Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry [WP new explosive details]

[truthisfreedom]

most of the details in this story are similar, but look... now there's an administration official who is "coming clean" and admitting that two top admin officials called 6 reporters and gave them valerie's name.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11208-2003Sep27.html

<snip>
Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Wilson had just revealed that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson's account touched off a political fracas over Bush's use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak.

<snip>
It is rare for one Bush administration official to turn on another. Asked about the motive for describing the leaks, the senior official said the leaks were "wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility."

<snip>

[FreakinDJ]

1. Can anyone argue

That this is a treasonable offence in time of war

[NNN0LHI]

3. The USA has not been involved in a declared war since 1945 n/t

[jbfam4]

2. see talking points memo

p://talkingpointsmemo.com/sept0304.html#092603529pm

September 28th, 2003

One of the big questions people are asking now is: who is that "senior administration official" who spilled the beans about the Wilson/Plame matter to the Washington Post?

One scenario is that this is damage control. It's planned. And one of the president's top advisors is helping the White House get out ahead of a very bad story. The other possibility is that this really is a top official turning his guns on the White House.

So who's the "senior administration official"?


This isn't certain. But the authors seem to be distinguishing between administration officials and White House officials. And I think we can probably infer --- probably, but by no means certainly --- that the source is not in the White House.

[RamboLiberal]

8. Joshua Marshall educated guess is Tenet is the SAO

Of course, this information has probably come across John Ashcroft's desk too. And he's a SAO But to me Tenet seems like a better fit.

And there's another clue. Look at the byline: Mike Allen and Dana Priest.

Mike Allen doesn't require much explanation. This is a White House story. But how about Dana Priest? She covers intelligence and military issues.

Clearly, this is in part an intelligence story since it involves the CIA. So her work on this story could be certainly be explained by the clear CIA dimension of the issue. But it's really mainly a White House story. If Tenet were the senior administration official, though, it would make a lot of sense that Priest's byline would be there.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[Fuzz]

4. I hope this has legs

But I won't hold my breath. Sorry for the negativity, but they've weaseled their way out of so much I've learned to not get my hopes up.

[seventhson]

5. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are the only two stupid and vindictive enough

to do thius like this.

Condi would not do it out of revenge as she is too much of a programmed mouse.

Rummie and Wolfowitz have the idea that they cannot be touched -- si they are probably the ones.

I think Powell doesn't like Ruymmie and Wolfie anyway and he is too smart to go outside the chain of command to act on his own.

But I bet shrubya okayed it in a pretzel fueled rage when the lack of brain oxygen in his coke addled and alcohol riddled mind overcame his reason (like all the time)

So


WHO LEAKED IT????

[TexasEditor]

6. Lots of information here...

Check out Hoffmania...

http://hoffmania.blogspot.com/

[fishnfla]

7. questions all over the place

this doesnt make sense. How does blowing his wife's cover damage Wilsons claim? Who are the other six reporters? Who are the 2 white house sources? Who is the other white house source for this story?
Who are these treasonous bastards?

Last question: If this was Bill Clinton, he would be in jail by now, right?

[NNN0LHI]

13. The message was clear. You cross Bush at your own peril

Even if you are CIA that won't protect you.

If this were Clinton every cable news channel would have a huge banner reading CRISIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE emblazoned across the screen with sufficiently dramatic music to go along, and with every piece of new information reported as breaking news. Promise.

Don

[RamboLiberal]

9. Look at Joshua Marshall's take of Condi on Faux today

Just flipped on the TV and found Fox News interviewing Condi Rice. As it happened, a minute or two after I tuned in Brit Hume asked Rice about the Wilson/Plame matter. Let's be honest, I didn't expect Hume and Tony Snow to be the most hard-hitting questioners on this issue. But you couldn't watch the exchange without seeing how big a deal this is. First of all, Rice denied nothing. It was, in so many words, all no comments. More telling I thought was how visibly rattled Rice seemed. She seemed to have a hard time getting her words out. Her breathing was halting.

To their credit, Hume and Snow followed up by noting that this was a sufficiently serious charge that a bland 'no comment' didn't really cut it. But all Rice could do was awkwardly say that she wasn't going to answer questions because it's in the Justice Department's hands, they're investigating, and that this is the kind of thing that the president doesn't accept. What I took from this is that the White House was stunned by this rapid escalation of events. And they haven't figured out what to do. Or, if they have, they haven't let Condi in on it yet.

When your best argument is 'the Justice Department is investigating us and we hope they get to the bottom of it', you're in a jam.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[underpants]

10. Ooooh Rove "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

ON EDIT_ This is proof that Wilson must be a 'Murka hater or he would said "freedom marched" (all apologies to the actual Freedom Marchers of the 60's for this callous joke)

Wilson, while refusing to confirm his wife's occupation, has suggested publicly that he believes Bush's senior adviser, Karl C. Rove, broke her cover. Wilson said Aug. 21 at a public forum in suburban Seattle that it is of keen interest to him "to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

[truthisfreedom]

15. uhh... don't you mean all apologies to the French?

no message

[AP]

11. So W will keep up with the Rep. tradition of producing scads of felony...

...convictions of administration officials.

[underpants]

12. Who is this admin. offical & how can I get on their life policy?

Note to self:BUY rat shot stocks when the markets open tomorrow.

[ithacan]

14. Evidence of no ethics: "did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility"

That last snippet is great.

Why was it wrong to leak this info?

"Because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility"

In other words, if this had worked as part of the regime's strategy of blackballing any and all skeptics and critics, then it would have been okay.

It's not okay because it didn't achieve its goal, NOT because it is illegal or unethical to seek revenge against someone by betraying national secrets...

These guys just keep proving over and over and over again that they are morally bankrupt scum.

[VolcanoJen]

16. Dupe... locking

Let's keep our discussion about today's "Six Journalists" Washington Post story consolidated into the original, earliest LBN thread on this topic, which can be found below:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=136409&mesg_id=136409

This is indeed a hot-and-heavy development, but for the purposes of keeping LBN "lean and mean," it's best if we flesh out our ideas about the story's impact in one hard-hitting thread.

Thanks,
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator