"Valerie Plame Was NO Paper-Pusher" - Worked On TOP PRIORITY Of Bush Admin

[kpete]

THE NATION
What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA
David Corn

...................


Valerie Wilson was no analyst or paper-pusher. She was an operations officer working on a top priority of the Bush Administration. Armitage, Rove and Libby had revealed information about a CIA officer who had searched for proof of the President's case. In doing so, they harmed her career and put at risk operations she had worked on and foreign agents and sources she had handled.

Another issue was whether Valerie Wilson had sent her husband to Niger to check out an intelligence report that Iraq had sought uranium there. Hubris contains new information undermining the charge that she arranged this trip. In an interview with the authors, Douglas Rohn, a State Department officer who wrote a crucial memo related to the trip, acknowledges he may have inadvertently created a misimpression that her involvement was more significant than it had been.

.....................

In 1997 she returned to CIA headquarters and joined the Counterproliferation Division. (About this time, she moved in with Joseph Wilson; they later married.) She was eventually given a choice: North Korea or Iraq. She selected the latter. Come the spring of 2001, she was in the CPD's modest Iraq branch. But that summer--before 9/11--word came down from the brass: We're ramping up on Iraq. Her unit was expanded and renamed the Joint Task Force on Iraq. Within months of 9/11, the JTFI grew to fifty or so employees. Valerie Wilson was placed in charge of its operations group.

......................

When the Novak column ran, Valerie Wilson was in the process of changing her clandestine status from NOC to official cover, as she prepared for a new job in personnel management. Her aim, she told colleagues, was to put in time as an administrator--to rise up a notch or two--and then return to secret operations. But with her cover blown, she could never be undercover again. Moreover, she would now be pulled into the partisan warfare of Washington. As a CIA employee still sworn to secrecy, she wasn't able to explain publicly that she had spent nearly two years searching for evidence to support the Administration's justification for war and had come up empty.
much more at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060918/corn

[bigbrother05]

1. Thanks! k&r

[longship]

2. Love my "Nation" subscription.

Getting this kind of information every week from the longest, continuously published news magazine on the planet. Since the 1860's the "Nation" has been the voice of truth.

I really love it.

[Missy Vixen]

3. K&R

She searched for almost two years, and found nothing.

Please, please let the Wilsons get to discovery in their civil suit. Please.

Julie

[leveymg]

4. This reinforces the theory that Valerie was the target not just Joe

This is in line with my supposition some months ago that Valerie was working on IRAQ WMD issues, and that may have been the motive for Cheney going after her. I concluded that we learned that Scooter Libby had obtained confirming info about Plame from Robert Grenier, the former COS in Islamabad, who was working on assignment to the same CIA Iraq WMD taskforce.

The nexus of Plame and Grenier's expertise would have been mutual knowledge of Pakistan's role in both Iran and Iraq WMD programs, and the Bush Administration's efforts to cover that trail. That would explain a lot. See,

Daily Kos: UPDATED: Why isn't Bush Cooperating on Nuclear ...
New Evidence of Motive In Plame Outing? by leveymg ... Appointed head of counterrorism in 2004, Grenier was Chief of Station in Islamabad, ... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/20/14939/6889 - 51k

New Evidence of Motive In Plame Outing?
by leveymg
Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 11:09:39 AM PDT
Did Plame's Outing Disrupt CIA Iran Assessment?

UPDATED - A court filing in the Libby case indicates that a former Agency counterrorism officer in Pakistan revealed Plame's undercover role to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. This may provide support for the contention that the subsequent outing of Plame crippled work that was being done by the CIA to track and contain the proliferation of nuclear technologies spread by A.Q. Khan's network. Specifically, it may have effectively neutralized CIA analytical capability concerning Iran's weapons program, opening the door to tainted intelligence intended to pave the way for a preemptive U.S. or Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. See, http://www.truthout.org/... also see, the 39-page filing, http://talkleft.com/...

leveymg's diary :: ::
Mr. Libby has been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice related to a coordinated White House operation that revealed Ms. Plame's identity to reporters. The 39-page filing submitted by defense lawyers indicates that Robert Grenier, a recently-retired former head of CIA counter-terrorism, may have been the source for some details of Libby's knowledge about Plame, an undercover CIA counterproliferation expert. Appointed head of counterrorism in 2004, Grenier was Chief of Station in Islamabad, and had been working in Pakistan for many years, a position that would make him familiar with A.Q. Khan's activities. According to a February Washington Post report printed at the time of Grenier's departure from the Agency in February, Grenier had been recalled from Pakistan to headquarters and been tasked to head the Iraq Issues Group in anticipation of the U.S. invasion. According to The Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

"Robert Grenier, who spent most of his career undercover overseas, took charge of the Counterterrorism Center about a year ago after a series of senior jobs at the center of the Bush administration's national security agenda.

"When al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Grenier was station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan. Among the agency's most experienced officers in southwest Asia, Grenier helped plan the covert campaign that preceded the U.S. military ouster of al Qaeda and its Taliban allies from Afghanistan.

"By the summer of 2002, with President Bush heading toward war in Iraq, then-Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet recalled Grenier to headquarters and promoted him to chief of a newly created Iraq Issues Group. His staff ballooned as the administration planned and launched the invasion in March 2003."

It is unknown whether Grenier became acquainted with Plame during his stint at CIA headquarters, or whether they had previously worked on matters in South Asia. But, both would likely have extensive knowledge of matters related to Pakistan's commerce in nuclear technology with Iran. From the mid-1980s until 1997, the A.Q. Khan network was Iran's primary supplier of nuclear know-how.

The A.Q. Khan network was of interest to both the CIA counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation divisions

The court filing revealing Mr. Grenier's knowledge of Ms. Plame sheds new light on how the CIA's nuclear counterproliferation activities were connected to counter-terrorism operations in South Asia, and some new clues to Plame's role at CIA.

It has been reported that Plame's primary assignment at the time of her outing in the summer of 2003 was Iran's nuclear program. If Grenier's knowledge of Plame's role was gained during the run-up to the Iraq invasion, it might indicate that Grenier simply worked down the hall from Plame. On the other hand, the two may have had a closer acquaintance. If Grenier had been working with Plame earlier, this would have much broader implications for Plame's role within the Agency and might suggest possible additional motives for the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) to ruin her career.

SNIP

[H2O Man]

5. It was the

message that I suggested in the spring of 2004 series of "Plame Threads" on DU.

[leveymg]

7. Please post some links.

I'd love to read those.

[H2O Man]

8. I wish I had

kept links to them. Some DUers do, but I do not have them. I have found one that addresses this by googling "The Waterman Paper." It is also found in the January 2005 section of my humble blog.

[leveymg]

9. This goes right to a treasonous motive in the Plame outing.

I would say, this is one of the most damaging confirmations to come out so far.

Looks like Cheney and WHIG just didn't like the conclusions that Brewster Jennings, and the Task Force, was coming out with about WMDs in Iraq (and Iran), so they deep-sixed the whole outfit.

That, my friend, is a treasonous action, considering what followed.

[H2O Man]

12. This might work ....

http://h2oman.blogspot.com/2005/01/waterman-paper.html

[leveymg]

14. I take this to be the most relevant section?

Do you still believe this was to derail a sting operation that Valerie was involved with? My take is a bit simpler - WHIG wanted the CIA WMD assessments scrapped -- CIA resisted -- so Cheney had the CIA unit scrapped by outing it.

Either way, I call that treason -- you seemed to have called it right years ago -- "The Firstest with the Mostest". Congratulations, H2O Man!

Anyway, here's part of your post:

Goal #3: Why Cheney Exposed Plame
Wilson notes that Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security advisor, pointed out that since the Bush people had never backed down before, the fact that they had been "so quick to admit their error this time meant they must have something more important to protect." (pg 4)
In Worse Than Watergate, John Dean calls the exposing of Plame the "Dirtiest of Dirty Tricks." He writes that "revealing her identity damaged the national security and her career, and resulted in the loss of a valuable government asset." He called this action "literally life-threatening." (pgs 170-171)
What could have possibly been so important to VP Cheney that he oversaw the violating of the 1982 IIPA, and risked a White House scandal? The answer clearly can not be found in goals #1 or #2.
The answer, which supports goal #3, appears in Klein's article: "Furthermore, there is intense anger over the White House's revealing the identity of Plame, who may have been active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components. ..... 'Only a very high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge that Plame was on the payroll' of the CIA, an intelligence source told me."
And that very high-ranking official may have known through his parallel national security office about the activities that Plame was involved with at that time. The answer to goal #3 likely is to be found in the checklist of things Valerie Plame did to mitigate the damage done by Novak's article immediately after she read it.
Conclusions
This paper presents direct evidence that the intelligence group that operates out of VP Cheney's office orchestrated the exposure of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, in order to realize goal #1, the "punishing" of Joseph Wilson for publicly challenging President Bush.
It includes both direct and circumstantial evidence from sources including Wilson, Dean, Klein, and others, that indicates they also had goal #2 in mind: to intimidate any other potential sources that could challenge their reasons for invading Iraq, as well as other measures in their "war on terorism."
Yet these two goals alone do not explain why VP Cheney would (1) take part in a measure that would violate a federal law against exposing a CIA operative, or (2) risk a serious scandal for the Bush Administration.
The possibility that VP Cheney was hoping to derail a sting operation involving Valerie Plame, which is our identified goal #3, does explain why VP Cheney would condone the breaking of the federal law, and risk the most serious scandal that this administration faces.
Further research by an ad hoc DU "think tank" has identified possible connections between businesses connected to VP Cheney that may be associated with the sale of WMD components to countries in the Middle East. It is our belief that this theory and the evidence that supports it needs a more in-depth investigation.

[starroute]

11. Here's a link to Plame thread #7

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1987271

Each one starts with a link to the one before it, so this is the easiest way I know to get to the whole series. (There might be links to all of them in the Demopedia as well.)

[H2O Man]

13. Great!

Thank you!

[Me.]

16. Here You Go

I put the links on my journal. Scroll down and you'll find all the old Plame thread links.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Me.

*shadow government*

[H2O Man]

18. Wow.

Very good. Thanks.

[Me.]

20. The Link

Doesn't seem to work, so just click my journal icon. (du'oh)

*shadow government*

[DeepModem Mom]

6. She was in Iraq??? nt

[ms liberty]

10. K&R n/t

[DemReadingDU]

15. Well, this is interesting...

This article by David Corn, last week he and Isikoff had coverage about their book about the leak scandal, and there was the WaPo article & the NYT article last week.

Just makes we wonder, what is going on under the surface? What is about ready to break open?

K&R

[riderinthestorm]

17. Do you think something is still going to break open on the case?

I was under the impression that the case is finished with Scooter Libby. I know that there is a ton of other treasonous stuff buried under the surface of that one indictment but I thought Fitz had hit the wall.

[hootinholler]

30. If the case finished with Scooter, there wouldn't be the need to

Continue with another grand jury. Fitz did a full briefing before a new grand jury to get them up to speed.

-Hoot

[leveymg]

19. This seems to point to an indictment of Cheney.

If Corn is right, and Valerie headed up the Iraq WMD task force, here's the direct motive for Cheney to have outed Plame.

The CIA assessments were that neither Iraq nor Iran had a real, operating nuclear program. That didn't fit with the message the WH wanted to get out. When the CIA wouldn't scrub its assessments, Cheney scrubbed the CIA.

[riderinthestorm]

21. I believe H2O man and others thought this also but then when they let

Rove off the hook, along with other signals, I was under the impression that Fitz was done and Cheney and his man Addington were off the hook.

I would love, love, love to see Cheney go down. Love it.

[DemReadingDU]

23. Whoa, Fitz is not done

He can take years to prosecute a case. I'd say Fitz is just beginning with Libby, then follow with others. We need to be patient. Just because Fitz hasn't talked, doesn't mean he is finished. Others on this board are more experienced in Plamegate and can offer up their opinions.

edit to add: Rove is not off the hook. He needs to cooperate with the Fitz, or he will be indicted (my opinion)

[H2O Man]

24. I am hoping

that I will have a chance to post an essay on this topic tomorrow morning. But, until then, look at the State memo that Libby ordered.

[leveymg]

25. Please send a PI link so I don't miss that.

Thanks!

[kpete]

27. H20 Man

I will be checking for your essay - can't wait!

[deaniac21]

22. We are on the verge of HalloFitz!

[Rosco T.]

26. That's Fitzoween... n/m

[snappyturtle]

28. I can't wait...........

:popcorn: :popcorn: :yourock:

[deaniac21]

36. I stand corrected!

B-)

[Kagemusha]

29. I think this job is the reason she was outed.

A "traitor" with a "traitorous husband" could not be trusted with such an important task. Cheney must've immediately thought, this Plame woman is against us, she had her husband go to Niger specifically to undermine our strategic mission by sowing doubt about Saddam's WMD intentions. She's deliberately not finding anything. She's treating Chalabi's defectors as unreliable con artists. Saddam fell, and yet, still her unit could not find WMD evidence. What's the problem here? The problem is that the woman didn't believe in the mission, and sending her husband to Niger, and that husband discrediting the mission, proves that she's undermining the mission.

So Plame had to go.

Obviously, easiest if Tenet would simply can her, but since that wasn't going to happen without 'cause', she was disposed of as a political enemy undermining national security. She was outed, making her impossible to keep in her job. Problem solved. Now someone more enthusiastic about the mission could be placed in charge of the task force to find those damned WMD's.

Which of course, never were found.

[DemReadingDU]

32. I've never that of Plamegate like this

very interesting! Still, I'm waiting for Fitz to tell us more

[MasonJar]

31. Well, now that's a shock! Maybe she was the one they targeted

after all. The ambassador was just a good cover.

[orleans]

33. did david corn ever get his head out of his ass and admit the

elections were stolen? i stopped reading him & the nation after that because i was so pissed off. (yeah, i guess you just can't please some of us far lefties)

[brentblack]

34. Uhhhh....what?

I am not sure why this is still an issue. Maybe I am being dense, but the Post printed an op-ed concerning this issue and mentioned Armitage as the leak - considering they were the original source, this seems legit. It even suggested (and I agree) that Wilson is responsible for most of the hype. Something went wrong here, but it seems accidental and not done by those that are most suspected. I think many WANTED desperately for this to be the new Watergate.

Look...there may or may not be an issue here, but it is minor and distracting. I do not mind being in the minority position on this one, but with other pressing issues (losing civil rights, soldiers and Iraqi civilians dying in droves, winning back the House and Senate, etc) this seems like an issue that makes us look petty and grasping.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. Us?

:eyes:

[Peace Patriot]

37. I think it was more than just war propaganda they were worried about.

They had almost total control of the newsstream, if you will recall. They could have just ignored Wilson and it would have gone away. Who was Wilson? An ex-diplomat with a beef. Easy meat for the lapdogs, if needed. I think they were trying to plant WMDs in Iraq (to be "discovered" by US troops)--and got foiled, and found out by insider David Kelly. The B-J network bumped into it, and stopped it. They outed Plame (July 14), killed Kelly (July 17), and then outed the entire B-J network (July 22--Novak's SECOND column), not because of Wilson's article, but because their Big Plan for "justifying" the war and discrediting the CIA got skunked, and people (like Brit insider WMD expert Kelly) were getting on to it.

That Plame was working on IRAQ counter-proliferation adds one more bit of evidence to support this theory. Still just a theory, but a good one. See the discusson at the OP on the latest Hubris revelation at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2494985

[radwriter0555]

38. thwack

n/t