts about your little veteran sock puppet. And while we're at it, how's Iraq today?

Your "deployment" was in January right? How's month three of the tour of Mommy's basement?

We don't believe we're above the law. We believe any thinking person will vote for our candidates when they get a look at the alternative. We also believe we're smarter than people like you. Which isn't that bold of a boast. It's the equivalent of being sure that you're taller than Verne Troyer.

How Valerie Plame, the covert paper pusher who worked9-5 in an office building in Washington, "didn't" recommend she send her husband to Niger to dig up politically-motivated intelligence. This is straight from her testimony and it's REALLY ridiculous.

An officer serving under her was upset to have received an inquiry from the vice president's office about yellowcake from Niger and evidently, while she was comforting that junior officer, some guy walked by her office and suggested her husband should go to Niger to check it out.

She said she was ambivalent about the idea because she didn't want to have to put her 2 year-old twins to bed by herself at night. Still, she and the guy who had just happened to walk by then went to her supervisor.

Supervisor: Well, when you go home this evening, would you ask your husband to come in.

Then her supervisor asked her to write an e-mail about the idea. She did so. That e-mail, she said, was the basis for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence claim that she had been responsible for sending her husband to Niger for the CIA.

In other words, she didn't recommend him or suggest him. Rather, it was a guy who walked by. Just some unnamed guy that she can't remember.

If that is how the CIA works, it certainly solves a helluva lot of mysteries about US foreign policy failures.

Here are some links for Leftist Loony friends about Iraq, Niger and yellowcake:

http://www.slate.com/id/2146475/
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmd-intell_chapter2.htm
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/senateiraqreport.pdf

To clarify (mystify?) Plame's status from AP/MSNBC:

Plame also repeatedly described herself as a covert operative, a term that has multiple meanings. Plame said she worked undercover and traveled abroad on secret missions for the CIA.

But the word "covert" also has a legal definition requiring recent foreign service and active efforts to keep someone's identity secret. Critics of Fitzgerald's investigation said Plame did not meet that definition for several reasons and said that's why nobody was charged with the leak.

Also, none of the witnesses who testified at Libby's trial said it was clear that Plame's job was classified.

However, Fitzgerald said flatly at the courthouse after the verdict that Plame's job was classified.

The issue was not clarified during the trial because the defense persuaded U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to keep that information out of testimony because Libby wasn't charged with leaking classified information.

Rep. Tom Davis, the ranking Republican on the committee, said, "No process can be adopted to protect classified information that no one knows is classified. This looks to me more like a CIA problem than a White House problem."

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame have served our nation with grace and dignity.Something, that can't be said about the current administration who disgraced themselves once again.

Now,Henry Waxman is investigating Bush for lying to the Nation once again.When this story first broke,the lying Bush told us he would investigate the leak and that person would be fired.After testifying yesterday,the Chief of Security said under oath that he was never asked to investigate the leak,thus catching Bush in another lie.

Jeff,
JohnE.left for Iraq on Febraury 15,2007...let's not change this historic fact.

Paulo

Billy/Jeff,

Make sure you're on here to take FULL accountabilty for the GOP's "victory" in 08 and bring Osama Bin Forgotten with you,remember him?,wanted dead or alive by the Wingnut Party?

No name changing after this next loss....Bill

John e,

The Republics are busy 'Smokin' em out, chasin em down, and bringin em to justice, dead or alive'.

Ethan, you must be John E.'s mentally-hampered younger brother?? Course. John E is mentally hampered too.

Anyway, no old sources that Iraq was in Niger looking for yellowcake. Current sources and sources within the past three years.

Anyway, CIA Director George Tenet tells President Bush it "is a slam dunk" when asked about the intelligence and whether Iraq has WMDs. AS president you then must follow through on that information.

Also, CIA memos show Valerie Plame brought forth her husband to go to Niger. His report has since been debunked as a pack of lies. Plame testifies she had nothing to do with her husband going to Niger. Sounds like perjury to me! Indict Plame and Wilson!

John D,
How can both of these statements be true: 1)Your claim that Iraq was seeking Uranium from Africa and 2) The Bush Administration says that these 16 words, "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa", should not have been in the State of the Union Address? Please tell us Pulitzer Johnny D. How can both of those statements be true? Why would the Bush Administration say they should not have included those 16 words if those 16 words could be proven to be factual?

Jethro Beverly Hillbilly: The FACT is Iraq was seeking uranium doesn't obscure the fact that some in the Bush White House stupidly backtracked without a reason to backtrack. There is no doubt that communications has not been a Bush administration strong suit.

Johnny D,
The President of the United States George W. Bush, himself, now admits those 16 words should never have appeared in the State of the Union Address!!

No more sock puppets for you John E./raving loon. Deal?

Plus, let's remember that based on BIPARTISAN SENATE COMMITTEE FINDINGS that Val Plame lied under oath. So to recap, Scooter Libby lies under and gets prison. Valerie Plame and Bill Clinton lie under oath and get... nothing.

When she says that she had nothing to do with getting her husband the trip, that flies in the face of the evidence adduced by the Senate Intelligence Committee whose findings were released not on a partisan basis — the bipartisan findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was that she very much did have something to do with it, that she recommended him and that she put it in a memo.