This diary is part II of the meta-diary on the Plame leak to Novak/ Gannon.
While I have laid out the case as best I could from all the information available, I welcome suggestions and comments from all.
Special thanks to Kiw for his/her help. Thanks to all Kossacks who have continued to dig for information on this affair... this diary couldn't have been even contemplated without you!
My conclusion: Gannon was planted by the WH (Rove) in April 2003 as questions surrounding the invasion of Iraq and the intelligence used were starting to be raised by the real reporters on the beat and to assist the neo-con cause as necessary in promoting the Bush agenda. He became useful early on during the Plame leak.
** This is just part of the story... there is some amazing work that is still being compiled by SusanG, NYBri, Creve, Marie, etc. etc. that will make the full case against Gannon... but... I'm comfortable saying at this point that this guy was planted and the Plame memo was leaked to him.
The timeline and analysis/ conclusions below the fold (warning... long)
March 29, 2003 - Talon News website registered
April 3, 2003 - Gannon is credentialed and appears in the WH press room
May 6, 2003 - Kristof in NY Times mentions Wilson trip to Niger (no names mentioned) and that the fabled 16 words in the SOTU came from forged documents
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0506missing.htm
June 8, 2003 - Rice on Meet the Press refutes Kristofs claim
June 13, 2003 - Kristof responds and sticks by his claim. Still Wilson's name not revealed
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/06/13/nyt.kristof/
June 23, 2003 - Jeff Gannon registers as a user with FreeRepublic.com (originally registered on January 19, 2003 as "The Conservative Guy", but only posted twice)
July 6, 2003 - Wilson writes NY Times Op-Ed criticizing Bush remarks on Iraq yellowcake purchase in Niger as relying on forged documents. He states the CIA provided this intelligence to the WH prior to the SOTU in Jan '03.
http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/070903_wilson.htm
July 7, 2003 The White House retracted the Niger allegation, which is its sole admission to date of a flaw in the case for war, which was built on charges of an illegal Iraqi arsenal that has not been found.
July 11, 2003 - Tenet responds and says the decision to send him was the CIA's
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2003/intell-030711-cia01.htm
July 14, 2003 - Novak outs Plame: first mention of her name and that she allegedly recommended Wilson for the post.
"Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. "
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030714.shtml
July 15, 2003 - Gannon posts for the first time on FreeRepublic.com as "Jeff Gannon"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?more=13252770;name=jeff%20gannon
July 22, 2003 - Newsday reports that their Intelligence Sources confirmed that Plame was undercover until Novak outed her.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4190.htm
Novak - `I didn't dig it out. It was given to me. They thought it was significant. They gave me the name, and I used it.'
July 24, 2003 - jeffgannon.com debuts online
July 24, 2003 - Joe Wilson appears on The Daily Show and says he was asked to be part of the Bush/ Cheney reelection effort prior to his Op-Ed article. http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/celeb/celeb_8011.html
Late July, 2003 - The CIA files a "crime report" with the Department of Justice (DOJ), suggesting the leak of Wilson's wife's name and covert status might entail criminal acts.
September 23, 2003 - The CIA submits a standard 11 part questionnaire used by the Department of Justice to determine whether an investigation is warranted. (Milbank and Schmidt, "Justice Department Launches Criminal Probe of Leak, Wash. Post, Oct. 1, 2003 at A01).
September 26, 2003 - John Dion, Director of the DOJ's Counterespionage section decides to pursue a criminal investigation.
September 28, 2003 - A source in the administration confirms that two senior administration officials contacted at least 6 reporters about the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. The source claims that, "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge." He stated that he was sharing the information because the disclosure was "wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility." (Allen and Priest, "Bush Administration is Focus of Inquiry," Wash. Post. Sept. 28, 2003 at A01.)
President Bush's aides promise to cooperate with any DOJ inquiries, but admit that "Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role" in the leak. (Allen, "Bush Aides Say They'll Cooperate With Probe Into Intelligence Leak," Wash. Post. Sept. 29, 2003 at A01).
September 29, 2003 - On CNN's Crossfire, Novak explains, "Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing. ... They asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative, and not in charge of undercover operatives. So what is the fuss about, pure Bush-bashing?" ("Crossfire," CNN, Sept. 29, 2003).
Wilson responds: "Bob Novak called me before he went to print with the report. And he said, a CIA source had told him that my wife was an operative. He was trying to get a second source...After the article appeared, I called him and I said, `You told me it was a CIA source. You wrote senior administration officials. What was it, CIA or senior administration?' He said to me, `I misspoke the first time I spoke to you.' That makes it senior administration sources" ("Paula Zahn Now," CNN, Sept. 29, 2003)
About his partisanship, Wilson responds, "...Novak also said that I was a Clinton appointee. In actual fact, my first political appointment was as ambassador. And I was appointed by George H.W. Bush, the first President Bush. So I really am apolitical in all of this. (Id.)
Sept 29, 2003 - Clifford D. May in the National Review Online tries to provide cover for Novak by stating that Plame's identity was common knowledge and openly questions Wilson's motivations due to his partisan activities.
http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200309291022.asp
On July 11, I wrote a piece for NRO arguing that Mr. Wilson had no basis for that conclusion -- and that his political leanings and associations (not disclosed by the Times and others journalists interviewing him) cast serious doubt on his objectivity.
On July 14, Robert Novak wrote a column in the Post and other newspapers naming Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative.
That wasn't news to me. I had been told that -- but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of.
However, the fact that someone not working in the WH told May does not erase the sources Novak claims and if May really did think it was common knowledge, he would have no reason not to disclose it in his July 11 column. In fact, contrary to what he writes below, it could have bolstered his claims against the credibility of Wilson, as Novak made clear in his articles, since according to the WH the CIA bungled the intelligence and made the President look foolish (at the least) in the SOTU. So, revealing that Wilson was `handpicked' by his wife, a CIA operative, would have shown that the CIA chose to send a former ambassador vs. an intelligence operative for patronage reasons... which is what we can assume Novak was trying to plant.
May says:
I chose not to include it (I wrote a second NRO piece on this issue on July 18) because it didn't seem particularly relevant to the question of whether or not Mr. Wilson should be regarded as a disinterested professional who had done a thorough investigation into Saddam's alleged attempts to purchase uranium in Africa.
Sept. 30, 2003 Another journalist confirms receiving a call from an administration official divulging Wilson's wife's name and occupation. (Allen and Millbank, Wash. Post, Sept. 30, 2003).
Questions about Karl Rove's involvement are raised by numerous news sources. "Sources close to the former president say Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak." ("Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Sept. 29, 2003, citing Ron Suskind, "Why Are These Men Laughing," Esquire, Jan. 2003).
Torie Clark, former spokesperson for the Pentagon said people are "Constantly aware of [classified information]. If you are in a position that you're going to be the recipient of classified information, you have gotten briefings, you get repeated briefings, depending on how long you are in there. You sign papers that say you are fully aware of the consequences if you leak classified information. Secretary Rumsfeld made it a point to regularly and frequently speak about the problems of leaking classified information." ("Paula Zahn Now," CNN Sept. 29, 2003).
September 30, 2003 - Text of an e-mail to White House staff Tuesday from counsel Alberto R. Gonzales about the Justice Department's investigation about the leak of a CIA officer's identity:
"We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee. ...you must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department's investigation."
A follow up email was sent asking staff to save all records of any kind relating to the Ambassadors trip to Niger, his wife's relationship with the CIA, any contact with the press about these topics, and any contact at all with journalists Robert Novak, Knut Royce, Timothy M. Phelps
Eleven hours pass between when the White House is notified of the investigation and when administration officials asked staff to preserve records. (Editorial, "Investigating Leaks," NYT, Oct. 2, 2003).
Sept. 30, 2003 USA Today says of Karl Rove, "[he] has a reputation for the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and political shenanigans that are part of the portfolio of most political operatives -- but not necessarily top White House officials." (Judy Keen, "Finger-pointing finds a familiar target in Rove, USA Today, Sept. 30, 2003)
Wilson explains that he received phone calls from journalists, stating `I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He tells me your wife is fair game.' ("Nightline," ABC, Sept. 30, 2003)
October 1, 2003 - Ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson confirms that Wilson's wife was an undercover operative: "I worked with this woman... She has been undercover for three decades, she is not, as Bob Novak suggested, a CIA analyst...people she meets with overseas could be compromised. When you start tracing back who she met with, even people who innocently met with her, who are not involved in CIA operations, could be compromised. For these journalists to argue that this is no big deal and if I hear another Republican operative suggesting that well, this was just an analyst, fine, let them go undercover." ("Newshour," PBS, Sept. 30, 2003)
Oct 1, 2003 - Novak writes another column and contradicts his earlier statements.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20031001.shtml
"This story began July 6 when Wilson went public and identified himself as the retired diplomat who had reported negatively to the CIA in 2002 on alleged Iraq efforts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment."
July column:
"That's where Joe Wilson came in. His first public notice had come in 1991 after 15 years as a Foreign Service officer when, as U.S. charge in Baghdad, he risked his life to shelter in the embassy some 800 Americans from Saddam Hussein's wrath. My partner Rowland Evans reported from the Iraqi capital in our column that Wilson showed "the stuff of heroism." President George H.W. Bush the next year named him ambassador to Gabon, and President Bill Clinton put him in charge of African affairs at the National Security Council until his retirement in 1998."
So right off the bat, Novak misinforms. Wilson was a hero in the H.W. Bush administration, had worked almost his entire career to that point under the Reagan administration and was then rewarded with a higher level position in the Clinton administration.
"During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.
At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name."
July story:
Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him.
What a bunch of weasel words. The CIA official asked Novak not to use her name and said it would cause difficulties... that meaning is quite clear if you know anything about undercover CIA operations. So which is it? Why would the CIA official deny to Novak that Plame had suggested Wilson be chosen while the two Senior administration officials stated she had? The only explanation that makes sense now is that the Administration officials leaked the Feb 2002 classified document to Novak but the CIA official refused to do so, or to even confirm it.
Oct. 1, 2003 - Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) Says that Bush needs to be proactive: "He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it" ("Capital Report," CNBC, Oct. 1, 2003)
Oct. 1, 2003 - Wayne Slater, a Karl Rove biographer notes a patter of unethical behavior: "I don't know who leaked what to whom. Most people don't know the facts here. And both Bob Novak and Karl Rove have it didn't happen. But I have to say that it certainly was consistent with the Karl Rove that I know. If he didn't do this, he certainly has a pattern of activity over the 15 years, 20 years that I've known him where he has done similar things." ("Paula Zahn Now," CNN, Oct. 1, 2003).
James Moore, another Rove biographer thinks he must have known: "After having watched Mr. Rove for all of these years, I know full well, and anybody who knows the way he works, that something of this nature does not happen without Karl checking the yes box...I'm saying that if Mr. Rove is not involved, I'll eat the paperback copy of my own book because this is a guy who controls everything, and he has a history of putting a layer of protection between himself and other people, using other operatives to get things done." ("Buchanan & Press," MSNBC, Oct. 1, 2003)
Oct 2, 2003 - The White House begins changing its tone: "Bush aides began to adjust their response to the expanding probe. They reigned in earlier, broad portrayals of innocence in favor of more technical arguments that it is possible the disclosure was made without knowledge that a covert operative was being exposed and therefore might not have been a crime." (Milbank and Allen, "Outside Probe of Leaks Is Favored," Wash. Post, Oct 2, 2003).
Aha. And this is why they needed Gannon too. Novak and NRO are well known "conservative" mouthpieces and therefore their claims to have known all about Plame can be questioned. But if a new, fresh off the boat journalist at an unknown news organization knew about her too... well, then it was common knowledge and therefore no crime was committed by leaking her identity. But it takes a bit of time to get him up to speed on the plan... and boy do they need to do damage control, and soon.
The Washington Post-ABC News Poll reveals that:
- 81% believe the leak to be a serious matter
- 72% believe the leak came from the White House
- 69% believe the investigation should be handled by a special investigator
Continued on page 2