Was She Covert? - By Larry Johnson

[WillyT]

by Larry C Johnson
Tuesday, 20 February 2007

<snip>

Sorry to again beat what some of you may believe is a dead horse, but a reporter from a major news organization told me today that they are still arguing in his/her newsroom about whether Valerie Plame was covert. The journalist who told me this is a talented, smart person but is still confused about the terms "covert", "cover", and "non-official cover". So here's my gift to confused journalists.

Scooter Libby is not on trial for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. He faces a jury because he lied about his role in giving out Valerie's name and obstructed the investigation into the leak. Can you leak the name of an overt employee? No.

And...

Non official cover or NOC also is covert but is more sensitive (and dangerous). A NOC does not work for the U.S. Government. A NOC does not have an official or diplomatic passport. A NOC works for a business or organization with no tie to the U.S. Government. If you are caught overseas while conducting espionage activities as a NOC you are screwed. You do not get a jail out of free card. You remain in jail or may be executed.

Now I will write this in big block letters: VALERIE PLAME WAS STILL UNDER NON OFFICIAL COVER WHEN NOVAK PUBLISHED HER NAME. Valerie and I started our career together and both of us were given official cover. But Valerie later took the additional and more dangerous risk of going under Non Official Cover. She became a NOC and, thanks to the Corn/Isikoff book Hubris, we now know she was helping hunt down Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

Right wing hacks like Victoria Toensing, Cliff May and Byron York not only deny Valerie was covert but also insist that Valerie was not covered by the IIPA because she had not lived overseas in the five years preceding the July 2003 Robert Novak article. But that is not the law. The law states, "serving outside the United States". Although she was based in Washington, DC, Valerie traveled overseas and conducted espionage activities. She served outside the United States during the period 1998-2002 and was a covered person under the IIPA.

<snip>

Link: http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/was_she_covert.html#more

I'm glad Larry put it out there again. If the Jury convicts Scooter, we're gonna hear yelping about this far and wide right!

:shrug:

[Stephanie]

1. cool!

I got the first K&R

:bounce:

[AndyTiedye]

2. Kicked Onto the "Greatest" Page

:kick: those bastards out of the White House (and the Undisclosed Location) and into prison where they belong!

[poverlay]

3. K & R, I'd like to see this front page everyday. I've been trying to explain this to people for

years now. Maybe if Jack Bauer explained it...

[Virginian]

13. Please also explain that Cheney could not declassify her.

I've heard that meme repeated a few times.
Cheney/Bush did not declassify a PERSON, they declassified portions of a DOCUMENT to leak to the press.

edited for a spelling error

[poverlay]

21. Good point- duly noted, and ... thanks. n/t

[madrchsod]

4. for god`s sake they blew the brewster jennings operation

by outing her to the press. two birds with one stone?

[laststeamtrain]

10. Is that a Mark Ryden painting?

I like it. Ever seen this guy's work, Ray Caesar?

[madrchsod]

25. yes thats a mark---- i`m booking ray caesar- thanks

[Richard Steele]

12. A lot of us suspect that the Brewster Jennings op was their real target.

Outing her was just the simplest way to get rid of the
entire operation, and they're very happy that the USA
fell for the 'petty personal revenge' explanation.

[Kagemusha]

5. Ah, I see, "serving overseas" doesn't mean on overseas station

which would be really silly if you want your work to not be connected to the US Government, since overseas station would mean working out of an embassy, right?

Great explanation by Larry.

[MagickMuffin]

6. Apparently Scooter and Dick C knew she was working in

Counter Proliferation. They wrote it down in their notes. And when they were on Air Force 2 on July 12, 2003, they decided at that point to leak Valerie's name to the press and then throw Russert under the bus even though he didn't play along in the scheme.

On July 12, 2003, as Cheney and Libby flew back to Washington D.C. aboard Air Force Two from Norfolk, Va. after attending a ceremony commissioning the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, they strategized once again as how best to discredit Wilson. During an interview with the FBI and later during an appearance before a federal grand jury, Libby said it was possible that he and Cheney may have discussed leaking information about Plame to reporters. But Libby had claimed that neither he nor Cheney would have been doing anything wrong because the only thing either of them knew about Plame was what Libby had purportedly heard from Russert.

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/021907nj1.htm

What I don't understand is this: this bit of information indicates a deliberate attempt at outing a CIA agent working in CP, yet no charges were filed over this treasonous act...

How come?
Isn't this the "Smoking Gun" we've been looking for?!?

Will charges ever be filed?

Can we convict Scooter, Dick C, Rove and the rest of the regime/cartel/cabal and throw them in jail and throw away the key?

[Kagemusha]

7. I heard a funny thing today about that.

Cheney's best witness against charges that he was doing anything funny would be Scooter Libby. If Libby's convicted of perjury, even without flipping, his helpfulness to Cheney plunges for that reason alone.

Intersting theory.

[bleever]

8. One small kick for man,

One giant kick for Mankind.


(N.B.: "kind" is the female part of the expression.)

Christ, they're complaining as if Monica Lewinsky had spawned a race of rabid flying squirrels because of Clinton, and actually threatened our national security by unleashing something that could undermine years of the most sensitive intelligence work.

Let's see: what is more important to national and global security, a CIA network of WMD experts tracking and informing our anti-proliferation efforts, or a blue dress from the GAP?

[Felinity]

18. Nice

"N.B.: 'kind' is the female part of the expression."

Try this:

Not fit for woman or beast, and that includes everyone!

(Sorry, guys, couldn't help myself.) :loveya:

[Kingshakabobo]

9. k&r nt

[laststeamtrain]

11. K & R. In Bushista Happy World Plame wasn't covert & there ARE...

WMDs in Iraq. Frank Gaffney says so.

[Disturbed]

14. Brewster Jenigs was a Cover Op.

Bush, Cheney et al exposed that Cover Op. Treason!

[blm]

23. And many of us believe blowing that cover WAS deliberate to protect BFEE's longterm agenda

an agenda that included dealing in arms, drugs and terror for 3 decades.

Want to bet that arms to Iran was AGAIN becoming an issue that was ready to blow?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x252817

[mmonk]

15. Yep.

Newspapers still act like there is some sort of question involving this (drives me crazy).

[Recursion]

16. NOC is the key

Non-official cover isn't just covert; it's the stuff that the covert people don't even know about. I mean real mission impossible kind of shit: "Go to this country, figure out a way to blend in, we won't help you. Oh, and if you get caught, we've never heard of you and your memorial plaque in the CIA building will just be an anonymous star."

[KharmaTrain]

17. Larry Needs To Take On Barbara Comstock

She's the one working for Team Libby and the RNC that is feeding all this horseshit that is spread to the corproate media and continues to get echoed. She's been directing her good friend Toensing all along and this lie is fed constantly to the hate radio maggots who have long demonized Joe Wilson and "the wife"...as intended by Cheney. Comstock is able to get her people on the cable talk shows and her talking points into the corporate media. FDL has a lot of "the skinny" on this operative.

[Felinity]

19. Great article-a real keeper . . .

for your anti-intellectual freeper friends.

Seriously, this is definitive, and the fact that we are still discussing a Matter of Fact after several years is extremely distressing.

It might lead one to believe that "factland" is in trouble; let's go play with the dinosaurs.

[WinkyDink]

20. Her operation was, and that was destroyed, as well. Victoria Toensing is a creepy liar,

and her old man is a low-life blow-hard.

[gasperc]

22. I think the press is covering their own ass

they so blew the Florida re-count, then WMDs in Iraq, then the outing of a covert spy they just can't get over themselves that the've been duped over and over again, and don't want to look like the idiots that they are.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

24. Hows this for an analogy ?

Martha Stewart was not tried and convicted for her insider trading sale of stock. She was tried and convicted of lying to the investigators who were looking into it.

She went to the slammer and so should LIbby

[formercia]

26. Even CIA employees aren't allowed to interact with NOCs

I remember going to a class next to a building where NOCs were being trained. We weren't allowed to be in the same area with them lest we recognized them later and accidentally compromised their position.
Blowing a NOC's cover is a very big deal.

[mainer]

27. Has Larry ever given us a damage report for Brewster Jennings?

I haven't seen, anywhere, an actual number of how many assets were either lost or killed.

[Major Hogwash]

28. Great article.

Maybe now they will see what damage the Bushies have really done.

[Bitwit1234]

29. The main point everyone ignores

Valerie Plame wants to write book. The CIA has told her she cannot have the book published. Why. Because covert/undercover CIA agents signed security agreements when they were sworn in, that they would not publish books about their covert/undercover actions.

Since the CIA says this how can anyone deny she wasn't. Straight from the horses' mouth.

[WillyT]

30. Evening Kick !!!

:kick:

[Auntie Bush]

31. kick

:kick:

[EVDebs]

32. Are hack journalists like Bob Woodward covered under the IIPA

while doing hagiography for * under Operation Mockingbird ? And is Operation CHAOS still an ongoing dissent-stifling program ? This is the real irony of the Plame case. Domestic bullshit is STILL going on and no one can speak out about it or investigate it for that matter.

Judy Miller certainly fits the profile too.

[frogcycle]

33. it is a travesty

that these creeps don't get the same treatment as the Rosenbergs.

[frogcycle]

34. and all the r/w flacks with them n/t