It is a fact little noted but universally acknowledged among right-thinking policy wonks that the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have long been nests of tenured, Democrat-leaning partisans who do their best to subtly undermine the policies and diplomacy of any sitting Republican president. Some of this is out of sheer cussedness and arrogance. (Republicans are always stupid, so we, the cognoscenti, must correct this tendency covertly.) But this smug, elite bureaucracy has long subscribed to the notion--disastrously incorrect--that a muscular US foreign policy, most particularly that of a Republican president, will offend the fellow elite bureaucracies of foreign countries, especially the socialist entities of Western Europe. (Just why the US should always make nice with its increasingly irrelevant and condescending former colonial masters is never really addressed.)
Which gets us to the Plame flap that has clogged MSM radar screens for what seems like decades. This ridiculous brouhaha is, in fact, potentially another manifestation of the CIA hooking up with partisan leftists in the Democratic party--this time aided by the asinine Special Prosecutor Statue many of them abhorred when it was deployed against Bill Clinton--to undermine the vigorous and largely effective foreign policy of the Bush Administration.
The Bushies have not been blind to the anti-Republican undertow in State or the CIA. They have fought back by quietly purging the State Department of obvious partisans who work 24/7 to discredit the Iraq War and Bush's foreign policy. But the Administration, along with recently-appointed CIA top dog Porter Goss, have been less successful in their efforts to boot subversives out of Langley.
Clearly, many anti-Bush CIA employees who get the axe ("announce their retirement") for undermining their boss' military and foreign policy initiatives leak freely to the Washington Post. The latest example of this recurring phenomenon is the "exposure" of secret US prisons in Eastern Europe where top Al Qaeda suspects have been interrogated.This intentionally damaging story was leaked on top of the indictment of Bush official Scooter Libby and the nomination of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court in order to keep up maximum anti-administration pressure.
Where else but from ex-CIA employees would this stuff come from, particularly in the case of the no-longer-secret prisons, which are, or were, regarded as "black" or ultra-super-massive-mega-secret institutions? Leaked stories such as these are in turn ruthlessly supported by rabidly partisan, one-sided editorials that blame the Bush administration for successfully defending us--by whatever means--after 9/11.
Most Americans could care less how top Al Qaeda thugs are treated once we find them. The only reason to leak such information to the press is to put pressure on the brave and friendly governments who've been helping us out in the War on Terror, forcing them to close these prisons and compromising our national security further. In an earlier era, this kind of anti-American activity would have been labeled treason. Left-leaning govie and ex-govie subversives have thoughtfully re-labeled it "patriotism."
Such leaks--against CIA rules, not to mention national security and common sense--provide ballast for a neverending series of anti-Goss stories. These attribute "deteriorating morale" at the Spook House to Goss' political thugs who are allegedly ruining the "culture" of the spy agency. Translation: Goss & Co. are being highly successful in rooting out the anti-Bush plotters in the supposedly nonpartisan spy shop. So the objective of the subversives is to drive Goss out while discrediting the administration that appointed him.
Which gets us back to our topic, the Valerie Plame scandal, which, after all, as any Democrat will tell you, is "all about the War." But in their cockiness, the Dems and their friends inside the Government may be blowing their cover. Independent investigative sources are now converging on the Plame-Wilson brouhaha as potentially the visible portion of a vendetta being waged by disgruntled CIA folks and/or fellow travelers. And these Washington insiders, careful to follow the nuanced clues available to all but perceived by only a few, are piecing together how this ugly little charade to discredit the Bushies and ruin the second Bush Administration, might be playing out.
The always-excellent Power Line blog, in a post ostensibly about the admirable Zell Miller, gets to this point by citing Victoria Toensing, a Washington attorney who has delved into the Plame "outing" issue. (Her story, appearing in the Wall Street Journal, can only be accessed if you have a subscription.) She duly notes several discrepancies in the party line being pitched by the Wilsons and the media, specifically revolving around how Bob Novak originally obtained Plame's name:
When Mr. Novak called the [CIA] to verify Ms. Plame's employment, [the agency] not only did so, but failed to go beyond the perfunctory request not to publish. Every experienced Washington journalist knows that when the CIA really does not want something public, there are serious requests from the top, usually the director. Only the press office talked to Mr. Novak.Additionally,
Although high-ranking Justice Department officials are prohibited from political activity, the CIA had no problem permitting its deep cover or classified employee from making political contributions under the name "Wilson, Valerie E.," information publicly available at the FEC.Toensing concludes that:
The CIA conduct in this matter is either a brilliant covert action against the White House or inept intelligence tradecraft. It is up to Congress to decide which.
Read all about it here.
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