From Firedoglake:
But I'm interested for some selfish reasons as well. As I wrote here a few months ago, I've long been obsessed fascinated by a particular moment in the Valerie Plame Wilson outing saga:
… [a] September 2003 story in the Washington Post… seemed to break the leak scandal wide open with this sentence:
… a senior administration official said that before Novak’s column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife.
… [a] September 2003 story in the Washington Post… seemed to break the leak scandal wide open with this sentence:
… a senior administration official said that before Novak’s column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wife.
Due to the combination of one senior administration official (the Post’s source), two White House officials (the leakers), and six or more reporters, this version of events has become known as the "1×2×6 leak."
The conventional wisdom (as typified in David Corn and Michael Isikoff's Hubris) is that the Post's 1×2×6 article turned out to be a red herring, the unhelpful product of a source who was confused about his or her facts. But I have a different notion, as I wrote in a post at Needlenose last June:
The conventional wisdom (as typified in David Corn and Michael Isikoff's Hubris) is that the Post's 1×2×6 article turned out to be a red herring, the unhelpful product of a source who was confused about his or her facts. But I have a different notion, as I wrote in a post at Needlenose last June:
I seem to be essentially alone among Plame-bloggers in thinking that there's a direct connection between [Karl] Rove's leak to [Matt] Cooper on July 11, 2003, and the mysterious strategy session on Air Force Two between VP Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, the now-indicted Scooter Libby, the next day. But then again, I've also been just about the only one who thinks any significant leaking about Plame took place that day.
It's kind of odd, when you think about it — why would special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald be raising questions in his filings about what happened between Cheney and Libby on July 12 if the outing of Valerie Wilson was essentially a done deal by then? Why would the chronologies of the case in those court documents have such gaping, multi-page redactions at that point in the week?
It's kind of odd, when you think about it — why would special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald be raising questions in his filings about what happened between Cheney and Libby on July 12 if the outing of Valerie Wilson was essentially a done deal by then? Why would the chronologies of the case in those court documents have such gaping, multi-page redactions at that point in the week?
As regular readers know, I've long been on record about exactly what I think happened that day … that press secretary Ari Fleischer (with help from communications aide Dan Bartlett) made a series of calls about Plame from Air Force One as it returned from a trip to Africa, and were overheard by another top official (probably Colin Powell). That official not only dropped the proverbial dime on the leakers to the Department of Justice once it began investigating the leaks in September, but told what he knew to the Washington Post …
Those calls by Ari Fleischer struck me as having been made on orders from Libby or Dick Cheney, making Fleischer a seemingly pivotal figure in any case special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald would bring against either.
Many major players had their hands in the pot in this leak case. But, all roads lead back to Libby, Rove, and the chief mastermind: Cheney.
No comments:
Post a Comment