Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, and me. (John Dickerson's side of the story)

[sabra]

http://www.slate.com/id/2135554/

Where's My Subpoena?
Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, and me.
By John Dickerson

<snip>

In July 2003, I was a White House correspondent for Time magazine, traveling with the president in Africa. Bush was trying to promote his $15 billion AIDS assistance package but he kept getting interrupted. He would visit a clinic and give a speech, but all reporters wanted to ask about was faulty prewar intelligence. Joe Wilson had published his infamous op-ed in the New York Times just before the trip. That, along with other disclosures, led White House spokesman Ari Fleischer to make a rare public admission: The 16 words mentioning Saddam's efforts to buy uranium from Africa were "incorrect" and should not have been in the 2003 State of the Union address.

...

The senior administration official spoke to me on background about Wilson and the president's amazing decision to blame the CIA. Other reporters wandered in and out of the conversation, but there were stretches where it was just the two of us (my tedious newsmagazine questions always had a tendency to drive other deadline-oriented reporters away). The official walked me through all the many problems with Wilson's report: His work was sloppy, contradictory, and hadn't been sanctioned by Tenet or any senior person. Some low-level person at the CIA was responsible for the mission. I was told I should go ask the CIA who sent Wilson.

...

An hour later, as Bush spoke at an AIDS treatment center, I chatted with a different senior administration official, also on background. We talked about many different aspects of the story—the fight with the CIA, the political implications for the president, and the administration's shoddy damage control. This official also pointed out a few times that Wilson had been sent by a low-level CIA employee and encouraged me to follow that angle. I thought I got the point: He'd been sent by someone around the rank of deputy assistant undersecretary or janitor.

...

It had been a long week. I was co-writing a long story on the trip for the European edition, filing each day to the Web site and also filing for the domestic cover story on the fallout over the 16 words. Oh, and I also had to file a story on violence in Liberia. My inbox was a mess. In the middle of it was an e-mail from Matt Cooper telling me to call him from a land line when I had some privacy. At some time after 1 p.m. his time, I called him. He told me that he had talked to Karl Rove that morning and that Rove had given him the same Wilson takedown I'd been getting in Uganda. But Matt had the one key fact I didn't: Rove had said that Wilson's wife sent him.

read the whole article @ link, it's interesting stuff...

[stop the bleeding]

1. I just blew an hour's worth of work to post something on another Plame

thread and you post this now??? - Man I am tortured because I have to go and work but I can not wait to get back and read and absorb this.


Thanks sabra!

[sabra]

3. LOL

it's definitely worth the read... BTW, can you link me to your other Plame post?

[stop the bleeding]

5. It was started by leveymg, but I have been having a conversation

with a few people there and my latest addition is post# 28

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x334270

[joeybee12]

2. Sounds like a coordinated effort to out a CIA agent...

...only possible explanation that everyone was feeding all the reporters the same B.S.

[sabra]

4. no doubt, it was a full throttle campaign to discredit Wilson

check out these snips:

<snip>

Since the attack on Wilson was not included in the printed magazine that came out Monday, Cooper thought we should put it online. All administrations discredit their critics through whispers to reporters, but we hadn't seen high-level Bush people do anything like this in the past. It suggested desperation and unsteadiness in a national security team that had often been heralded for its smooth competency.

...

Our editors delayed publication of the Web piece, uncertain there was enough evidence the White House was trying to undermine Wilson's credibility. That was frustrating, since by that time the White House spokesman, Fleischer, was undermining him on the record. Bob Novak's story revealing Plame's name had come out, but those of us working on the story in Washington, which now included Massimo Calabresi, thought we still had a few facts Novak didn't. Our piece finally ran on the Web on July 17, 2003, six days after Cooper had learned about Wilson's wife.

</snip>

[emulatorloo]

7. firedoglake concurs --

<snip>

Strange how so many people in the Administration scattered across the four corners of the globe -- from DC to far-flung, difficult communication areas on the African continent -- all had the same story line to feed to the press, isn't it? Almost as though there was substantial coordination of message and facts, or something. (Can you say conpiracy? I thought you could.)

<snip>

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_02_05_firedoglake_archive.html#113932391843077983

edit better link

[savemefromdumbya]

23. yes it was a conspiracy

[Supersedeas]

26. nah, just a coinininincidentii

[Quakerfriend]

6. Yes, A full fledged CAMPAIGN by the administration

But, they never bet on FitzG!

[wishlist]

8. Top level WH officials coordinated leak knowing Plame was classified

This part of his story leaves no doubt (along with Rove telling Cooper that he had probably told Cooper too much in revealing Wilson's wife) that senior WH officials had a coordinated scheme to weave a complicated web of leaks to reporters knowing it was classified info to reveal info about Wilson's wife. Her identity and role was clearly not known except by WH officials until they leaked it.

"Those (WH) officials also told Fitzgerald and his grand jury about conversations we had. I came back from the trip harboring a suspicion that only fully made sense when I learned Plame's CIA cover had been blown. It seemed obvious that the people pushing me to look into who sent Wilson knew exactly the answer I'd find. Yet they were really careful not to let the information slip, which suggested that they knew at the time Plame's identity was radioactive"

[emulatorloo]

9. firedoglake commentary on this article well worth your time

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_02_05_firedoglake_archive.html#113932391843077983

<snip>

Dickerson Speaks...And Drops Some Bombshells


Well, well, well...can you say concerted effort to discredit Wilson, planned carefully by folks at the White House, executed with precision planning, and...conspiracy? John Dickerson, formerly of Time Magazine, has a doozy of a two-part story on Slate. He lays out the timeline of his involvement in Administration leaks on Joe and Valerie Wilson. And it isn't pretty.

If Fitz was trying to flush something out of the underbrush with his letter to Libby's lawyers, he's gotten a whole brace of fat pigeons with this missive. And if I were representing Karl Rove, I'd be puckering this morning...along with several other Administration officials. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

<snip>

MUCH MUCH MORE at link

[sabra]

11. excellent - thank you for the link

I will check it out.

[leveymg]

14. There's no question that Fitz already knows all this, and was aware that

the effect his letter would have would be to blow the conspiracy wide-open to the public.

We're going to see the big media starting to get interested in this, now that they have the security blanket of Fitz's letter to cover themselves. Without some sort of public document, they wouldn't do it, previously. Hopefully, they'll started tugging at all the intriguing threads that we have begun to pick at and proceed to unravel the thing.

Wonder who's going to be the first Democratic Senator to call for declassification and release of Bush's 06/19/03 PDB that discusses Wilson's trip to Niger -- yes, that one, which Fitz hinted has some sort of notation on the margin.

[stop the bleeding]

27. Feingold or Biden? n/t

[leveymg]

28. That honor should go to the Gentleman from Wisconsin.

The Senator from the State of DuPont/MBNA isn't the champion I had in mind for this.

[TacticalPeek]

10. Kicked and recommended.

He also gives a shout-out to Firedoglake.

The Fitzgerald letter (first discovered by a very sharp blogger) was written in response to the Libby team's questions about other government officials who talked to reporters about Joe Wilson's wife.

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_01_29_firedoglake_archive.html#113885066879731833

:)

[sabra]

12. kicking for the truth

:kick:

[yodermon]

13. So, can we deduce

who Dickerson's "2 senior admin officials" sources are? Who was on the trip w/ him to Africa besides Condi (suspect #1) ?

[stop the bleeding]

15. That is a good question - I am putting this here as a reminder so

that when I have a chance to read this article and digest it, I will be able to piece this together.

[robertpaulsen]

25. Kick, looks good!

:kick:

[carolinayellowdog]

16. One of them must have been Ari Fleischer

who was seen reading the memo that ID'd Plame.

[Stephanie]

17. Ari

And Powell?

[leveymg]

18. It could also have been Dan Bartlett, but I'm inclined to believe

it was Ari, simply because Fitz has reportedly paid a lot more attention to Fleischer.

[stop the bleeding]

20. I was thinking Ari as well, but I want to double check the memory banks

:kick:

[sabra]

21. when did Ari decide to leave the WH again, to spend more time with his fam

[stop the bleeding]

22. Mid May, 2003 the announcement was made, July 14 was when he left

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/19/101315.shtml

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/19/fleischer.resigns/

But I think he actually left his post in July - Hold your nose on this source

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87196,00.html

Fleischer said he'll most likely leave in July and that he wanted to step down before Bush's re-election campaign gears up.


********************

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-graham071403.asp

July 14, 2003, 9:20 a.m.
Appreciating Ari
It’s not easy being boring for three years straight.

By Tim Graham



Today is Ari Fleischer's last day as the White House press secretary. After watching him in action for years briefing a White House press corps that is both very hungry for any new information and as a whole, instinctively opposed to the administration's generally conservative thrust (meaning new and damaging information is the best scoop), it would be appropriate to joke that now he can try a less stressful job, like deactivating mines.

[bleever]

19. Kickety kick!

:)

[AntiFascist]

24. The cracks in the administration are beginning to become evident....

It suggested desperation and unsteadiness in a national security team that had often been heralded for its smooth competency.

[Peace Patriot]

30. I'm coming to this late--I've been away--but I have to say that this

perception of the reporter (Dickerson)--"desperation" and "unsteadiness"--fits quite well with the WMD-planting theory of Traitorgate, which I've done something here at DU to develop. Their actions in the weeks of July 6-22 have always struck me as panicky and rushed--desperate would be the right word. And it just doesn't make sense that all this risky high level involvement--they contacted at least six reporters in one week, for instance (six journalist witnesses to treason)--could have been all about a newspaper article.

The WMD-planting theory is that Traitorgate was the coverup for a failed effort to plant WMDs in Iraq. Their panic had to do with David Kelly (Brits chief WMD expert) finding out about this, or his bosses finding out he had participated in foiling the Bushite plot, or knew about it. Within a week of Kelly's interrogation by his intelligence bosses (and their report to Blair, July 7), Plame was outed (July 14). Four days later (July 18), Kelly was found dead under highly suspicious circumstances. And four days after that (July 22), after Kelly's office was searched and his computers confiscated, Brewster-Jennings (the entire CIA counterproliferation network) was outed by Novak.

This theory says that the Wilson article publication (July 6) was more a coincidence than anything else.* It was expected. What wasn't expected was the news (probably from Blair) the next day, July 7, that Kelly knew of their deceitful scheme to plant WMDs in Iraq. It also posits that Plame/BJ had something to do with foiling their scheme, or at least knew about it and thus was a great danger to the Bush junta, and had to be frightened/silenced.

The WMD-planting theory of Traitorgate has held up quite well as new information has come out. Dickerson's full quote is pertinent: "All administrations discredit their critics through whispers to reporters, but we hadn't seen high-level Bush people do anything like this in the past. It suggested desperation and unsteadiness in a national security team that had often been heralded for its smooth competency."

"...we hadn't seen high-level Bush people do anything like this in the past...". This was one of my points in the WMD-planting theory--the high level involvement and risk. Discrediting a critic is something people like Rove do for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and, in Rove's case, probably in his sleep. Why all this other involvement--Libby, Cheney, and now possibly Rice, Fleischer, and all of the WHIG, who knows?, etc.

------

*(The theory suggests that Wilson might have actually been baited to publish the article, in Part 1 of a plot of discredit the CIA, that goes all the way back to the meeting of the Rome group--the idea being to bait the CIA with easily detectable forgeries about Iraq/Niger into a public position of no nukes in Iraq, then to trump that position with PLANTED nukes. They would thus make fools of the CIA (and make them more purge-able), and would benefit Bush/Blair enormously with a "find" of WMDs in Iraq. (There is evidence that one of the Rome meeting participants, Manucher Ghorbanifar, the notorious Iranian arms dealer, had tried to draw the CIA into another phony story about the Iranians having sneaked into Iraq, prior to the invasion, and stolen Iraq's nukes--a story that the CIA easily discredited.)

[sabra]

31. wow - I wish I could recommend your post...

[Emit]

29. kick n/t