Amb. Wilson didn't lie, provided great services to the USA, and was slimed by the right.
Apparently your reputation is well known.
Plame contends that her outing damaged our intelligence-gathering abilities. It is unbelievable to me that the best our justice system could do is the conviction of Libby for lying and obstruction.
-CIA agent claims outing act of treason
Plame blames White House
By Lee Shearer
America's intelligence-gathering abilities have been damaged for years to come by the Bush administration, outed CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson said in a speech at the University of Georgia on Wednesday night.
Bush administration officials leaked Wilson's covert identity to journalist Robert Novak in 2003 in what Wilson described as an act of revenge against her husband, a former ambassador who had written an opinion article questioning President Bush's justification for invading Iraq.
"In the scheme of things, Novak was nothing. He was used," Wilson said.
But what the journalist did with the help of aides in Vice President Dick Cheney's office - revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent, exposing her sources, or "assets" to danger, as well as her family - amounted to treason, she said.
About 400 people packed the UGA Chapel to hear Wilson talk, several times interrupting her with prolonged applause.
Wilson, 44, recalled listening to Bush deliver the 2003 State of the Union address, followed a week later by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell speaking to the United Nations. Both said Iraq likely possessed tools to make weapons of mass destruction.
The general's statements didn't match her information, Wilson said. "Believe me, I was privy to a lot."
At first she thought the CIA had failed to find weapons of mass destruction that actually were in Iraq.
Powell's information came from a widely discredited source, said Wilson, who has now written a book about the episode, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House."
The administrations' exaggerated claims about Iraq's weapons were part of a pattern to twist intelligence information to suit ideological ends, she said.
Administration operatives also tried to intimidate the CIA to toe the company line, she said.
Over the past few years, many experienced agents have left the CIA, she said.
"They can't take it any more," Wilson said.
Leaders mangled intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion because of "a perfect storm," she said - a president perhaps unsure of his abilities in foreign policy, a vice president who wanted to reclaim what he saw as the lost power of the executive branch, and neoconservative politicians in very powerful positions.
The media, particularly the mainstream media, also failed in its job to question the accuracy of and sources behind the weapons of mass destruction claims, she said.
Not everyone thinks administration officials were so wrong to reveal her identity. Wilson heard one TV journalist describe the controversy as "politics as usual," she said toward the end of her talk.
"I beg to differ, because I think this is treason," she said.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 041708
Bush is the teflon president; he gets away with breaking both domestic and international laws, and nobody has the guts to charge him with his illegal activities. Our whole government is broken, and future presidents has the legal precedence to break more laws. This congress and supreme court are worthless US institutions; not only incompetent, but dangerous to the future of this country and the world.
cicerone imposter wrote:Bush is the teflon president; he gets away with breaking both domestic and international laws, and nobody has the guts to charge him with his illegal activities. Our whole government is broken, and future presidents has the legal precedence to break more laws. This congress and supreme court are worthless US institutions; not only incompetent, but dangerous to the future of this country and the world.
Then lead an armed rebellion and overthrow the govt and replace it, if its that bad.
Or, run for federal office yourself and fix it.
It would be wonderful if President Obama named Val Plame to head the CIA. The agency would, for the first time, become effective.
Advocate wrote:It would be wonderful if President Obama named Val Plame to head the CIA. The agency would, for the first time, become effective.
So your contention now is that the CIA has NEVER, in its entire history, been effective or done the job correctly?
I imagine that it has had some victories. However, it had some huge failures. It failed to predict the fall of the USSR and the 9/11 attack, it did not make it sufficiently clear that Iraq had no WMD, etc., did not make timely apprehensions of a number of moles, etc. It knew of the 9/11 attackers were taking pilot training, but did nothing about it. All this is despite its huge cost to the taxpayer.
Advocate wrote:I imagine that it has had some victories. However, it had some huge failures. It failed to predict the fall of the USSR and the 9/11 attack, it did not make it sufficiently clear that Iraq had no WMD, etc., did not make timely apprehensions of a number of moles, etc. It knew of the 9/11 attackers were taking pilot training, but did nothing about it. All this is despite its huge cost to the taxpayer.
The reason the CIA did nothing when they knew the 9/11 attackers were taking pilot training, (if they knew) is because under federal law the CIA is not authorized to operate in the CONUS.
Also, they could not have told the FBI, thats the agency that could have done something, because of the "wall" that was put in place to prevent intelligence organizations from sharing info with law enforcement.
That wall was put up by Jamie Garafolo BTW, the same woman that served on the 9/11 committee.
mysteryman wrote:Advocate wrote:I imagine that it has had some victories. However, it had some huge failures. It failed to predict the fall of the USSR and the 9/11 attack, it did not make it sufficiently clear that Iraq had no WMD, etc., did not make timely apprehensions of a number of moles, etc. It knew of the 9/11 attackers were taking pilot training, but did nothing about it. All this is despite its huge cost to the taxpayer.
The reason the CIA did nothing when they knew the 9/11 attackers were taking pilot training, (if they knew) is because under federal law the CIA is not authorized to operate in the CONUS.
Also, they could not have told the FBI, thats the agency that could have done something, because of the "wall" that was put in place to prevent intelligence organizations from sharing info with law enforcement.
That wall was put up by Jamie Garafolo BTW, the same woman that served on the 9/11 committee.
MM, if you watched the hearings of the 9/11 Commission you would know that this is bull. BTW, you misspelled her name.
The outing of Val Plame destroyed a CIA investigation of the Bush administrtion's involvement in WMD proliferation.
http://oraclesyndicate.twoday.net/stories/4943361/
LOL, Advocate - how can you keep posting such idiotic conspiracy links?
Swiss passports NEVER include handwritten entries: with the exception of the passport-holder's signature, all entries are typed.... "Critical faculty" it's called, and there must have been a shortage of it on the day you were born <G>
Gosh, you really got me. Despite being an expert on all things Swiss, I must have forgotten this detail on passports.
BTW, please give me support on your statement. But I know you lack this because you a lying POS.
Advocate wrote:BTW, please give me support on your statement. But I know you lack this because you a lying POS.
Whether she is or isn't (and I believe she isn't), remains for you to prove.
However, what is undeniable is that you are a conspiracy-theory believing nutjob.
An interesting statement High Seas since it appears it was the Malaysian government that released the picture of Tinner's Swiss passport and work permit.
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1140/urs-tinner
Google is your friend.
http://www.iranatom.ru/reports/rep059.htm
Ticomaya wrote:Advocate wrote:BTW, please give me support on your statement. But I know you lack this because you a lying POS.
Whether she is or isn't (and I believe she isn't), remains for you to prove.
However, what is undeniable is that you are a conspiracy-theory believing nutjob.
Give an idiot a paintbrush and a can of paint and he'll paint himself into a corner every time.
JTT wrote:Ticomaya wrote:Advocate wrote:BTW, please give me support on your statement. But I know you lack this because you a lying POS.
Whether she is or isn't (and I believe she isn't), remains for you to prove.
However, what is undeniable is that you are a conspiracy-theory believing nutjob.
Give an idiot a paintbrush and a can of paint and he'll paint himself into a corner every time.
Yes, you have proven that time and time again.
McGentrix wrote:JTT wrote:Ticomaya wrote:Advocate wrote:BTW, please give me support on your statement. But I know you lack this because you a lying POS.
Whether she is or isn't (and I believe she isn't), remains for you to prove.
However, what is undeniable is that you are a conspiracy-theory believing nutjob.
Give an idiot a paintbrush and a can of paint and he'll paint himself into a corner every time.
Yes, you have proven that time and time again.
Totally strawman; please show us evidence of your claim.
