WSJ published classified information on October 17 2003; revisited.

[understandinglife]

Jane Hamsher at firedoglake just highlighted a comment by PolyUSA about something that has interested me since the day the Wall Street Journal published it.

In my view the WSJ should be in the middle of this investigation. Three weeks after the investigation began the WSJ published an article discussing the contents of the INR memo.

This WSJ article was the first mention of the INR memo in the press. The memo was and still is a classified document. The leaking of classified material is at the heart of this investigation and the WSJ received just such a leak in October 2003. Who leaked to the WSJ?

Memo May Aid Leak Probe: Document Details Intelligence Meeting On Iraq-Niger Reports

October 17, 2003

By DAVID S. CLOUD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- An internal government memo addresses some of the mysteries at the center of the White House leak investigation and could help investigators in the search for who disclosed the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative, according to two people familiar with the memo.

The memo, prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel, details a meeting in early 2002 where CIA officer Valerie Plame and other intelligence officials gathered to brainstorm about how to verify reports that Iraq had sought uranium yellowcake from Niger.

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Classified memos, like the one describing Ms. Plame's role, have limited circulation and investigators are likely to question all those known to have received it.

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According to current and former officials familiar with the memo, it describes interagency discussions of the yellowcake mystery...

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http://www.cryptome.org/plame-memo.htm

Link to comment:

http://www.haloscan.com/comments/firedoglake/113109013578828516/#154899

The leak occurred well prior to the appointment of Mr. Fitzgerald as Special Prosecutor and during the interval when the focus was on Ashcroft and the need for him to recuse himself from the appointment process.

We, now, are also familiar with the tad bit of foot dragging by torture boy and company (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/17/25021/0954) regarding the initial White House response to the call from the DoJ relating to the launch of the investigation.

So, upon re-reading the article today, my attention was drawn to this sentence -- "Officials said the memo is among thousands of pages of documents likely to be turned over to the Justice Department, which has advised the White House, CIA, Defense Department and State Department not to destroy records that might be connected to the leak investigation.

Yes, I think the "current and former officials" who discussed the STILL CLASSIFIED memo with Mr. Cloud had every reason to think that this particular memo might well disappear.

Interesting.


Peace.

[leveymg]

1. Documents get leaked every day in DC. This article came four months

after Bob "The Prince of Darkness" Novak first published his column naming Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA officer.

Probably nothing in the INR memo that hadn't already been made public by then, anyway.

[understandinglife]

2. I would have no way of knowing what is in the document, since ...

... I've never seen it. The point of the thread is that it was leaked at a time when plenty of people were aware of the likelihood that the INR document and other relevant information might just disappear.

While that may be an admirable thing to have done, to this day the report remains classified. Thus, whomever leaked it broke the same laws that were violated in exposing Mrs Valerie Plame Wilson.

Like the old sheriff said - Just because everyone is breaking the law doesn't make it less of an offense.


Peace.

[MelissaB]

3. Amen! That's a song I sing to my own children and the children

I teach almost daily. Just because others are doing it doesn't make it right.