Saturday, August 26, 2006

Another spin on Armitage

State Department has reportedly known for years ex-Powell aide Armitage 'outed' CIA's Plame

According to a soon-to-be-released book, the State Department has known for years that former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage "outed" ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to syndicated columnist Robert Novak and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post.

"Armitage's central role as the primary source on Plame is detailed for the first time in 'Hubris,' which recounts the leak case and the inside battles at the CIA and White House in the run-up to the war," reports Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, who also co-authored the book.

Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity. "I'm afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing," he later told Carl Ford Jr., State's intelligence chief. Ford says Armitage admitted to him that he had "slipped up" and told Novak more than he should have. "He was basically beside himself that he was the guy that f---ed up. My sense from Rich is that it was just chitchat," Ford recalls in "Hubris," to be published in early September by Crown and co-written by the author of this article and David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation magazine.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/State_Department_has_reportedly_known_for_0826.html

Interesting that the book is released in September. The real question why did it take "years" for the State Department to tell the truth? Why did they waste Fitzgerald's time? I smell conspiracy to finger point to Armitage.. And I wonder if Libby and his lawyers will use this new found information about Armitage in his upcoming trial next year..

1 comment:

airJackie said...

Now it's nice to hear that Armitage is the sole person who leaked Plame's name. Why wouldn't the Attorney General/Bush Administration just say that at first. Why wait until now and why did Libby lie for Armitage. These guy should have had Armitage take the fall in the first place, now the story doesn't fit. Who told Novak and who was the other person Woodward knew. This only bring more questions and leads to what Mr. Fitzgerald said in the first place a cover up. Now I hope Gonzales reads this I recommend that our Attorney General lawyers up because he is up to his neck in this cover up and since he knows nothing about law he will need a good lawyer to explain his involvement.