Democracy Has Prevailed.

October 24, 2007

A New Wrinkle about Plame

I stumbled across this at TPMCafe yesterday.

Larry Johnson, the author, has worked for the CIA and for the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Counter Terrorism. So I think he probably knows what he's talking about.

He writes:

In 2004 the FBI received intelligence that Al Qaeda hit teams were enroute to the United States to kill Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Valerie Plame. The FBI informed Valerie of this threat. This was just more “good” news piled on the fact that her intelligence career was in shambles, that intelligence assets she had recruited/managed were destroyed, and that she was unable to rebut publicly false and malicious smears of her character and reputation by a bunch of partisan Republican hacks. As the mother of two pre-school children, her first thoughts were about protecting her kids. She took the threat seriously and asked for help.
When the White House learned of these threats they sprung into action. They beefed up Secret Service protection for Vice President Cheney and provided security protection to Karl Rove. But they declined to do anything for Valerie. That was a CIA problem.

Valerie contacted the office of Security at CIA and requested assistance. They told her too fucking bad and to go pound sand. They did not use those exact words, but they told her she was on her own.

Nice folks over there in the Bush Administration, huh? George Tenet doesn't come off any nicer. Larry Johnson, again:
[Tenet] refused to come to the aid of one of his CIA officers who faced a specific death threat. In fact, Georgie boy never once reached out to Valerie to provide any comfort or encouragement. He wanted to stay on good terms with the White House so he effectively cut her loose.
Nice guys over there. Not only do they initiate a policy resulting in the deaths of nearly 4,000 American servicemen and women, not only do they uncover the identity of a CIA operative (in violation of the law) who's the wife of a critic of that policy, they do nothing for her safety when receiving intelligence that her life may be in danger.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Larry actually entered the CIA in the same class as Ms. Plame. Reading his posts at TPM Cafe can give a real education about the workings of the CIA -- the unclassified workings, I mean.

Anonymous said...

John K. says: Did the special prosecutor ever identify who leaked Plame's name to the media. Novak did but you lefties live in the alternate world of convict without evidence. But did Fitzgerald ever find out who leaked the name?

Anonymous said...

Dunno who discovered it, Chickenhawk, but it turned out that the FIRST traitor to out Ms. Plame was Richard Armitage.

However, Scooter wasn't charged with that. He was a different kind of traitor. He lied to Federal agents.

But I'm curious. Don't you have some coffins to laugh about? Don't worry about it, Chickenhawk -- may I call you Chicken? Bush will keep killin' 'em to keep you amused.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Larry Johnson, the author, has worked for the CIA and for the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Counter Terrorism. So I think he probably knows what he's talking about.
Larry Johnson has been a screaming mouthpiece democrat hack for the Joe Wilson since the begininng of this. Are you only noticing him now?
With agents like Johnson and Plame, it is no wonder that the CIA failed to predict 9/11 and that India and Pakistani were developing nuclear weapons until they tested them.

I would say this quote covers it best.

So let me put on my “Angry Left Thinking Cap” and get this straight: the CIA sends blonde trophy wife and mother of infant twins NOC into cultures where where they treat women like a John Norman novel and nobody else is blonde…

Yeah, sure.

How does that work Special Agent Plame? Do you put on a “9-11 was an inside job” t-shirt, designer jeans, kitten heels, give your luscious blonde locks a petulant toss and just “blend in”?

Talk about the willing suspense of disbelief!

Anonymous said...

John K. says: What? Richard Armitage outed Plame. That is also what Novak said. So why wasn't Armitage charged with any crime. After all, you lefties said it was a crime. At least when trying to link it to Libby. Hypocrites, got you again. Man are you lefties easy to bait.

Anonymous said...

Incorrect as usual, Chickenhawk. As Fitzgerald said, he was unable to prosecute Armitage due to Libby's lying, treasonous coverup.

And actually, Mein Heir, the CIA DID predict it. Bush ignored the PDB that said "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." It even mentioned the WTC and hijacking planes. It gave him a month and a half to do something.

What did the Misadministration do? Cheney held one meeting on the subject of terrorism before 9/11/2001. Guess when? 9/10/2001.

So that would make you, what? wrong again? You must get so tired of that.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

the CIA DID predict it. Bush ignored the PDB that said "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US. It even mentioned the WTC and hijacking planes.
BTW It mentions the previous attacks on the WTC.

The PDB does not say Bin Laden will slam planes into the WTC.


The release of a vague PBD is no smoking gun.

Moreover, far from being specific, the PDB was wrong in several critical respects. The hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. They were not recruited from the ranks of young Muslim Americans. The hijackers did not use explosives. The 9/11 terrorists used cardboard cutters and nail clippers to seize control of the aircraft. Consequently, even if the president had issued an order stopping every young Muslim American from boarding an airplane until they and their luggage were searched for explosives, 9/11 still would likely not have been prevented.

Anonymous said...

John K. says: Nope, Fitzgerald knew from the beginning, before he questionned Libby, that Armitage had outed Plame. He refused to pursue that prosecution because he thought he could instead get Karl Rove. Once again lefties, make it harder, make it harder...this is way too easy.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Patrick Fitzgerald, one of the most loony lefty liberal REPUBLICAN-APPOINTED REPUBLICAN federal prosecutors ever.

Gosh you're a stupid f@#$, Koward.

In addition to outing a covert CIA operative - who, gasp, had blonde hair, OMG! - who was working on WMD and Iran, let's look at other traitorous activities of the Bush administration, re, leaking classified/secret intel:

Fucking up a Pakistani sting on al Qaeda for purely political reasons.

Fucking up a Web-based monitoring system of al Qaeda for purely political reasons.

There are, of course, other purely politically motivated leaks that threatened national security and probably got some good people killed (not that that's anything new for this administration), but these are illustrative, I would say.

Anonymous said...

Heir to the throne, I believe the last time you entered a comment here was in response to a Tony Norman column in the paper. Tony Norman answered your comment, made you look like a stupid ass, which you evidently are and you ran away with your tail between your legs. Now you're back making an ass of yourself again. What a wuss.

Anonymous said...

Mein Heir makes himself look like a stoopid ass.

The CIA tells Bush that Bin Laden is determined to attack us, Bush does nothing for six weeks, Bin Laden does attack us, and Mein Heir says, "Where's the smoking gun?" Mein Heir is apparently smoking crack.

Anonymous said...

Heir to the (must be the toilet) throne wrote:
'Larry Johnson has been a screaming mouthpiece democrat hack for the Joe Wilson since the begininng of this. Are you only noticing him now?'
I noticed that you used the GOP spin points approved incorrect 'democrat' as an adjective instead of 'democratic' which is grammatically correct.
Also, you screwed up spelling the word beginning.
You are more than a bad reader. You have atrocious grammar and apparently haven't mastered spell check.

Anonymous said...

John K. says: Wrong again lefties. Fitzgerald never talked to Armitage. This from Armitage's own mouth on 60 minutes. He was after a big name for himself and set his sights on the White House. He missed.
As a 2nd note, how would any of you know what The President knew about 9-11 beforehand. Sandy Berger stole and shredded the documents. Those pesky facts getting in the way again.

Anonymous said...

Don't let those drugs wear off, Chickenhawk, or you won't be nearly as amusing.

We know quite well that Bush knew about Bin Laden from the PDB (that is, if HIS drugs had worn off at the time.) See above, if you can read and spew nonsense on the same day.

So Fitzgerald never talked to Armitage directly? So what?