Tuesday, February 07, 2006

 

Larry Johnson Speaks.

You listen:

Valerie Plame was a covert intelligence officer covered by the Intelligence Officer's Identity Protection Act, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied to the grand jury. These two truths emerge from the opinion written by Judge Tatel, of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and released in February 2005. Thanks to a FOIA request by the Wall Street Journal we now have a more complete record, although key parts of his decision are still blacked out. Perhaps most of the media will now realize that they have been fed a pack of lies by the likes of Ken Mehlman, Victoria Toensing, Cliff May and others. [...] Tatel's incisive opinion makes he clear that he understands the difference between someone who leaks information designed to hurt U.S. intelligence assets, as happened in Valerie's case, and someone who leaks information about government malfeasance, as happened with the leak to James Risen that the Bush administration was spying on Americans. The key issue for Tatel was "harm" to the United States versus the public's right to know. [...] This much I do know. The CIA, as matter of standard operating procedure, conducted a prelimnary damage assessment once Valerie's identity was publicly compromised. Human intelligence assets who had worked under Valerie's direction were damaged. Their lives were put at risk (I don't know if anyone died) and their ability to serve as clandestine assets reporting to the United States was destroyed. Remember, Valerie was working on projects to identify terrorists and criminals who were trying to procure weapons of mass destruction. Part of this information was the basis for the referral to the Justice Department in September 2003 to investigate this as a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Although the CIA has not completed a formal written report that is available to outsiders, such as the House or Senate Intelligence Committees, it has done a damage assessment.
There's much more at the link above. Suffice it to say that it exposes Cheney and Rove as vile beyond belief, in case we didn't already know that. Speaking of vile beyond belief, Media Matters (via Atrios) documents the following vileness committed by people who we are, as with Karl and Ticky Dick, told we must trust:
Summary: At least three reporters involved in an October 2003 Time magazine article that suggested Karl Rove was no longer under suspicion of outing Valerie Plame, and that contained Scott McClellan's denial that Rove was involved, knew at the time of the article that Rove had, in fact, outed Plame.
Got that? These reporters KNEW that Rove had outed Plame, yet they pretended to their readers that he was no longer under suspicion of having done so. The three reporters: Matthew Cooper, Michael Duffy, and John Dickerson (who is now with Slate). In addition, Time reporter Viveca Novak (also credited on the October 13, 2003 Time article) knew that Rove was Cooper's source, though it isn't clear when she first learned this information.


Comments:
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

Superman was a newspaper reporter, "Clark Kent," in his civilian life. Now we know that this was a forward-looking science-fiction inside joke.

For what champion would make "journalist" an identity in which one could both hide and yet maintain some integrity? Never happen in these days.

Clark Kent would be a hospice nurse or an organic farmer. In Vermont, probably.
 
Sadly, all of this has been obvious since about August 2003, when we learned that the CIA made a referral to DoJ. At that moment, it was abundantly clear that a crime had very likely been committed, that it involved people high up enough that Ashcroft had to recuse (which made Rove a likely target), etc.

For over two years, the press has been systematically lying to us.
 
What is a journalist who lies called?

I don't know but they shouldn't be called a journalist anymore.

What is a news media that embraces and protects journalists who lie called?

The American free press c. 2006.

This is the clearest level of ethical journalistic practice, clearer than getting a second independent source, clearer than the use of anonymous sources, clearer than making modifiers and verbs agree with subjects. Liars are not journalists, they are liars.
Anyone who dosn't approach everything they say with skepticism is called a chump. Serious people don't trust them.
 
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