Sources: State Department official source of Plame leak

[dasaybz]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the source who revealed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in 2003, touching off a federal investigation, two sources familiar with Armitage's role tell CNN.

The sources said Armitage revealed Plame's role at the CIA almost inadvertently in a casual conversation with Novak, and it is not clear if he knew her identity was classified at the time.

Armitage was not indicted by the federal grand jury that investigated the disclosure of Plame's name to Novak and other journalists.

In a July 14, 2003, column, Novak noted that Plame was a CIA operative, citing two senior Bush administration officials. The column was primarily about Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, a former career diplomat and critic of the intelligence underlying the invasion of Iraq.

Novak has never revealed the original source of the information about Plame. However, he has confirmed that President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, confirmed the information and was the second source cited in the column.



http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/30/leak.armitage/index.html

[dasaybz]

This guy should be slapped around.

[Green Lantern]

This guy should be slapped around.


Don't worry, he will be. And worse. Bush said that if he found out that someone in his administration was the source of the leak that they would be dealt with through the full force the law provides.

Not just slapped around, Bush will throw the book at Armitage.

[JLB]

He should have said something a couple years ago.

The damage has already been done hang him by is nuggets.

[uppy]

it was a witch hunt from the start

[nehemiah]

yeah - a witch hunt where the only person getting charged is the guy who lied.

:rolleyes:

horse manure.

[JLB]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/washington/30armitage.html?hp&ex=1156996800&en=a6e9275f2042ee8c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday.

Mr. Armitage did not return calls for comment. But the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage have said he has confirmed that he was the initial and primary source for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, identified Valerie Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.

The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.

[г]

it was a witch hunt from the start

More crying (like little girls) from the Republitards....

[JLB]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/washington/30armitage.html?hp&ex=1156996800&en=a6e9275f2042ee8c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday.

Mr. Armitage did not return calls for comment. But the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage have said he has confirmed that he was the initial and primary source for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, identified Valerie Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.

The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.



Why didn't he come forward?

[rob on the job]

More crying (like little girls) from the Republitards....

What IS is it today with you and little girls and crying, Doug?

Is it your time of the month?

[JLB]

What IS is it today with you and little girls and crying, Doug?

Is it your time of the month?

LMAO!:guy:

[uppy]

More crying (like little girls) from the Republitards....


You lefties are the sensitive ones 3d.

http://www.yazandrj.com/images/Baby2ndMonth2/crying_babies_from_class.jpg

From left to right

D3,the king,Shiva,Spike and notacon

[rob on the job]

http://home.ripway.com/2004-4/95613/Blogs/Linda%20Eddy/LiberalCrybabies.jpg

[JLB]

You lefties are the sensitive ones 3d.

http://www.yazandrj.com/images/Baby2ndMonth2/crying_babies_from_class.jpg

From left to right

D3,the king,Shiva,Spike and notacon

There all watching John Kerry give a speech.:guy:

[rob on the job]

http://leatherneckm31.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/democrat.gif

[JLB]

http://home.ripway.com/2004-4/95613/Blogs/Linda%20Eddy/LiberalCrybabies.jpg

So they got that going for them which is nice.:guy:

[Green Lantern]

it was a witch hunt from the start

How so?

[JLB]

http://leatherneckm31.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/democrat.gif

Is that Howard Dean?:guy:

[Green Lantern]

http://leatherneckm31.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/democrat.gif

The crying is probably because they did not get to start this war. No?

[rob on the job]

Hey, guys, check out this view from Down Under:

EXCERPT
AND so we learn it was former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage - Australia's best friend in the US - not the Bush White House who was the first to out Valerie Plame as a CIA employee.

With this knowledge is demolished yet another left-liberal fantasy about George W. Bush.

The ironies of the situation are endless, exquisite and, for some, extremely painful. ...

Robert Novak first revealed Ms Plame's identity in a Washington Post column in July 2003.

All suspicion immediately fell on Mr Bush's closest aide, Karl Rove, or "turd blossom" as he is affectionately known by Mr Bush, and on Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's then chief of staff.

Mr Rove and Mr Libby's guilt was never in doubt. Mr Rove spoke with a Texas accent, Scooter had a silly name. What more proof was needed?

From Le Monde to the Guardian, from Balmain to Carlton, no right-thinking progressive ever doubted the conspiracy theory that the Bush White House had decided to punish Mr Wilson for becoming a critic of the war by outing his wife.

Of course, as a conspiracy theory it never made any sense. Far from damaging Mr Wilson and Ms Plame, the publicity made them celebrities. ...

Mr Wilson, furiously writing opinion pieces for The New York Times and boasting about his wife, did everything he could to draw attention to himself, not normally the way the spouses of covert agents maintain their covert status.

For what it's worth, White House sources tell me that to the extent that anyone ever discussed Mr Wilson and Ms Plame with the press, it was to deny the story allegedly being put round - some say ultimately by Mr Wilson himself - that he was Mr Cheney's personal choice for the mission to Niger. ...

Mr Libby has been charged by the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, appointed to look into the whole matter. But as is always the case when these special prosecutors run amok, he has not been charged with the central offence - leaking Ms Plame's identity - but with the process offences of lying to the special prosecutor and obstructing justice.

Mr Libby has stood down from Mr Cheney's office and is vigorously defending the charges. He should never have been charged with anything. It is complete madness, the criminalisation of politics. ...

There is another Australian connection with Mr Libby. A former US ambassador to Australia, Mel Sembler, is chairing the fundraising effort for his legal defence.

But what of Mr Armitage's role in all this? Why was he not charged with anything?

We do not yet know all the facts but, according to Newsweek, which broke the story, Mr Armitage revealed Ms Plame's identity in a casual conversation with Novak, and subsequently with the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, at a time when he did not know Ms Plame's status was covert.

When he found out, he told his then boss, Colin Powell, and the State Department's counsel.

I have heard that someone of Mr Armitage's rank, deputy secretary, is allowed to reveal information at his discretion.
It is a matter of record that Mr Armitage was an administration opponent of the neo-conservatives and against going into Iraq when the US did so.

The Wall Street Journal has published a fierce polemic criticising Mr Armitage for not outing himself as the initial source and getting Mr Libby and Mr Rove off the hook.

But the crazy excesses of the special prosecutor would not have been satisfied by any such action, and his identity as Novak's source has been a poorly guarded secret for months.

Mr Armitage is a rambunctious, ebullient and infinitely brave man. I do not believe he could have saved his colleagues from the ravages of the special prosecutor.

But history should record one more conspiracy theory that has been proven, like most conspiracy theories, to be absolute bunk.

link: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20310219-2703,00.html

[uppy]

The crying is probably because they did not get to start this war. No?

Is that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain on your AV ?

[rob on the job]

"Turd Blossom" is going to be my new name for Nehemiah.

[Green Lantern]

Is that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain on your AV ?
What is an AV?

[JLB]

The truth shall set you free.

[uppy]

What is an AV?

your avatar

[Green Lantern]

your avatar

OH!

No. That is too funny. No, that picture is about as opposite as you can get from Chamberlain; it is Nietzsche.

[uppy]

Was Nietzsche a heretic ?

[rob on the job]

Was Nietzsche a heretic ?

He was a nihilist, which, yeah, was pretty close to the same thing, I guess.

[Green Lantern]

He was a nihilist, which, yeah, was pretty close to the same thing, I guess.

He was not a nihilist. He described what nihilists looked like.

Man, that is like saying Machiavelli was Machiavellian.

[rob on the job]

He was not a nihilist. He described what nihilists looked like.

Man, that is like saying Machiavelli was Machiavellian.

I stand corrected. :bigasskiss:

[uppy]

It looks like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain not some heretic


http://www.theblackrepublican.net/images/Chamberlain.jpg


:guy:

[Green Lantern]

It looks like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain not some heretic


http://www.theblackrepublican.net/images/Chamberlain.jpg


:guy:

I guess Nietzsche was a heretic too since he was the one to first proclaim that God is dead.

Heresy is a religious word.