Plame Game Redux

Richard Armitage, a State Department official that opposed the war in Iraq (and rightly believing she was not covert), not the White House confirmed to Robert Novak what he had learned from others that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. The Washington Post (01 SEP 2006) questions Joe Wilson’s, Plame’s husband, report on Iraq’s attempt to buy uranium from Niger and whether the conclusions were politically motivated. The paper questions Wilson’s baseless accusation of an “illegal conspiracy” to discredit him and goes on to state the charges “that it [the White House] orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson is untrue”. The Post claims, “the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson.” The question should be why prosecutor Robert Fitzgerald, who apparently discovered Armitage’s connection early in the investigation, sat on the knowledge for three years and why he charged Lewis “Scooter” Libby for perjury when apparently all Libby did was say he couldn’t remember events, that it now turns out, never happened.


Many, including elected Democrats, have used these accusations to attack the integrity of the Bush administration. Where is the call for a full investigation of Fitzgerald, Wilson and Plame? Although nothing other than Wilson’s accusations pointed to the White House many on the left did not wait for a court decision before accepting it as fact. Are apologies on the way?