Valerie Plame: Obama is on Bush’s side
Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame in 2006. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Maureen Dowd’s column that will appear in the Thursday Post-Dispatch is a make-believe conversation between Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. She ends it with Cheney and Rumsfeld joking about getting President Barack Obama to pardon I. Lewis “Scooter’ Libby, who remains the only person convicted of anything in the Valerie Plame affair.
Plame, you’ll remember, was the undercover CIA agent working on ensuring that Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons and who was outed as a CIA agent in a July 2003 Washington Post syndicated-column by Robert Novak about her husband, Joe WIlson. Wilson, a former U.S. Foreign Services diplomat, had been sent by the CIA to Africa to check out claims that Iraq was buying uranium yellowcake from Niger. His findings, published in The New York Times op-ed “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” in mid-2003, didn’t please the Bush adminsitration.
The leak to Novak was traced to either Dick Armitage or to Libby, an assistant to Cheney. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. His 30-month sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush, but he was not pardoned, despite pleas from Cheney at the end of the Bush administration.
Plame and Wilson filed a civil suit against Cheney, Libby, Armitage, Karl Rove and others for the public disclosure of Plame’s undercover CIA status. The case was thrown out for jurisdictional reasons (from an Aug. 12 Bloomberg story):
The appeals court, in the 2-1 decision written by Chief Circuit Judge David Sentelle, said that because Congress exempted the offices of the president and vice president from a federal law protecting the privacy of individuals, the court wouldn’t create any additional remedy. In addition, the panel said any suit would involve the disclosure of sensitive intelligence information.
And now comes this word from CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington):
CREW learned today that the Obama administration is opposing our request that the Supreme Court reconsider the dismissal of the lawsuit, Wilson v. Libby, et al. In that case, the district court had dismissed the claims of Joe and Valerie Wilson against former Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Richard Armitage for their gross violations of the Wilsons’ constitutional rights.
So, President Barack Obama is on the side of the patriotic folks who outed a CIA agent working to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of an intemperate leader of a Middle East nation hostile to the United States.
Well, not likely. But the Obama administration apparently understood the “exemption” of the offices of the president and vice president from a federal law on privacy. And apparently it also understood that even with jurisdiction, Plame would have to prove that she was harmed directly by the actions of those named in the suit.
Go figure. Cheney’s scheme worked. At least it worked long enough for him to get the war he wanted and how he wanted it. If he had to ruin the career of a CIA agent in the process, well, that’s just collateral damage.
Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky. 
First - it is widely know Plame was not undercover at the time. That has been proven to be a fact. She had in fact held a desk job for several years and was not covert.
Second - Armitage was the leak as you should know if you had read Bob Novak’s book “Prince of Darkness”.
Third - it was Plame herself that recommended Joe Wilson be sent to Niger. He was not qualified for the job.
Last - please get the facts correct and try to be objective. You and your lack of objectivity and fact checking are the reason circulation of major newspapers are in a death spiral.
mark
Go figure. Leftist lightweight dredges up old story. Includes four typos and numerous factual errors.
Ends the bloody mess with unbecoming smugness.
Must conclude the writer is incapable of elevating her game.
From what I’ve read, she was as much an undercover agent as Jerry Berger was an undercover gossip columnist.
Jamie, Plame wasnt an undercover agent, at least not unless she was undercover as a desk jockey. It is rumored that Plame’s identity was revealed as a former undercover by Aldrich Ames. It is also kind of hard to out someone as a CIA agent when their listing in “Who’s Who in America” list your profession as CIA agent. You also (intentionally) left out the truth about Wilson’s African tea party; that he was sent by Val to come back with a preconceived decision, the actual tasking was to investigate claims that Iraq ATTEMPTED to buy uranium, not that they had actually succeeded in doing so. It is also impossible for a civilian (Liar Joe) to be sent on a mission for the CIA without signing a non disclosure agreement concerning the mission and his eventual findings. Had he signed one, his article would have landed his lying butt in jail.
Dowd… I guess on a fictional account we can cut her some slack if she lifts a few lines from HuffPost w/o noting it.
Wow, the fake crowd is out big time on this. Of course Plame was undercover, and the best way to stay undercover is to go on as if you’re you’re NOT undercover. Anyone who thought about covert activities or worked in or near it knows this.
Novak the schill and shyster and the whole crowd who secretly and not-so-secretly outed her and caused damage to CIA ops need to be behind bars.
It interests me that all 5 commenters fail to mention that Niger never sold yellow cake to Iraq, that the document presented by the Bush administration was a blatant fraud and that Plame and wilson are brave and courageous people. Further I find that these five commenters represent the worst of us. They are those who despise courage, justice and truth.
Wops, forgive me “JoeP”, you are not included in my rant!
Well said, ehswan! Here’s the real deal, from the source (apologies for the CAPS, but this is fundamental and needs SHOUTING):-
“THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, JOSEPH WILSON, ROBERT NOVAK, DAVID CORN,VALERIE PLAME ET ALS HAVE CONSPIRED TO EXPOSE NETWORKS OF GENUINE INTELLIGENCE AGENTS AND THEIR SOURCES WHO WERE CLOSING IN ON TREASONOUS ACTS PERPETRATED BY THE WHITE HOUSE TO FURTHER AN INSIDIOUS AGENDA OF EMPIRE EXPANSION THROUGH STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM DESIGNED TO CREATE A THIRST FOR REVENGE AND JUSTICE IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”
Joe Wilson, if he does not want to remain looking like an obvious Bush facilitator of Treason, should demand the Bush administration be prosecuted under 18 USC 794* for Treason since that is the law which sent Aldrich Ames away to prison for life.
Any lawyer here who wants to do something worthwhile for this desperate country should start here, where the real deal was clearly exposed. Who has the guts, in this gutless nation that used to be the home of the brave?
Start here and support Fitzgerald:-
http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/
* 18 USC 794:
(b) Whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, collects, records, publishes, or communicates, ….information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.
Cheney deserves imprisonment. I don’t care how it’s accomplished. Neglect Due Process, Letter of the Law or Jurisprudence. I know this will never happen as justice in many cases is just an idea and not implemented. Cheney will die a rich man in a comfortable bed stuffed full of Halliburton, Carlyle Group and the American Enterprise Institute cash.