Monday, March 13, 2006
Plame, Iran, Michael Smith & Censure
Larry C. Johnson at his blog, No Quarter, responding to John Crewdson's Chicago Tribune article on googling CIA agents:
"There is no such thing as ironclad cover. Whether Valerie Plame's cover was thin or deep, the basic fact remains--she was an undercover intelligence officer and expected senior government officials to protect this secret. Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney, who learned that she was a CIA officer, were obligated to protect that secret. Instead, they betrayed Valerie and helped destroy an intelligence network that was devoted to trying to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. That's the real story that true Americans should be fretting over."
RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna suggests that Larry Johnson deserves lots of linkage for his post...so go for it if you got a blog.
Larisa, of course, broke this on February 13th: Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say.
The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.
According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.
Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.
I got tagged by Larisa at Lukery's wotisitgood4 blog a few days ago so this will do until I get to that. Larisa also tagged Brad Friedman, Mia Culpa, and the British reporter who broke the Downing Street Memo (memos) story who is now also blogging, Michael Smith. Illustrious company.
Speaking of Michael Smith. His latest article at the Sunday Times is Revealed: UK develops secret nuclear warhead:
Britain has been secretly designing a new nuclear warhead in conjunction with the Americans, provoking a legal row over the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
....Developing a new weapon would also, according to expert advice from Cherie Booth’s Matrix chambers, be a material breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The office of Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, refused to comment on whether it had been asked for legal advice by No 10.
Finally, here's a transcript of Senator Russ Feingold's remarks on the introduction of his resolution to censure President George W. Bush:
Mr. President, when the President of the United States breaks the law, he must be held accountable.
....The President authorized an illegal program to spy on American citizens on American soil, and then misled Congress and the public about the existence and legality of that program. It is up to this body to reaffirm the rule of law by condemning the President’s actions.
All of us in this body took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and bear true allegiance to the same. Fulfilling that oath requires us to speak clearly and forcefully when the President violates the law. This resolution allows us to send a clear message that the President’s conduct was wrong.
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