Bolton Didn't Testify in Plame Case

[Warlady]

State: Bolton Didn't Testify in Plame Case

John Bolton, the nominee for U.N. ambassador, has not testified to a grand jury or been interviewed by prosecutors about the leak of a CIA officer's identity, the State Department said Thursday in reply to a Democratic critic.

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>In paperwork filed with the Senate earlier this year in connection with his nomination, Bolton denied a role in any investigation over the past five years. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who opposes the nomination, questioned the veracity of that response, prompting the State Department reply.

"That answer is truthful then and it remains the case now," spokesman Sean McCormack said.

But after McCormack's statement, Biden, sent a new letter to the State Department asserting Bolton was interviewed by State Department internal investigators in July 2003 on a related matter.

He did not say how he knew this and the State Department had no immediate response.

A federal grand jury is investigating who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the news media. Biden's initial request followed a report that Bolton was among State Department undersecretaries who "gave testimony" about a classified memo that has become an important piece of evidence in the leak investigation.

Plame is the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was sent by the CIA in 2002 to check out intelligence that the government of Niger had sold yellowcake uranium to Iraq for nuclear weapons. Wilson could not verify the intelligence and his public criticism of President Bush's Iraq policy in July 2003 set in motion a chain of events that led to an ongoing criminal investigation and the jailing of a New York Times reporter who refused to cooperate with it.

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak, citing unidentified Bush administration officials, was the first to disclose in July 2003 that Plame worked for the CIA and suggested her husband for the Niger trip. Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper wrote a subsequent story and included her name.

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The rest (http://view.e.newsmax.com/?ffcc17-fe91157574610d7c7d-fe2c15797c600679771771)

Regarding the above statement in bold....that is an outright lie. Novak has repeatedly stated that his source did NOT come from the Bush administration.

[Naturalized-Texan]

"Regarding the above statement in bold....that is an outright lie. Novak has repeatedly stated that his source did NOT come from the Bush administration."

That's not completely true.

During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.

At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.

How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday (http://www.defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=194063), in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry. {My emphasis}
Source (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20031001.shtml)
Note: We now know that the 2nd official mentioned in the 1st paragraph above was Karl Rove.

[Webruary]

If you knew the following and nothing else :

1) A person by the name of Valerie Plame works for the CIA.

2) Her husband is Joe Wilson.

3) Her husband went on the trip to Niger to determine if Saddam pursued the purchase of Yellowcake.

4) She was instrumental in recommending her husband's mission.

Would you conclude that she is a covert CIA agent by the above 4 bits of information ? ( even assuming she were officially covert ).

[Naturalized-Texan]

If you knew the following and nothing else :

1) A person by the name of Valerie Plame works for the CIA.

2) Her husband is Joe Wilson.

3) Her husband went on the trip to Niger to determine if Saddam pursued the purchase of Yellowcake.

4) She was instrumental in recommending her husband's mission.

Would you conclude that she is a covert CIA agent by the above 4 bits of information ? ( even assuming she were officially covert ).
NO!

[Warlady]

Actually NT, What I believe Novak said exactly was that no senior Bush administration official released her name to him.

[Naturalized-Texan]

Actually NT, What I believe Novak said exactly was that no senior Bush administration official released her name to him.
That wasn't what you stated in your previous post that I corrected, and I quote:

"Regarding the above statement in bold....that is an outright lie. Novak has repeatedly stated that his source did NOT come from the Bush administration."