Now, to unravel some spin...
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Originally Posted by scaeagles
Novak told Rove the name "Valerie Plame". Novak was the one who initiated contact.
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I'm having a hard time believing that Rove did not know the name Valerie Plame prior to Novak mentioning it. Even though he has a past history of this kind of stuff, that of which got him fired from Bush Seniors campaign in 92. And, even though her husband had royally pissed off the administration recently (for telling the truth, no less). Nope, I'm sure Rove was totally in the dark.
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Originally Posted by scaeagles
[Cooper (as discussed earlier) believed a lie of Wilson that Cheney recommended he go to Niger, when it was in fact his wife Plame, and was corrected on it. Cooper was the one who initiated contact.
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From MediaMatters.com:
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Remarking on the controversy surrounding senior White House adviser Karl Rove, New York Times columnist and National Public Radio (NPR) commentator David Brooks echoed the false GOP talking point that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney sent him to Niger.
In an effort to deflect criticism of Rove, the Republican National Committee (RNC) issued talking points claiming that Rove leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, in order to correct Wilson's false claim that Cheney's office had sent him to Niger. But the RNC supports this claim by distorting Wilson's July 2003 New York Times op-ed and his August 2003 appearance on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. In both instances, Wilson made it clear that his trip was authorized by officials at the CIA, not Cheney.
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Originally Posted by scaeagles
Wilson acknowledges that his wife wasn't undercover when the Novak article ran.
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From MediaMatters.com:
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AP falsely reported Wilson "acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job" when her identity was first publicly leaked »
In a July 15 article reporting new details in the ongoing criminal investigation into the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity, the AP distorted a remark by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV to falsely report that Wilson "acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak's column first identified her." In fact, Wilson merely emphasized that his wife’s cover was blown at the moment when columnist Robert D. Novak revealed her identity in a July 2003 column.
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Originally Posted by scaeagles
Most of her friends and neighbors knew she worked for the CIA, so this was hardly any secret.
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Working for the CIA and being known to be a covert op are two entirely different things. Here is an interesting perspective from someone who was a classmate of Valerie.
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Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.
A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.
The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.
The Republicans now want to hide behind the legalism that "no laws were broken". I don't know if a man made law was broken but an ethical and moral code was breached. For the first time a group of partisan political operatives publically identified a CIA NOC. They have set a precendent that the next group of political hacks may feel free to violate.
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