Well, I sat down yesterday afternoon and tried – no, really tried – to understand what this whole Wilson-Plame “scandal” is about. Here’s my first stab: Joseph Wilson, for some reason, was picked to go investigate claims that Saddam had tried to purchase uranium from Niger. He came back and said – he didn’t write anything down, apparently – that there was no evidence that such a transaction had occurred. When the Bush administration cited British sources for uranium from Africa (not specifically Niger), Wilson got his panties in a twist and wrote an op-ed for the NYT accusing the Bushies of distorting intelligence to wage war. Subsequently, somebody in the government – either at the White House or elsewhere – was talking on the phone to Robert Novak, anti-war columnist, and told him that Wilson’s wife was a CIA operative. Novak’s disclosure set Wilson off again, and he accused the administration of trying to wreck his wife’s career out of spite at his dissent, and subsequently blamed Karl Rove personally. A few lefty writers made something of this on the web. Then it died down. Then over the weekend, news broke that George Tenet was ticked off about the affair and an “administration official” (CIA?) told the Washington Post that two government sources had actually cold-called six hacks and “outed” Wilson’s wife around the same time as Novak’s conversation. Then last night, Novak said that Plame wasn’t an undercover CIA agent after all; and that no-one in the government had tried to call him with that information. The Post, in contrast, has reported baldly that Plame “is a case officer in the CIA’s clandestine service and works as an analyst on weapons of mass destruction.” That’s about it. Okay, so there are nuances that I’ve missed, but that’s the best I could do.
WHAT IS HER JOB?: So, first off, is Plame or is she not an under-cover CIA agent? The original “leaker,” Robert Novak, says no. The Post says yes. And why would CIA complain if it weren’t true? Surely this is findoutable. If she is not undercover, someone at the CIA can easily provide her job description and clear all this up. If she is undercover, then we really do need to know who tried to “out” her to the six journalists. One possibility is that she once was undercover and now no longer is – which still makes the outing illegal but less dangerous, less vindictive and more baffling. Novak, meanwhile, has blown a hole through his part of the story by saying last night that
“Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson’s report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing. As a professional journalist with 46 years experience in Washington I do not reveal confidential sources. When I called the CIA in July to confirm Mrs. Wilson’s involvement in the mission for her husband – he is a former Clinton administration official – they asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operator, and not in charge of undercover operatives.”
So, according to Novak, there really isn’t a story here. It seems to me that until we know exactly what Plame’s job is, there’s not much point in speculating further. If she’s just an analyst and this is widely known, then the White House calls are slimy (and still baffling to me) but not worthy of major investigation. (I have a hunch she is no longer under-cover and now simply consults.)
ONE MORE THING: If none of the six journalists published Plame’s name and we do not know the context in which her name was raised, and Novak denies it, how do we know at all that this was an effort to punish Wilson and/or Plame? Do we believe the “revenge” motive provided by the government source over the weekend – or are his motives merely inter-agency in-fighting? In Novak’s column, there’s no direct negative slant on Plame at all. And there’s no source provided for her identity. Here’s the money quote:
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. “I will not answer any question about my wife,” Wilson told me.
Notice that Novak doesn’t write that the two SAO’s told him about Plame’s identity. They just indicated that it was her suggestion that Wilson be used. The CIA subsequently asked him to withhold her name. Now if she knows her stuff, and isn’t undercover, why is this damning at all? Beats me. Or are they trying a weak argument that he’s an incompetent or worse who got the assignment for nepotistic reasons? Who knows? I have many more questions than answers. And since I’m not part of the Krugmanian Bush-Is-Hitler/Nixon/Saddam crowd, I’ll leave the hyper-ventilating to Josh Marshall until we know more. (Useful summary: The Rant.)
The Dish 