is this going to be bush's hutton?

[ris]

bbc news[/url]]
The US Department of Justice has launched a formal investigation into allegations that White House staff illegally blew the cover of a CIA agent.
Valerie Plame was named as a CIA agent by journalist Robert Novak after her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of exaggerating the case for war in Iraq.

It is alleged that two members of the White House staff leaked her name to Novak as an act of revenge.

is this likely to be a huge problem for the bush administration or just remain an internal disciplinary matter? the current labour government is having a very hard time after a slightly similar incident where an mod scientist spoke about his reservations about last years iraq wmd dossier and was later outed by the mod, apparently under recommendation of cabinet officials. the scientist later commited suicide and the hutton enquiry begun.

 

[Gonz]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Newspaper columnist Robert Novak said Monday that no one in the administration called him to identify the wife of Bush critic Joe Wilson as a CIA operative.

Doesn't that end it?

The dems needed a scandal so they manufactured one.

 

[AnomalousEntity]

I dont know if you recall..but the "monica lewinsky" thing was originally thougt by many of the pundits to have been a "wag the dog" situation

Here is the therory...the clinton administration deliberately leaked and coaxed Monica and the other gall to make these allegations...

What happens...a shit load of press coverage...

What does that do? It got the press off of the Somilia screw up and Clintons extremely piss poor foreign relations track record.

The clintons administration knew all along they could "beat the rap" and make the republicans look bad in the process...

Its just "playing politicis" The whole thing was expertely orchastrated to get the attention off of "the real issues" (waco, white water, all kinds of crap).

It worked perfectly.


I wouldnt be surprise if the Bush organization didnt set this up in order to get the attention off of the lack of evidence of wmds in Iraq (or the fact that they do have lots of evidence/ connections to terrorism but cant talk about it because it would blow the investigation ((highly likely also)).

Not EVERYBODY shares the feelings that we did a good thing over there no matter what..or even if some of the reasons (I said some not all) turn out to be unsubstantiated.

So....we "wag the dog"

 

[A.B.Normal]

Several other news agencies reported they were contacted with the info ,but chose not to use it,so it doesn't end with Novak.

 

[Squiggy]

You can tell Gonz is clutching at straws....He used a CNN source... Good thing he let us know they were liars and not to be believed...

 

[Gonz]

Let 'em investigate. If somebody did leak, put their ass in jail. Simple & done.

 

[Gonz]

You can tell Gonz is clutching at straws....He used a CNN source... Good thing he let us know they were liars and not to be believed...

There's another one but I couldn't locate it.

I'll change it later.

 

[ris]

Doesn't that end it?

The dems needed a scandal so they manufactured one.

so much of a manufacturer scandal that the department of justice has seen fit to open a full blown investigation into an alleged leak?

i'm not sure i quite get the purpose of your link, one journalist syas he wasn't contacted, what about the other news agencies or is cnn gospel truth again?

 

[A.B.Normal]

A senior administration official cited in a Washington Post report Sunday said two top White House officials also called at least a half-dozen journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/973047.asp?0dm=N11MN

 

[Gonz]

so much of a manufacturer scandal that the department of justice has seen fit to open a full blown investigation into an alleged leak?

i'm not sure i quite get the purpose of your link, one journalist syas he wasn't contacted, what about the other news agencies or is cnn gospel truth again?

If the DoJ doesn't investigate it'll be called a cover up.

Robert Novak is the crutch of this entire investigation. He wrote teh original piece, back in July.

 

[ris]

i hope you weren't reading cnn back in july

 

[A.B.Normal]

from the same link as above

Two senior officials told NBC News on Monday that the inquiry began after CIA lawyers sent the Justice Department an informal notice of the alleged leak in July. Although that letter, which was not signed by CIA Director George Tenet, was not a formal request for an investigation, the Justice Department could have opened one at that point, lawyers said.
Instead, Justice Department lawyers sent their CIA counterparts a letter asking 11 questions to help assess the seriousness of the matter. The CIA lawyers responded this month by affirming that the woman’s identity was classified, that whoever released it was not authorized to do so and that the news media would not have been able to guess her identity without the leak, the senior officials said.
The CIA’s response to the questions, which is itself classified, said there were grounds for a criminal investigation, the senior officials said.

All the coverage is because the DOJ is launching an investigation,the investigation isn't being launched because of the coverage.

 

[Gonz]

i hope you weren't reading cnn back in july

oh hell no. I'm still not looking at it or reading it. This was quick & convenient grab.

On July 6, Mr. Wilson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he said: "I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

On July 11, I wrote a piece for NRO arguing that Mr. Wilson had no basis for that conclusion — and that his political leanings and associations (not disclosed by the Times and others journalists interviewing him) cast serious doubt on his objectivity.

On July 14, Robert Novak wrote a column in the Post and other newspapers naming Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative.

NRO

 

[Gonz]

"Neo-conservatives and religious conservatives have hijacked this administration, and I consider myself on a personal mission to destroy both." Those are the words of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who will certainly be a household name for weeks to come.

 

[Gonz]

9+ months later....

Joe Wilson's cover has been blown. For the past year, he has claimed to be a truth-teller, a whistleblower, the victim of a vast right-wing conspiracy — and most of the media have lapped it up and cheered him on.

But now Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV — he of the Hermes ties and Jaguar convertibles — has been thoroughly discredited. Last week's bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report concluded that it is he who has been telling lies.

For starters, he has insisted that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, was not the one who came up with the brilliant idea that the agency send him to Niger to investigate whether Saddam Hussein had been attempting to acquire uranium. "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter," Wilson says in his book. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." In fact, the Senate panel found, she was the one who got him that assignment. The panel even found a memo by her. (She should have thought to use disappearing ink.)

NRO