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Consider, if you will, the political fallout from the outing of Valerie Plame. Unless you’re a regular attendee at Georgetown cocktail parties you may not have known that this compelling blond was once a covert CIA agent. If not, the January 2004 cover photo on Vanity Fair with husband Joe Wilson in a Jaguar convertible could have given you a clue. Hard to identify with those shades though. Since Ms. Plame hasn’t been part of any mission within a time frame that would qualify her as outed by the story Jim Novak released no one was really subject to prosecution. Scooter Libby’s sentence, after all, was the result of his questionable testimony. As Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald described it Libby “told a dumb lie and got caught.” But a special prosecutor had been appointed none the less and someone had to hang.

Vanity Fair Cover

The most recent squabble concerning the Central Intelligence Agency involves the destruction of video tapes of CIA agents interrogating al Qaeda suspects in 2002 using the controversial waterboarding technique. Democratic Congressman and the media have shown little concern the exposure of agents in the video might subject them to retribution. Any concerns they show are of a political value; an opportunity for the press and Congressional leadership to take another shot at the Bush Adminstration far outweighs any concern that harm may come to those agents involved. The tapes were destroyed in 2005. Why the disclosure now?

Yesterday, The New York Times ran a story stating that four administration attorneys were involved in the decision to cover up the destruction of the tapes:

“Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.”

The unidentified officials referred to are described as current and former administration and intelligence officials.

The Agency’s chief of clandestine services, Jose A. Rodriquez, consulted CIA lawyers, Steven Hermes and Robert Eatinger before proceeding with the destruction of the tapes according to the Times article. The actions are currently under investigation by the Justice Department and CIA investigators but both Congress and the Judiciary are anxious to interrogate the agency. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy ordered the administration to appear in court tomorrow to answer allegations it defied his demand to preserve evidence regarding interogation of terrorist suspects in U.S. custody regarding unrelated detainees held at Guantanamo. House Judiciary Committee hearings on the interrogation of detainees are scheduled to get underway shortly. The panel’s chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D) of Michigan asked the Justice Department to provide high level officials to testify to the events.

C.I.A., The New York Times and Congress

The parade of CIA officials, New York Times reporters and Congressional liberals shown in televised hearings in pursuit of the Bush Administration has become entirely predictable. And the choreography so pathetic. Consider again, if you will, the Plame case. Can anyone forget the noble air of New York Times Columnist Judith Miller refusing to divulge her source in tying the Bush administration to the supposed outing of Valerie Plame. How stupid it seemed after it was disclosed the source, Richard Armitage, had given her written permission for the disclosure; he even encouraged it. None the less she accepted her sentence of 85 days as a badge of honor. When the dust settled U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton would sentence Libby to two and a half years in prison saying Libby’s lies in the CIA leak case outweighed his public service, from the Cold War to the Iraq war. Legal fees were estimated to be some $2 million.

Timely leaks from the intelligence community have been common during the Bush Administration. “A Favorite Tacktic” according to Rowan Scarborough’s book Sabotage in which he writes

“At the White House, the problem wasn’t conspiracy theories, but leaks. Cables written by the CIA station chief in Baghdad, often dire in their assessments, showed up in the New York Times just days after reaching Washington. Pentagon officials, long wary of Langley, wondered if CIA officers were writing reports for publication in the New York Times or for government policymakers. Thanks to leakers, the New York Times also reproduced parts of he National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the crown jewel of the intelligence community representing the opinions of its premier analysts. The NIE excerpts offered, not coincidentally, the most negative assessments of the wars in Iraq and against al Qaeda.”

The fashion in which the Plame affair developed with husband Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger is even more reprehensible.

As General David Petraeus arrived in Washington to provide testimony before Congress about conditions in Iraq he was greeted by a full page ad in the New York Times, provided at discount prices to Moveon.org, displaying the phrase “General Betray Us!” Here is a brilliant commander who wrote the book on counter terrorism and implemented the surge that has dramatically changed conditions in Iraq. Al Qaeda has been all but removed from the theater. Congressional Liberals were near complicit in this smear of a great man doing a thankless job. The public reaction wasn’t what the detractors of Petraeus where trying to affect. It’s becoming more and more clear with each of these charades who it is, in fact, that is betraying us!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Intelligence, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.