Josh Marshall goes after Bush on the Plame story

[diplomats]

The word from the White House today is that they cannot comment on the two top White House officials who exposed Valerie Plame's status as a CIA employee under non-official-cover, and that the matter should be left to the official investigative process at the Justice Department.

In Condi Rice's words: "This has been referred to the Justice Department. I think that is the appropriate place for it ... Let's just see what the Justice Department does."

The only response to this is: Why? Why can't the White House act on its own?

We now know that administration officials know who did it. We can guess. But they know. They even have a pretty good tally of how many journalists were called.

So the president knows that two of his top aides blew the cover of a CIA employee under non-official-cover to take revenge against one of the his critics, and that in doing so they almost certainly broke federal law. In the unlikely -- but possible -- event that he does not yet know their identities right now he could pick up the phone and find out in a matter of minutes.

But he's leaving them in place and, as far as we know, hasn't disciplined them in any way. He's waiting for the Justice Department to decide whether there should be a criminal investigation.

If this is really as outrageous and unacceptable as it seems why doesn't the president act now? The folks at the White House clearly know who did this. So why is it still secret from the public?

Was there, at least within the White House, a gasp when somebody said, "Uh oh"? And if so, did the White House take any action, back then in June, when the story appeared?
Apparently there wasn't.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

[calimary]

1. Folks, we NEED to call our congresspeople about this! PRONTO!

Like, FIRST thing tomorrow morning!

Here are some TOLL FREE phone numbers to the Capitol Hill Switchboard:

1 (800) 648 - 3516

1 (800) 839 - 5276

Or you can go to www.congress.org and then to its directory to look up ANYBODY's numbers on the Hill - be they Washington DC office numbers, or their local offices back home.

THIS IS URGENT!! We HAVE to keep this story alive! You can bet there's PLENTY of pressure being applied to sweep it under the rug. They broke the law! They blew the cover of an undercover CIA agent during what they would, under any other circumstances, INSIST was a time of war. That's a felony, folks. If this happened during Clinton's term, they'd be building a gallows for him right this minute. Maybe SEVERAL. They CAN'T be allowed to get away with this! We ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO CALL TOMORROW AND START MAKING A STINK!

And lest you think it won't do any good, remember what happened with the FCC and Miguel Estrada. WE THE PEOPLE got OUR WAY, against the wishes of the White House, because we bombarded our representatives with mail, email, phone calls, faxes and petitions. And when the FCC ruled against the people's wishes, the people had to - AND DID - go around them. When Miguel Estrada was being shoved down our throats, we fought back there, too, and refused. And he finally backed down.

I know I sound like a broken record on this. I've posted this probably eleven times by now. But it's REALLY important. Especially since CONdi is going on the talk shows and trying to grab the upper hand by distracting with claims that the war's the CIA's fault because IT provided the faulty intel! It's just a smoke screen and a decoy. At MSNBC they've already fallen for it.

THE REST OF US CAN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[FauxNewsBlues]

12. Call Talk Radio too

Including Right Wing whack jobs. Let them spin this. Be active. This one is important. After all the crappy -gate stories linked to Watergate, this one has the makings of being a true sequel.

There is a dirty tricks squad, leakers, liars, conspirators, people looking to blackmail/silence the opposition.

Kickity kick

[Robbien]

2. It would be a shame if this got bumped off the first page so fast

bump.

[calimary]

21. Here's how to help keep this ALIVE!

FIRST THING TOMORROW MORNING:

Call the TOLL FREE Capitol Hill Switchboard -

1 (800) 648 - 3516

1 (800) 839 - 5276

They'll connect you with anybody's office you name.

Or see www.congress.org - for all the local AND Washington office numbers for anybody on the Hill.

We have to make noise about this. Indeed, we have to make a big stink about this! This is a felony, for nothing else but revenge! To borrow from Ted Kennedy, it's "REVENGE made up in Texas." It's a couple of senior administration officials who've broken the law by blowing Mrs. Wilson's cover - to punish her husband for declaring the Niger documents forgeries. They're trying to punish Ambassador Wilson for making them look bad (remember the uproar over the "16 little words" in the last State of the Union speech?). They probably really want to hurt him now, because his op/ed piece about it in the New York Times, this past summer, is what started the momentum and the drumbeat against the war, AND against bush. That helped a lot of things come to a head that started the bushies on a downward spiral, and they probably want his head. So they settled for ruining his wife, and maybe putting her life in jeopardy.

CALL YOUR REPS AND DEMAND ACTION!! DON'T LET THIS GET SWEPT UNDER THE RUG!!!!

[Ilsa]

3. Back to the top....

:kick:

[Tatiana]

4. More on Joshua's excellent speculation....

Let's say, hypothetically, that the "two top White House officials" who blew Valerie Plame's cover were in the political and/or communications operations at the White House. That's what is widely suspected. But, for the moment, let's assume that is the case.

If so, how did they find out that Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA employee working under non-official cover (in common parlance, undercover)?

It seems like someone with access to that information must have told them. And you'd figure that that someone would be someone with some sort of national security brief --- not a flack or a political strategist, certainly.

more...

READ THIS FOLKS!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

[FauxNewsBlues]

6. Kick

I am going to kick every thread on this. This is more important than the candidate bashing, and I am getting pissed. We have a scandal potentially the size of Watergate here, and people are tossing insults at each other over pre primary straddling in the democratic primary.

Have some perspective people. The White House knows who the leakers are and are covering it up. It makes whatever happened today via Dean or Clark mostly irrelevent. Whomever our nominee is, is going to have to deal with Chimpy/Rove/$200,000,000 and a media that is compliant.

We have until February to decide who is going to win New Hampshire. We just have a few days to help push this story so it gets traction. If we get arrests, resignations, firings, whomever your candidate is, will have an easier time of beating whistle ass.

I encourage everybody to bump these threads, call your congress critters, call talk radio, and email these stories to people in your address book.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Atrios is also on the case

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

[LittleApple81]

7. kick n/t

[chaumont58]

13. Atrios is hitting it HARD!!!!!

Best blog in town, young Atrios.

[grasswire]

23. wow....

....that atrios blog is on fire! Lots of stuff to chew on!

[Raven]

8. Question: Did this outing endanger her life?

and what about national security?

[BloodyWilliam]

9. Any outing of an intelligence agent endangers them

That's why journalists generally DON'T out them. Anonymous sources and all that. But just a blatant petty smear of an outing? Shameful.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi BloodyWilliam!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[calimary]

16. i forget where I read it but something like 70 people have been

"eliminated" because of this. They were people in Mrs. Wilson's network. Her entire web of contacts, built over - I think - something like 26 years of effort has ALL been trashed. Everyone's exposed. And ironically, it was work like hers that sought to track the movement and purchase and exchange of weapons of mass destruction. They cut off their nose to spite their face. Idiots! FELONIOUS idiots!

See my earlier post. Hell, see ANY of my posts on any of these threads involving this scandal! Every single one has contact info for people to reach congress and demand action. Every one. That's how I've been "kicking" these threads.

FIRST THING MONDAY MORNING, guys! You are on a mission. A mission from God.

[Eloriel]

31. Of courrse

I read that she and her children are in hiding, and that 70 deaths have been the result -- people in her network. She has apparently been CIA for decades.

Decades of work to build that network not just thrown away, but assets killed.

AND her work was WMD, which means that we now have LESS ability to figure out where any WMD are being made, sold, moved, etc.

IOW, we now have LESS national security.

This isn't just a faux pas, or even bad judgment. This IS a crime AND a national security breach of fairly significant proportions.

Eloriel

[Ilsa]

10. Can't help myself

Front page kick:
:kick:

[LittleApple81]

11. kick n/t

[VolcanoJen]

14. The Smoking Gun, courtesy of the excellent Josh Marshall.

He's been updating all day; here's his latest, and it's a gem.

www.talkingpointsmemo.com

Don't let Daddy find out!

We need more human intelligence. That means we need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country. Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.

George H.W. Bush
April 16th, 1999
Dedication Speech
George Bush Center for Intelligence

Oy ...

-- Josh Marshall

[FauxNewsBlues]

15. Beautiful!!!

That about sums it up.

I want a reporter to get some of the old Bush people like Scowcroft who opposed the Iraq war to give them some background quotes here.

[Pastiche423]

17. Naive question

Is asscroft the only person at the DOJ that can decide and/or order a non-partisan investigation? If he decides there will be no in-depth investigation, does it them die?

I guess my question really is, are there no longer checks and balances in our government? Can ANYONE override asscroft?

[Terran]

24. Answer (I think)

Because a federal law may have been broken (I have no idea which one), the agency to investigate the matter is the FBI, which of course is under the DOJ and Ashcroft.

It would be the height of corruption if Ashcroft somehow intervened in this matter, despite incriminating evidence of a violation of federal law, to quash an investigation or state that no such violation took place. This is a very serious matter, and I bet the penalty for having done this is very heavy (hey, it's treason); if they fail to properly address it, it's a real and substative nail in the coffin of democracy. And such failure would, in and of itself, be treasonous, IMO.

[FauxNewsBlues]

18. kick

Kick Chimpy out of the white house.

[Pastiche423]

19. Giving this a

:kick: in hopes that someone can answer my naive question.

[Seneca]

22. bump

eom

[FauxNewsBlues]

25. Kick it

Chimpy going down

[MiniMoog]

27. A Lethal Brew Here

The "network" and intel infrastructure has been damaged in a manner nearly unimaginable - one that will take not years, but decades to repair - and it's not simply about WMDs. The "leak" didn't just compromise US assets but worldwide agencies and their assets. Witness the current blowback from this limited hang-out in the U.K. My speculation is that Amb. Wilson himself was a "soft asset" and when he reported that the inflated claims of WMDs were improbable the Admin thought it would be buried by "discrediting" him first, then B-Plan was to "out" Plame if he didn't cooperate. Bear with me. My nose on this tells me the Admin didn't see Wilson's move coming (disclosure to the media)and that the only way Wilson was able to make this move is because he is protected at the highest intel level. It's far from over and they have more dirt.

MiniMoog

[Beetwasher]

28. Master Chess Game in Progress

Welcome to DU!

I totally concur. They fucked with the wrong guy here:

AND they fucked w/ his wife. Wilson's vert smart and he's been in the business for a loooong time w/ obvious deep Company connections. The CIA has now picked sides, and they've lined up against the admin., that is now obvious.

Tenet would not have done what he did without all his ducks in a row.

Now that I think about it, ALOT of thing make more sense and seem like they might be more coordinated than at first glance. There have been a string of now related scandals and leaks. These are combination punches we're seeing here being orchestrated, no doubt, by the CIA...People are being taken out by being systematically targeted and compartmentalized, Rumsfeld by defending the war and people in concert calling for his resignation, Cheney now w/ Halliburton, and now Rove. Resources are being occupied. I sense a full court press happening...

[Pastiche423]

30. "People are being taken out ..."

Are you saying you think it is the CIA that is holding the most strings (to take people out), or the admin?

[Beetwasher]

32. It's my theory

that we're seeing an orchestrated series of moves by the CIA to neutralize memebers of the administration by tying them up w/ powerful scandals. In my opinion, we've seen a spate of coordinated leaks, that seem to origninate within the intel community and they seem to be systematic in their targeting of all the key players in the admin.

[Pastiche423]

34. I hope your theory

is correct. And I wouldn't doubt that this has been in the making for over a year.

I remember having a little hope that the Iraq invasion would not happen due to some CIA stating there was no proof for it, it was wrong, etc. (But getting little press.)

My concern is are they powerful (for the lack of a better word) enough over the structure that is now in place - all three branches are repug.

Or am I looking at this from the wrong angle?

[Beetwasher]

35. They're powerful, but they're obvious

The CIA is a rough beast. Factions w/in factions. But they've fucked w/ Tenet and now Wilson, who seems to be a DEEP player...This is a nuanced game, a game the current players in the admin. are NOT used to playing...Their preferred method is a crushing frontal assault or a deadly knife in the back, nothing nuanced about it, and very predictable...

[marigold20]

26. Keep after them Josh

.

[MiniMoog]

29. Spot on Beetwasher

Thanks for the welcome.

This is magnificiently coordinated and the target is clearly defined. To embellish with a chess analogy: The Admin is thinking about the cost of a Queen sacrifice (senior admin or high ranking WH officer). But it's too late for that move and would be obvious.

MiniMoog

[grasswire]

33. welcome Mini!

Strategic thinkers are always appreciated here.

I wonder if it's possible that there's a split in the CIA itself. Surely some must be loyal to Bush Sr. And yet the company (or a faction) is definitely and aggressively spanking the WH.

We know the State Dept. includes people more loyal to its integrity and traditions than to the WH. Is the CIA the same?

And who would win if the CIA's factions were at all-out war?