Truthdig - Ear to the Ground - What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA

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What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!!!

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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