Text 22197, 67 rader
Skriven 2006-09-01 16:08:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Valerie
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I expect the Airman to go mute or in hiding over this....

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083101460
_pf.html

End of an Affair
It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to
punish her husband.

Friday, September 1, 2006; A20



WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame
because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in
Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former
ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who
have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising
disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's
cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of
state Richard L. Armitage.

Mr. Armitage was one of the Bush administration officials who supported the
invasion of Iraq only reluctantly. He was a political rival of the White House
and Pentagon officials who championed the war and whom Mr. Wilson accused of
twisting intelligence about Iraq and then plotting to destroy him. Unaware that
Ms. Plame's identity was classified information, Mr. Armitage reportedly passed
it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as
gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey

Smith, who quoted a former colleague of Mr. Armitage.

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush
White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin
her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue. The partisan clamor that
followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led
to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged
investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been
avoided had Mr. Armitage's identity been known three years ago.

That's not to say that Mr. Libby and other White House officials are blameless.
As prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has reported, when Mr. Wilson charged that
intelligence about Iraq had been twisted to make a case for war, Mr. Libby and
Mr. Cheney reacted by inquiring about Ms. Plame's role in recommending Mr.
Wilson for a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger, where he investigated reports that
Iraq had sought to purchase uranium. Mr. Libby then allegedly disclosed Ms.
Plame's identity to journalists and lied to a grand jury when he said he had
learned of her identity from one of those reporters. Mr. Libby and his boss,
Mr. Cheney, were trying to discredit Mr. Wilson; if Mr. Fitzgerald's account is
correct, they were careless about handling information that was classified.

Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of
Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an
explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked
reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated
to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those
officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador
would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his
wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming
that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's
unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.

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