"Why would someone in the WH leak this?"

[bif]

Just overheard the Right-wingers discussing this here at work. They were clueless as to why anyone in the White House would blow the cover of Wilson's wife. They just don't understand the vindictiveness of these guys. Totally clueless. Anyone else hearing discussions like this?

[trof]

1. read this

for a riveting explanation.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/974912.asp?0na=x22046R6-
I started a thread on it in GD.

[bif]

2. I know why

I'm just baffled as to why other people don't get it. Do they seriously think this is a kinder, gentler administration?

[rogerashton]

3. I do worry

when I find myself on the same side as the CIA.

[Padraig18]

5. Who would have thought?

Who would have thought that the CIA would be the ones to jackslap the free press into doing its job? Maybe they ARE more 'defenders of freedom' than we normally are willing to credit them for being. :eyes:

[skip fox]

4. Purpose is key!

Immediately after Wilson's op-ed in the _Times_, he was known as the investigator sent to Niger on the behalf of the Vice-President. When Novak became interested to know how a Clinton appointee had be entrusted with such a mission, who would he have initally called?

Scooter Libbly, Cheney's Chief-of-Staff, or a staff member directly below Scooter. So he naturally calls Scooter, and Scooter was ready for him.

They talked about Wilson's editorial, why the State-of-the-Union Speech referred to Nigerian yellow-cake uranium and why Powell didn't mention it at the UN, and how Cheney had never heard of Wilson. Then Scooter explains, telling Novak that Cheney, the previous summer, had asked the CIA to look into the reports of uranium sales to Iraq from Niger and that it was the CIA who had sent Wilson. Then Scooter lets it drop, "Well, did you know Wilson's wife works at the Bureau? Let's see . . . yeah, right Valerie Plame. Word is that she was the one who had him sent to Niger." Novak's ears perk up (all he hears is "nepotism," missing the real insinuation: that Wilson put his wife up to having him sent because he had an anti-War agenda or because he was anti-administration and wanted to put the breaks on the rising crescendo of war rhetoric that fall). Novak checks spelling ("P-L-A-M-E"), thanks Scooter, hangs up. Checks second source, etc.

It's important to realize the purpose was to discredit Wilson as a maverick-with-an-agenda, getting his wife to send him on a mission the results of which would undercut Bush's bellicose rhetoric or make Bush pull back from his decision to invade Iraq.

Given the circumstance of the following summer (2003) when everyone was questioning the existence of WMD and then to have a key item in the President's State of the Union Speech undercut in a NY Times editorial-length letter, Scooter's plant was artful and effective, despite Novak's dull-witted interpretation (nepotism). I was clever without crushing anyone (Libby is more circumspect and pragmatic than Rove). The purpose was not primarily to inflict revenge upon Wilson, nor was it necessarily a warning to others who might take similar public stands, but to undercut an opponent who had momentarily risen in their midst. Bloodlessly, swiftly.


Coda: Wistful Thinking

I'm guessing Scooter Libby is spending the day with lawyers and staff, figuring out how to minimize legal and politial damage. Tomorrow he'll resign.

[MrJones]

6. It doesn't matter why.

Think about it. Why did Nixon's people break into DNC headquarters? If they'd been smart, they wouldn't have done it in the first place. It was somebody's stupid idea. It's just that, unlike most of the other stupid ideas that have floated out of the WH in the last 3 years, this was was not just stupid but illegal.

[skip fox]

7. The WHY is the trail. You're right, but I'm trying to figure

who the leaker was, and purpose is key.