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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Break The Smirk
To the editor: Perhaps the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent, mentioned in your “Broken Shield” article (April 20, 2005), might make more sense to you if you knew that the consulting firm for which Ms. Plame worked was a CIA “proprietary” that had been established to give her and several other intelligence officers also working there credible cover. The mission of this operation was to secretly gather information tracking weapons of mass destruction, and blowing Ms. Plame’s cover also blew the covers of everyone else employed there. Their usefulness for clandestine operations was destroyed, and hundreds of staff years’ work went into the toilet.
More important, one of the largest anti-terrorist operations run by U.S. intelligence was effectively blinded, and all of the foreign sources of information were burned. The Valerie Plame matter is not just about Ms. Plame — it is about the destruction of a major intelligence operation by White House officials in a fit of petty political pique.
U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald is doing his investigation in classic organized crime conspiracy style — first, he got everyone in the White House to commit themselves, under penalty of perjury, to a lot of denials. But he needs the testimony of the two reporters to nail shut a possible escape hole for the rats. Having gotten the courts to rule in his favor all the way, he then goes to Robert Novak — who wrote the column revealing Plame — and says, “Bobby, baby, I’ve got a slam-dunk case against you in terms of testimony, and the law has been set by the courts in this very case, so your appeals will go nowhere. So your choices are: total, absolute, and full cooperation, in which case you’ll get four to five months in Camp Cupcake, or we go to trial and you end up with convictions for the original “outing” of Valerie Plame, plus convictions for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, etc., etc., for which you’ll get thee to five years in Leavenworth with ‘Big Bubba’ and ‘The Ripper.’ You’ll come out feeling like a new woman.”
Bobby will squeal like a stuck pig. Then Fitzpatrick’s investigation will be into the White House, and who knows where it’ll go after that? Maybe those people will be willing to cut a deal that will take the smirk off Dubya’s face when he said this investigation would go nowhere.
Walt Ludewig, Nassau, NY
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