Is Not!

Ah, L'Affaire Plame. Henry seems to think I shouldn't be dancing around in my underwear listening to Prince's "Uptown", because it's unseemly. Well, sorry then, but I was having a great time. But what is the most amusing thing about all this? Half- or one-quarter-baked conspiracy theories about how it's all a leftie plot, or Valerie Plame was asking for it, or whatever. Well, no, thinking about Karl Rove going to jail is the best part. But, without further ado, here are my nominees for the "Feeble Rationalizing in a Comments Thread 2003" awards.

From Harry, in the comments to Roger L. "Too Complicated for Me" Simon's blog:

BTW this whole former ambassador who goes to Niger to look for evidence, or lack thereof, of WMD activity while married to a CIA agent who happens to be an expert on WMD is almost too incestuous to fathom. And why in the world would this ambassador raise such a stink on something that in the end just did matter knowing of his wife's (here that incestuous situation arises again) position. You would think she would use better just tell him to keep his mouth shut until everythin shook out. That was poor judgement on his and her parts. Hell, the administration would have done just as well if they would have sent Madeline Albright to Niger. My tinfoil two cents worth in this is that it will end up being State Dept. perfidy.

Finally whoever did spill the beans needs a stint at the Graybar Hilton and George Bush needs to use better judgement when it comes to allowing those that disagree with his foreign policies to take and active role in his administration. IOW time for Tenet, Powell, and a great deal of career state dept. people to go.

Damn you, perfidious State Department!

And, from the same place, a personal fave from Trent Telenko:

The Democrats insistence that not only is there a Bush dirty tricks squad, but that it is also an *incompetent* dirty tricks squad _committing easily proven felonies_, should be people's first clue as to whether this story is a hit piece or not.

This is story too close to the Democrats "Bush is stupid, evil and gets away with it anyway" meme to be believable.

Since Democrats have no true beliefs, any states of affairs in the world which seem to justify Democrats' beliefs do not really exist! Q.E.D!

And from Tacitus' comments, the indefatigable Macallan:

Tenet makes sense for a couple of reasons. Congress just released a report critical of the CIA so something else dominating the headlines doesn't hurt. Tenet has escaped a justified firing at least 3 times that I can recall so he might be in full CYA mode. Also if my theory that his own people actually mistakenly gave up Plame to Novak while he was fact checking his story it would make sense for Tenet to get out in front of the story.

That begs the question if he is freelancing or not. Bush has plenty of good reasons to fire Tenet, and this isn't going to really protect him from that. So I'd say, right now, that it's 50/50 whether this a team effort or Tenet going alone trying to push the spotlight away from Langley.

Right, if there's one thing we know about the CIA is that they are so amateurish, so inclined to be rattled by questions from reporters, that they often accidentally reveal agent's identities. I tell you, they lose more good people that way.
Macallan has shifted gears a bit on this, too, since he used to think Bush and co. were two steps ahead of us:

Why? Well it seems most are missing the other really important nuance of the WaPo article. A "Senior Administration Official" is taking a hard line on this. Which means the dumb guys are several news cycles ahead of everyone again. I'll bet the White House is behind Tenat's request for the DOJ investigation. So contrary to many folks dream of seeing Condi, Karl or Dick dragged through the streets of DC, the A team is already leading the parade. They know one of two outcomes is in the works. One: The DOJ investigation will show nobody revealed Plame as a CIA covert agent and the CIA press guy who talked to Novak gets canned. Two: The two admin officials who talked to Novak and other journalists either burned her or revealed enough to do so and they'll get fired with a 'we won't tolerate this sort of political hack behavior in this White House'. It will score points with swing voters as the proper thing to do, and will drive the Bushsucksenfreude crowd nuts. A win/win situation.

Commenting on an earlier Tacitus post, Damon Cooke keeps it positive:

When something seems incredible, it usually is just that. As it doesn't make any sense for anyone in the White House to burn Valerie Plame it seems more likely that Joseph Wilson blew his wife's cover himself, especially if he liked to keep his name in the news while he starts his "international business venture".

RDB, by contrast, is just bored:

Thirty three posts on anonymous accusations against unknown perpetrators. How droll. (Yawn)

Carter takes the hard line: everyone is lying and the CIA hasn't referred its internal investigation to the DoJ at all. It's ALL LIES:

Webster, what I'm saying is I question the accuracy of the MSNBC story that asserts the CIA is requesting an investigation. I think all of the reporting so far is probably wrong. It certainly lacks the factual attribution to confirm its accuracy.

Yes, I know, one can raise this sort of objection against lots and lots of journalism. I rarely do. But, put plainly, the hard facts in these stories people have been debating are absent, and I reject the articles accordingly. In other words, they're CRAP.

But what do the little green footballs commenters think, you ask? Robert Crawford thinks everybody does it:

Somehow, I find it hard to get worked up over this story. Something about a bunch of FBI background check files getting into the wrong hands and the lack of outrage over it comes to mind, for some reason.

Oh, and let's not forget the leaking of Tripp's records.

Yeah, this should be investigated, and anyone who actually broke the law should be punished, but the loony left's outrage is disgustingly selective.

LGF's best candidate, though, is surely Schmerel:

Also, who sent Joseph C. Wilson IV to check up on the Niger-Yellowcake story anyway? Joseph C. Wilson IV is so steeped in the politics of these issues I doubt Joseph C. Wilson IV's report of his own investigation had much credibility. Just because Joseph C. Wilson IV couldn't confirm the report of Niger-Yellowcake would not have been enough to prove it was never true. Joseph C. Wilson IV is just an aging bitter fart. His wife was probably never endangered by being identified anyway.

But, to give her credit, Leah's pretty paranoid:

What WE need to do is; To find the Arabists in the CIA that KNOW they can get more bang for the buck by leaking to their trusted friend? or possibly colleague --NOVAK.. (who are they?) Do we have only a columnist here in Novak OR what is he in reality?

We play a "game" here in DC..Who is a agent and who is a part time agent? Who is a quasi agent..or who is the person to GO TO when you want certain misinformation to be published...or who do you GO TO when you want to trash a person, group or policy... Novak is mentioned a quite a bit of the time. Hes definitely the CIA Arabists GO TO guy..thats for sure.

Well, kids, what do you think? Who will bear the crown?

P.S. Ignore the odd font-shifting; it is some typepad artifact I am unable to correct at the moment...

Comments

[Carlos]

If I could find it, I would say the guy ranting about our left-wing CIA.

But I can't. Too many hits with Google. So: Unsupported accusation! Base innuendo! Why do you liberals lie so much?

Years of Usenet have made me wonder if the DSM should be expanded even further.

[Ben]

Here's a radical thought: Why not get the facts before everyone gets in a lather. It's not like this is time sensitive.

[Carlos]

You misunderstand. I myself am rating them on style. To be precise, the paranoid style in American politics, which knows no right nor left.

Though, if our CIA truly is being run by a cabal of America-hating leftists, I suggest to you that it _is_ time sensitive. Who knows how many national security secrets they have already sold to the mortal enemies of our civilization, the French?

[Realish]

I'm laughing to keep from crying.

[Lawrence Schmerel]

Can I vote for myself for the "Feeble Rationalizing in a Comments Thread 2003?"

Still dancing around in your underwear dreaming about Karl Rove going to jail?

I haven't kept up with this story but if you find out, please let me know who sent Joseph Wilson to check up on the Niger-Yellowcake story, and why?

Has Joseph C. Wilson IV's credibility been examined yet? I missed that too.

Was his wife was ever endangered by being identified? I still don't know.

I kind of lost interest and it seems the whole issue has disappeared.

I guess we could ask Novak, but the last time I checked, he was not saying much.

Maybe I will research it, later.

Sincerely,

Lawrence Schmerel

[Lawrence Schmerel]

By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 10, 2004; Page A09

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

* * *

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

Yesterday's report said that whether Iraq sought to buy lightly enriched "yellowcake" uranium from Niger is one of the few bits of prewar intelligence that remains an open question. . . .

The report turns a harsh spotlight on what Wilson has said about his role in gathering prewar intelligence, most pointedly by asserting that his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, recommended him.

* * *

The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband "has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said.

Wilson has asserted that his wife was not involved in the decision to send him to Niger.

"Valerie had nothing to do with the matter," Wilson wrote in a memoir published this year. "She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip."

Wilson stood by his assertion in an interview yesterday, saying Plame was not the person who made the decision to send him. Of her memo, he said: "I don't see it as a recommendation to send me."

* * *

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

Wilson's reports to the CIA added to the evidence that Iraq may have tried to buy uranium in Niger, although officials at the State Department remained highly skeptical, the report said.

Wilson said that a former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, was unaware of any sales contract with Iraq, but said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him, insisting that he meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq -- which Mayaki interpreted to mean they wanted to discuss yellowcake sales. A report CIA officials drafted after debriefing Wilson said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq."

According to the former Niger mining minister, Wilson told his CIA contacts, Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998.

Still, it was the CIA that bore the brunt of the criticism of the Niger intelligence. The panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.

The agency did not examine forged documents that have been widely cited as a reason to dismiss the purported effort by Iraq until months after it obtained them. The panel said it still has "not published an assessment to clarify or correct its position on whether or not Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Africa."

2004 The Washington Post Company

[Lawrence Schmerel]

Thinking about Karl Rove going to jail since September 29, 2003 and dancing.

And tonight the New York Times is reporting that the looter guy stole Fitzmas.

If you need anyone to provide some feeble rationalizing, let me know.

I won an honorable mention for "Feeble Rationalizing in a Comments Thread" in 2003.

[Lawrence Schmerel]

Scooter?