Many have wondered what was the purpose of the “Who’s Who In America” sitting on the desk in yesterday’s Robert Novak walk-off incident on CNN’s Inside Politics.
Josh Marshall points out this tidbit from an a Chicago Sun-Times piece on the incident explains:
In a column that ran in the Sun-Times on Monday, Novak suggested he learned Plame’s identity partly from reading Who’s Who in America. A CNN source said a producer had placed a copy of Who’s Who on the set Thursday prior to the taping, apparently so it could be consulted while Novak was asked about the issue.
So what would they have found?
Here’s what’s inside the book siting on that desk…
“Copyright (c) 2002 by Reed Elsevier, Inc.”
Melvin Schuetz from Baylor’s Moody Library forwarded Joseph Wilson’s bio from the 2003 edition of Who’s Who in America [Volume 2 (L-Z)]. He notes:
- Wilson’s entry carries over about 5 lines to the next column, which is why it cuts off in mid-sentence at the end. The relevant text is “m. Valerie Elise Plame, Apr. 3, 1998,” which not only appears in the 2003 edition, but ALL editions from 1999-2005!
So, via Who’s Who, the name “Valerie Plame” has been associated publicly with Joe Wilson since the Clinton era – nice secret… ***
Coverage Elsewhere
Mickey Kaus
Tom Maguire
Josh Marshall
Jay Rosen
Update: For the commenters and blogs tracking back saying variation of, “Plame’s identity was never a secret,” (a point I address below at the ***) this post originally related back to what the book was doing on the table [See yesterday’s post on the Novak meltdown]. Was it supposed to scare Novak? Given the content of the book why would it? It says what he said it said…
Update 2: More on Novak and Plame later, but perhaps the raging debate in the comment section can dissect what effect, if any, Novak’s piece would have had if he used Valerie Wilson instead of Valerie Plame? Also do you think Novak, on hearing of the wife’s involvement got her name from Who’s Who and stuck with it OR found the Who’s Who reference to backup his source(s)?
*** Evidently one cannot even make a snarky remark about the Plame affair without having to explain oneself ad nauseum. OK here goes…
I’m over generalizing here, but it seem like there wasn’t an outing of an agent until two non-secret bits of information were combined.Joseph Wilson’s wife’s maiden name, most would now agree, was not a secret. That Wilson worked at the CIA was not widely known, but it was hardly a secret [See Cliff May at NRO and Just One Minute]. That Wilson’s wife was (or had been) a covert operative was only known to (if reports are to be believed) the Cuban government and perhaps those receiving information form Aldrich Ames, but it was still a secret. Novak puts two pieces of non-secret information together and gets this flashpoint.
But how did that combination “out” a covert agent? I turns out the the Valerie Plame name (remember, according to many commenters her name’s no big deal) was her cover. If her cover name was Valerie Jones how exactly would Novak’s column as it was written have “outed” her? It’s wouldn’t have. As former federal prosecutor Joesph DiGenoa contends it sure looks like the CIA didn’t exactly bust a nut to “take every conceivable step to protect this person’s identity.”
Interesting quote from the Who’s Who web page:
Who’s Who in America has proven to be of critical reference value to a wide variety of users…
* Fund-raisers, civic groups, foundations
* Lawyers, politicians
* Financial analysts, brokers
* Journalists, radio/TV news editors
* Executive recruiters
* Government officials, diplomats
* Business leaders
* Scientists, educators, students
* Speaker and search committees
* Advertising and PR agencies
More importantly, “Who’s Who” information is provided by the honoree, so it was Wilson himself that put her name in the book.
Additional info added in his 2005 profile:
2002-2004: Self promoting, opportunistic, Democratic party hack. 2004 to present: Camera hogging, bold faced liar.
I don’t see where it says she worked for the CIA there.
Of course, mantis does make a good point…..
I’ve been following the Plame scandal virtually not at all, but from what I understand, it was never a secret that Joe Wilson was married to Valerie Plame. The secret was that she worked for the CIA. That being so, the Who’s Who entry proves nothing.
Don’t you think his neighbors knew his wife’s name? Her name or who she was married to was never the secret. Identifying Wilson’s wife (either by name or by some positive identification such as say… “Joe Wilson’s wife”) as a CIA operative is what was supposed to be kept secret and that is what is relevant.
As, by the way, is the fact that someone also gave Novak the name of the cover company she worked for, thereby endangering every other operative using that cover.
I know it’s hard, but please try to keep your eye on the ball.
Uhh, Kevin, it was no secret that Joe Wilson was married to a woman named Valerie Plame — everyone who knew them knew that. What WAS a secret was that she WORKED FOR THE CIA. HOW THE HELL YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE IS BEYOND ME.
Of course, as mantis notes above, the fact that she was a covert agent, coupled with the name, was the national security problem. The mere fact that Wilson was married to someone who happened to be named Valerie Plame Wilson wasn’t a secret. I should think this would be obvious to anyone whose mind wasn’t beclouded by overwhelming right-wing bias.
Why are mid-level government agency analysts getting listings in Who’s Who??
Where does it list her affiliation with the CIA?
Why is it that today’s chicken shit repukes hate the military and the CIA?
Why do repukes defend traitors like Bob Novak?
“BFD” I agree with mantis. Who’s Who is a standard reference used by the organizations in mcg’s comment. As an Ambassador, Wilson would have been the type of person to be listed. The biographical data is also standard. None of this excuses the behavior of the Bush administration and their cronies.
Indeed, given that the criminal statute at issue makes it a crime to identify a covert agent, the Who’s Who listing makes it possible to break the law – by saying that Wilson’s wife is a CIA operative – without actually naming her.
I gotta admit–it doesn’t seem to say anything like “Valerie Plame–undercover operative for the CIA.”
Or is the relevant point here that Wilson should have kept his marriage and children secret just on the off chance that someone might try to out his wife?
I bet if you looked up her high school yearbook, she used the name “Valerie Plame” too. Oh wait, that was her name?
Freeptards.
It’s an odd notion indeed, that some people believe in order to be covert you must renounce your given name.
I was always under the impression that what is supressed is not your name, but rather your affiliation with the intelligence community.
How exactly is Joe Wilson a liar?
So, via Who’s Who, the name “Valerie Plame” has been associated publicly with Joe Wilson since the Clinton era – nice secret…
The name “Valerie Plame” has been associated publicly with Joe Wilson ever since they got married. Marriage licenses are public record.
Thus, we should prohibit secret government operatives from marrying, having children, being born or dying. After all, once you know somebody’s name, the jig is up…
Allah, the CIA agent whose duty it was to deal with the public, told the WaPo and others that he testified that he told Novak the story wasn’t true and not to use her name. He told the WaPo that he checked on her covert status, called Novak back and said that the story Novak had wasn’t true and he shouldn’t write it, but *if he did, he shouldn’t use her name*.
And please, the controversy has fluctuated back and forth, but Wilson’s original flogging point was that Novak had *revealed her name*, and it’s been a point that’s been beaten to death. So Kevin’s post is directly on point.
Typical wingnut obfuscation and misdirection. The statute in question says “identify” — not NAME, “identify” a covert agent, . . .
You guys can’t all be that stupid — can you?
By this logic, in the 007 movies, when James Bond introduces himself to the villains at cocktail parties and tells them that he’s “Bond, James Bond,” he’s actually blowing his cover.
You’re not too bright, Kevin.
Does the book have an entry for Plame? Just curious.
I never understood why somebody would sign up for ‘Who’s who” but I once saw it on a job applicant’s resume, as if that is some sort of credential.
I’ll take Kevin’s non-response to the obvious defect in his reasoning as proof of what an intellectually dishonest twit he is.
Pamela:
You’re wrong on both counts. The CIA agent did NOT check her covert status and tell Novak he was wrong on that point; he checked to see if Plame had ordered Joe Wilson to go to Niger, and then said that that point was wrong. He stressed that she WAS covert, and told Novak not to print her name.
And you’re missing the point. Revealing the name “Valerie Plame” by itself is not a violation of the law (or the public trust), nor is revealing that some anonymous undercover CIA agent did something a violation of the law, or treasonous.
It’s mentioning the name “Valerie Plame” as an undercover CIA agent that’s the crime, and the treasonous activity. I can see your IQ is very low, so I’ll give you a few moments to wrap your head around it.
“Valerie Plame”? Not a secret. There are undercover CIA agents? Not a secret. Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent? That’s a secret.
Freeptard.
Joe Wilson has been caught in several lies. If you MENSA’s knew how to use the Internet, you’d know that already.
Woo-hoo! It’s Friday!
Wow, these DU’ers really know how to carry out a logical argument, don’t they?
Why was Valerie Plame put on “enforced leave”?
And please, the controversy has fluctuated back and forth, but Wilson’s original flogging point was that Novak had *revealed her name*, and it’s been a point that’s been beaten to death. So Kevin’s post is directly on point.
Jeezus, it’s a figure of speech, Pamela. Putting her name right next to the words “CIA operative” is what Wilson was talking about.
Lots of articles talk about Novak “outing” her, too — does that make her a lesbian?
Get a frickin’ clue, people!
Okay, lots of posts while I was commenting. Please pay attention to what the CIA guy said. *The story he (Novak) had wasn’t true, but, if he (Novak) wrote it, he shouldn’t use her name.*
Note that nowhere did he insist on leaving her out of it completely. So, if we believe what he claims his testimony to the grand jury was (and he’s CIA, he wouldn’t lie, right?) then you cannot conclude, from what the CIA agent testified, that Novak did anything wrong.
Now, there may be other reasons to conclude guilt, but NOT based on what the CIA guy did. And folks, the statute says that the CIA had to be making concerted effort to protect her covert status. Based on what the CIA agent testified, doesn’t sound like they were fulfilling their part of it, if indeed she was covert.
Wilson’s original flogging point was that Novak had *revealed her name*
Are you guys really this stupid, or just pretending to be stupid? Because if you’re just pretending, then I feel sorry for you. It must be frustrating to be forced to soil your reputations by making stupid arguments like this one with a straight face. But I guess you have no choice!
This is what Novak wrote:
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.
Novak revealed the name as that of a covert CIA agent. The secret wasn’t that he had a wife.
I don’t know how to use the internet… so can you list some lies for us? We would all like to be informed.
Hmm, you guys talk about logical arguments, but I have yet to see one.
1) Please give me an example of Joe Wilson being caught in a lie that’s on point to the issues being discussed with Niger, yellowcake, and the outing of his wife.
2) Please explain how the public knowledge that Joe Wilson was married to Valerie Plame is the same as identifying Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent.
Geniuses. Really.
Plame had two jobs for the CIA. One, which was her most recent job and the one in which she was in a position to suggest her husband be sent to niger, was not a covert position. It was publicly known that she worked for the CIA. In her other job for the CIA (which apparently ended in 1998, or thereabouts) she was a covert operative.
Ross,
I don’t know how to use the internet… so can you list some lies for us? We would all like to be informed.
Pamela wrote:
“And please, the controversy has fluctuated back and forth, but Wilson’s original flogging point was that Novak had *revealed her name*, and it’s been a point that’s been beaten to death. So Kevin’s post is directly on point.”
Pamela, stop for a second. Does it make any sense for someone to mind if someone says, “X is his wife?” It makes no sense at all.
It never occurred to me that anyone would interpret it that way. I suppose that if you take something without context, you can make it mean anything you want. But do you think that an investigator (who is a Republican at that) would spend more than two seconds laughing if that is all that was meant?
We have two relevant items. The first is the endangering of national security. That it appears to be for political gain makes it more insidious. But to deny this piece is to say that national security is less important than standing with your party. You have to choose–your party or your nation. I prefer the nation.
The second relevant item is that a fair number of people put forth Pamela’s lines. Whether this is just because of confusion as to what is really at stake here or distortion on a partisan basis almost does not matter. Either way, it needs to stop because we’re talking about national security.
OMG, don’t you get it. It means Joe Wilson is a bigamist! All this time he’s been married to Mrs. Wilson AND some woman named Plame! No doubt about it, he’s toast now!
She was already outed by Aldrich Ames, which is why they pulled her out of actual covert duty. My understanding is that her neighbors were well aware that she worked for the CIA. I guess she must have leaked it to them.
Michael S.,
Don’t try to confuse wingnuts with logic. Those who worship Dear Leader will never let facts deter them. When facts intrude they fight them with made-up facts; when that doesn’t work, they ignore the facts; when that doesn’t work; they dispute the existence of facts. There is simply no set of circumstances that would convince them that anything Dear Leader has done is less than perfect. The guy could get caught red-handed carjacking a Lexus on K Street, and it would make no difference. Dear Leader, BTW, has stated for the record that he shares this view of his own infallibility.
It was not a secret that Joe Wilson was married. What was a secret was that his wife worked for the CIA, tellingly that information is no where to be found in this entry.
Do you really believe that Novak found out about Valerie Plame through Who’s Who? Did he then divine her idenity as a covert CIA operative through force of mental telepathy?
And Pamela 2, how nice. Where did I insult anyone’s intelligence or speak with disrespect? You make it difficult for anyone to take you seriously if you respond so nastily. And, uh, NO. The agent testified that he checked her status, NOT that he checked to see if she had anything to do with the trip. Since, supposedly, his concern was about ‘outing’ an ‘undercover’ agent.
Both the retired CIA mediaperson Novak contacted and Novak himself establish that Novak called the CIA before he ran his Plame column to confirm she worked there.The CIA mediaperson cofirmed she worked there, but asked Novak not to use her name and did not tell Novak she was “covert” because that was classified. Novak has said he would never have run with the story had he been told not to, but he was not. It is apparent that the CIA “outed” Plame, although others may have “outed” her as a CIA employee as well (perhaps Judy Miller, who has most likely known Plame/Wilson for years).
Pamela,
Ambassador Wilson’s ORIGINAL FLOGGING POINT was that the White House had little evidence to suggest that Iraq had ties to Al Quaeda and that Iraq was not looking to buy yellowcake from Niger.
Then came Novak’s article outing Plame as a CIA agent. NOT as Joseph Wilson’s wife.
This isn’t about Valerie Plame or Joseph Wilson.
This is about the outing of a CIA operative AND the operation she worked for JUST for political payback. This is about national security. This is about wasting millions of tax payer’s dollars just for political payback because it takes DECADES to establish an undercover operation.
That’s called treason.
I dunno. There are good points here about her private life vs. professional association. The problem is her relationship with Wilson and sending him on a mission that was erroneously used to slam the Bush administration. Wilson never even wrote a report on it, but it was so important that he became the Times’ op-ed go-to guy?
That he’s a “Who’s Who” kind of guy doesn’t mean he’s a climber. He does have some interesting creds. So how did he become the poster boy for the “intelligence lied” argument? Why is there no furor over his mistakes? Flame away.
Authentic American hero. Warrior against the forces of darkness currently occupying the White House. Slayer of right wing trolls.
Yes, yes, that’s the ticket. It was her name that was secret, not the fact that she was a CIA operative.
Shithead traitors.
Finally, Mr. Novak, Mr. Rove and Mr. Liddy are vindicted. It was “Who’s Who” that outed Valerie Plame as Wilson’s wife. Obviously the marriage alerted the world that Plame was a CIA agent. After all, energy consultants never marry Ambassadors–it’s taboo, like marying your daughter.
So I want to know who Judith Miller is protecting. Do you really think she went to jail to protect Karl Rove or Robert Novak? This woman works for the New York Times, who display unending hostility to Rove and all things Bushian. Whomever she is protecting is the real culprit.
This whole argument is quite something. Valerie Plame Wilson should not have been outed. But let’s not act as if she were out running black ops. She wasn’t She read think tank reports. The real problem is that the statutes that govern Identities Protection are antiquated. For instance, everyone is wiggy about Plame who had a desk job. But not a single person has noted that our SPecial Forces don’t have the same protection. And they are out in the field, occasionally on missions directed by the CIA. If one of their identities gets blown – they are in mortal danger. Valerie Plame was more likely to get stuck in traffic on the GW Parkway. Let’s keep our eye on the ball. Novak is a has-been desperate to be relevant.
The real issues about outing a cover agent are 1) knowledge of the covert status and most importantly, 2) intent of blowing the cover. The questions then are:
1) If Ms. Plame’s cover was so deep, and outing her identity so dangerous, why did Wilson allow her maiden name to be posted on Who is Who AND in his internet bio at the Middle East Institute in 2002 where it was easily available on Google in July 2003 at the time of his Op-Ed in the NYT?
http://eyeontheworld.typepad.com/home/2005/07/wilson_was_the_.html
2) Given the established public nature of her maiden name documented above, the day Wilson’s editorial appeared in the NYT Valerie Plame went from being the wife of Joseph Wilson, former ambassador, retired, to the wife of Joseph Wilson, CIA contractor that investigates WMD and can not keep his mouth shut.
Why didn’t Wilson think that writing an Op-ed about the CIA, his work for it, and her subject matter expertise in the NYT and then giving public interviews about it could plausibly increase the risk (even if it was only marginally) to her job, her cover and potentially her life?
3) Given that he was so casual about making very public statements related to his wife’s field of expertise and place of employment, it would be logical for any rational observer to conclude that Wilson had a lackadaisical attitude to protecting any subjects related to her wife’s job. Thus the questions are, would any rational husband in the world do anything public that would create ANY risk, even minimal risk, to his wife’s job and potentially her life? Would anyone even think that a husband would be so reckless?
4) Thus, knowing this information, why would any other rational person, regardless of position, when learning about her place of employment would even think or speculate that her CIA employment was of a covert nature or that there would be any sort of risk associated with mentioning it?
I think that the hypothetical conversation between the bad guys that I
outline below would have been fairly plausible, even if Novak’s column would have never been published.
Ms. Plame is in Russia in 2004, back in business, trying to obtain WMD information from
black market dealers.
> > > Dealer 1: So who is this chick Plame?
> > > Dealer 2: I do not know, let me check on the Internet.
> > > Dealer 2: I found on Google this site where it says that she is the wife of some
> > > Joseph Wilson.
> > > Dealer 1: What?
> > > Dealer 2: Joseph Wilson, former ambasador.
> > > Dealer 1: The Joseph Wilson? The one that wrote in U.S. papers that he
> > > worked for the CIA looking for WMD?
> > > Dealer 2: I guess so.
> > > Dealer 1: The next time you see this chick make sure that our names never appear on the paper.
As everyone who’s been awake through this story knows, Novak says he heard from reporters that “Wilson’s wife works for the CIA”. Apparently this was common knowledge among the media set. Novak also says he found that Wilson’s wife is named “Valerie Plame” by consulting WW. Apparently Wilson’s wife is indeed identified by name in WW. Ergo (that means “therefore”, lefties) it’s perfectly plausible that Novak learned that Valerie Plame is a CIA employee in the manner he claims. Duh.
The commenters above who are unable to navigate a chain of logic this short are simply dumbasses. No other explanation possible.