Salon's Joe Conason: "Pundits on Plame: Clueless and Conscienceless"

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/07/23/plame/print.html

Pundits on Plame: Clueless and conscienceless

Loyal GOP mouthpieces insisted Valerie Plame had a desk job. Now that we know she was a covert CIA operative, will they apologize? Of course not.

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By Joe Conason

July 23, 2005  |  Under intense political pressure, once scarce information about the CIA leak prosecution is suddenly emerging from "persons familiar with the case." Should those whispers prove accurate, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove and vice-presidential Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby may yet be held accountable for whatever roles they actually played in the exposure of Valerie Wilson's CIA identity -- and in the coverup of that potential crime.

Accountability will never extend, however, to their eager accessories: the pundits who assisted the coverup by persistently spreading disinformation about Valerie Wilson.

Unlike officials who lie to the FBI or the grand jury, those writers cannot be legally penalized for their deceptions, let alone their imbecilities. But they deserve at the very least to be noted and remembered, especially now that one of their favorite falsehoods -- the claim that Wilson's identity wasn't secret -- has been decisively disproved.

On Thursday, the Washington Post published the most important new fact of the Wilson case on Page 1. Quoting current and former government officials, the Post reported that "a classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked '(S)' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials."

That June 10, 2003, memorandum, prepared by a State Department intelligence official, was previously reported by the New York Times to have been circulated among top Bush administration officials in their quest for information about Wilson's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson. According to Post reporters Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei, the memo mentions Valerie Wilson, by her married name, in its second paragraph. They quote two sources saying that the document "was clearly marked" to warn readers that the information about her was classified "secret." The Post story also notes that the CIA classifies the names of its covert officers as "secret."

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"I'm the commander. See, I don't have to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
- G W Bush, during an interview with Bob Woodward.

his trial.....

They knew exactly what they were doing. As usual, Joe is right on the money.

and he really did call Rove "Turd Blossom" in it. Bwahahaha... just gotta love ya' Joe! :rofl: