LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.   Exclusive Truthdig Merchandise - Gore Vidal signed first editions - Signed Mr. Fish prints
November 22, 2009
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Intelligentsia Against Intelligence

Throw the Money Changers Out of the Temple

Obama's Job Approval Slips Below 50 Percent

Claire Wasserman on Europe's Islamic Immigrants

The Afghanistan Speech Obama Should Give (but Won't)

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
Enough G-2 Talk Already
Despite Subsidies, Class Sizes Rise in California Schools

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Freedom’s Fight: Part II

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101
Vetting Sarah Palin

Truthdig Bazaar
Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez

by Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka
$18.45

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Sep 6, 2006

The woman at the center of the CIA leak case “was no analyst or paper-pusher;” rather, she was chief of operations on the CIA’s clandestine Joint Task Force on Iraq, which was heading up the CIA’s intelligence hunt for Saddam’s WMD. Thus, her outing by Bush administration officials was a serious breach of national security—not to mention a career-killer.
The Nation’s David Corn has the scoop in his new book, “Hubris.”


The Nation’s David Corn:

... The Novak column triggered a scandal and a criminal investigation. At issue was whether Novak’s sources had violated a little-known law that makes it a federal crime for a government official to disclose identifying information about a covert US officer (if that official knew the officer was undercover). A key question was, what did Valerie Wilson do at the CIA? Was she truly undercover? In a subsequent column, Novak reported that she was “an analyst, not in covert operations.” White House press secretary Scott McClellan suggested that her employment at the CIA was no secret. Jonah Goldberg of National Review claimed, “Wilson’s wife is a desk jockey and much of the Washington cocktail circuit knew that already.”

Valerie Wilson was no analyst or paper-pusher. She was an operations officer working on a top priority of the Bush Administration. Armitage, Rove and Libby had revealed information about a CIA officer who had searched for proof of the President’s case. In doing so, they harmed her career and put at risk operations she had worked on and foreign agents and sources she had handled.

Link

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

Chrome Bag - Free Shipping

Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By gator68, November 28, 2007 at 5:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Read the court documents, for example:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/070529_Unclassified_Plame_employement.pdf

She was covert.  She was chief of a section looking at WMD counter proliferation in Iraq.

Fact.  Not propaganda.

And Bush had no problem throwing an agent under the tire for a small political gain.  So much for patriotism and leadership.

Report this

By Bax, October 22, 2007 at 2:30 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Absolute propaganda!!!  I cannot believe the willingness to believe the lies of the democratic left.

Report this

By Tim, March 16, 2007 at 9:08 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

She was an analyst -

“The same year she met Wilson, the CIA brought her home to headquarters from overseas out of fear that double agent Aldrich Ames might have spilled her name to the Russians.

At HQ, she tracked weapons proliferation.”

That was in 1997!!!

Report this

By Tim, March 16, 2007 at 9:05 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

She was an anaylst -
“The same year she met Wilson, the CIA brought her home to headquarters from overseas out of fear that double agent Aldrich Ames might have spilled her name to the Russians.

At HQ, she tracked weapons proliferation.”

That was in 1997

Report this

By Panther, September 7, 2006 at 11:26 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Based on Plame’s duties at the CIA, outing her was treason—aiding and abetting our enemies.  The firing squad may be appropriate in this case.

Report this

By Mad As Hell, September 7, 2006 at 6:42 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

People who reveil undercover agents go to prison for life.  Think of Ames and Walker and just how many people that got killed by their treason.

While Valerie Plame is personally not a risk to be killed as a spy, by reveiling her, her entire cover organization was “blown”.  How many people working for it overseas have died, are in extreme danger, or simply can no longer function?

The high treason involved in betraying Ms.Plame has been just as disasterous to our nation security as that of Aldredge Ames and the Walkers.  The individuals involved—such as Cheney, Rove, Libby, et al—deserve the same penalty: Life in prison with no parole.

Report this

By Jon B, September 6, 2006 at 11:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Regardless what Plame’s postion was in the CIA, disclosing her ID as a proxy to punish her husband’s factual findings on no WMD was fascist and certainly undemocratic.

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!







Number of characters remaining: 4000

Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

 
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.