Monday, July 25, 2005
Senator Pat Roberts: Idiot Or Liar?
Senator Pat Roberts told Wolf "That's A Serious Allegation" Blitzer yesterday on CNN's Late Edition that Valerie Plame couldn't be a "covert" agent because she "drives back and forth to CIA headquarters" and "I don't know if that really qualifies as being, you know, covert."
Former CIA agent Larry Johnson, a colleague of Valerie Plame's and a Republican, tells us that "there are thousands of undercover CIA employees who drive through the three gates at CIA headquarters in McClean, Virginia everyday." Now how is it that Senator Pat Roberts, who is after all the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, doesn't know that even top secret "covert" agents train and/or work out of CIA headquarters in Virginia? Amazing. Perhaps Senator Roberts is too stupid to be chairman of such an important committee?
Or is Senator Roberts just trying to muddy the waters for his White House masters on the Plame case? Remember, it is not for either the White House or Pat Roberts to decide if Valerie Plame was covert or not. It is also not for Robert Novak, David Brooks, or Ken Mehlman to decide that designation either.
It is for the CIA to decide whether Plame was covert or not and they did indeed designate her a "covert agent" when they referred the Plame leak case to the Department of Justice.
So Pat Roberts and the rest of the apparatchiks for the White House need to shut the fuck up about Plame not being covert and start asking really important questions - like why the White House put its own political interests ahead of national security and why most of the Republican Party seems to be willing to provide excuses and bullshit rationales for Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and other members of the Bush administration who have certainly acted unethically and may in fact have broken obstruction, perjury, conspiracy, and/or classified disclosure laws?
POSTSCRIPT: Roberts, who promised a post-election investigation into the possible political manipulation of pre-war intelligence, has since decided there isn't sufficient time to hold such an investigation. Roberts is going to hold an investigation into whether the CIA hands out to many "covert" designations to its employees however. That's Pat Roberts, for you - purveyor of the No Bush Administration Political Need Left Behind Act (2001-2008).
Former CIA agent Larry Johnson, a colleague of Valerie Plame's and a Republican, tells us that "there are thousands of undercover CIA employees who drive through the three gates at CIA headquarters in McClean, Virginia everyday." Now how is it that Senator Pat Roberts, who is after all the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, doesn't know that even top secret "covert" agents train and/or work out of CIA headquarters in Virginia? Amazing. Perhaps Senator Roberts is too stupid to be chairman of such an important committee?
Or is Senator Roberts just trying to muddy the waters for his White House masters on the Plame case? Remember, it is not for either the White House or Pat Roberts to decide if Valerie Plame was covert or not. It is also not for Robert Novak, David Brooks, or Ken Mehlman to decide that designation either.
It is for the CIA to decide whether Plame was covert or not and they did indeed designate her a "covert agent" when they referred the Plame leak case to the Department of Justice.
So Pat Roberts and the rest of the apparatchiks for the White House need to shut the fuck up about Plame not being covert and start asking really important questions - like why the White House put its own political interests ahead of national security and why most of the Republican Party seems to be willing to provide excuses and bullshit rationales for Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and other members of the Bush administration who have certainly acted unethically and may in fact have broken obstruction, perjury, conspiracy, and/or classified disclosure laws?
POSTSCRIPT: Roberts, who promised a post-election investigation into the possible political manipulation of pre-war intelligence, has since decided there isn't sufficient time to hold such an investigation. Roberts is going to hold an investigation into whether the CIA hands out to many "covert" designations to its employees however. That's Pat Roberts, for you - purveyor of the No Bush Administration Political Need Left Behind Act (2001-2008).
