Miller Plame links

Here is the NYTimes story

Here is Judith Miller's defence

Here are copies of letters sent, including Libby's "Aspens are Turning letter."

Here is ThinkProgress' Right Wing Myth sheet:


Right-Wing Myths About The Leak Investigation
Patrick Fitzgerald hasn’t even concluded his investigation, but the right-wing is already spinning the truth in anticipation of indictments. This document provides the facts to set the record straight.
(Comment on this page here.)
CLAIM — FITZGERALD WAS SUPPOSED TO BE INVESTIGATING THE INTELLIGENCE IDENTITIES PROTECTION ACT (IIDA): “On July 30, the CIA referred to the justice department, the leaking of Valerie Wilson or Valerie Plame’s name, for investigation under the — what’s it called? (Brit Hume: “Foreign Intelligence and Identities Act, very odd name”) There’s almost no chance I think that Rove or Libby are going to be prosecuted for violating that act.” [Bill Kristol, Fox News Sunday, 10/16/05]
FACT – THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DELEGATION TO FITZGERALD DIDN’T MENTION THE IIDA: “By the authority vested in the Attorney General by law, including 28 U.S.C. 509, 510, and 515, and in my capacity as Acting Attorney General pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 508, I hereby delegate to you all the authority of the Attorney General with respect to the Department’s investigation into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee’s identity, and I direct you to exercise that authority as Special Counsel independent of the supervision or control of any officer of the Department.” [Letter from James B. Comey, Acting Attorney General, to Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney, 12/30/03]
FACT – FITZGERALD WAS GIVEN THE SAME AUTHORITY AS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO PROSECUTE ANY VIOLATION OF THE LAW: “The Department, in appointing Special Counsel Fitzgerald under “other law”, has afforded him independence by delegating all of the Attorney General’s authority with respect to the investigation and instructing him to exercise that authority independent of the control of any officer of the Department.” [GAO, 12/30/04]
FACT – THE CIA REFERRAL TO THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DIDN’T MENTION THE IIDA: ” But the CIA’s initial “crimes report” to the Justice Department requesting the leak probe never mentioned that law, says a former government official who requested anonymity because of the confidential material involved. Fitzgerald may be looking at other laws barring the disclosure of classified info or the possibility that current or former White House aides made false statements or obstructed justice.” [Newsweek, 8/1/05]
*****
CLAIM – FITZGERALD IS A “RUNAWAY PROSECUTOR”: “I think it shows the danger of runaway prosecutors…you have is a system that essentially creates a crime in the search of a nonexistent crime. And that looks unjust to me.” [Charles Krauthammer, Fox News Sunday, 10/9/05]
FACT – BUSH SAID FITZGERALD WAS CONDUCTING A “VERY DIGNIFIED INVESTIGATION”: “The special prosecutor is conducting a very serious investigation - he’s doing it in a very dignified way.” [President Bush, 10/11/05]
*****
CLAIM — LEAKING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IS NO BIG DEAL: “In today’s Washington, as has been true for decades, classified information is leaked by many different players in any given policy fight in the government.” [Weekly Standard, 10/24/05]
FACT – GEORGE H.W. BUSH SAID EXPOSING AN UNDERCOVER CIA AGENT WAS “THE MOST INSIDIOUS OF CRIMES”: “I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.” [George H.W. Bush, Speech at CIA, 4/26/99; Video]
*****
CLAIM – VALERIE WILSON WASN’T AN UNDERCOVER AGENT: “Now, look, Fitzgerald has had two years, two years to answer a simple question, and that is, was the law violated by someone having willfully exposed a CI — an undercover CIA agent? Now, we know that wasn’t true. The, Valerie Plame wasn’t even an undercover agent at the time.” [Fred Barnes, Fox News, 10/15/05]
FACT – CIA SAYS WILSON WAS UNDERCOVER: “But within the C.I.A., the exposure of Ms. Plame is now considered an even greater instance of treachery. Ms. Plame, a specialist in nonconventional weapons who worked overseas, had ‘nonofficial cover,’ and was what in C.I.A. parlance is called a Noc, the most difficult kind of false identity for the agency to create.” [New York Times, 10/5/03]
*****
CLAIM – THE LEAK INVESTIGATION REPRESENTS THE CRIMINALIZATION OF POLITICS: “I am worried about what happens to the administration if Rove is indicted. I think it’s the criminalization of politics that’s really gotten totally out of hand.” [Bill Kristol, Fox News , 10/14/05]
FACT – BUSH SAID THE LEAK WAS A CRIME: And, you know, there’s a lot of leaking in Washington, D.C. It’s a town famous for it. And if this helps stop leaks of — this investigation in finding the truth, it will not only hold someone to account who should not have leaked — and this is a serious charge, by the way. We’re talking about a criminal action, but also hopefully will help set a clear signal we expect other leaks to stop, as well. And so I look forward to finding the truth. [President Bush, 10/6/03]
*****
CLAIM – PERJURY AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE ARE “TECHNICALITIES”: “Don`t you sort of feel a little bad that your side is winning on essentially what is a technicality?” [Tucker Carlson, MSNBC, 10/7/05]
FACT – PERJURY IS A FELONY: [Anyone who] is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. [U.S. Code]
FACT – OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE IS A FELONY: “Whoever willfully endeavors by means of bribery to obstruct, delay, or prevent the communication of information relating to a violation of any criminal statute of the United States by any person to a criminal investigator shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.” [U.S. Code]
*****
CLAIM — JOE WILSON LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING: “[V]irtually everything Joseph Wilson said publicly about his trip, from its origins to his conclusions, was false.” [Weekly Standard, 10/24/05]
FACT – WILSON CONCLUDED IRAQ INTELLIGENCE NUCLEAR WAS EXAGGERATED: “I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.” [Wilson, NYTimes, 7/6/03]
FACT – N.I.E. CONTAINED CLAIM THAT URANIUM EVIDENCE WAS “HIGHLY DUBIOUS”: The N.I.E. “noted reports that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium in Africa but included a warning from the State Department that the reports were ‘highly dubious.’” [NYT, ]FACT%20-%20THREE%20SEPARATE%20REPORTS%20CONCLUDED%20INTELLIGENCE%20ON%20URANIUM%20WAS%20WEAK:%20In%20addition%20to%20Wilson’s%20claims,%20former%20US%20Ambassador%20to%20Niger,%20Barbro%20Owens-Kirkpatrick,%20and%20her%20staff%20had%20already%20concluded%20the%20intelligence%20was%20false%20by%20the%20time%20he%20arrived%20in%20the%20country.%20Four-Star%20Marine%20Gen.%20Carlton%20W.%20Fulford%20Jr.%20met%20with%20Niger%20president%20in%20February%202002%20to%20check%20the%20security%20of%20the%20country’s%20uranium.%20Fulford%20reported%20that%20he%20was%20“convinced%20it%20was%20not%20an%20issue,”%20and%20passed%20his%20findings%20to%20Gen.%20Richard%20B.%20Myers,%20chairman%20of%20the%20Joint%20Chiefs.%20[Washington%20Post,%207/15/03; NYT, 7/6/03]
FACT – FINAL WMD REPORT COMMISSIONED BY BUSH FOUND NO URANIUM WAS SOUGHT BY IRAQ: The final Iraq Survey Group report concluded, “ISG has uncovered no information to support allegations of Iraqi pursuit of uranium from abroad in the post-Operation Desert Storm era.” [Comprehensive Report of the Special Adviser to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, 9/30/04]
*****CLAIM – WILSON LIED ABOUT HIS TRIP TO NIGER: Former Rove deputy Ken Mehlman: “What Joe Wilson alleged was that the vice president, then he said the CIA director sent him to Niger.” [CNN, 7/12/05]
FACT – WILSON NEVER SAID CHENEY PERSONALLY SENT HIM TO NIGER: Bloomberg reported, “Wilson never said that Cheney sent him, only that the vice president’s office had questions about an intelligence report that referred to the sale of uranium yellowcake to Iraq from Niger. Wilson, in his New York Times article, said CIA officials were informed of Cheney’s questions. ‘The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office,’ Wilson wrote.” [Bloomberg, 7/14/05]
*****
CLAIM – ADMINISTRATION WAS CORRECTING A FALSE REPORT: Mehlman: “He tried to discourage a reporter from writing a story that was false. He said it would be false. He said, ‘You shouldn’t write it.’ And the reporter wrote it anyway, even though it turned out to be false. I think what Karl Rove was saying was right; what Joe Wilson was saying was wrong.” [CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports, 7/12/05]
FACT – WILSON’S CLAIMS HAVE HELD UP IN THE FACE OF FIRE: Bloomberg recently reported, “Two-year old assertions by former ambassador Joseph Wilson regarding Iraq and uranium, which lie at the heart of the controversy over who at the White House identified a covert U.S. operative, have held up in the face of attacks by supporters of presidential adviser Karl Rove.” [Bloomberg, 7/14/05]