Thursday, February 08, 2007

Is Wells getting this? We didn't.

If the big story going around is Wilson and his trip to Niger and somebody tells you 'his wife was involved in the trip just ask the CIA' how would you interpret that?

His wife is involved in sending him and the CIA knows the story?

You might not get the connection that the wife herself is CIA.

She's involved somehow but you don't know what that means.

The above was information given to David Gregory by Ari Fleischer, according to Ari's testimony. Russert testified that what his reporters know, he knows, because they share information with him. So.....? Gregory tells Andrea and Tim that administration sources say the wife is involved somehow. But how?

Andrea Mitchell may be telling the truth that 'she did not know Wilson's wife was CIA'.
Russert may be telling the truth that he did not know Wilson's wife was CIA.
They both may be telling the truth that they did not know that Valery Plame was Wilson's wife.

But they all knew that Wilson's wife had some connection to the trip set up by the CIA wherein Wilson went to Niger. They were trying to figure it out. Mitchell is known to have spoken with Harlow at CIA. Did she ask about Mrs. Wilson and got nowhere?

Andrea did not know Wilson's wife's name as anything other than Mrs. Wilson (or possibly, Valery Wilson). She did not know to ask about Valery Plame. Andrea does not use Google all that much it seems.

(It's also possible that Andrea actually knew Valery Plame, CIA, from other work she had done over the years but didn't know Valery Plame was Wilson's wife. This was pointed out by MaidMarion, a commenter at JOM. And, boy, wouldn't that be a shocker to find out when reading Novak's article!)

So where does Wells think he's going by wanting Andrea to testify and wanting to show her on-air statement about some reporters knowing about the wife's CIA connection which she later retracted? Does he think he can create doubt in the jury about the state of their (Gregory, Mitchell, Russert) knowledge by bringing up Ari's testimony and speculating that Gregory told them that Wilson's wife was CIA?

They can ALL deny it. They can ALL be testifying truthfully. But they ain't going to volunteer anything more. And that won't be any help to Libby.

But Russert had sufficient knowledge to bring up something to Libby, to ask him about it. Ask Libby the question they all wanted answered.

Do you know anything about what my reporters are telling me about Wilson's wife's involvement in his CIA trip?

Libby assumes Russert knows wifey is CIA.

And we ALL assume Russert has to know wifey is CIA in order to make such a statement to Libby.

And, worst of all, Russert assumes he himself has to have known that Wilson's wife was CIA in order to say anything about it to Libby at all! So, to him, it's 'impossible' to have done so!

Has Wells figured this out?!?!?!

2 comments:

vnjagvet said...

Syl:

Your post reminds me of the old game we used to play in around third grade where a group of eight or so people sit in a row and the teacher whispers a message to person number one, who whispers the teacher's message to person number two, who relays one's message to three and so on to the end of the row.

The last person then announces to the class the message for all to hear. The teacher then writes the message on the board as given by the last messenger and compares it with the original message.

Invariably, the messages are wildly different.

The DC whispering rumor mill has now become a perjury and obstruction case.

It would be hilarious if it weren't possibly so tragic for one Scooter.

WV:

fwekk

Syl said...

So true.

It kinda hit me tonite, that though we don't think fitz was really investigating a leak case by the time he was called in, I think he has actually demonstrated that.

If you're investigating a leak you break down the elements of the leak into discrete pieces and determine who knew what piece and when and follow that through. If separate pieces were never issued together, find out who had which pieces and who joined 'em up. Stuff like that I think.

Fitz has been doing quite the opposite. He doesn't seem to care AT ALL about the following distinct pieces such wilson's wife, vs. valery wilson, vs Valery Plame. Or worked at CIA, worked in CPD, or WINPAK. Or suggested him, offered up his name, sent him, was involved in.

Instead he conflates everything together. Throughout. The indictment and the presser too.

The press has done a bang up job of conflation itself.

To this day many believe that Cheney told Libby early in June that that Wilson's wife was the covert Valery Plame.

Not to mention fitz insists that any time Cheney or Libby thought about Wilson that meant they were thinking about his wife and her role.

He even chided the defense in one of his filings for trying to separate out the two (Wilson from Wilson's wife).