In any Rational World

In a sane and rational world, this editorial would have served as a final nail-in-the-coffin of the Plame affair/game/debacle/kerfuffle. Published last Friday, it pronounces the would-be scandal for all intents and purposes, finished:

WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.

Mr. Armitage was one of the Bush administration officials who supported the invasion of Iraq only reluctantly. He was a political rival of the White House and Pentagon officials who championed the war and whom Mr. Wilson accused of twisting intelligence about Iraq and then plotting to destroy him. Unaware that Ms. Plame's identity was classified information, Mr. Armitage reportedly passed it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey Smith, who quoted a former colleague of Mr. Armitage.

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue. The partisan clamor that followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been avoided had Mr. Armitage's identity been known three years ago.

That's not to say that Mr. Libby and other White House officials are blameless. As prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has reported, when Mr. Wilson charged that intelligence about Iraq had been twisted to make a case for war, Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney reacted by inquiring about Ms. Plame's role in recommending Mr. Wilson for a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger, where he investigated reports that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium. Mr. Libby then allegedly disclosed Ms. Plame's identity to journalists and lied to a grand jury when he said he had learned of her identity from one of those reporters. Mr. Libby and his boss, Mr. Cheney, were trying to discredit Mr. Wilson; if Mr. Fitzgerald's account is correct, they were careless about handling information that was classified.

Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.

That last line drips with irony but at least the WaPo has made the conscious decision to come clean. It is more than we can say for the NY Times for instance.

Sadly it seems we do not live in such a rational world that would take such an admission from a high-profile newspaper and at least part-time seller of Joe Wilson's wares as to the nature of the Plame affair. Dead-enders abound and bitterness and foolishness remains it seems. Not the least of which comes straight from the horse's mouth (or rear end depending on your POV):

You may have seen this morning's editorial in the Post. It manages to recycle pretty much every lie and smear over the past three years in a last ditch effort to divert attention from the facts, and the role the Post itself played both in the march to war and in the leak (see Woodward).

I know many of you are better versed in Plamegate than either Valerie or I and I also know that some of you will be addressing the editorial.

I want to let you know how much Valerie and I continue to be buoyed by your support and your dedication to getting the truth out and holding the administration and its lackeys accountable for the terrible policies they have foisted on our country and on the world. We must keep fighting.

As you think about this, our website (Wilsonsupport.org) has a copy of the letter I sent to the SSCI when its report first came out, challenging some of its conclusions. The LeftCoaster has a terrific study by eriposte on the whole Niger forgery case from beginning to end. Firedoglake and the Next Hurrah both have highly informative analyses of the case by skilled researchers and former prosecutors. I recommend them all as resources to jog memories. by this afternoon, I expect that our own team will have an updated set of talking points to distribute for your use as well.

Each of you in one way or another has contributed to the public's (and in many cases our own) understanding of the issues from the beginning. Thank you for continuing to do so.

Joe Wilson

As I stated here the day the Armitage leak became unofficially official, the whole notion that Valerie Plame Wilson's name was leaked as part of a "smear" rests on the idea of a WH cabal that intentionally targeted her and then pro-actively leaked her name with the intent of causing harm. What we now know about the Armitage "leak" doesn't fit the bill, and leading Plame Conspiracist David Corn acknowledged as much when he told us finally who Novak's source was.

On Fox News Sunday this week, the always-reliable Juan Williams floated-but-didn't-really-float the idea that a memo requested by Libby that finds it's way to Armitage who--inadvertently or not--passes on information from it to Bob Novak who then publishes it would constitute some sort of malicious attack on Wilson via Plame. I'm paraphrasing, and of course Juan did offer the qualifier of all qualifiers by sticking an "If," in front of it all.

All of which relies on assumption and conjecture with no evidence of such in any of the known facts about the case. Such leads to a disturbing conclusion. One begins to think people are so heavily invested in things turning out a certain way that they can't let go.

I like the way that Uncle Mikey put it to Atrios the other day: Or, you could just say you were wrong, Duncan. People have done it and lived.