Plame was covert, but Fox won't let go of the myth
...Yet Fox News continues to rely on Victoria Toensing, the woman who, as far as I've been able to learn - has never spoken to either the CIA or Valerie Plame and has never seen any of the classified information regarding Valerie Plame's work or role, as an "expert" commentator.
And by the way, pay attention to the last minute and a half, where Hannity and Toensing try to tell us how it's Plame's and Wilson's fault that Plame's cover was blown. Plame apparently donated $1000 to Al Gore's campaign in 2000 and attended some (gasp) Democratic meetups. In Toensing and Hannity's warped world, Plame should've known that doing so was a dead giveaway that she was a covert CIA agent specializing in monitoring the proliferation of WMD. And Joe Wilson writing that op-ed exposing the lies the President told about uranium tubes from Niger? Well, he should've known better. Naturally the White House was going to expose the name of a covert CIA operative, as well as her entire network of contacts, seriously damaging our ability to follow WMD and possibly resulting in the killing of other undercover operatives - all to discredit a critic. Who wouldn't have expected them to do that?
Also, note how the "Fair and Balanced" network doesn't invite anyone to dispute Toensing:
3 comments:
I don't know, it seems pretty clear to me, Toensing admitted in her testimony that she hasn't spoken to Plame or the CIA. So how would she know what she's talking about?
Plame specified that she worked overseas within the last five years (from today, not just from the day she was exposed), dispelling Ms. Toensing's basis for claiming she wasn't covert, so she's totally without credibility. Whereas, there's no reason to doubt Plame's credibility.
"Ms. Wilson was covert" from General Hayden seems pretty conclusive as well. That wasn't the part that Cummings says was "cleared." He said Hayden said "Ms. Wilson was covert," and CLEARED "Ms. Wilson was a covert agent of the CIA."
We have no reason to think Fitzgerald didn't ascertain her "covert status." All we know is he didn't think he could convict Armitage, not that he didn't think Plame was covert.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it's reasonable to take Plame's word (and the fact the CIA felt a crime had been committed in the first place) for her job description.
one does not go in and out of cover. If you go overt after leaving cover you STAY overt, period. Plame was a NOC, which was expensive as hell to set up and not something to be given up lightly. Her working in Langley has zero to do with cover. Lots of cover folks work there. If you think you could sit outside and take down license plates of people going in, you're welcome to try. It'll liven up a dull day for the heavily armed CIA guards sitting in the guard shack on Rt 123. After Kansi's attack they take stranger's outside much more seriouslt then they used to. (Plame also would have received training in detecting and avoiding being followed.)
I also doubt the Agency would have gotten Justice involved if she had NOT been undercover. If you ask Justice to invertigate then they were serious. It owuld have had to have been cleared by numerous lawyers on the IG staff and go through upper management (including the politicals). It's not something a GS-12 could do ona whim.
Sorry, the WH blew the cover of a covert Agency employee in a cheap attempt at political payback. No spin is possible.
FYI, retired Agency employee Larry Johnson puts all the RW spin in the trash where it belongs in his blog.
Before Valerie's testimony on Friday the CIA had never put anything on the public record regarding her status. Yesterday the CIA came out of the closet. CIA Director Michael Hayden approved a statement that contained the following language:
During her employment at the CIA, Ms. Wilson was under cover.
Her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.
At the time of the publication of Robert Novak's column on July 14,2003, Ms. Wilson's CIA employment status was covert.
This was classified information.
Got it? The Director of the CIA confirmed in public for the first time that Valerie Plame Wilson was undercover, was covert and that this information was classified. What is it about English that goober Congressman Westmoreland and ditzy Vicky Toensing don't understand?
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/undercover_cove.html
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