Friday, July 15, 2005
Plame on ad Nauseam
Local afternoon talk show with my old boss Craig Silverman and the slightly more sane Dan Caplis (Weekdays 3 to 7 PM on 630 am) had a CIA guy on (sorry, didnt' catch the name) near the beginning of the show who was incensed about the 'outing' of Valerie Plame. He accused Karl Rove of treason. When Caplis suggested that Plame was merely an employee and not undercover the CIA guy said she was on informal undercover status (whatever the frac that is). Then Caplis hit him with some of the following quote:
A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an "undercover agent," saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency's headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee. "She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," Fred Rustmann, a covert agent from 1966 to 1990, told The Washington Times.
"Her neighbors knew this, her friends knew this, his friends knew this. A lot of blame could be put on to central cover staff and the agency because they weren't minding the store here. ... The agency never changed her cover status." In addition, Mrs. Plame hadn't been out as an NOC since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, married Mr. Wilson and had twins, USA Today reported yesterday. The distinction matters because a law that forbids disclosing the name of undercover CIA operatives applies to agents that had been on overseas assignment "within the last five years."
The CIA guy said that Fred Rustmann was wrong.
There was more but I want to talk just a bit about his attitude. Let's just say he was very full of himself. He used jargon non stop. He was always one-upping his questioners with secret information only he and fellow CIA knew. He was certain he was right even in the face of difficult to contradict evidence against his position. In short, he was a complete a--hole. Hey, pal, the CIA hasn't exactly been on a huge success roll here, know what I mean. His attitude is part of the problem.
UPDATE: I'm informed by the radio station (KHOW) that the gentleman's name was Larry Johnson. Mr. Johnson also said that the bipartisan panel on the investigation of intelligence failures was also wrong and that the report was written by Repbulican staffers. Oh, well of course it's wrong then.
A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an "undercover agent," saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency's headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee. "She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," Fred Rustmann, a covert agent from 1966 to 1990, told The Washington Times.
"Her neighbors knew this, her friends knew this, his friends knew this. A lot of blame could be put on to central cover staff and the agency because they weren't minding the store here. ... The agency never changed her cover status." In addition, Mrs. Plame hadn't been out as an NOC since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, married Mr. Wilson and had twins, USA Today reported yesterday. The distinction matters because a law that forbids disclosing the name of undercover CIA operatives applies to agents that had been on overseas assignment "within the last five years."
The CIA guy said that Fred Rustmann was wrong.
There was more but I want to talk just a bit about his attitude. Let's just say he was very full of himself. He used jargon non stop. He was always one-upping his questioners with secret information only he and fellow CIA knew. He was certain he was right even in the face of difficult to contradict evidence against his position. In short, he was a complete a--hole. Hey, pal, the CIA hasn't exactly been on a huge success roll here, know what I mean. His attitude is part of the problem.
UPDATE: I'm informed by the radio station (KHOW) that the gentleman's name was Larry Johnson. Mr. Johnson also said that the bipartisan panel on the investigation of intelligence failures was also wrong and that the report was written by Repbulican staffers. Oh, well of course it's wrong then.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 5:22 PM 
