Plame update: leak from fake source?

[Domitan]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/28/203014/655

Did the White House dribble the Plame leak through its own fake mouthpiece news source?

Consider:

A fake news service employs a fake reporter who apparently was the only one "identified by the Washington Post as having knowledge of the memo's existence." What leaked CIA memo, you ask? The one in which "Wilson ... suggests his wife was instrumental in his selection for the fact-finding trip to Africa."

Talon News, a conservative company whose Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon is well-known for asking loaded pro-Republican questions at White House press briefings,appears to be more a political organization than a media outlet.

According to sources, Jeff Gannon's real name is not, in fact, Jeff Gannon. According to the same sources, his White House press credentials list him as "Jeff Gannon" - they let him use his pseudonym -- even though married female reporters, who use their maiden name professionally, are given credentials with their married name and aren't allowed to be credentialed under their maiden names...

Talon News has learned that one of the journalists being targeted is Jeff Gannon, Washington Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for Talon News.

According to a subsequent Talon News story by Bobby Eberle regarding the Washington Post piece, "The Washington Post cites an unnamed source who says, 'The CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets.'

They point to a memo referenced in a Talon News interview of Wilson that suggests his wife was instrumental in his selection for the fact-finding trip to Africa."

Talon News was the only service identified by the Washington Post as having knowledge of the memo's existence.

So am I reading more into this than I should be? And why would "Talon News" fink its own self out about the grand jury subpoena? Has the Bush administration and its evil ways turned me into a permanent paranoiac? Does anyone want to join me in useless speculation as to what this complicated crapola means?

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Read more aout Jeff Gannon here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x17850

[Domitan]

2. So he's a freeper, eh?

Well, supposing that this "Jeff Gannon" is the same Jeff Gannon on the freeper site...wouldn't that be fucked if a freeper turned out to have a central role in the Plame leak?

Then again, we really know very little of what is transpiring in the Plame case. But when I read the article I posted above, I felt a sense of why this case is dragging on for so long.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. To the MAX!

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Here's an idea:

Lets assume Falcon is subsidiary of Bushco.

1. They will do what they are told, and not exercise any independent judgment regarding national security, Plame's career/health or their own legal liability (in case the leak is illegal).

2. The nature of the relationship makes possible Falcon's expectation (or explicit guarantee from the WH) of protection/immunity from prosecution.

3. They are dirty bastards who don't give a fuck.

[Domitan]

5. I just want the bastards to go down

one way or another!

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Good luck!

There is a thin line between what they do and FOX, and FOX ain't ever going down....

[Al-CIAda]

7. Wow- This is going off into unbelievable dimensions, yet

here we are. You have to wonder about the ENTIRE press. Jus HOW complicit are they?!

[Last Lemming]

8. Does anyone know

what has happened to the investigations? Indictments? Quietly smothered in its sleep?

[H2O Man]

9. Early on in the

infamous DU Plame Threads, I noted that the various intel agencies have resources in every major media in the country. This includes papers, magazines, tv stations, etc.

In order to understand the relationship between the president and the press, you have to go back to the Nixon era. Usually, people think of the Nixon-media relationship in an entirely "Watergate" context. We all are familiar with the tapes, and the hearings, etc. But one should go far deeper.

Just for one example: Nixon and friends had a huge conflict over "ownership" of his presidential papers. Far fewer people have researched Nixon administration memos than have read the transcripts of the tapes. Both have been made into books: the "tapes" fascinated America as "The Presidential Transcripts" was published by Dell in 1974, with commentary by Woodward & Bernstein among others; 15 years later, Harpur& Row would publish "From:The President," a detailed study of Nixon's secret files, which never was very popular reading.

Yet the book's 600+ pages of administration memos outlines not only the hatred of the press -- including paranoia regarding "resources" unfriendly to the president -- but also their efforts to manipulate the media.

Now, I'm not implying that the tapes weren't important. But it's good to realize, for example, that Howard Hunt OSS/CIA employee, worked as a corresponent for LIFE magazine. Numerous authors have connections that provide them with information that others can't access. One need only look at the careers of Woodward and Bernstein to figure out which of them is an agency man.

Others are not in that group, but are resources. They may be paid 30 pieces of silver, like Uncle Armstrong. Or they may simply be the type of human being that a few people in the White House would think of to print the identity of a CIA operative.

At this time, at least one person being called to testify truthfully to the Plame Grand Jury fits the description of an intel resource. The administration might count on her to parrot lies about WMD in Iraq, or to help plan the planting of the misinformation regarding the yellow cake/ Niger forgeries/Plame scandals. She might even call a "front" to warn them the FBI is coming to visit within 24 hours.

We will see more and more misinformation coming from specific sources in the media, to discredit the Plame/yellow cake forgeries/ neocon spy scandal investigations.

[lonestarnot]

10. Ant pile before a rain storm! n/t

[Al-CIAda]

11. kick

[Must_B_Free]

12. Talon? Sounds like Bev Harris

[Domitan]

13. kick

kick

[grasswire]

14. from the webdems blog of last year

http://webdems.blogspot.com


Now that the list of those subpoenaed to comment on the leaking of Valerie Plame's name has been released, let's return to the topic of Jeff Gannon, White House reporter for Talon News and active member of the extremist right-wing web site freerepublic.com.

Gannon is on the subpoena list.

Why? Probably because he (according to a report in The Washington Post) mentioned to Joe Wilson in an interview in October 2003 the existence of a secret internal document regarding Ms. Plame's position in the CIA as it might or might not have related to Wilson's assignment to Niger.

From Talon News:


The Washington Post cites an unnamed source who says, "The CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets." They point to a memo referenced in a Talon News interview of Wilson that suggests his wife was instrumental in his selection for the fact-finding trip to Africa.

Talon News was the only service identified by the Washington Post as having knowledge of the memo's existence. The newspaper goes on to say that CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the document purportedly written by a State Department official who works for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Jeff Gannon, the White House correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief for Talon News declined to reveal whether he had seen the memo or had its contents described to him.

While he would not disclose his source, Gannon said, "I will tell you that the information did not come from inside the administration."
Talon story


The Washington Post's story of December 25 (page A01, Mike Allen and Dana Milbank) is no longer available for free on the Internet and so I have not provided a link.

Gannon's "exclusive" interview with Joe Wilson is available here: interview and contains many attempts at baiting Wilson.

Here is the particular exchange in question, where Gannon references the secret memo:


TN: An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?

Wilson: I don't know anything about a meeting, I can only tell you about the meeting I was at where I was asked if I would prepare to go, and there was nobody at that meeting that I know. Now that fact that my wife knows that I know a lot about the uranium business and that I know a lot about Niger and that she happens to be involved in weapons of mass destruction, it should come as no surprise to anyone that we know of each others activities.


With all this in mind, questions surface.

1. Again, why and under what circumstances was Jeff Gannon admitted to the prestigious circle of White House correspondents?

2. Who provided Gannon with information about a secret memo regarding the Plame matter?

3. Who advised Joe Wilson to accept an interview with an extremist working for a sham of a "news service"?

Here's hoping one of the "kool kids" with proximity, a research budget and Nexis will ask some questions regarding Talon and its inexplicable seat in the WH briefing room and also ask about the sources who are providing information about secret internal documents of the White House to a seeming stooge in the briefing room.

Now that Gannon's on the subpoena list and he's lawyered up, his actions are newsworthy.