Sad times at Powerline.
During her employment at the CIA, Ms. Wilson was under cover.
Her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.
At the time of the publication of Robert Novak’s column on July 14,2003, Ms. Wilson’s CIA employment status was covert.
This was classified information.
Ms. Wilson served in senior management positions at the CIA, in which she oversaw the work of other CIA employees, and she attained the level of GS-14, step 6 under the federal pay scale.
Ms. Wilson worked on some of the most sensitive and highly secretive matters handled by the CIA.
Ms. Wilson served at various times overseas for the CIA.
Without discussing the specifics of Ms. W’ilson’s classified work, it is accurate to say that she worked on the prevention of the development and use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States.
In her various positions at the CIA, Ms. Wilson faced significant risks to her personal safety and her life.
She took on serious risks on behalf of her country.
Ms. Wilson’s work in many situations had consequences for the security of her colleagues, and maintaining her cover was critical to protecting the safety of both colleagues and others.
Gen. Michael Hayden was appointed by Bush to several top positions, including Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Will the usual suspects smear him as a delusional Bush-hater pushing an agenda? It seems pretty silly, but the only alternative is an abject, mass apology for sneeringly insisting that VPW couldn’t possibly be a covert agent. Since neither seems forthcoming* I guess they’ll talk about something else from now on.
(*) This is another one of those predictions that I make in the hope that somebody willl prove me wrong. Who wants to step up?
***Update***
We get some real brainiacs around here. Review the sentence preceding the statement that I posted:
General Hayden and the CIA have cleared these following comments for today’s hearing.
Which is to say that this statement comes not from Henry Waxman but from the CIA and its Bush-appointed director. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Bubblegum Tate
Well, it’s late Friday, so the wingnuts are going to have to wait until Monday to get their talking points, but in the meantime, I believe I can respond to this for them:
“Nuh-uh! Nuh-uh! Everybody knew! She was just a desk jockey! Nuh-uh!”
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
No way! Waxman says she was covert??? I never woulda thunk it! What’s next? Dogs and cats, sleeping together?
dreggas
mine do, hell the dog humps the cat so it must be love.
Tim F.
Nope. Gen. Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, says that she was covert.
What I wouldn’t give for smarter wingnuts.
Zifnab
I’m sure they’ll find something to perk themselves back up again.
RSA
While confusion can be cleared up by explanations, wingnuttery can only be cleared up by powerful psychotropic drugs.
Tsulagi
Reading comprehension and thinking are not sought after or developed qualities among the Fluffers for Bush. In fact, that kind of shit is frowned upon. Their brains are powered by electrolytes.
demimondian
Nah, something really surprising.
Sockpuppets making sense.
jnfr
I watched the entire hearing today, and while Plame was compelling, I thought the more telling questioning was of Knodell, head of the White House office of security. He had to admit – and he did it quietly and reluctantly – that the Administration had not even begun a single investigation into Ms Plame’s status and the way her cover was blown, in spite of how sensitive the information was and that the work she was involved in was important for national security. And that in spite of Bush swearing about how seriously he was taking this, and he would fire anyone involved. But clearly no one over there really cared at all, which has sad implications for how well they are really handling security issues.
Tsulagi
Funny thing is, not only would General Hayden have cleared her statements for public disclosure, but they would also have been reviewed by CIA’s legal department. You know, by people with some knowledge of the applicable statutes, what constitutes a covert operative at CIA, perjury, etc., etc.
But will that deter the Depends crowd from repeating their 3 ½ year-old Known Facts ™? No way. The world is 6,000 years old; they know the truth. Just comes to them out of the ether stuff, or Hannity, whichever occurs first.
It would be nice if the retards who still want to lube each other saying Plame was simply a secretary, that nothing Joe Wilson reported was correct solely because his wife got him the assignment, and all their other bullshit, would just for once put anything of intelligent substance to back that up or STFU. Just once. But of course, neither one will happen.
Ratufa
Let’s give the full context for your magical “General Hayden…” sentence:
From that, it seems pretty obvious that “cleared these following comments” means that they have been cleared with respect to not containing classified information. It does not mean that General Hayden or the CIA wrote those comments or endorse their content (maybe they do, maybe they don’t).
Keith
But Victoria Toensig saa-aayyyyyyssss…
(sounds much like “But General Petraeus saa-aayyyyysss…”)
FYI: Toensig is on H&C right now to tell everyone that according to her definition, Plame wasn’t covert. At least that’s what I assume since as soon as I saw Hannity introduced her, I flipped the channel.
RSA
Knodell was the only witness I caught live. I thought his testimony was compelling. Reluctantly, as was appropriate, he admitted that the Administration should have investigated the leak when it happened but instead did nothing. While Plame’s testimony gave the human side of the story (among other things), Knodell was pretty damning on the incompetence, negligence, self-preservation, or whatever it should be called, of the Bushies.
CaseyL
Toensing’s definition of covert is irrelevant. The CIA’s definition is what counts, and the CIA says Plame was covert.
Maguire does some impressive contortions to avoid, evade, and ignore that salient point. His commenters – none of whom, I pray, have any jobs that require more thinking than wondering “Do you want fries with that?” – don’t even make that effort. They’re still waiting for one or both Wilsons to be charged with some crime or other.
Richard 23
I can’t believe how breathlessly the left is obsessing over this non-story. What’s done is done. It’s unfortunate that VPW had to switch careers and get a book and movie deal. How awful for her and her husband, liar Joe Plame.
I think it’s time to MoveOn.
Pb
And now it’s time for another predictable edition of “Guess Who’s Fired“!
RSA
I’ve been browsing through the rightwing blogs today, reading discussion and comments on the hearings. I have to commend JC, TF, and TiT: Balloon Juice attracts a much more intelligent wingnut, on average, than is posting on these other blogs. They’re not only waiting for the Wilsons to be charged, they want Fitzgerald to be censured for not having prosecuted Armitage and others; they wonder what kind of political pressure has forced Hayden, the head of CIA, to say that Plame was covert; in the end, they somehow bring all this mess back to Clinton. It defies belief.
RSA
Wingnut intelligence being relative, of course.
Pb
So… sit back and enjoy the meltdown. RedState will no doubt continue to issue smears and talking points until they get all their (fake) ducks back in a row, whereas the FReepers are not quite so organized.
ThymeZone
These are the same people who insist “bad intelligence” is why we went to war over WMDs that weren’t there, and Al Qaeda connections that never happened.
It looks to me like the idiots in the White House never paid any attention to anything that didn’t fit their pre-judged conclusions. “Bad intelligence” was really “badly handled intelligence.”
Tulkinghorn
The Red State folks are in severe denial. The cognitive dissonance is not pretty, but we saw it before when Bush backed off the NSA wiretapping, and more recently when they argued that the pressuring and firing if US Attorneys was routine and legal.
It is a sad little, shrinking and fading little circle jerk of true believers: seventh day adventists on the eighth day, hippies who could not levitate the Pentagon after all, ghost dancers left standing around waiting for the Bison to return.
ThymeZone
At Powerline, unless I missed something, they seemed to basically blow off today’s information and act as if nothing had happened, or changed.
Clueless. Well, that’s fine, let them remain clueless. Who cares?
Why are we fretting about what the 28%ers think about anything? They don’t matter any more.
KCinDC
And OJ Simpson hasn’t quite gotten around to starting the search for the real killer.
Rome Again
It was nothing more than convenient EJM strategy gone sour when time came to pay the piper.
Jay C
Few things are more risible than the sight of extremist bloggers going into contortions to try and deal with counterfactual reality that doesn’t fit their tidy talking-points version of how some political issue has actually gone down. When it comes to blogs like PowerLine or RedState, moreover: we are dealing with frontpagers and commenters who would probably prefer to conduct unanesthetized internal surgery on themselves with rusty hacksaws than ever admit that any “lefty moonbat” was, or had ever been, right about anything that they have proved wrong on. So it’s no wonder they retreat into alternate realities.
Andrew
Even theoretical moderate right wingers have gone nutty over this. James Joyner at OTB flatly declares that Waxman is a liar regarding his statement citing Hayden.
Rome Again
I have a feeling life will never be the same again.
Faux News
“I have a feeling life will never be the same again”.
Um, you have no life other than being a 40 year old virgin and living in your Momma’s basement.
Blue Texan
Count Glenn Reynolds among the denialists.
instaputz.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-wrong-was-putz-on-plame.html
jake
Yes, of course Waxman lied and Hayden won’t call him on it because …um… Look! A rabbit!
I’m surprised anyone has time to say something like that. If I seriously believed the head of an intelligence agency could be pressured into lying I’d be too busy throwing my shit in a bag and running for the nearest border. But throughout this entire fiasco there has been an underlying thread of “The CIA is a bunch of know-nothing panty waists.”
(With the exception of Bush Sr. perhaps?)
But again, if one seriously thinks this is true, shouldn’t he call on Fearless Leader to shut down the agency? Or disregard any information the agency has gathered on Terrists.
The Other Andrew
Remember–when you don’t lend the magical power of your “support” to Bush’s various follies, you’re committing treason.
Whereas if you out an agent that the CIA considers covert, it’s a non-story.
Rome Again
Well, considering I’m far from a virgin, and my mother’s basement consists of the bottom encasement of a casket, I would say your clairvoyancy skills leave much to be desired.
demimondian
Two words: “sixteen words”
lard lad
Electrolytes are what wingnuts crave.
Darrell
Interesting timeline here.
Jimmm
“What’s next? Dogs and cats, sleeping together?” — EEE&L
From the looks of things, I’d say it’s more the result of your mom and her brother sleeping together…
Jimmm
“Interesting” to Darrell = cry for help.
Richard 23
Waxman, like Joe “the liar” Plame, is untrustworthy. Dishonest as hell, to be more accurate.
Secret agent gal Val (006.9) was not covert and this was proven in testimony yesterday by Victoria Toensing who only, I dunno, WROTE THE LAW (Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982).
Get over yourselves, lefties. All you got for Fitzmas was a lump of coal. And all you’re going to get out Waxman’s fruitless hearings and the Plame civil suit and upcoming book and movie is a lump of poo.
Richard 23
Ouch! That’s gotta sting.
Rome Again
If it were true, it probably would have stung, but how can an ignorant discription that doesn’t resemble my life at all hurt me?
fishbane
Richard 23 is funny. I say we give him honorary Darrell status.
Richard 23
Thanks, fishbane. But don’t lump me in with the resident troll.
At least I argue in good faith.