Plame affair

Actual damage caused

While the breaking of Valerie Plame's cover as a NOC operative of the CIA may be regarded as serious in and of itself, there has been debate over the damage caused by the leak, and the areas into which that damage may extend, particularly in relation to Plame's work with her cover company, Brewster Jennings & Associates.

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Legal filings by Independent Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald contain many pages blanked out for security reasons, leading some observers to speculate that Fitzgerald has pursued the extent to which national security was compromised by the actions of Rove and others. On 18 July 2005, The Economist reported that Valerie Plame had been dissuaded by the CIA from publishing her own account of her exposure, suggesting that such an article would itself be a breach of national security. The Economist also reported that "affirmative measures" by the CIA were being taken to protect Plame's identity at the time Rove revealed her CIA affiliation to journalists.http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4173001

Related Topics:
Patrick Fitzgerald - 18 July - 2005 - Valerie Plame

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Unnamed CIA officials maintain that Novak was asked not to publish Plame's name "for security reasons." However, Novak has stated that prior to naming Plame in his column, a CIA official informed him only that "if her name was printed, it might be difficult if she was traveling abroad," and that "they said they would prefer I didn't use her name." Novak considered this to be a "very weak request," adding that "if it was put on a stronger basis, I would have considered it." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11208-2003Sep27?language=printer

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On 14 July 2005 Mike McCurry, White House press secretary to President Clinton, described Rove's role in the entire affair: "a two-minute call such as the one now reported is basically to get the signals straight -- green, yellow, red." McCurry continues, "Rove seems to have been telling Cooper that the yellowcake story was a flashing yellow and needed to be cautious. {...} Unless conversations go well beyond what has been reported, there has to be some other explanation for the zeal with which this investigation is being pursued. Something consequential must have happened because of this leak that we have not yet read about. That's about all I can imagine, because otherwise the whole thing -- leak, story, investigation -- seems a little disproportionate. Maybe a major intelligence operation got botched. Or someone took a real hit somewhere in the world as a result." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/mike-mccurry/a-little-sympathy-for-sco_4171.html

Related Topics:
14 July - 2005 - President Clinton

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A possibility has been raised by several sources that a death may have occurred as a result of this leak. Under the Espionage Act, this could lead to a death penalty case. The CIA Wall of Honor has stars representing agents killed on duty. Named stars are used where information is not classified, and anonymous stars are used when the agent's name cannot be released. Below the stars is a chronological Book of Honor. An anonymous star was added to the wall between named stars that can be dated to deaths on February 5, 2003 and October 25, 2003. The anonymous star thus fits the timing of the Plame leak. Wayne Madsen, a reporter and former NSA employee, has claimed, "CIA sources report that at least one anonymous star placed on the CIA's Wall of Honor at its Langley, Virginia headquarters is a clandestine agent who was executed in a hostile foreign nation as a direct result of the White House leak." However there is no direct proof that the anonymous star has anything to with Plamegate beyond pure speculation and nothing more.http://sherlock-google.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/20/04918/1941http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change.shtmlhttp://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Jul%20archives.htm

Related Topics:
February 5 - 2003 - October 25 - Wayne Madsen - Langley, Virginia

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Saudi conspiracy interpretation

While a preponderance of evidence to date appears to suggest that Wilson's public contradiction of the Bush Administration claim (that Iraq had attempted to obtain enriched uranium) was the motive for the alleged leak, another explanation holds that the leak was in retaliation for, or to sabotage a possible investigationhttp://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/FTW-06_2004.pdf by Plame into whether the Saudi oil fields had passed their peak of productivity. In this view, the leak was an attempt to block the CIA from informing the Bush Administration of the peak oil problem.

Related Topics:
CIA - Peak oil

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