INDCJournal: Boff! Plame! Blam!

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October 28, 2005

Boff! Plame! Blam!

Posted by Dorkafork

Have you ever seen one of those mysteries, where you can just tell the writer started at the ending and worked his way backwards, coming up with ridiculous "clues" that no non-imaginary person without benefit of hindsight would have reasonably come up with?

Yeah.

It's like something from the old Batman TV show.

"But wait! It happened at sea! See? "C" for Catwoman!"

Let's take a look at "Batman Versus The Foreign Spycatcher":

On July 6 he writes a column telling the world that he has done some consulting for the CIA. That might reasonably be expected to attract the attention of the spychasers of various foreign intelligence services.
As these spychasers study Joe Wilson, what do they learn? A few minutes on the internet would have turned up his on-line bio with his wife's maiden name; a check of FEC records for campaign donations would have revealed that his wife, as "Valerie Wilson", listed "Brewster-Jennings & Associates" as her employer. Elapsed time - ten minutes?

The Foreign Spycatcher would search for the name of Wilson's wife and her employer, why? (I'll get back to this)

What would our spychasers learn about Brewster-Jennings? Within a week of the Bob Novak article mentioning Brewster-Jennings, the Boston Globe had done some research, sent a person to the Brewster-Jennings office in Boston, and reported that "Apparent CIA front didn't offer much cover".

Again, I'll get back to why the Foreign Spycatcher wouldn't do this.

.... Per Dun & Bradstreet, the company was set up in May of 1994, a well-known year for spychasers - Aldrich Ames was arrested in February of 1994 for betraying agents and assets to the Soviets, and many US agents learned that they may have been compromised.
So - Valerie Plame works for a phony company that seems to have come into being a few months after Aldrich Ames put a lot of US agents into early semi-retirement. This has taken maybe a week for our foreign spychaser to learn. Might he wonder if Ms. Plame is still with the CIA?

Ah, 1994. Those were the days. The same year the band Sleater-Kinney was formed. Might the Foreign Spycatcher wonder if Ms. Plame still plays music that's unpredictable and defiantly uncompromising?

If he follows that trail of logic, our spychaser might then have someone follow Ms. Plame to work. Anyone attempting to do so will either learn that Ms. Plame has an extraordinary knack for eluding surveillance, or that she drives in to Langley each day.

(Deep in The Foreign Spycatcher's hidden lair) "She works for a company that was set up the same year that Ames was arrested! I want 24 hour surveillance! Put our best operatives on the case!"

The last shred of her cover will be gone, her photo will be obtained and circulated, her history deduced, her networks identified - all within a few weeks of the NY Times editorial, which was volunteered by Joe Wilson and allowed by the CIA. The dire consequences predicted by Joe will have been realized - yet he published his op-ed anyway. How seriously did he, and the CIA, take her security?

Wilson you fool! You should've never admitted to being married! Because wives of ambassadors are always CIA agents for some reason.

Back to the earlier question of "Why Would The Foreign Spycatcher For Some Reason Investigate Wilson's Wife?" or why I say it's unlikely. I can only assume that Maguire thinks that because Wilson said he went on a trip for the CIA, that this would set of alarm bells in foreign intelligence services and they would investigate everyone he had come in contact with to try and figure out the names of CIA agents. But there's no reason to think they would. If it had been "Cab Driver" Joe Wilson that had printed an op-ed about a CIA trip, they might have been a little curious, but this is a former Ambassador we're talking about. These are high ranking officials with a high security clearance. (US ambassadors have the right to find out from the CIA info on covert actions taking place in their host country. To give you an example of the kinds of things they deal with.) It's not like Wilson would've been contacted for the trip through a self-destructing tape hidden in a park. And it's strange to describe a trip as both a tea-sipping trip and one that is bound to attract intense attention from foreign spycatchers.

I like Maguire but that piece was just silly.

Posted by Dorkafork at October 28, 2005 02:51 PM | TrackBack (2)

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Comments

Oh Dorkafork, now you've gone and done it - Glenn Reynolds is going to be piiisssssed.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at October 28, 2005 04:15 PM

Of course, Libby hasn't been indicted for revealing Plame's name; instead he's been indicted for obstruction of justice and lying about his role to prosecutors.

I guess honesty really is the best policy.

Posted by: moebius at October 28, 2005 04:28 PM

All the inditments against clintons goons and the liberal left-wing news did,nt say a thing i guess they were hiding their heads in the sand just like they always do during a demacratic presidents reign

Posted by: Birdzilla at October 28, 2005 05:48 PM

No one would have had to assign a tail on Valerie Plame to find out she was a spy. She drives a convertable to work every morning. Anyone clandestently observing the main gate would have had her picture and license number tagged as coming and going 5 days a week, 8-5. From there you get her address from DMV records and then her husband's name, Joe Wilson.

For "foreign intelligence agencies" not to know ALL ALONG that Wilson's wife was a CIA employee would have made them even more incompetent than the CIA itself.

Posted by: Orion at October 28, 2005 08:10 PM

Whooo, spin yourselves crazy.

Posted by: rabit at October 28, 2005 10:38 PM

Whooo, spin yourselves crazy.

What do you mean?

Posted by: Bill from INDC at October 28, 2005 10:47 PM

As for Birdzilla's comment: are our memories that short? Travelgate, Whitewater, the two year witch hunt that was Monica Lewinsky? The press ate that garbage up.

If you're on the left, you blamed the MSM as well: for burying its head in the sand and not asking hard questions about Iraq until it was too late.

The "spin" that rabit is referring to (I hazard to guess) is the idea that it was "okay" to out Plame because she was somehow not "careful enough." It's a "she was asking for it" defense.

Still, two wrongs would not equal one right. Libby wasn't indicted for blowing her cover; he was indicted for (alledgedly) lying to a grand jury and obstructing justice. They tried to pull a hatchet job and it backfired on a technicality. Then they went for the old cover up and it got them in deeper trouble than they were originally in.

Posted by: moebius at October 29, 2005 03:07 AM

What I don't get is what was Libby covering up? And how could he have possibly thought that all those reporters that he knew were also testifying would somehow spontaneously generate the same "lies" he was telling?

As for the ambassador's wife being a spy bit, it is not at all uncommon. They are in perfect position to be mules and have diplomatic immunity. Plame would have attracted attention as his wife, although I agree that the narrative you reference is more than a bit far-fetched.

The response from Bill Harlow to Novak to me is the most telling, it indicates Novak was telling the truth when he said he called Langley re: Plame and they confirmed her employment. Either she wasn't covert or the CIA blew it.

Posted by: B Moe at October 29, 2005 10:45 AM

What moebius said.

Posted by: rabit at October 29, 2005 11:01 AM

So, who is spinning, rabit? I think you're referring to Orion and Birdzilla and not Dorkafork. Is that correct?

B Moe - I think he was just trying to keep Cheney's name out of it. Not to cover up illegal activity on Cheney's part, but just because the VP being involved in rebutting Wilson's charges would be unseemly and make Wilson look much more important than the White House wanted him to appear.

Then he thought that the reporters would just refuse to testify, so no one would ever know he lied.

Posted by: Matt Moore at October 29, 2005 12:42 PM

So, who is spinning, rabit? I think you're referring to Orion and Birdzilla and not Dorkafork. Is that correct?

Bingo. Randomly dropping unaddressed shit bombs is terribly confusing.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at October 29, 2005 04:17 PM

Bingo. Randomly dropping unaddressed shit bombs is terribly confusing.

Isn't that what blogs are for? ;) Not that it matters much but I was collectively referring to Mr. Maguire's essay and the two preceeding commenters.

Posted by: rabit at October 29, 2005 10:49 PM

Maguire is stretching things a bit, but not as much as dorkafork seems to believe. Intelligence services are known to recruit people from among their circle of acqaintances, friends and relatives.

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You are the dullest tool in the shed. Don’t expect to take your very seriously again you Fucking Retard. Are you that fucking stupid to believe what Wingnut authors/sites say; when they’ve been shown to lie over and over?

Ames didn’t sell the NOC list; he sold out our assets in the Soviet Union; who were all Russians. Get your fu@king facts straight; Tard. Before shooting off your gate; you should have checked first and fed “Ames” and “NOC” into the FBI’s search site; you get fu@k all. But “Ames” alone will yield the results of who he gave up.

http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/ames/ames.htm
]. . . He passed classified information about CIA and FBI human sources . . .

. . . Following their arrest and guilty pleas, Ames was debriefed by FBI Special Agents, at which time he detailed compromising the identities of CIA and FBI human sources, some of whom were executed by USSR authorities. . .\

And the CIA still thought she was Covert: DOH!
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/cialeakinforesp13004.pdf
[i]. . . to request an investigation into the disclosure earlier that year of the identity of an employee operating under cover. . .[/i]

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