Category Archive

The Rude Pundit, the only blogger to have turned his rants into a critically-acclaimed off-off-Broadway show (seriously!) explains why the general public disbelieves the Bush Administration on the whole Plame thing, even if we (the public) don’t all necessarily understand the minutae of the law.  Quote: The American public, having been fed years of propagandistic books, films, and television shows, … Read More

From Corrente, on the revelation that Novak’s second source “high administration official” (besides Rove) was Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff: You know, this whole thing reminds of that great old Agatha Christie novel, Murder on the Orient Express. The whodunnit is totally confusing, clues pointing every which way and cancelling each other out, until Hercule Poirot figures out … Read More

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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