Administration officials who are given security clearance are required to read and sign a form known as the “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement,” of SF 312. A copy of the form can be found here (PDF format). Accompanying the form is a briefing booklet, the contents of which are here. Here’s a key excerpt from the booklet: Question 19: If information … Read More
Nice Little Twist
So focus has been on this classified State Department memo which says that Plame recommended or arranged for Wilson to go to Niger. Fitzgerald’s office appears to believe that that memo was the ultimate source of the information that eventually made its way into print in Robert Novak’s column. (Read more here). It looks like someone else may have had … Read More
Ronald Reagan – Remarks at the Signing of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act
Whether you work in Langley or a faraway nation, whether your tasks are in operations or analysis sections, it is upon your intellect and integrity, your wit and intuition that the fate of freedom rests for millions of your countrymen and for many millions more all around the globe. You are the trip-wire across which the forces of repression and … Read More
Another Plamegate Roundup
With the barage of silly excuses, sliming points, irrelevancies, and (occasionally) outright lies emanating from the right on the issue of L’Affaire Plame, it’s time for another link-o-riffic round-up. This time, it comes courtesy of Think Progress: CLAIM: White House Can’t Comment While Investigation Is OngoingMcClellan: “While that investigation is ongoing, the White House is not going to comment on … Read More
More Wingnut Reasons Why It Is Okay For Rove To Out Covert Agents
The folks at World O’ Crap are spoofing the right-wing machine this week, by offering more reasons why it would be okay for Rove to expose Plame as a CIA operative: Reason #1: Because Plame made out with her husband before marriage. And, even worse, she goes by her maiden name. Reason #2: Because Karl did it to keep Plame … Read More
Perjury About Abu Ghraib
Not that anyone is going to do anything about it—this is, after all, a Republican White House and Congress—but: WASHINGTON – (KRT) – An Army general who has been criticized for his role in the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has contradicted his sworn congressional testimony about contacts with senior … Read More
What TPM Says
Yup: There’s a point that’s probably worth raising with our scofflaw Republican friends. All of their arguments now amount to excuses, like those of a small child caught stealing cookies: Joe Wilson’s a liar. Plame’s covert status wasn’t protected well by the CIA. It was just a short phone call. Rove really wanted to speak about welfare reform. Wilson said … Read More
Rove and Espionage
UCLA Professor Mark Kleiman is happy to point out that Rove may have met the statutory requirements for espionage: But Rove’s conduct certainly meets the far less demanding elements of the Espionage Act: (1) possession of (2) information (3) relating to the national defense (4) which the person possessing it has reason to know could be used to damage the … Read More
Plamegate Roundup
From The Left Coaster, a link-o-riffic round-up of the talking points lies of the waterboys and Rove apologists: A number of rebuttals have been provided around the liberal blogosphere to the fakery from the GOP and their media arms about the Valerie Plame expose. Here’s a roundup. TALKING POINT: Valerie Plame (Joseph Wilson’s wife) was not covert.FACT: She was. TALKING … Read More
128,000
That’s the number of Iraqi civilian deaths since the invasion liberation clusterfuck that started in March 2003. That is one out of every 200 Iraqis. And 55% percent of them are women and children. So says an Iraqi humanitarian organization, according to the Washington Times. Have a nice day.
Fox News Hates America
And Oliver Willis has the video to prove it: FOX News anchor John Gibson just said onair that he thought Karl Rove deserves a medal if he outed Valerie Plame. Let me repeat: John Gibson, anchor at the FOX News Channel, says he believes that we ought to expose our covert government agents and harm national security… as long as … Read More
Flypaper Schmypaper!
The flypaper theory, which was false and stupid before last week, is now (in light of the London attacks) demonstrably false and stupid. But that doesn’t stop administration officials from making bone-headed and offensive arguments like this: Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Fran Townsend, the president’s homeland security adviser, said that the war in Iraq attracts terrorists “where we have … Read More
Moral Clarity vs Factual Clarity
Matt Yglesius says what I have been thinking for a long time. The reason why the right is inept at fighting the war on terror is because they simply have no interest in accurately surmising the driving force behind our enemies. Instead, the right just wants to paint the bad guys with broad brushes, and ignore the nuances of their … Read More
In The Mind Of A Killer/Molester/Kidnapper
Joseph Duncan allegedly kidnapped two children in mid-May—8 year old Dylan Groene and his 9 year old sister, Shasta. He did this after murdering the kids’ older sibling, mother, and mother’s boyfriend. And it appears that Duncan later killed Dylan. Fortunately, Duncan was apprehended this past weekend, and Shasta was rescued. Duncan left behind an eerie blog called “Blogging the … Read More
Friday Random Ten
"Sargeant Rock Is Going To Help Me" – XTC "Summer Breeze" – Seals & Crofts "Running Up That Hill" – Kate Bush "Taxi (Live)" – Harry Chapin "Grovel, Grovel" – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat "How Do You Do" -Mouth & Macneal "Angel" – Massive Attack "Gymnopedie No. 1" – Erik Satie (from the film "Diva") "Diamonds On The … Read More