Narrative
Why did someone investigate the detailed circumstances behind the Wilson trip and who did the investigation?
Because of Kristof's May 6th article describing the trip, but not naming Wilson. Remember you're dealing with political motives, policital hacks, and the fact that they were trying to shield Cheney from the accusation that he'd asked for details and then hadn't followed up on them. Cheney received a DIA report on the Niger deal and asked his CIA briefers what they thought. It's not beyond imagination that Cheney was playing the CIA against the DIA and didn't really CARE if the CIA looked into it, but they did look into it.
Between May 6th and July 6th there were at least 3 articles published (Kristof in the NYT, Pincus in WaPo, and Judis at TNR) that mentioned the Niger trip, all used Wilson as an anonymous source. By late June the CIA was being blamed for all the bad intel (it was becoming clear there were no WMD), Rice was saying no one knew anything about anything, and the WH was in full CYA mode. I'd be more surprised if Rove and Libby had NOT gone looking for details about who the anonymous Ambassador was.
Wilson's charges, even while anonymous, centered around the administration knowing what he'd found, and then simply ignoring it. The WH had to try and refute that, and so they had to find out a) who he was, b) details about the trip, c) any damaging info that could be used to discredit him.
How? Who's got that info? Who do they know, who do they have close contact with that would be willing to help protect Cheney? A little discussed detail is that in the fall of 2003, the CIA very pointedly said that the INR official circulating the classified info could not have been at the meeting (where Plame suggested Wilson go to Niger). INR is State's intel agency, so it stands to reason that someone at INR, or with close ties to INR had gotten the info. And shortly after the investigation was announced, a senior administration official made it known that the leak had gone out to at least 6 reporters. Someone wanted to kick the investigation ball rolling, and looking back on it, it appears that the CIA did.
John Bolton was the neocons man at the State Dept - Arms Control, his senior aide was David Wurmser. Wurmser came from AEI, stopped at the Pentagon where he worked in the OSP shop, and then moved to State. Wurmser is classic neocon in the truest sense of the word, and Bolton had made a point of putting his nose into INR, to the point that his assigned intel officier, Greg Thielmann was told he was no longer welcome at the staff meetings.
The investigation into the leak was officially announced in late September 2003, but it had been hinted in the press in early August that the CIA would ask for a formal probe.
David Wurmser moved to Cheney's office in September. He works under Lewis Libby as Cheney's ME expert.
Now, what did they get for their efforts? Not much really. They got Wilson's name, they found that his wife had suggested he make the trip, and they found the same basic report that 2 other people had already given (one report to State, and one to Gen Myers). They went to find out as much as they could about Wilson's politics, found he was a Dem, where he spoke, who he contributed to politically, etc. And they created the image in their minds that Wilson's wife was responsible for the trip, that it was pretty much nothing more than a vacation, in other words, they had more than enough to work with.
So they started talking, making it 'common knowledge', creating the talking points, and when Wilson's op-ed hit the NYT they were ready. They pushed the angle that Wilson was anti-war, that he had an agenda, that he was a Democrat, and that his wife had played a major role in his getting the assignment, and that she worked for the CIA, so it was all nepotism, and really just another case of Bush-bashing from the anti-war leftists.
The little detail that Plame worked for the CIA fit in with their ongoing campaign to paint the CIA as incompetent, a failure. She was part of that whole 'crowd'. They couldn't ask anyone about her status because they weren't supposed to be looking at this material. They tossed in the info that she worked at the CIA on WMD because it fit in with what they were trying to do, they didn't set out to "out" a NOC because they had no idea she was a NOC.
Their reaction and how they were pushing the story, specifically Rove's reaction, changed when David Corn wrote on July 17th that by naming Plame they may have been committing a felony. Suddenly there was a flurry of excuses, justifications, and backpedaling. Almost 2 years later we're hearing 'knowingly' and 'unknowingly'.
When did they get the info about Wilson and Plame out to the reporters? Probably beginning the morning of July 6th or as soon as they became aware of Wilson's op-ed. Wilson wrote in his book that Novak knew as early as the 8th, and we now know that Novak's column was on the wires on the 11th, and that Rove had told Cooper on the 11th.
What about Judy Miller? I'm merely speculating, but I don't believe Miller would go to jail to protect Rove or Libby unless it could be turned into a drama to benifit her career, and that may be all this is. I do believe she'd got to jail to protect a neocon friend, or her neocon circle of friends. The intriguing question is why she didn't write about it, but then I'm not sure this is a story that would interest her, it's not really up her alley and it dealt with the fringes of how & why we went to a war that she fully supported & participated in. Then again, maybe she was going to hold the info for her book on the search for WMD.
I've seen speculation that Miller might have cultivated Plame as a source for her book, and that may be how she knew of Plame's status at CIA. I have my doubts about that because Miller actually seeking out a CIA WMD specialist implies she's writing truth, but it's still an intriguing idea and anything is possible.
Because of Kristof's May 6th article describing the trip, but not naming Wilson. Remember you're dealing with political motives, policital hacks, and the fact that they were trying to shield Cheney from the accusation that he'd asked for details and then hadn't followed up on them. Cheney received a DIA report on the Niger deal and asked his CIA briefers what they thought. It's not beyond imagination that Cheney was playing the CIA against the DIA and didn't really CARE if the CIA looked into it, but they did look into it.
Between May 6th and July 6th there were at least 3 articles published (Kristof in the NYT, Pincus in WaPo, and Judis at TNR) that mentioned the Niger trip, all used Wilson as an anonymous source. By late June the CIA was being blamed for all the bad intel (it was becoming clear there were no WMD), Rice was saying no one knew anything about anything, and the WH was in full CYA mode. I'd be more surprised if Rove and Libby had NOT gone looking for details about who the anonymous Ambassador was.
Wilson's charges, even while anonymous, centered around the administration knowing what he'd found, and then simply ignoring it. The WH had to try and refute that, and so they had to find out a) who he was, b) details about the trip, c) any damaging info that could be used to discredit him.
How? Who's got that info? Who do they know, who do they have close contact with that would be willing to help protect Cheney? A little discussed detail is that in the fall of 2003, the CIA very pointedly said that the INR official circulating the classified info could not have been at the meeting (where Plame suggested Wilson go to Niger). INR is State's intel agency, so it stands to reason that someone at INR, or with close ties to INR had gotten the info. And shortly after the investigation was announced, a senior administration official made it known that the leak had gone out to at least 6 reporters. Someone wanted to kick the investigation ball rolling, and looking back on it, it appears that the CIA did.
John Bolton was the neocons man at the State Dept - Arms Control, his senior aide was David Wurmser. Wurmser came from AEI, stopped at the Pentagon where he worked in the OSP shop, and then moved to State. Wurmser is classic neocon in the truest sense of the word, and Bolton had made a point of putting his nose into INR, to the point that his assigned intel officier, Greg Thielmann was told he was no longer welcome at the staff meetings.
The investigation into the leak was officially announced in late September 2003, but it had been hinted in the press in early August that the CIA would ask for a formal probe.
David Wurmser moved to Cheney's office in September. He works under Lewis Libby as Cheney's ME expert.
Now, what did they get for their efforts? Not much really. They got Wilson's name, they found that his wife had suggested he make the trip, and they found the same basic report that 2 other people had already given (one report to State, and one to Gen Myers). They went to find out as much as they could about Wilson's politics, found he was a Dem, where he spoke, who he contributed to politically, etc. And they created the image in their minds that Wilson's wife was responsible for the trip, that it was pretty much nothing more than a vacation, in other words, they had more than enough to work with.
So they started talking, making it 'common knowledge', creating the talking points, and when Wilson's op-ed hit the NYT they were ready. They pushed the angle that Wilson was anti-war, that he had an agenda, that he was a Democrat, and that his wife had played a major role in his getting the assignment, and that she worked for the CIA, so it was all nepotism, and really just another case of Bush-bashing from the anti-war leftists.
The little detail that Plame worked for the CIA fit in with their ongoing campaign to paint the CIA as incompetent, a failure. She was part of that whole 'crowd'. They couldn't ask anyone about her status because they weren't supposed to be looking at this material. They tossed in the info that she worked at the CIA on WMD because it fit in with what they were trying to do, they didn't set out to "out" a NOC because they had no idea she was a NOC.
Their reaction and how they were pushing the story, specifically Rove's reaction, changed when David Corn wrote on July 17th that by naming Plame they may have been committing a felony. Suddenly there was a flurry of excuses, justifications, and backpedaling. Almost 2 years later we're hearing 'knowingly' and 'unknowingly'.
When did they get the info about Wilson and Plame out to the reporters? Probably beginning the morning of July 6th or as soon as they became aware of Wilson's op-ed. Wilson wrote in his book that Novak knew as early as the 8th, and we now know that Novak's column was on the wires on the 11th, and that Rove had told Cooper on the 11th.
What about Judy Miller? I'm merely speculating, but I don't believe Miller would go to jail to protect Rove or Libby unless it could be turned into a drama to benifit her career, and that may be all this is. I do believe she'd got to jail to protect a neocon friend, or her neocon circle of friends. The intriguing question is why she didn't write about it, but then I'm not sure this is a story that would interest her, it's not really up her alley and it dealt with the fringes of how & why we went to a war that she fully supported & participated in. Then again, maybe she was going to hold the info for her book on the search for WMD.
I've seen speculation that Miller might have cultivated Plame as a source for her book, and that may be how she knew of Plame's status at CIA. I have my doubts about that because Miller actually seeking out a CIA WMD specialist implies she's writing truth, but it's still an intriguing idea and anything is possible.
posted by littlesky at 5:33 PM
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