Why the INR Memo Might Actually Hurt Libby
Josh Gerstein of the New York Sun has obtained a declassified version of the July 7, 2003 State Department memo that has figured prominently in the CIA leak investigation (or at least in public reporting of it). The memo was drafted by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) and was provided to Colin Powell on board Air Force One.
It has long been known that the memo provided a summary of Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger and, in passing, mentioned that his wife worked for the CIA. When the existance of the memo was first reported, many journalists and bloggers speculated that it was the original source of the information that was eventually leaked to Bob Novak and other reporters, i.e., that Joe Wilson was sent on the Niger mission by his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame.
Under this theory, it was of particular importance how the memo characterized the information about Plame. According to press reports, the information was marked with the notation "S/NF", meaning "Secret, No foreign." That was significant, it was thought, because it would indicate to any reader that the information was sensitive and not to be shared with reporters.
Today's Sun article carries the headline: "No Hint Seen in Memo that Plame's Role was Secret." That headline is more than a little misleading. The paragraph of the memo that mentions Ms. Wilson is indeed marked S/NF; indeed six of the seven paragraphs in the memo are marked that way. That said, Gerstein's primary point, which I think is valid, is that it would not have been obvious to anyone reading the memo that the sentence about Ms. Wilson's employment was the sensitive part of the paragraph in which it was embedded. That sentence reads: "In a February 19, 2002, meeting convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD manager, and the wife of Joe Wilson, he previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger." There is certainly no indication from that sentence that Ms. Wilson worked for the CIA in a non-official capacity (then again, the very next sentence of the memo is redacted, so perhaps we're not getting all the key information).
Either way, the exact wording of the INR memo is of far less importance than we were once led to believe. As I explained in my previous post, the focus on the INR memo in last summer's reporting appears to have been misplaced and perhaps the result of intentional misdirection by interested parties. Fitzgerald's indictment makes it clear that Libby learned about Plame from a number of sources long before this particular version of the INR memo was issued. According to Fitzgerald's indictment, Libby learned about Plame from several independent sources, most notably his boss, the Vice President. So whether or not Libby ever saw the INR memo, it was clearly not his only source of information.
Indeed, the fact that the memo doesn't clearly indicate that Plame's affiliation with the CIA was classified (or even that her name was Plame) may actually hurt Libby. Let me explain.
Both Libby and Rove claim not to have known that Plame's employment was classified. They both want to argue, as Robert Luskin does in Gerstein's article, that "nobody involved in discussions of her or her role in sending Mr. Wilson had the slightest inkling she was in classified status." The problem with this argument is that a number of people, including Rove and Libby themselves, treated the information as if they knew they were not supposed to be talking about it. Libby and Rove provided the information to reporters, but only on deep background.
But even more inexplicable under Luskin's theory is the behavior of Ari Fleischer. John Dickerson made this point a while back:
Ari Fleischer has testified that he learned about Plame from Libby just before departing for Africa. And given Fleischer's behavior that week, it seems likely that he also testified that he knew the information about Plame was classified, or at least sensitive. Libby's attorneys needs to explain how it is that Fleischer knew that discussion of Wilson's wife was off limits, but Libby did not. This is where the INR memo comes in. I suspect, based on their court filings, that Libby's attorneys want to argue that Fleischer and the other officials on Air Force One read the INR memo on the plane ride to Africa and that this is how they knew that Plame's CIA connection was potentially classified information.
Therefore, the fact that the INR memo is ambiguous with respect to Plame's status doesn't really help Libby. Arguably it would be better for Libby if the memo made it crystal clear that Plame was an undercover agent. If it did, Libby's defense team could use that fact to help explain away Fleischer's behavior and testimony, which will undoubtedly be very damaging to Libby.
On a final, somewhat tangential note, it's worth pointing out that the information about Plame in the INR memo is so vague that it seems unlikely that any incarnation of this memo was the root source of the Novak leak. Here's Novak's description of the original leak:
As we know, Novak also referred to Valerie Wilson as Valerie Plame in his infamous column. The INR memo does not use the name Plame, nor does it mention that she worked for the counterproliferation division or that she suggested her husband for the trip. So whoever leaked to Novak in the first place had a little more to go on than just this memo. Interestingly, Fitzgerald makes a point of mentioning in the indictment that Dick Cheney told Libby specifically that Plame worked for the counterproliferation division. The indictment also indicates that Libby told Fleischer the same thing, that Plame worked for the "counterproliferation area" of the CIA. As Barton Gellman of the Washington Post has noted, this statement in the indictment is "an unambiguous declaration that [Plame's] position was among the case officers of the operations directorate."
It has long been known that the memo provided a summary of Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger and, in passing, mentioned that his wife worked for the CIA. When the existance of the memo was first reported, many journalists and bloggers speculated that it was the original source of the information that was eventually leaked to Bob Novak and other reporters, i.e., that Joe Wilson was sent on the Niger mission by his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame.
Under this theory, it was of particular importance how the memo characterized the information about Plame. According to press reports, the information was marked with the notation "S/NF", meaning "Secret, No foreign." That was significant, it was thought, because it would indicate to any reader that the information was sensitive and not to be shared with reporters.
Today's Sun article carries the headline: "No Hint Seen in Memo that Plame's Role was Secret." That headline is more than a little misleading. The paragraph of the memo that mentions Ms. Wilson is indeed marked S/NF; indeed six of the seven paragraphs in the memo are marked that way. That said, Gerstein's primary point, which I think is valid, is that it would not have been obvious to anyone reading the memo that the sentence about Ms. Wilson's employment was the sensitive part of the paragraph in which it was embedded. That sentence reads: "In a February 19, 2002, meeting convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD manager, and the wife of Joe Wilson, he previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger." There is certainly no indication from that sentence that Ms. Wilson worked for the CIA in a non-official capacity (then again, the very next sentence of the memo is redacted, so perhaps we're not getting all the key information).
Either way, the exact wording of the INR memo is of far less importance than we were once led to believe. As I explained in my previous post, the focus on the INR memo in last summer's reporting appears to have been misplaced and perhaps the result of intentional misdirection by interested parties. Fitzgerald's indictment makes it clear that Libby learned about Plame from a number of sources long before this particular version of the INR memo was issued. According to Fitzgerald's indictment, Libby learned about Plame from several independent sources, most notably his boss, the Vice President. So whether or not Libby ever saw the INR memo, it was clearly not his only source of information.
Indeed, the fact that the memo doesn't clearly indicate that Plame's affiliation with the CIA was classified (or even that her name was Plame) may actually hurt Libby. Let me explain.
Both Libby and Rove claim not to have known that Plame's employment was classified. They both want to argue, as Robert Luskin does in Gerstein's article, that "nobody involved in discussions of her or her role in sending Mr. Wilson had the slightest inkling she was in classified status." The problem with this argument is that a number of people, including Rove and Libby themselves, treated the information as if they knew they were not supposed to be talking about it. Libby and Rove provided the information to reporters, but only on deep background.
But even more inexplicable under Luskin's theory is the behavior of Ari Fleischer. John Dickerson made this point a while back:
More astonishingly, we learn from the FitzgeraldFleischer learned about Plame (from Libby) on the same day the White House was ambushed by Joe Wilson's op-ed in the New York Times. Fleischer spent the entire next week trying to put that fire out. He held numerous press conferences and gaggles and spoke to a number of reporters informally. He was pushing back in any way he knew how. And as Dickerson tells it, on the trip to Africa, two senior administration officials (one of whom was obviously Fleischer; the other most likely Dan Bartlett) went out of their way to encourage him to look into who sent Wilson on the trip ("The official also pointed out a few times that Wilson had been sent by a low-level CIA employee and encouraged me to follow that angle."). From Dickerson's account it is clear that Fleischer (and the other official) knew exactly where the line was that he was not supposed to cross. He knew he was not supposed to mention Plame.
indictment that Ari Fleischer knew about Plame
and didn't tell anyone at all. He walked reporters,
including me, up to the fact, suggesting they look
into who sent Wilson, but never used her name or
talked about her position. Why not? It certainly
would have been helpful for him at the time.
Ari Fleischer has testified that he learned about Plame from Libby just before departing for Africa. And given Fleischer's behavior that week, it seems likely that he also testified that he knew the information about Plame was classified, or at least sensitive. Libby's attorneys needs to explain how it is that Fleischer knew that discussion of Wilson's wife was off limits, but Libby did not. This is where the INR memo comes in. I suspect, based on their court filings, that Libby's attorneys want to argue that Fleischer and the other officials on Air Force One read the INR memo on the plane ride to Africa and that this is how they knew that Plame's CIA connection was potentially classified information.
Therefore, the fact that the INR memo is ambiguous with respect to Plame's status doesn't really help Libby. Arguably it would be better for Libby if the memo made it crystal clear that Plame was an undercover agent. If it did, Libby's defense team could use that fact to help explain away Fleischer's behavior and testimony, which will undoubtedly be very damaging to Libby.
On a final, somewhat tangential note, it's worth pointing out that the information about Plame in the INR memo is so vague that it seems unlikely that any incarnation of this memo was the root source of the Novak leak. Here's Novak's description of the original leak:
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.
As we know, Novak also referred to Valerie Wilson as Valerie Plame in his infamous column. The INR memo does not use the name Plame, nor does it mention that she worked for the counterproliferation division or that she suggested her husband for the trip. So whoever leaked to Novak in the first place had a little more to go on than just this memo. Interestingly, Fitzgerald makes a point of mentioning in the indictment that Dick Cheney told Libby specifically that Plame worked for the counterproliferation division. The indictment also indicates that Libby told Fleischer the same thing, that Plame worked for the "counterproliferation area" of the CIA. As Barton Gellman of the Washington Post has noted, this statement in the indictment is "an unambiguous declaration that [Plame's] position was among the case officers of the operations directorate."
posted by A.L. at 11:51 PM
4 Comments:
Great points about Fleischer, fleshing out Dickerson's suggestions. Following up on your last post, it seems like Fleischer has been getting it coming and going, since the White House has clearly been and continues to be after him, and since it also appears that State - in the form of the claim that Powell in particular saw Fleischer perusing the INR memo on Air Force One in Africa, which Fleischer denies - has been leaking about him to the press for some time, perhaps thinking that that would put the problem back in the White House's lap. On top of that, Fitzgerald had to file part of Fleischer's role in the investigation under seal, and Team Libby likewise had to discuss some of Fleischer's role under seal. Plus, it is pretty much guaranteed that he is next up, after Grossman, for rightwing demonization as part of the broad defense of Libby et al. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the guy.
Of course Ari quit nearly simultaneously with the OpEd piece. Great analysis AL, as usual. I notice the time stamp, new bottle of vitamins? What part, do you suppose of "Secret" stamped all over the memo do you think they didn't get? It's interesting to hear the discussion of how the memo circulated to understand how cavalierly these people treated state secret documents.
From Dickerson's account it is clear that Fleischer (and the other official) knew exactly where the line was that he was not supposed to cross. He knew he was not supposed to mention Plame.
The defense response to the Fitzgerald filing mentioned that there were prepared talking points:
In fact, as the government is well aware, contemporaneous documents reflect the points that Mr. Libby was to make to reporters, and these documents do not include any information about Wilson’s wife.
Also worth noting - Cooper mentioned Plame to Libby; Russert does not claim Libby mentioned Plame to him; and Judy Miller says Plame was mentioned, but her connection to the Niger trip was not.
The idea that Libby was a lot more chatty than Ari relies on Libby confirming what Cooper told him with an "I heard that, too", and a mention of Plame to Miller.
That said - good point that Novak's reporting seems to differ from the INR memo. However, I dispute this:
it seems unlikely that any incarnation of this memo was the root source of the Novak leak
As to "root source", Nivak may have gotten the wrong, but thematically correct INR version at the start of his pursuit, then added facts later - for example, Novak might have revised Ms. Plame's resume after his chat with CIA press flack Bill Harlow.
Tom Maguire
The idea that Libby was a lot more chatty than Ari relies on Libby confirming what Cooper told him with an "I heard that, too", and a mention of Plame to Miller.
I'm not suggesting that Libby was necessarily more chatty that Ari. In fact, if Libby had been very chatty, it would actually reinforce his claim that he no clue Plame's CIA connection was classified.
Rather I'm suggesting that Libby, like Ari, understood that he was not supposed to talk about Plame, that that information was sensitive. That's why he wasn't very chatty and the few conversations he did have were on deep background.
As for Novak, if his account is accurate, it strongly suggests that his original source knew more about Plame than what can be found in the INR memo. It's possible that official read the memo and then supplemented that information by talking to other people (before talking to Novak), but I think whoever it was (Artimage? Hadley?) had more to go on than just the INR memo.
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