Locke and Load

Plame Game II

This is something that Rush has been hammering on from the beginning of this story, and something I meant to include in my post:

Assuming that Valerie Plame was some sort of genuinely covert operative -- something that's not actually quite clear from the indictment -- the chain of events looks pretty damning [for the CIA]: Wilson was sent to Africa on an investigative mission regarding nuclear weapons, but never asked to sign any sort of secrecy agreement(!). Wilson returns, reports, then publishes an oped in the New York Times (!!) about his mission. This pretty much ensures that people will start asking why he was sent, which leads to the fact that his wife arranged it. Once Wilson's oped appeared, Plame's covert status was in serious danger.

The part of this that Rush has been hammering on is that the bureaucracy of the CIA, State Dept. and others are trying to undermine Bush and Bush is trying to clean things up. What I had intended to talk about was the fact that, for a "covert" agent, Plame and her husband were sure thrusting themselves into a hot political debate. Then it's a big surprise, a crime, and a cover-up when the people on the other side of the issue try to find out who Joe Wilson is and how he ended up in Niger?

posted by The Man @ 7:01 PM