Dems blast White House on leak probe

[Q]

Dems blast White House on leak probe

Senators reiterate call for special prosecutor to investigate

Thursday, October 9, 2003 Posted: 6:22 PM EDT (2222 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four leading Democratic senators accused the White House on Thursday of bungling a probe into the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name in what the outed operative's husband calls an attempt at political intimidation.

In a letter to President Bush, Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and three others said the White House has made "at least five serious missteps" in the leak probe so far.

The biggest is leaving Attorney General John Ashcroft in charge of the probe rather than naming a special prosecutor to handle it, as they have called for previously, they said.

"We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted," the senators wrote.

The letter was signed by Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, one of the first lawmakers to call for an investigation of the leak.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House or the Justice Department.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/09/leak.main/index.html

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- Once again we see a Bush* scandal being systematically covered up by the most corrupt WH in history. Some Dems are keeping up the pressure...but they could use more help from the PARTY.

[kentuck]

1. Just "stonewall" it...eventually it will go away..

Some other story will take its place. These secretive bastards think the government belongs to them personally.

[Mandate My Ass]

2. I hate to be a cynic

OK, I don't really, but I get the nagging feeling that the dems are now jumping all over this because they know it's the CIA's fight with the WH and that the CIA is going to keep up the pressure. Like kids in a schoolyard gathering to watch the two bullies fight each other, they've decided to egg it on knowing they're not going to get bloodied noses.

[kentuck]

6. and your point is..?

:)

[Mandate My Ass]

10. This has been out there since July

what did we hear in July? Crickets.

Now that Wilson and disgruntled CIA people are all over TV news programs blasting the WH three months later, the dems are only now jumping on the bandwagon.

[kentuck]

11. When opportunity knocks, don't say, "Who's there?"

Say, "Come on in!" :)

[Mandate My Ass]

13. When opportunists knock

Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity's door if you ardently wish to enter. :)

B. C. Forbes

[Q]

12. The Dems have asked for a Special Prosecutor...

...from the beginning. It should be obvious to anyone that the Bushies can't be trusted to investigate themselves.

[spooky3]

8. The CIA depends on funding from the Congress with WH cooperation

The CIA is not powerful enough to fight this alone, unless they resort to dirty tricks or worse, which could undermine their legitimacy completely. So the Dems need to join with them in the battle.

[RC]

15. Not True.

The CIA has its own sources of funding. They have funded wars on their own. Do some research.

[leftchick]

3. they need to make lots more noise about this....

With media in this misadministrations' pocket I am sure we won't see anything on the Sunday "news" shows. I expect the WH propaganda machine to be out in force telling us "once upon a time in the New Iraq" stories.... :puke:

[Q]

4. I find it interesting...

...that many Democrats have 'moved on' from this issue. GOPers constantly and successfully campaign on 'national security' issues and yet we allow these types of obvious failures to drop from the public view.

- Kennedy called the Iraq war a 'fraud'...and all we got was one big yawn from the Democratic party. Now the party has a chance to expose the Bush* WH on their double standards and lack of concern about national security...and here comes that yawn again.

[Eloriel]

5. That was dumb

"We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted," the senators wrote.

Just EXACTLY what they want to hear. Good! Everything going according to plan.

Eloriel

[lovedems]

7. I would hardly call it a blast, but at least it's a start.

I bet it really heats up in the presidential campaign.

[Q]

9. The focus is about hiring a Special Prosecutor...

...instead of having the WH and Ashcroft investigate themselves.

- The Repubicans would DEMAND a special prosecutor if the situation was reversed. In fact they DID...when the issues were far less important than national security. (see: whitewater).

[pippin]

14. KEEP TRAITORGATE ALIVE!

[Q]

16. MSNBC is doing a story on this right now...

...interviewing a Washington Post reporter. (Dana Priest)

- Talking about the damage done by the exposure of a 'deep cover' agent.

[ignatius]

17. I wrote to our local paper who has not printed it yet, but I will

continue to send it to them and to my congressmen the following:

President Bush says it is doubtful that the FELON(s) in the White House administration who outed a CIA operative, thus compromising her life, her work and her associations during more than 20 years, and our NATIONAL SECURITY, may never be found.

If he canot find a FELON(s) in his own administration, how on earth can he find Osama and Saddam?

[Q]

18. Leak of CIA Officers Leaves Trail of Damage

Published on Saturday, October 11, 2003 by Knight-Ridder

Leak of CIA Officers Leaves Trail of Damage
by Warren P. Strobel

WASHINGTON - It's just a 12-letter name - Valerie Plame - but the leak by Bush administration officials of that CIA officer's identity may have damaged U.S. national security to a much greater extent than generally realized, current and former agency officials say. Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush critic Joseph Wilson, was a member of a small elite-within-an-elite, a CIA employee operating under "nonofficial cover," in her case as an energy analyst, with little or no protection from the U.S. government if she got caught.
Department official

Training agents such as Plame, 40, costs millions of dollars and requires the time-consuming establishment of elaborate fictions, called "legends," including in this case the creation of a CIA front company that helped lend plausibility to her trips overseas. Compounding the damage, the front company, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, whose name has been reported previously, apparently also was used by other CIA officers whose work now could be at risk, according to Vince Cannistraro, formerly the agency's chief of counterterrorism operations and analysis.

Now, Plame's career as a covert operations officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations is over. Those she dealt with - whether on business or not - may be in danger. The DO is conducting an extensive damage assessment.

And Plame's exposure may make it harder for American spies to convince foreigners to share important secrets with them, U.S. intelligence officials said.

Bush partisans tend to downplay the leak's damage, saying Plame's true job was widely known in Washington, if unspoken. And, they say, she had moved from the DO, the CIA's covert arm, to an analysis job. But intelligence professionals, infuriated over the breach and what they see as the Bush administration's misuse of intelligence on Iraq, vehemently disagree.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1011-01.htm