Pacific Views

Dubya's administration continues to lie about Valerie Plame.

The Washington Post has an interesting story about how the investigation of the leak that exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame is proceding. According to the Post, the Justice Department has added another prosecutor to its team investigating the leak, and a grand jury may be called to take testimony from Dubya's minions.

As you'll remember, Plame is married to former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who blew the whistle on the administration's lies about supposed Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium from Africa. Her identity was made public in a July column by Robert Novak. Many observers believe that leak was orchestrated by someone in Dubya's administration in retaliation for Wilson not toeing the 'party line' on Iraq.

What we found most interesting about the article were these paragraphs, which clearly show that the administration's attempts to impugn the intergrity of Plame and Wilson didn't stop with the leak to Novak:

But sources said the CIA believes that people in the administration continue to release classified information to damage the figures at the center of the controversy...

Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it.

CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the INR document, the official said, because the agency officer identified as talking about Plame's alleged role in arranging Wilson's trip could not have attended the meeting.