An attorney for unnamed “White House official under scrutiny” in Fitzgerald’s investigation into the Plame affair has apparently leaked information to Josh Gersten of the New York Sun, regarding the State Department’s memo that Colin Powell allegedly carried with him on Bush’s trip to Africa in early July 2003. Gersten’s story claims that this memo doesn’t identify Valerie Plame (nee Wilson) as a NOC (Non-official Cover) operative or otherwise describe her CIA employment status as classified information as some earlier reporting had previously claimed:
Contrary to published reports, a State Department memorandum at the center of the investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, appears to offer no particular indication that Ms. Plame’s role at the agency was classified or covert.
The memo, drafted by the then head of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and addressed to the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, was carried aboard Air Force One as President Bush departed for Africa in July 2003. A declassified version of the document was obtained by The New York Sun on Saturday.
Who is the unnamed White House official whose attorney is suddenly available to spin the secret State Department memo as exonerating his client? It’s none other than Karl Rove. We know from reports from Murray Waas and others that Rove remains a person of interest to Fitzgerald’s investigation. And it is Rove’s attorney who is quoted prominently in Gersten’s story.
But let me digress for a moment to examine the now declassified memo. The first thing you will notice, if you click on the link provided by the Sun, is that numerous portions of the document have been redacted. In other words, the entire document has not been declassified. What is contained in those redacted sections is unknown. Do they relate to Valerie Plame/Wilson in any way? It’s impossible to know.
From what we can read, the first mention of Valerie Wilson is contained in the what appears to be the second sentence of the second paragraph of the memo (the first sentence is redacted). It states:
In a February 19, 2002 meeting convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA wmd manager, and the wife of Joe Wilson, he previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger . . .
What follows after that is another block of redacted text. There is no other mention of Valerie Wilson in the unredacted portion of the memo. At the end of the declassified text is a list of attachments to the memo which were presumably included in the package delivered to the New York Sun (since Gersten quotes from one of the documents later), but for which the Sun, for whatever reason has not provided any link.
Two of those attachments refer directly to the CIA’s February 19, 2002 meeting with Wilson. One is entitled “Notes – Niger Uranium Meeting CIA 2/19/02.” The other is “CIA Account of Ambassador Wilson’s Trip Findings: ‘WP/Nuclear Weapons: Nigerian Denial of Yellowcake Sales to Rogue States.'” What is contained in those documents regarding Ms. Wilson’s CIA employment is not available to us.
It may be that those attachments spelled out her NOC status. On the other hand, they may have made no mention of Ms. Wilson at all. It is interesting, however, that the text of the memo itself which was partially declassified is online, but not any of the attachments which accompanied it, even though Gersten quotes from one of them later in his story (i.e., “Notes – Niger Uranium Meeting CIA 2/19/02”).
Let’s return to Gersten’s story for a moment to see what conclusions he draws from this selective declassification of portions of the State Department memo:
A Wall Street Journal article on July 19, 2005, citing an unnamed person familiar with the memo, reported that the memo “made clear that information identifying an agent and her role in her husband’s intelligence gathering mission was sensitive and shouldn’t be shared.” The Journal account said the paragraph discussing Ms. Plame’s role in her husband’s trip was marked in a way to indicate it shouldn’t be disclosed.
A story the following day in the Washington Post, “Plame’s Identity Marked as Secret,” said correctly that the paragraph carried the mark “S,” signifying the middle level of three major tiers of classification.
Not noted in the previous press reports was the fact that six of the seven paragraphs in the memo are marked “secret,” while only one appears to mention Ms. Plame. In addition, virtually every paragraph in the attached supporting documents from the State Department about alleged Iraqi uranium procurement in Niger carries the “secret” designation.
With most, if not all, of the Niger-related documents marked “secret” in a host of places, there is no particular reason a reader would think the classification was derived from Ms. Plame’s status or involvement.
Gersten apparently draws the conclusion that, because the text of the memo did not specifically address Ms. Wilson’s status, there was no way to know that her CIA employment was classified. However, the paragraph in which she is mentioned is clearly marked “S//NF” a classified designation. I would presume that all information set forth in that paragraph was secret. So why does Gersten feel otherwise? Perhaps because he has been led to that conclusion by none other than Robert Luskin, Karl Rove’s attorney:
“It’s something that people got very excited about,” the lawyer, Robert Luskin, said about the earlier reports on the memo. “The fact that the whole memo was marked this way further substantiates that nobody involved in discussions of her or her role in sending Mr. Wilson had the slightest inkling she was in classified status.” […]
Mr. Luskin, who represents President Bush’s top political aide, Karl Rove, said Mr. Rove did not see the memo at the time it was issued.
That certainly explains who is behind this new leak. Rove’s attorney is the source, so we can only presume that this material was declassified at Rove’s request. And the spin on it is clearly Rovian: because a document has secret marked all over it means that no one could tell that Valerie Wilson’s status was secret. I guess in Rove’s world, if everything contained in a document is marked secret in general, than none of the particulars can be assumed to be secret — especially those about CIA officials named in the document. What horse hockey!
Of course, buried deep within the Sun’s story is the only quote from Joe Wilson himself about the accuracy of the memo:
Mr. Wilson told the Sun yesterday that the State Department’s account of how his trip was arranged was “absolutely inaccurate.”
“The meeting was not convened by my wife,” the former ambassador said. “She had, as it now turns out, the misfortune of having escorted me into the building. … She left before the meeting started.” He also said that the subject of his going to Niger did not arise until halfway through the session.
Gersten clearly has a narrative in mind that isn’t overly concerned with being fair and balanced. He gives prominence to the comments and spin of Robert Luskin, and short shrift to Mr. Wilson’s remarks about the memo. He also completely accepts Luskin’s interpretation of the memo vis-a-vis Valerie Wilson’s CIA status. Indeed, Gerten doesn’t include comments by Joe Wilson or by anyone else, which dispute Luskin’s spin that a document marked “Secret” doesn’t mean that the employment status of the only CIA agent identified in the memo was considered classified information.
What a surprise, eh?
