In case you hadn’t noticed, the latest media frenzy in D.C. has no other object than decapitating Karl Rove and thus the Bush Presidency. Some times the obvious has to be said, the Wall St. Journal says it here .
Here’s an excerpt: "We’ve been knocking our heads trying to figure out how a minor and well-known story about an alleged CIA "outing" has suddenly blossomed into a Beltway scandal-ette. The light bulb went off reading Monday’s White House press briefing.
Right out of the box, Helen Thomas asked if "the President tried to find out who outed the CIA agent? And has he fired anyone in the White House yet?" OK, the point of this exercise is to get President Bush to fire someone. But whom? That answer became clear when the press corps quickly uttered, and kept uttering for nearly an hour, the name "Karl Rove."
Of course!"
Isn’t that the politics of personal destruction?
The real criminal here is either Clinton appointee Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, or Kerry supporter and former Clinton NSC member, Joe Wilson.
Re: Niger-gate
Questions for George Tenet, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (DCIA), concerning security violations regarding CIA operations and operators related to an intelligence gathering mission to Niger.
1. When the Vice President requested the CIA to verify British Intelligence Services assertions that Iraq was seeking materials in Africa related to their WMD Programs, was the mission an overt or covert one?
2. If the mission was an overt one, who made the decision to use a retired bureaucrat from the previous Administration, Joe Wilson, to carry out this highly sensitive operation? Why was Joe Wilson chosen, considering his being married to a supposed covert CIA agent, whose compromise would endanger National Security?
3. If the mission was an overt one, considering the ruthlessness of the regime involved, would the CIA’s sources be more or less likely to be forthcoming with information about Iraqi secret contacts to acquire illegal materials if they knew they were likely to exposed for partisan political purposes?
4. If the mission was a covert one, were the mission and its results "classified"? If not, why not? If so, at what level?
5. If the mission and report were "classified", did Joe Wilson seek CIA clearance to go "public", for obviously partisan political aims, with information related to the mission and its results? If not, why not?
6. If not, is the person who released this "classified" information guilty of violating U.S. law? If not, why not?
7. If so, is Joe Wilson being investigated for violating U.S. law? If not, why not?
8. Did the publishing of the information surrounding this mission and its results expose U.S. intelligence sources and methods?
9. Will this exposure hinder future U.S. intelligence gathering missions?
10. What put the "secret agent" wife of Joe Wilson in more danger of exposure, the Mr. Wilson, himself when he went public with his association with the CIA, or subsequent reporting of his wife’s relationship to the CIA, which seemed to be "public knowledge" in Washington, DC prior to its reporting?
Bottom line, Tenet must go! I think Bush should replace him with Tom Clancy. Even the author would tell you that if someone’s wife is a CIA "spook", you don’t send their spouse on a intelligence gathering mission, and then allow them to publicly admit they were a CIA agent, and expect it not to call attention to his wife’s vocation.
Some Questions for Joe Wilson:
1. Who gave you permission to publicly use your mission to Niger on behalf of the CIA and its findings for partisan political purposes?
2. Did you write or help write Sen. Kerry’s speeches bashing Bush for lying in his State of the Union Address about including facts about what British Intelligence believes, using classified intelligence information you collected while in the service of the CIA?
3. Did you collaborate with your "covert" CIA agent wife in these efforts?
4. Does you "secret agent" wife share classified intelligence with you so you can use for partisan political purposes?
5. Didn’t you think that your going public about your CIA mission to Niger would compromise American Intelligence gathering sources and methods in that country?
6. Are you really so utterly stupid as to think that by publicizing your CIA connection and mission you weren’t jeopardizing your “secret agent” wife?
The man who needs to do the "perp walk" is Joe Wilson, possibly along with "secret agent" wife, if she has fed him classified information to "assassinate" the President for his man Kerry.
You guys are nuts. Someone in the administration committed a felony that endangers the lives of hundreds of CIA operatives and national security. That deserves investigation.
Wilson’s mission was COVERT, on behest of our own government.
If she was so undercover, howcome the press knew about her as far back as 1990?