Larry Johnson:Attention Citizens, a Blue Dress Special

[cal04]

Well Porter, what are you going to do now? Is our illustrious CIA Director serious about protecting intelligence information or is he just talking political smack? In October 2003, Goss reacted to the unauthorized disclosure of classified information (e.g., the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame) by commenting: I would say there's a much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security. . . .But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence that there was a willful -- and I emphasize willful, inadvertent is something else -- willful disclosure, and I haven't seen any evidence. . . . Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation.


In other words, he would act if he saw evidence that someone in the Bush White House had blown their load in public. Well, in the words of Herman Melville, “Thar she blows”. A recent flood of evidence in the Scooter Libby obstruction and perjury case erases all doubt. According to recently released documents in the case, the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name was neither accidental nor inadvertent. It was deliberate. Current and former Bush Administration officials told Jason Leopold that: Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley led a campaign beginning in March 2003 to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for publicly criticizing the Bush administration's intelligence on Iraq.

Exposing Valerie’s classified identity was part of this plan. But Dick Cheney and his nasty band of marauders did not stop there. We now know that Dick Cheney directed the leak of classified information for purely political gain that touched on but extended beyond the Plame affair. Murray Waas reports that Scooter told the grand jury that he was: authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.


In Friday’s op-ed complaining about “loose lips” and “leaks”, Porter Goss sets out a new standard that does not require a semen stained blue dress. Porter says: I take seriously my agency's responsibility to protect our national security. Unauthorized disclosures undermine our efforts and abuse the trust of the people we are sworn to protect. Since becoming director, I have filed criminal reports with the Department of Justice because of such compromises. That department is committed to working with us to investigate these cases aggressively. In addition, I have instituted measures within the agency to further safeguard the integrity of classified data.
If Porter Goss is serious about going after unauthorized disclosures then he should start with Dick Cheney. The Vice President’s access to classified material should be suspended. That’s what should happen if Goss were serious about this issue.

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http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/26557

[KT2000]

1. This freak

does not have a clue as to his responsibilities as head of the CIA. He truly believes he is there to support partisanship! Can't get much lower than this.

[acmejack]

2. He's going to make examples of a couple of file clerks

and a hapless mid level managerial sort. Draconian prison terms will be imposed, the Administration will be cursorily investigated and subsequently totally absolved of any wrongdoing in connection with this affair.