Want relief for your Pre-Indictment Stress Syndrome? How about Mr. Anonymous? How about the head of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit in the late ’90s? How about the longtime CIA analyst who wrote “Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror, first as “anonymous” and then, coming out, as Michael Sheuer.
Just before BoomanTribune.com front-pager Larry Johnson appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room yesterday with Wolf Blitzer — and that transcript will be posted shortly — Blitzer first called on CNN’s national security correspondent, David Ensor.
Ensor assessed the impact of the outing of Valerie Plame to the war on terror and to the CIA. I was heartened by Ensor’s bare-knuckle condemnation of the outing of Valerie Plame, buttressed by his interview with Scheuer:
BLITZER: The Bush administration is feeling the fallout as top officials wait for possible indictments in the CIA leak investigation. But what about the fallout over at the CIA itself? Was the agency hurt by the outing of one of its operatives?
Let’s turn to our national security correspondent, David Ensor. He’s been looking into this story — David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, just for starters, Wolf, the nation has lost the undercover services of a 20- year professional CIA officer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice over): Forty-two-year-old Valerie Plame Wilson, mother of 5-year-old twins, is now the most famous female spy in America. Exposing her as a CIA undercover officer did damage to U.S. intelligence, U.S. officials say. They refuse to be more specific.
MICHAEL SCHEUER, FORMER CIA ANALYST: To have someone exposed deliberately and, on top of that for political reason, I think, yes, it probably sent a chill throughout the clandestine service.
ENSOR: What made it worse is that she was not just an undercover officer. She spent part of her career as what’s known as a NOC, a spy with non-official cover. That is, without the protection of diplomatic status, working, officials say, to recruit foreigners who knew about murky international weapons deals involving weapons of mass destruction.
Continued below … all emphases mine)
SCHEUER: It’s usually a business of some kind, you know, whether it’s an import/export, a bank, some kind of business is exposed. And it takes a great deal of time to build cover facilities so you can operate overseas.
ENSOR: In Plame’s case, the cover was Brewster Jennings & Associates, an energy consulting firm, a front company that apparently had no real address. That fact is only public because she listed it with the Federal Election Commission when she contributed $1,000 to Al Gore’s presidential campaign.
NOCs are harder to train, can remain undercover longer than conventional spies, and can go places and meet people that other CIA officers cannot. But NOCs are also much more vulnerable than regular spies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: (AUDIO GAP) appeared in Robert Novak’s newspaper column. At least two foreign governments reportedly assigned their spy- catchers to figure out whether Plame had ever worked on their soil, if so, what she had done there.
That is where the damage was most likely done, other nations tracking down Valerie — Valerie Plame Wilson’s contacts and sources and shutting them down — Wolf.
BLITZER: David, thank you very much — David Ensor reporting.
Oh I so agree with this so much! plus the new start place at the CIA has me wondering….
I hope this all gets to the bottom of all the evil that has concurred in this WH for a very long time!
I think, that Val and her family still may be ins some danger from retrabution from many involved. So sad that these little weaseles do such a thing to our country let alone to this family!
Now mind you, I do not like the CIA for the things some of them do, but this is completely different in issue than most.
It is a bit unusual for liberals to be defending the CIA but i think that — you and me and all of us realize that they do do a lot of extremely essential work and under difficult circumstances. That the Bush administration has eviscerated the CIA, lost so many of its best and longest analysts, and leaked a NOC’s identity is treason.
you have hit on a theme that keeps going round in this old noggin quite often these days. Here the libruls are defending the CIA! Further we are the party urging fiscal responsibility! We also champion conservation of our natural resources (a rather conservative point of view, I would think?)
I’m sure there are other examples of what I am trying to get at. To me, the Dems are becoming the true conservatives on many issues, while the GOP continues to slide into right-wing radicalism, which in many ways is anything but conservative. Comments?
I think, given the fact that this Special Investigation was the result of a request from the CIA; that Fitzgerald has received the unanimous support of federal court review panels…note the 8 pages of redacted sensitive information…the refusal of the SCOTUS to intervene, etc; that it is not unreasonable to conclude that people have died as a direct result of this treasonous act.
That, if true, this would elevate these charges to the level of capital crimes with a penalty of death, it is little wonder that the individuals that have been targeted are experiencing epiphanic seizures.
CIA Wall of Honor, in rememberance of those who died in Service. [Note: does not include those “assets” who may also have died]
There is a new star on this wall that coincides with the outing of VP, and rumors abound as to the deaths or disappearances of other assets.
Meteor Blades is right…It is treason.
Peace
Plame in the video footage? Apparently a picture of her appeared in Vanity Fair, but so far she has stayed pretty invisible. The US News likes to personalize everything. If she came forward and became a media figure it would probably rivet everyone’s attention on the case. But it would be such an invasion of privacy, and probably make it impossible for her to work for the CIA any more. Plus it would undermine their civil case.
I don’t know how the Republicans can say that they are publicity hounds. We know almost nothing about her, and Joe Wilson has only appeared on political talk shows–not a place to hang out if you are a publicity hound.
She is regularly shown on tv. I’m going to put up Larry Johnson’s part of the interview in a few … you’ll want to skim through that to see what he has to say about her photograph. He makes a very good point about something that’s bothered me. He is always honest. Cool.