Linking Bush to Plame - Next Steps

Yesterday's dramatic revelation by Jason Leopold put us in a very strange and unique position.

We now know that the President has a direct connection not only the leaking (of allegedly declassified) information to the press, but also that he was aware of the (false) claim Joseph Wilson wife was the person who "sent him to Niger". A claim that eventually led to the disclosure of her identity by Robert Novak.

Not being a mainstream reporter, Leopold's article has so far received little or no notice by other press outlets -- but we know about it, and therefore we are a step or three ahead of the rest of the country on this issue.

The facts appear to be that the President was apparently involved in a conspiracy to perpetuate a series of lies that falsely led us into war -- and resulted in an act that his own father says was treasonous.

I think we have to take a long hard look at these issues, examine them closely and fairly -- then spread the word.

Coming on the heels of the Fitzgerald filing which indicates that Scooter Libby received Presidential authorization to disclose (then classified) NIE information to Judith Miller we now have this from Jason Leopold on Truthout.org.

In early June 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney met with President Bush and told him that CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson and that she was responsible for sending him on a fact-finding mission to Niger to check out reports about Iraq's attempt to purchase uranium from the African country, according to current and former White House officials and attorneys close to the investigation to determine who revealed Plame-Wilson's undercover status to the media.

Other White House officials who also attended the meeting with Cheney and President Bush included former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, her former deputy Stephen Hadley, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove.

It's been well discussed that the Uranium Niger Claims were based on forgeries, and the that NIE included many doubts about both that claim and the intended uses for the aluminum tubes (Facts which Rove and Hadley attempted to hide during the Election).

It's also been well documented that Cheney and Libby were personally informed by the CIA that these claims had been disproven.

I have another issue to address - the subject of the meeting in question.

The discussion that "Plame sent Wilson to Niger" is yet again the repetition of falsehood that seems to have originated from a June 10th classified State Dept addendum to an CIA document on Wilson's trip. Both the CIA and Wilson himself have already directly responded to, and debunked this allegation:

The original source for this claim seems to be a document produced by the INR which was attached to Wilson's report to the CIA, but the claim made by that document was disputed by the CIA nearly two years ago by Mike Allen and Dana Milbank at the Washington Post.

Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it.

CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the INR document, the official said, because the agency officer identified as talking about Plame's alleged role in arranging Wilson's trip could not have attended the meeting.

"It has been circulated around," one official said. CIA and State Department officials have refused to discuss the document.

The Senate Intelligence report has also been referenced on this point, but it appears that their claims that Valerie Plame-Wilson was at least perpherally involved in suggesting her husband be dispatched to Niger really almost entirely on the exact same INR analyst who the CIA claims "wasn't at the meeting" in question.

Wilson responding to the Senate Report's suggestion that his "Wife sent him" to Niger:

First conclusion: "The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador's wife, a CIA employee."

That is not true. The conclusion is apparently based on one anodyne quote from a memo Valerie Plame, my wife sent to her superiors that says "my husband has good relations with the PM (prime minister) and the former Minister of Mines, (not to mention lots of French contacts) both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." There is no suggestion or recommendation in that statement that I be sent on the trip. Indeed it is little more than a recitation of my contacts and bona fides. The conclusion is reinforced by comments in the body of the report that a CPD reports officer stated the "the former ambassador's wife `offered up his name'" (page 39) and a State Department Intelligence and Research officer that the "meeting was `apparently convened by wife who had the idea to dispatch him to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue."

In fact, Valerie was not in the meeting at which the subject of my trip was raised. Neither was the CPD Reports officer. After having escorted me into the room, she departed the meeting to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. It was at that meeting where the question of my traveling to Niger was broached with me for the first time and came only after a thorough discussion of what the participants did and did not know about the subject.

So the first important and independantly verified point about the meeting of the anti-Wilson Cabal is that the key element of their discussion - was a falsehood. Wilson's wife did not send him to Africa. The second point, is what exactly did they decide to do with that information at that point?

Cheney's involvement in this meeting is particularly interesting since he stated while appearing on Meet the Press (Sept 14, 2003)...

I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him and it never came [up]...

Apparently he did (think) he knew who hired him, and it did come up.

I've always been curious as to who exactly the "CPD Reports Officer" and "INR Analyst" were. Was the INR analyst David Wurmser (who appears to be fully cooperating with the Fitzgerald investigation and whom Raw Story indicates was told about the Wilson/Plame connection by someone at CIA) or was it the VP NSA Assistant John Hannah?

Last night on Keith Olbermann, David Shuster pointed out that the one thing that is missing from the Fitzgerald filing is a link between the President and Plame.

SHUSTER: Well, I would think the latter, in fact, in this particular case, the source that is talking to the AP wasn‘t reasonable at all, because it doesn‘t make any sense that somebody the president would not want this information to get in the hands of the public or the media, but would say, Well, go ahead and declassify it. Declassifying it does exactly that, so there‘s a contradiction. But the other thing to focus on, Keith, and that is the next shoe to drop that many people here in this town believe is the whole idea of most of the conversation that Judy Miller remembers of her meeting with Scooter Libby on July 8 that was prompted by the vice president saying, Yes, you‘ve got the authority to talk to Judy Miller from the president, most of the conversation she remembers was not about the National Intelligence Estimate but was about Valerie Plame, about her identity, and where she worked at the CIA.

According to the Fitzgerald Indictment - Libby had already revealed Plame's identity to Judith Miller on June 23rd, at least a week before the President declassified anything - but long after the meeting between the Veep, Prez and underlings was already held discussing Valerie Plame's link to Wilson's trip.

On July 6th Wilson's Op-ed "What I didn't find in Africa" was published by the New York Times.

On July 8th, two days later and still two days before the President declassified portions of the NIE via the Vice President, Libby spoke to Miller again.

On or about the morning of July 8,2003,LIBBY met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller.When the conversation turned to the subject of Joseph Wilson,LIBBY asked that the information LIBBY provided on the topic of Wilson be attributed to a “former Hill staffer ” rather than to a “senior administration official,” as had been the understanding with respect to other information that LIBBY provided to Miller during this meeting.LIBBY thereafter discussed with Miller Wilson ’s trip and criticized the CIA reporting concerning Wilson ’ s trip. During this discussion,LIBBY advised Miller of his belief that Wilson ’s wife worked for the CIA.

That would be "advised Again" actually. Shuster continued...

And furthermore, leading up to that meeting in June, the vice president and Scooter Libby had discussed where Valerie Plame worked at the CIA. So a lot of people in Washington are buzzing about the idea, exactly what was the vice president‘s role? What kind of instructions did he give to Scooter Libby as far as what to focus on in this meeting? And secondly, did the vice president at any point in his conversations with the president make some sort of mention of this other information, not the NIE, but Valerie Plame‘s status at the CIA? Did the president and vice president talk about that?

Well, it's seem that Leopold has found that missing link.

Assuming Leopold's sources are accurate, Fitz already has this information but hasn't yet revealed it. Most likely, this is fodder for his second investigation which is ongoing and may indicate that possible Conspiracy and Obstruction Charges may be on the line for Hadley, Rice, Rove, Card, Cheney and the President.

But what about Treason, espionage and revealing the name of a Covert Agent?

Espionage under USC Title 18 Section 793 requires that the persons intent is to "reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation", and frankly though their efforts were deeply misguided - it would be difficult to directly make the case that anyone in the chain between Plame and the President were deliberately attempting to hurt the United State or help any other nation, even if that is exactly what the end result has been with the loss of Plame's cover and the viability of Brewster/Jennings as a front for non-proliferation efforts.

The Covert Agent charge depends largely on whether there was a willful and knowing violation of Inteligence Identities Protection Act, which requires that the parties involved in disclosing the identity be aware that the person is a covert operative.

Thinkprogress has pointed out that the Libby indictment indicates at least three instances where Libby's behavior shows that he was aware that what he was doing in revealing Plame's identity was highly sensitive and potentially criminal.

Some of the oh-too-careful maneavering by people such as Karl Rove "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name." are clearly ment as a dodge to the fact that he did reveal her identity (as "Wilson's wife") and such an act is a violation of section 421 of the IIPA.

Still direct willfulness and knowing-ness is difficult to prove - particularly when there are so many lies flying back and forth. I know from my time working in a Dod secure environment (12 years) that classified information should only be shared on a "Need to Know" basis, and that it is incumbent on the person providing the information to both ensure that they are only providing it to someone with the appropriate clearance, as well as informing them on the level of sensitivity of that information so that the newly informed person maintains it's protection.

In other words, anyone who was aware of Plame's employment status (which Fitz has well pointed out was classified) would have also had to know that she was an undercover operative, and would have been required to include that fact in sharing that information with any other cleared persons. I find it pretty much inconceivable that the President, Vice President and various support staff could have been in a meeting about Wilson, mention that "his Wife sent him to Niger" and not also know that his wife was a covert operative - but it is in fact, possible that they didn't know.

This is where the identity of that CPD and INR officers who made the initial false claims becomes crucial, because if they disclosed this information in the addendum to the CIA memo and didn't properly mark or identify the level of sensitivity of this information he (or she) were the first domino in the chain and is highly vulnerable to various charges including violation of the IIPA. (And again, if one of these people is Wurmser (who worked Non-proliferation under John Bolton at State, Cheney and the President's goose is already pretty well cooked)

In conclusion, persons downstream from the original breach by the CPD Officer (who shared information about a meeting he didn't even attend) to the INR analyst and eventually to Novak and possibily including the President along the way may not technically be in legal jeopardy (depending on exactly what they did and didn't say to investigators and the grand jury) -- but that doesn't absolve them from their violation of duty and the oath to the American People and the Constitution to "Protect this Nation from all threats".

Including in this case, themselves.

Even without knowing the Leopold story 63% of those polled think the President Acted Illegally and Unethically in Declassfying selected portions of the NIE.

Impeachable? Oh, yes - I think so.

<> But Indictable? That remains to be seen particularly since a full After-Action Report on the Plame outing remains undisclosed.

Vyan