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themp
Citizen
Username: Themp
Post Number: 406
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 12:26 am: |     |
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: January 22, 2004
NYTimes
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 — A group of former intelligence officers is pressing Congressional leaders to open an immediate inquiry into the disclosure last summer of the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame.
Their request, outlined in a letter on Tuesday to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and others, reflects discontent and unrest within the intelligence services about the affair, along with concern that a four-month-old Justice Department investigation into the matter may never identify who was behind the disclosure. The syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who first identified Ms. Plame as a C.I.A. officer in a column last July, has identified his sources only as Bush administration officials, and the Justice Department inquiry has not yet produced any public findings.
It is unusual for former intelligence officers to petition Congress on a matter like this. The unmasking of Ms. Plame is viewed within spy circles as an unforgivable breach of secrecy that must be exhaustively investigated and prosecuted, current and former intelligence officials say. Anger over the matter is especially acute because of the suspicion, under investigation by the Justice Department, that the disclosure may have been made by someone in the White House to punish Ms. Plames's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for opposing administration policy on Iraq.
Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself last month from any involvement in the inquiry, and Justice Department officials have named Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago, as a special prosecutor in the case. Mr. Ashcroft's decision to step aside came after months of criticism from Democrats in the Senate who complained that the attorney general could not impartially lead an investigation that focused in part on his political patrons and friends at the White House.
Justice Department officials have said almost nothing in public about the status of the investigation. But they have said they are focusing on conversations between White House officials and reporters that both sides might try to cast as private.
Critics of the White House, including Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, have said they fear that the administration may eventually call a halt to the inquiry by announcing that investigators have found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Mr. Holt and several other Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday that would authorize an independent inquiry by the House.
The 10 former intelligence officers who signed the letter include respected intelligence analysts and retired case officers, including at least two, John McCavitt and William Wagner, who were C.I.A. station chiefs overseas. The former analysts include Larry C. Johnson, a former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department's intelligence branch, and Ray Close and Ray McGovern, former C.I.A. analysts in the agency's Near East division.
"The disclosure of Ms. Plame's name was an unprecedented and shameful event in American history and, in our professional judgment, has damaged U.S. national security, specifically the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence-gathering using human sources," the group wrote in the two-page letter.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Johnson, who described himself as a registered Republican who voted for President Bush, said he and other former intelligence officers had been discussing the idea of a letter for months and decided to go forward with it because of a lack of evidence of progress in the Justice Department investigation.
"For this administration to run on a security platform and allow people in the administration to compromise the security of intelligence assets, I think is unconscionable," Mr. Johnson said.
In addition to Mr. Hastert, the letter was sent to Representatives Tom DeLay, the House Republican leader; Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader; Porter J. Goss, a Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; and Jane Harman, the top Democrat on the panel. A copy was made available to The New York Times by a Congressional official who received one. |
Reflective
Citizen
Username: Reflective
Post Number: 273
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 12:45 am: | |
Very old news -thought this had been seen as a straw dog by her husband who was disclosing her cia identity publically - long before Novak.
Gee the NYT really must be desperate for filler.
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ashear
Citizen
Username: Ashear
Post Number: 922
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 8:34 am: | |
Reflective - I've been following this story and have never seen that allegation before. Can you provide any backup for it? |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 1830
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 10:32 am: | |
while you're at it, explain how it is that you know this, but Justice and all these CIA agents don't. |
Earlster
Citizen
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 106
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 11:30 am: | |
Is it old news, because the investigation is going on for more then 4 month and they have been un-able(willing) to find anything?
This is not a filler, they are just making sure that this doesn't get swept under the carpet.
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