Good Spy, Bad Spy
By Callimachus | Related entries in In The News, The Plame GameSo the CIA is operating secret prisons in Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe and seeking exemption from rules against torture. And many people see in that confirmation of the old leftist warning that the CIA has become a dangerous shadow government, with global reach and an amoral, self-serving agenda that runs counter to basic American values.
So will those same folks give credence to the proposal that the Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame campaign to undermine the U.S. executive also was the work of an amoral, self-serving rogue CIA?
The woman was running her own covert CIA operation to undermine the Bush Administration’s war plans and she used her husband, Joe Wilson, to do it. We still have no information on who at the CIA actually dispatched Joe Wilson to Africa. Lewis Libby’s mistake was not telling the American people that indeed he told reporters about Plame and perhaps there should have been a televised press conference announcing the deceit of Wilson and Plame and illegal operations being conducted within the continental United States by an out-of-control intelligence agency.
And that the fix was in before the war began?
The Arizona Republican [Sen. John McCain] accused disloyal elements within the CIA of working to undermine President Bush, complaining that they had engaged in “leaking information that could be damaging to the president prior to the election – using a compliant media, if I may say so.”
Because, you know, there’s only one CIA. Not two.
[I'm perfectly aware that you could reverse the terms of that question and ask it of a hawk. But as one who was never fond of the CIA, however necessary it is, and who was taken aback to learn during the Afghanistan invasion that the CIA has its own army and air force, it interests me to frame it thus.]
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005 and is filed under In The News, The Plame Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 2nd, 2005 at 5:54 pm
Jesus balls! That first link in this article contained a huge picture of a half-naked Larry the Cable Guy when I went to the site. I nearly spilled coffee all over my crotch. A little more caution in the future, please. Or at least a warning…
November 3rd, 2005 at 10:36 am
What evidence is there of this supposed Plame conspiracy to undermine Bush at the CIA? Your article cites no facts to support this conclusion. Is it merely the fact that Plame may have recommended her well-qualified husband to fufill Cheney’s request that the Niger situation be investigated? Is it the fact that he came back with an accurate report?
There is no evidence of Plame having and axe to grind, but the bigger issue is that even if she was anti-Bush, what relevance does that have? Surely it wouldn’t justify any of the allegations against Rove or Libby as your article suggests. Wilson and Plame’s credibility are completely moot points at this stage in the game. They are significant for two reasons: One, that Iraq was not seeking uranium from Niger. Two, that high officials in the Bush administration outted Plame. I don’t care if a video comes out tomorrow that shows Plame and Wilson masquerading with Michael Jackson at one of his children’s parties. That wouldn’t change the fact that Iraq had no WMDs and it wouldn’t change the cases against Libby and Rove whatsoever. Plame and WIlson may have gotten the ball rolling on those issues, but thier credibility is totally irrelevant now.
So why do people insist on attacking Plame and Wilson’s credibility far after that the point where such an attack was relevant, and also after the Bush administration got into trouble for doing the same thing? Since there is no legitimate reason for such attacks, I can only assume that people who attempt to drag Wilson and Plame’s names in the mud are motivated by the reasons that Rove and Libby were apparently motivated by: spite regarding the war, and a venomous need to distract the public from the awful truth of the war at any cost.
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:37 pm
I think the two examples are diametrically opposed. If you buy the canard about Plame running her own operation to undermine Bush, then by definition she didn’t represent the aims of the CIA, but rather her own political goals. This in contrast with the prison story, which, if true, seems to indicate an initiative undertaken not only witrh the blessing of the top officials at CIA, but with administration officials, as well.
This plays into the whole angle the Republicans are pushing in the Plame affair, which is that it’s opportunistic for liberals to suddenly be defending the CIA, which they traditionally have viewwed as the enemy. It’s also an extension of their accusations that liberals are only professing to care about our soldiers because it’s politically opportunistic to do so.
The tripe about the soldiers doesn’t even deserve a response. As for the CIA, I believe more than ever that the Agency has to be closely monitored, especially since it serves an administration that holds the philosophy that any action undertaken in the war on terror is justified, and that the public has no right to know what’s going on. However, that doesn’t necessarily extend to a declaration of war on CIA agents. I still don’t trust the CIA. That doesn’t mean I agree with exposing agents who are sacrificing themselves and putting themselves in harm’s way for our country. I guess I differ with the Administration on that one.
I also think the CIA is a somewhat different animal since the Vietnam War and the Colby days. The Church amendment and a series of executive orders have reined in the Agency somewhat, so it’s not inconsistent for liberals to be less opposed to the CIA than in previous years.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:11 am
CIA Torture: Bad
CIA leaks: Bad
Bush hiding info that should be public: Bad
Objective, accurate CIA intelligence: Good
CIA intelligence slanted by pressure from Bush: Bad
I don’t see any liberal contradiction here. And still, where is this evidence of Plame having an axe to grind? The articles that Cal cites have no facts in them at all. Only conclusions.