The media seems to have a problem getting the facts and Iraq and Valerie Plame correct. For example, let me mention a few of the mistakes in Stephen Hedges’ article in the Chicago Tribune of Saturday, September 9, 2006, "Report rejects prewar link of Iraq, Al Qaeda," about the Senate report on the Bush Administration’s use of intelligence before the Iraq invasion.
First, Mr. Hedges says that, even though President Bush mentioned an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger in his 2003 State of the Union address, the Senate report concludes there was no Iraqi-Niger uranium connection. While I do not know exactly what the Senate report says, what President Bush said was this: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." And this was true. That is what the British told us. A British investigation in 2004 chaired by Lord Butler found this was true, as did a US Senate Intelligence Committee investigation that same year. (See, inter alia, William Safire, "Sixteen Truthful Words," The New York Times, July 19, 2004, and "Saddam, Uranium and Africa," The Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2004.)
Second, in talking about Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into who revealed the name of Valerie Plame, Mr. Hedges says it is a felony to disclose the name of an undercover CIA operative. Actually, what the law provides is that it is a crime to "intentionally disclose any information identifying [a] covert agent …, knowing that … United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States". The law defines "covert agent" as an "employee of an intelligence agency … who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States".
In other words, it is not just a matter of being undercover. The United States has to be taking affirmative actions to conceal the agent’s relationship with the US and the agent has to have served overseas in the prior five years. That is a big difference from what Mr. Hedges said and, given that, among other things, Ms. Plame apparently had not served overseas since 1997 (according to Joe Wilson’s own book), makes it unclear whether Ms. Plame was a "covert agent" or whether there was a violation of the law. (Re Ms. Plane’s having not been overseas since 1997, see inter alia, Mark Memmott, "CIA ‘outing’ might fall short of crime," USA Today, July 14, 2005.)
Third, while Mr. Hedges mentions that Scooter Libby was indicted, he fails to mention that nobody has been charged with the crime Mr. Fitzgerald was originally authorized to investigate.
I know some of this is complicated, but that is no reason not to get it right.
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