A National Catastrophe - The outing of Valerie Plame

[onehandle]

The outing of Valerie Plame in the column of Robert Novak has now led to the resignation of Jim Plavitt from the CIA. Mr. Plavitt was Valerie Plame’s superior. His work has been devastated by this catastrophic security leak, and he has apparently chosen to resign as a result. The announcement of his retirement is the tip of an iceberg of national disaster.

Don’t believe for a moment the rantings of lying radio hosts about this case. Valerie Plame was no small fish. The revelation of her name is, in fact, the most serious intelligence disaster in the history of this country. Only a tiny number of high officials, such as the president, the secretaries of state and defense, and a few high White House officials even have access to the names of the CIA’s NOC “non-official cover” officers. These are seemingly private individuals who are actually key CIA personnel, whose clandestine activities are run via carefully designed covers, companies that are legitimate from top to bottom and are not in any way thought to be CIA-associated, and have survived years of scrutiny from foreign intelligence operations, and are believed by even the best of them to be entirely non-CIA connected.

The names on the NOC list are among the greatest secrets possessed by our country, and the leaking of this particular name at this particular time could well be the single most traitorous act in our history, because it has blinded us to the actions of Iran as they are in the process of acquiring nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.

http://www.unknowncountry.com/journal/?id=162

[NMDemDist2]

1. yes, this story didn't get told, Plame was deep undercover in the ME

and in perfect position to watch for WMD's

this truly was a tradegy

[hang a left]

6. I earlier that the company she worked for was involved with Amoco.

Here is a link to the story I read. Of course these are just rumours, however this expose is a little different and goes into much more detail.

Check it out.

http://politics.com/discussion.html?cid=1&mid=197517&page=1

[shraby]

2. May the tectonic plates begin to move.

[grytpype]

3. Wow, read the whole thing!

Get this:

The President has retained the services of a criminal lawyer, Jim Sharp, to represent him before the grand jury.

The Washington rumor mill also has it that he’s done this because he knew the source of the leak and may have violated the law by not informing the FBI. The rumor mill also has it that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney may be indicted in the matter.

Holy moley.

[demodewd]

4. I hope

I hope this whole thing unfolds fast. I read about it about three weeks ago. Come on people lets get it going!!

[asjr]

5. Does anyone else feel that

something big is about to explode? This really quick, secretive turnover to the Iraqis, the Halliburton inquiries, the VP cursing a senator, the Plame affair, our pRes. acting more idiotic than usual, all point to a meltdown they know is coming. I am not psychic but something is in the air that does not bode well for the WH.

[Disturbed]

7. Another chapter in a real mystery.

We may know who will be indicted in about another month.

I suspect it will be two people in the VP's office. I also feel that they won't roll over on the Pres. or VP. Unless documented proof surfaces that implicate the Pres. or VP neither will be damaged by this.

[enough]

8. Does anyone know anything about this writer, Whitely Striber?

He's saying some fairly hair-raising things here. Is he a credible source?

snip>

In the meantime, we can only wait and pray that a nuclear weapon does not go off somewhere in the world—or even more than one. The worst case nuclear scenario is that a bomb devastates a great western city, and the west is then warned that many other cities are mined with similar weapons, and this is done by a shadowy “terrorist group.”

Because of the intelligence catastrophe that we have sustained, we will not be able to track the actual source of that terrorist group. We will, in fact, be forced to surrender to whatever demands these unknown parties make.

snip>

I have been exploring in my own mind what the motive behind this leak must have been. If it was mere vindictiveness, then the person who did it is a dangerous fool, and he should be punished and whoever was responsible for putting him in a position where he could do this damage should fired and disgraced.

In my worst nightmares, I fear that this was done by somebody who shares the lunatic belief that inducing the battle of Armageddon will bring about the rapture, and that it was done in hopes of causing a nuclear holocaust. Or that it was done by a fundamentalist Moslem terrorist who is actually also a high US official.

snip>

[Langtree]

10. Streiber's a bit of nut case ...

He's written a series of books detailing how he was "abducted by aliens."

[Wright Patman]

11. You know what?

If an alien abducted me right now, I am not sure I would want to come back to earth anyhow, given the current situation.

OTOH, any aliens who chose to visit earth at this time wouldn't be exhibiting any great degree of advancement. On my intergalactic maps, I would designate earth and near-earth orbit as a "no go" zone.

[Langtree]

9. I think Dems risk looking silly by continuing to talk about this ...

After all, if you read the Vanity Fair article (the one that featured Amb. Wilson and his wife posing for a picture in their convertible Jaguar) Amb. Wilson was known for bragging about what his wife did for a living as standard dinner party conversation. He is likely just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to endangering his wife.

Let US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald do his job and get to the bottom of the story - he's about as fair and impartial a guy as your going to find, and he will discover the source of the "leak" and prosecute accordingly.

[Stuckinthebush]

12. On the contrary...

Dems will look weak if they do not continue to discuss this case. Clearly, someone in the administration leaked Plame's name for revenge. This person had to be high up because of the level of Plame's CIA undercover status. This is a felony. There is no doubt that this did happen, only who did it. So, the Dems should keep talking about how petty the administration is for doing this and how it has seriously hurt the "war" on terrorism.

This is a serious problem with this administration - that they are petty enough, and don't care about America enough, to divulge the name of a high level undercover agent all for revenge.

[Sinistrous]

13. I would like to see a citation of the source for your assertion:

"Wilson was known for bragging about what his wife did for a living as standard dinner party conversation."

[lancdem]

14. I agree with you about Fitzgerald

[bobbyboucher]

15. Nice try.

The President and VP don't get outside attorneys and get questioned by US prosecutors when there isn't some heavy shit going on.

I'll give your effort a full gallon rating though, nice job.

[MallRat]

17. Patrick Fitzgerald: helluva resume.

Found this on IL Sen. Peter Fitzgerald's website. Senator Fitzgerald (no relation) recommended Patrick Fitzgerald to President Bush back in 2001 to serve as US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Biography

Patrick J. Fitzgerald,* 40, previously served as Co-Chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Section in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Fitzgerald is a native of Brooklyn, New York, the son of Irish immigrants.

Fitzgerald attended parochial schools, including Regis High School, where he was awarded a full scholarship. He earned his B.A. from Amherst College in economics and mathematics in 1982. He worked his way through college as a janitor and a doorman during the summers and held a variety of on-campus jobs during the academic year. He received several academic scholarships at Amherst and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received a John Woodruff Simpson Fellowship in Law at graduation. In 1985, he graduated from Harvard Law School, where he taught economics and interned in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

Upon graduating from Harvard Law School, Fitzgerald joined the New York law firm of Christy & Viener (now Salans, Herzfeld, Christy & Viener), where he represented individuals and corporations in civil litigation from 1985 until 1988.

In 1988, Fitzgerald became an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. He began his prosecutorial career by handling significant drug trafficking cases, including United States v. Munoz (nine defendants) and prosecuting major heroin smuggling rings, United States v. Rivera and United States v. Yui Keung Tsoi.

In 1993, Fitzgerald and another lawyer prosecuted John Gambino, a capo of the Gambino Crime Family and three other members of the Gambino Crime Family crew for murder, racketeering, gambling, narcotics trafficking, loan-sharking, and bid-rigging. The defendants were ultimately convicted of a variety of racketeering charges, including murder. For his work on the case, the Justice Department honored Fitzgerald with its Director’s Award for Superior Performance.

From January through June 1994, Fitzgerald was Chief of the Narcotics Unit of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In June of 1994, he became counsel in the prosecution of Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 other defendants, who were accused of a seditious conspiracy involving the bombing of the World Trade Center and a plot to bomb the United Nations, the FBI Building in New York, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The nine-month trial resulted in convictions and led to Fitzgerald and his co-counsel receiving the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Justice Department’s highest award. The United States Court of Appeals noted that Fitzgerald and his co-counsel "conducted themselves in the best traditions of the high standards of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York."

In December 1995, Fitzgerald was named Co-Chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Section of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Shortly thereafter he became National Security Coordinator for the Office. In these capacities, he was responsible for supervising the investigation and development of the case against Osama Bin-Ladin. He was the chief counsel in the prosecution of those alleged to have perpetrated the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.


Add to this his work in prosecuting white supremacist Matthew Hale, and this guy's credentials look pretty impressive, even if he was nominated by a Republican Senator. I have confidence that he'll do the right thing.

-MR

[librechik]

18. That's a bald lie about Joe Wilson "bragging" It is an idiotic assertion

generated by the same gang of traitors who outed MS. Plame.
You misread the VF article and in general you are badly misinformed.

I suspect you are here merely to disrupt. While you are correct about Fitzgerald, the first part of your post is despicable.

Do us all a favor: either shut up & learn or else go away.

[onehandle]

19. "...Dems risk...."? What are you?

Lemme guess.

Oh, and Watergate was just a third-rate burglary, right?

[spotbird]

20. That wasn't in the Vanity Fair article.

It did say that she told him her true profession on their fourth date during a make-out session, after she cleared it with her superiors. Permission was granted because Wilson also had a clearance.

That part of the story is always left out.

[ArkDem]

16. >the most serious intelligence disaster in the history of this country

Wow, more serious than the Soviets acquiring our atomic secrets?