See “A Good Start” by Larry Johnson at TPM Cafe.
The indictment makes clear, with no shadow of a doubt, that Valerie Wilson was an undercover officer until exposed by Robert Novak’s column. According to the indictment,
Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community.
As the prosecutor said at today’s press conference, this ain’t over.
As I wrote in the last post, righties everywhere are in full knee-jerk denial about Valerie Plame Wilson’s status.
Johnson also guesses that the “Under Secretary” mentioned in the indictment is John Bolton, UN anti-ambassador. Another possibility is Marc Grossman, an under secretary for political affairs in the State Department.
Johnson points to this sentence in the indictment:
On or about June 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke with a senior officer of the CIA to ask about the origin and circumstances of Wilson’s trip, and was advised by the CIA officer that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA and was believed to be responsible for sending Wilson on the trip.
Johnson comments:
Now it gets interesting. Who is the senior CIA officer? There are several possibilities. For example, John Bolton’s Chief of Staff, Fred Fleitz is a CIA officer (no longer undercover) who was in a position to get information about Valerie. At the NSC there were several CIA personnel, including David Shedd, who is now on the staff of John Negroponte. It could also be someone from CIA Headquarters. We will probably have to wait for the trial to get some insight on this front.
A careful reading of the indictment shows beyond a reasonable doubt that there was an organized effort in the White House to go after Joe and Valerie Wilson. At a minimum, Vice President Cheney was witting of this effort. Too bad these guys did not work as feverishly in tracking down Osama Bin Laden. They only had time to attack two American citizens who were serving their country.
Josh Marshall points to this statement from the indictment:
On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.
Josh comments:
This is a crucial piece of information. The Counterproliferation Division (CPD) is part of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, i.e., not the Directorate of Intelligence, the branch of the CIA where ‘analysts’ come from, but the DO, where the spies, the ‘operatives’, come from.
Libby’s a long time national security hand. He knows exactly what CPD is and where it is. So does Cheney. They both knew. It’s right there in the indictment.
On to the trial.
I would just like to make a point regarding the 1982 law that rightie lawyer Victoria Toensing helped to write. The law is what has made it difficult for Fitz to bring a clear charge against Libby et al.
Fitz makes indirect reference to this, if you can read between the lines. In the begining, as part of his initial discourse, he very strongly cited that outing any agent is a serious matter and not to be taken lightly, specially in today’s world. But as the law stands today,one can easily side step it.
Later in answering questions, he cited a British secrets act which is much more encompassing and this would have been easily proved uder such law. (Last bit my interpretation)
What I take away from this is that the law should be re-written acoording to Fritz, for today’s world if we are really bothered about human intelligence …
Fitz’s actual words:
” … Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s employment status was classified. Prior to that date, her affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community. Disclosure of classified information about an individual’s employment by the CIA has the potential to damage the national security in ways that range from preventing that individual’s future use in a covert capacity, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, and endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who deal with them, the indictment states.”