W/H didn't KNOW she was CIA UNTIL IT ASKED - and other items not in news

[papau]

Seems the W/H didn't KNOW she was CIA UNTIL IT ASKED - so why did it ask about Wilson's wife? As quoted from a 1600 former employee in the ABC Note: "..how did the White House 'learn' that she was a covert operative? In 5+ years at 1600, I never once heard/learned/read/happened upon the name of an 'operative'? Names are redacted in the PDB and referenced only as 'humint'; Agency reports are redacted for names, and even the briefers who show up every day presumably disguise their identities; you don't take them to lunch at Breadline. So, if you don't stumble upon this factoid, you were looking for it. If so, why?"

Will this question be asked first by print media, broaccast media, EU media, or will it appear first in a scene on " 'West Wing' or 'K Street'?"


Indeed - will the Post's Edsall/Eilperin comment that the Republican lobbyists in Washington eyeing up Iraq as a "major new profit center." first show up in a TV script - or in the news nedia?


And who wants to bet that they will not find on today's evening broadcast news the Senator Kerry comment that "It's like the 1970s when Nixon would just throw names out, throw out accusations, play political games and dirty tricks.'" "The Senator continued, 'It's complete in its Orwellian dissembling. It's part of a pattern; you know, they name something 'Healthy Forests' and they chop down the trees; they call something 'Clear Skies' and the skies are going to be dirtier than if you didn't do anything. It's part of a whole pattern, but here it's more abusive, more significant impact on people. But I think people are tired of, they're angry about it.'"

or even the mild Kerry sarcasm "...the White House is saying because Joe Wilson supports someone for president, that it was, therefore, justifiable to release the name of his wife as a CIA agent and break the law? That's a very interesting logic.'"

[Scaramouche]

1. The White House might not have needed to ask...

Cheney and Staff had been over at the CIA trying to intimidate analysts into making reports on WMD's favorable to the Adminstation's line.

I find it plausible the Valerie Plame could have breif Cheney or his staff prior to the war. It's possible that her information was contrary to what they wanted. They would have remembered that and after Wilson's article on his findings in Niger they could have had the idea to discredit him by outing the wife.

Remeber this is part of the larger issue, Nigergate, which all comes back to the Vice President's office.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. True, but they're evil bastards no matter how they learned she

is CIA because they blew her cover with no regard for the impact it would have on future intelligence gathering or on lives (whether people would be killed because they wanted to get revenge on Joe Wilson for not saying what they wanted to hear.) And it's certainly all tied to Nigergate.

[Scaramouche]

3. Now here's a thought...

What if they don't really believe in WMD's because they know they've making it up all along. Then it wouldn't relly seem to them to be such a big deal to compromise her and her sources.

Or worse, they don't like the ifo ther gettting from these sources since they're not sticking with the program so they decided to get rid of them by attrition..

Hmmm...