Text 14282, 71 rader
Skriven 2005-07-27 12:39:39 av John Hull (1:379/1.99)
     Kommentar till en text av Liberal lackeys
Ärende: Michelle Malkin - Bill Gertz on Rove/CIA
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Not only did Cheney NOT out Valerie Plame, neither did Robert Novac!



CIA officer named prior to column


By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


The identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was compromised twice before her name
appeared in a news column that triggered a federal illegal-disclosure
investigation, U.S. officials say. 
    Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to
Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the
condition of anonymity. 
 
    In a second compromise, officials said a more recent inadvertent disclosure
resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA
to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana. 
    The documents were supposed to be sealed from the Cuban government, but
intelligence officials said the Cubans read the classified material and learned
the secrets contained in them, the officials said. 
    The investigation into who revealed Mrs. Plame's identity publicly has
reached the highest levels of the U.S. government. President Bush was
questioned by investigators June 24. 
    Mrs. Plame is the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a
critic of the Bush administration who has accused the president of misusing
intelligence to go to war in Iraq. Mr. Wilson also accuses White House
officials of deliberately revealing Mrs. Plame's name in an effort to discredit
him. 
    In 2003, Mr. Wilson publicly debunked reports that Iraq was seeking uranium
ore from Niger. Mr. Wilson also said his report ruling out the attempted
purchase was ignored. 
    However, recent reports by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the
British government have undermined Mr. Wilson's charges. The Senate says Mr.
Wilson's report, contrary to his charges, actually bolstered their view that
Iraq was seeking uranium ore from Niger. 
    The British government said it believes intelligence reports obtained by
the Joint Intelligence Committee that point to attempts by Saddam Hussein's
government to buy uranium from Niger. 
    The White House announced last year that it erred in including a statement
on the attempted ore purchase in Mr. Bush's State of the Union speech about the
Niger-Iraq connection. 
    Mrs. Plame's identity first was revealed publicly by Chicago Sun-Times
columnist Robert Novak in a July 14, 2003, column about Mr. Wilson's trip to
Niger to investigate reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore for a
nuclear-arms program. 
    The Justice Department then began an investigation of the disclosure under
the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which makes it a crime to
knowingly disclose the name of a covert agent. 
    However, officials said the disclosure that Mrs. Plame's cover was blown
before the news column undermines the prosecution of the government official
who might have revealed the name, officials said. 
    "The law says that to be covered by the act the intelligence community has
to take steps to affirmatively protect someone's cover," one official said. "In
this case, the CIA failed to do that." 
    A second official, however, said the compromises before the news column
were not publicized and thus should not affect the investigation of the Plame
matter. 



John 

America:  First, Last, and Always!
LIBERALS AND DOGS KEEP OFF THE GRASS!

--- Msged/386 TE 05
 * Origin: We are the Watchmen of our own Liberty! (1:379/1.99)