Watch freepers freek about the CIA Leak Story....

[ShaneGR]

Was browsing through the stories and came across this:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/991194/posts?page=22

Some of them spin, some of them ask questions, but I don't think anyone really understands what the story really means.

[Dookus]

1. lol..

I read their thread on this the other day. It seems that:

a) Plame outed herself because she's a liberal
b) The CIA is a hotbed of liberalism
c) Wilson's a useless jerk-off (because he's a dem) and therefore, anything that happens to him or his family is fine

[ShaneGR]

2. It's weird

The one guy is obviously scared of the whole story...

"Well, I think the problem is that it really doesn't matter whether or not Wilson is partisan. Everyone knows he's partisan. The question is whether or not Wilson's wife was in fact a CIO operative who's purpose was to investigate WMD. If so, was she a handler or an agent herself? If so, would leaking her name to the press have killed any ongoing operations or put her, or people on her staff, in danger.

Now, that's a short list. If this is a minor thing and she's just a sociallite with no substantial influence or history, then this is no big deal. It doesn't matter.

If however she was high-level and her name meant something, leaking her name is a felony. I suppose that's why one unnamed Senior White House official is fingering not one, but two, 'top-level' White House officials.

Stuff like this is bad news. One thing I do know, THANK GOD the Independent Council law no longer exists."

[salin]

5. here's one (ain't denial a sight to make the jaw drop)

Freeper post:
---------------
If you read carefully Wilson's own words cited in the story, he says that "V.P. Cheney's office expressed an interest in finding out more about a Niger/yellowcake connection."

Wilson is careful not to say that Cheney REQUESTED Wilson to go the Niger.

The leak from the WH was intended to expose the poor management practices in the CIA, where agents at some intermediate level apparently can take it upon themselves to act based on "expressions" from the Executive branch, expressions that are not nearly at the level of a direct REQUEST.

So it appears that Wilson's wife was in-the-loop of some mid-level hatched project based on vague statements from Cheney, and Wilson's wife used the opportunity to get some work/exposure for her husband, who was perhaps "under-employed" at the time. Pure nepotism, and worse, since Wilson was obviously hostile to the Bush administration.

Wilson did little, issued a useless report, then went directly to the NY Times to get the biggest bang for his buck for his 15 minutes of fame associated with this "assignment".

Dispicable.-------------------
End Feeper Post.


Note: the fact that Plame was undercover gathering intel on WMD - is lost on this person. Totally clueless.

Hubby - Bushsr.'s ambassador to Iraq... is "underemployed". And it is nepotism (though he didn't get paid).

Totally Clueless.

[Cush]

3. Lol

Read this one: "YUCK. I hate McClellan. Can't we get Ari back? Ari would have these reporters crying in their boots"

[Zorba607]

4. why

is ready FR like reading a foreign language to me? I seriously understand nothing of where they are coming from. It's almost like we're not even observing the same events, and I'm sure many of them would say the same of us. I don't understand how two thinking people (giving some freepers the benefit of the doubt here) can come to such radically different conclusions.
I'd like to think I put all information that comes my way to the smell test. Sometimes there are some pretty far out there articles posted here but if they lack logical consistency I pay them little mind. But reading this shit leads me to beleive that even our concept of logical consistency is far far different from freepers. Such a schism in my country is disheartening as hell.

[KittyWampus]

11. I Had Same Feeling On DU Today!

If you were to replace FR in your post with DU Candidate Bashing Threads... your entire post is how I feel today.

[carrowsboy]

6. Hell...

I don't think I even understand what the story really means...

Care to give me a condensed explanation. Since Hurricane Isabel, I've been completely out of the political loop.

Thanks.

[w4rma]

7. Wilson … said … would be a violation … by the officials, not the columnist

Rice 'Knew Nothing' About CIA Agent Leak

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday she knew "nothing of any" White House effort to leak the identity of an undercover CIA officer in July, a charge now under review at the Justice Department.

On the "Fox News Sunday" program, the top aide to President Bush said, "This has been referred to the Justice Department. I think that is the appropriate place for it."

Rice said the White House would cooperate should the Justice Department, headed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, decide to proceed with a criminal investigation of the matter, which centers on the alleged public disclosure of the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate a report that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Niger, but returned to say it was highly doubtful.
…
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030928/ts_nm/iraq_intelligence_probe_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=136932

A White House smear

Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security—and break the law—in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?

It sure looks that way, if conservative journalist Bob Novak can be trusted.
…
The sources for Novak’s assertion about Wilson’s wife appear to be “two senior administration officials.” If so, a pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what’s known as “nonofficial cover” and who has had the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material. If Wilson’s wife is such a person—and the CIA is unlikely to have many employees like her—her career has been destroyed by the Bush administration. (Assuming she did not tell friends and family about her real job, these Bush officials have also damaged her personal life.) Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.” If she is not a CIA employee and Novak is reporting accurately, then the White House has wrongly branded a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm as a CIA officer. That would not likely do her much good.

This is not only a possible breach of national security; it is a potential violation of law. Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent. The punishment for such an offense is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to ten years in prison. Journalists are protected from prosecution, unless they engage in a “pattern of activities” to name agents in order to impair US intelligence activities. So Novak need not worry.

Novak tells me that he was indeed tipped off by government officials about Wilson’s wife and had no reluctance about naming her. “I figured if they gave it to me,” he says. “They’d give it to others....I’m a reporter. Somebody gives me information and it’s accurate. I generally use it.” And Wilson says Novak told him that his sources were administration officials.
…
http://thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823
http://www.arbiteronline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/07/23/3f1f5fa79c206
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=18072&mesg_id=18072&page=
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=5913&mesg_id=5913&page=

…
Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. “I didn't dig it out, it was given to me,” he said. “They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.”

Wilson and others said such a disclosure would be a violation of the law by the officials, not the columnist.

Novak reported that his “two senior administration officials” told him that it was Plame who suggested sending her husband, Wilson, to Niger.
…
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia0722,0,2346857.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=2326&mesg_id=2326&page=

A War on Wilson?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=18113&mesg_id=18113&page=

White House striking back?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/942095.asp?0cv=CA01

Schumer Urges FBI Probe Into Iraq Leaks
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030724/ap_on_go_ot/schumer_agent_1

Probes Expected in ID of CIA Officer
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia233384176jul23,0,5461415.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print

[never cry wolf]

10. GREAT POST, w4rma.

Don't forget John Dean's fine article here:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20030815.html

[w4rma]

13. Thanks! (n/t)

[never cry wolf]

8. There is a serious lack of knowledge there

this obviously hit them by surprise as they clearly state their ignorance of the facts.

1. An ambassador's wife is a great cover for an active undercover agent.

2. Wilson was praised by Pappy for his duty in Iraq, the last American official there before GW 1.

3. Wilson went to Niger on his own dime, not on the gov't. payroll.

I don't even remember all the rest. Many of us on this board have followed this story from day one, you can tell it was completely under their radar.

[kimchi]

9. Some of them think it is a complete lie.

Because McClellan said the same phrase 20 times, "that's not the way the White House operates", with no other comment. Therefore, it must be true. They didn't even mention that it has been confirmed by someone in the admin that 6 people were told.

Freakin clueless morons, mostly.

[Ilsa]

12. Aaaaaaaaaaack. Damn freepers.

"...THANK GOD the independent counsel law doesn't exist any longer."

From a mentally deficient freeper:
"The initial premise is WRONG. President Bush DID NOT say they tried to sell uranium. He stated clearly that the British REPORTED this. WHICH IS TRUE!"
So, I guess it is Bush's job to report on what the Brits report on versus trying to convey a sense of urgency? What a dumbass.