And they say there’s not a vast rightwing conspiracy?
Glen Greenwald at Salon details dozens of no-uncertain-terms statements from Fox “News” and the near entirety of the wingnut blogosphere asserting that Valerie Plame was “not covert” in her role as a CIA agent. Despite myriad evidence for years, Plame’s own sworn testimony to Congress, the admission by CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, and a court-filing last Friday which included an employment record from the CIA stating that she was, in fact, covert at the time she was outed by members of the Bush Administration, the sorry bunch of operatives who control the mainstream media, and a huge chunk of the blogosphere, refuse to admit they were simply wrong from the get-go. Period.
Says Greenwald today:
…
They had no basis at the time for making such statements. But, as they so often do, they made them anyway, because those statements helped to defend the Leader and bolster their political agenda. Most of all, they know that their readers will trust what they say even when those statements are demonstrably false.
…
These falsehoods are never acknowledged, let alone retracted, because they are a critical part of the role they play.
Just a few of the dozens of examples (most linked to the original sourcing over there) supplied by Greenwald…
- Fred Barnes, Fox News Special Report: “She wasn’t even a covert agent or anything.”
- Mark Levin, National Review: “Despite all the hype, it appears that Plame works a desk job at the CIA…it didn’t make her a covert operative when Bob Novak mentioned her in his July 14, 2003, column.”
- Washington Times Editorial: “[W]hen columnist Robert Novak first mentioned in passing that Mrs. Plame worked for the CIA, she was not functioning as a covert agent.”
- Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds: “[I]t seems as clear as anything in this affair that Valerie Plame was not a covert agent the day before Novak’s column.”
- Rich Galen, Republican strategist, CNN’s Situation Room: “She was not a covert — and we call them officers, not agents. . . We’re arguing whether or not she was a covert agent at the time and I’m saying she was not.”
- Alexander Haig, CNN: “[Plame] was really a bureaucrat and not a covert operator.”
- John Hinderaker, Powerline Blog: “Scooter Libby mentioned the name of a non-covert CIA employee, Valerie Plame.”
- Barbara Lerner, National Review: “[S]he was not a classified agent because she was not covert.”
- Robert Novak, CNN’s Crossfire: “Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative”
- Fox “moderate” Mort Kondracke, Special Report with Brit Hume: “[S]he was not a covert officer, she was not a covert agent”
- Laura Ingraham, Hannity & Colmes: “[T]hey knew that this was not a situation where Valerie Plame, at this point in time, at least, was a covert agent.”
- William Bennett, The O’Reilly Factor: “When this information was supposedly leaked about Valerie Plame, everybody went nuts. Turns out she wasn’t covert.”
It goes on and on, but you get the idea. Do the retractions and corrections similarly go on and on? Hardly. We’ve yet to see a single one. It’s appalling. Imagine the circumstances had John Edwards or John Kerry or Hillary Clinton exposed the name of a covert CIA operative to the media. Would there be calls for treason trials from the same wingnut apologist-sphere? You bet.
We’ll also await the many trolling dopes who have posted comments on these pages over the years, claiming that Plame was “not covert,” to post their retractions here. We’ll not hold our breath.
None of this is really news, of course. At least to those smart enough to seek out real news here. But to the rest of the world, carrying on blithely ignorant of the historic treason that has been and is being carried out by our own Government, this all would likely come as a shock. Fortunately for the wingnuts, none of this will even be a story for our corporate MSM.
RELATED: Be sure to read Greenwald’s weekend story about a more recent similar embarrassment for the armchair Sam Spades of the wingnut blogosphere, and the lack of apologies and retractions thereof when they were revealed to be wrong. Again. As well, please see Eric Boehlert’s February article detailing how the Washington Post aids and abets the fact-challenged rightwing blogosphere truth-haters, like Michelle Malkin and friends, while almost completely ignoring those of us who actually bother to diligently take the time to base our reporting on independently verifiable reality.
All I can say is jerry falwell is waiting for these folks to keep him company . . .
We’ll also await the many trolling dopes who have posted comments on these pages over the years, claiming that Plame was “not covert”, to post their retractions here. We’ll not hold our breath.
Continue to not hold your breath. My impression is that Greenwald is not up to speed on the semantic dispute in play here – at the CIA, the terms “covert” and “classified” are used interchangelably *without* reference to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act 9see the Waxman hearing, for example)
However, the act itself defines covert as an agent having classified status and meeting other attributes (service abroad, CIA taking steps to conceal his/her identity).
From very early on, the dispute has swirled around whether Ms. Plame had covert status *under the statute*, not whether she was “covert”, i.e., classified, in CIA in-house parlance.
And this filing from Fitzgerald does not answer that, for any one who reads it carefully. For example, he offers her employment summary (prepared by CIA? DoJ? Who knows?) which says she is “covert”, but that exhibit does not explicitly reference the IIPA – sort of an odd omission, unless it was being carefully phrased to meet a goal rather than advance our understanding. To be fair, they allude to the IIPA in their use of language, so I do suspect this memo was written with the specific goal of pretending that she was “covert” as defined by the IIPA without flatly saying so.
So, this new filing doe snot resolve the dispute. Sorry.
Tom Macquire says
“So, this new filing does not resolve the dispute. Sorry.”
Bullshit
The unvarnished truth is that the day Plame was outed, Brewster-Jennings a covert multi million dollar tax payer funded CIA front company was destroyed. End of story. This is the fact. An important covert front company specializing in wmd’s was taken out by the Bushies and their criminal cabal.
Plame testified she was covert and was telling the truth you idiot. Brewster Jennings was destroyed by the Bushies this is the FACT! ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS, TECHNICALITIES AND SPIN TO THE CONTRARY ARE MUTE!
They have been guilty of treason long before these new Fitz filings for those with the brains to connect the dots. Do you still believe the Wilson discredit Rovian Spin? I quit swallowing that horse shit almost from day one. It came from the WH.
Forget Wilson, forget Niger, forget covert, the Bushies had their sights set on Iran and they were paving the way by taking Plame out. “Creating’ the reality of Armageddon and stopping any ‘real’ intelligence before we even had a chance to catch up with the lies on Iraq.
These sick, conspiratorial, evil, illegitimate, killers and war criminals must be stopped for the honor of this nation to be restored. Period.
Bad intelligence is their modis operandi and scapegoat supreme…how many times must we be fooled!
TREASON plain and simple…the number one crime for impeachment. Shout it from every rooftop, write it to every paper, call it to every senator and congressman…ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. This is the straw to break the ‘camel’s back.
What could possibly be worse than destroying covert CIA intelligence sources after the intelligence failures and tragedy of 911? (and now, surely Iran to follow).
Run with it people before it gets buried to the back page!
# 2 I rarely respond to “trolling dopes”, but since you can’t grasp that she was covert I’ll ask you a simple question. Why did Valerie Plame Wilson have to quit her job?
LMAO @ Tom Maguire .. yeah, it’s all a conspiracy! LMFAO.. get your tin foil hat on!
ignorant fuck.. Course, the entire right-wing is chock full of them. facts aren’t pertinent, reality doesn’t matter, the only thing that counts is finding a way to “get rid of” the “undesirables” so the “privileged few” can bask in their gluttony.. right, Tom? Get rid of those dirty Mexicans, dirty blacks, dirty rag-heads.. right, Tom?
The slow (and deliberate) destruction of the Bill of Rights, desecration of the Constitution, shifting of power and resources to the top 2% (and those willing to suck the dripping blood and shit from their toes).. that’s what the right-wing likes, right Tom?
Trying to parse words and say “even though classified and covert are the same under the law, they didn’t cite the law in the memo.. so it’s a ruse”.. what a schmuck. Go Cheney yourself, would ya?
I hope …
I hope one day there is a trial where these pseudo- journalist will be found guilty of conspiracy and treason for their talking points misinformation on this very serious matter. If our constitution still works; all those that made these comments eventually will be held accountable or at least history will label them the traitors that they are.
I hope new evidence surfaces and the “I do not recall”, “I cannot remember” testifiers get caught lying and jailed.
I hope the impeachment considerations begin in earnest.
Tom Maguire:
Your “semantic” differentiation is a red herring thrown in to confuse the issue. The only defintion which is relevent in the discussion is that from the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
LMAO, Thanks guys for the good chuckle… where did McGuire get his bunk from ?
Me thinks from the same people that this article is about.
These trolls and faux news turd blossoms have an invisible friend that talks to them and tells them special things.
They don’t need people like us that live over here in reality. All they need is their daily dose of denial.
It’s really very simple. She would be covert if a Democrat had outed her.
Why, because they HAVE to repeat this else the house of cards tumbles and takes the whole crew with it. It’s a good example of the media being owned and obfuscating the facts (in this case outright lies) for political purposes. Plame was a covert agent, they are aware of the fact and this is why it must be repeated. It was an orchestrated payback to out her. Jesus, look at the list, I’m sure they are on a calling list. It’s TREASON and the whole game hinges on this. Amazingly political loyalty is more important than national security. It’s the definition of conspiracy because 2 or more people are plotting against the American public, facts be damned, for a freaking war they are losing, which was built on manufactured “evidence” (Nigerian Yellow-cake).
These jackasses are betting on the short attention span of Zombie-like Fox viewers who can only pass along talking points and willfully disregard the facts. I say if you support them, enlist, pick up that rifle and led the charge in Iraq.
Apparently the cover utilized by the CIA to protect the classified work of Ms. Plame worked very well. Even today, after the CIA has admitted their use of a cover, the (incredibly stupid and vile) Right Wing still doesn’t believe there ever was one.
Now, that’s what I call an effective cover!
Tom Maguire said:
To be fair, they allude to the IIPA in their use of language, so I do suspect this memo was written with the specific goal of pretending that she was “covert” as defined by the IIPA without flatly saying so.
So, this new filing does not resolve the dispute. Sorry.
Denial and minimization continue to be manipulation tactics used by the right-wingers. Learn to recognize all of the manipulation tactics and call them out on it whenever they attempt this morally bankrupt behavior:
Don’t You Smell a Rat? How Republicans Deftly Shift Our Focus
– Tom
#2 Tom,
Did you have an accident where the doctors had to amputate everything above the neck?
Here is a good idea about how to deal with them.
Patrick Fitzgerald, October 28th, 2005, @ 3:57 PM:
Bwahahaha – case closed . . .
Reich Wingers today are basically as phucked up in the head as religious zealots (Fundamentalist).
The religion they goose step to is the Church of Bush and like all religions facts are meaningless, actually facts are to be vehemently denied at all cost.
Thus we have delusional psychotics like Tom Maguire here that don’t have a clue what they are talking about.
How does a covert agent drive into Lanley every morning where she can be spotted?
# 18 I guess you don’t drive. I imagine she gets in her car, puts the key in the ignition, turns it on, puts the car in drive, or reverse if she’s parked forward, and away she goes. Spots and all.
Covert agents don’t work at Lanley for security identification reasons. Valerie Plame worked at Lanley.