Did Kerry out a CIA agent?

[Rex_Goodheart]

I hope there's a reasonable explanation!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153400,00.html

[Mistress Quickly]

1. Google the name

it was already out.

[Fenris]

2. Said agent's name had already been made public before Lugar and Kerry

referenced him.

So, no.

[saltpoint]

25. Fenris, Re the photo in your post field --

-- Since I've seen it here on DU, I'm unable to sleep at night.

It's profoundly disturbing!

___
I really appreciated your post on Lugar/Kerry/CIA leak here in this thread. You got it fast and you got it right.

[Fenris]

43. I took it off.

I got tired of that face too.

:toast:

[saltpoint]

50. Fenris, I didn't mean it as a complaint -- just to tell you --

-- that it your selecting it showed evidence of a keen, creative mind. Honest -- I wasn't complaining for real.

[NYCGirl]

3. Nope. All wrong. Link:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200504120007

In fact, while Bolton's critics had apparently not previously mentioned Armstrong in connection with allegations that Bolton tried to retaliate against an intelligence analyst who corrected the text of a speech he delivered, government, news, and non-profit sources had publicly identified Armstrong as a CIA officer on multiple occasions prior to the April 11 hearing. In claiming that Armstrong "works covertly," Gearan apparently overlooked several significant references:

* Former intelligence official Larry C. Johnson referred to "a senior CIA analyst by the name of Fulton Armstrong" in a January 23, 2004, interview with Salon.com.

* A House International Relations Committee schedule for the week of February 24, 2003, identified "Mr. Fulton Armstrong (Invited), National Intelligence Officer for Latin America, CIA" as a possible witness for a hearing titled "Overview of U.S. Policy Toward the Western Hemisphere."

* A summary of a 2001 conference hosted by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), an agency that advises the director of central intelligence, titled "Prospects for WTO Trade Negotiations After Seattle: Foreign Strategies and Perspectives," identified Armstrong as a "National Intelligence Officer" for Latin America, a post within the NIC that "reports to the Director of Central Intelligence in his capacity as head of the US Intelligence Community."

[Rex_Goodheart]

6. Whew... thanks everybody!

Fox... ugh

[me b zola]

46. I hope media matters sends a little note to Dan Abrams

Because his blog topic is "Lack of outrage over outing of CIA operative". I clicked on thinking there was going to be discussion of Plame, but instead it was an entire days blog entry on Kerry & Co in the Bolton confirmation hearings.:grr:

[Avalux]

4. Fox News? LOL!

YOu should know better than use them as a source. :rofl:

[displacedtexan]

5. No.

The name had been published numerous times previously.

There are several threads on this.

Try "Search."

[NYCGirl]

8. The OP can't use search. No star. NT

[displacedtexan]

44. Oops! Sorry! n/t

[saltpoint]

7. Fenris is absolutely correct. The name was previously --

-- known and published.

If Kerry HAD slipped and revealed the name, Senator Lugar of Indiana did it first and he's the goddam chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

The question to ask, IMO, is why the MSM has decided to raise the questions mainly about Kerry, the liberal Democrat and not Lugar, the conservative Republican.

You'd think the "liberal" media would be jumping all over Dick Lugar.

[Adelante]

18. There is the question

"The question to ask, IMO, is why the MSM has decided to raise the questions mainly about Kerry, the liberal Democrat and not Lugar, the conservative Republican."

[Jo March]

20. Thanks, Old Crusoe - these stories do get a little old

I emailed him:

"Mr. Gibson,

If you Google the name of the CIA agent that Kerry "outed", you will see that the CIA agent had already been exposed.

I know, I know. It's "hard work" actually checking facts before writing an article, isn't it?

At least you aren't trying to pass yourself off as a real journalist. You aren't fit to shine Gannon/Guckert's fake Marine boots."

[emulatorloo]

9. No, Mr. Goodheart, and Fox Is Not A Credible Source

EOM

[AlCzervik]

10. i hope theres a reasonable explanation for using fox news as a source

[Rex_Goodheart]

15. LOL

touche

[Mistress Quickly]

30. I used it as a source

earlier. It had the name of the Texas oilman indicted in the UN oil-for-food witch hunt everyone was looking for.

[sniffa]

11. where's the frog march for repubLicans?

remember aLL the screaming about kerry? weLL Lugar did the same offense.

[Jo March]

12. Oh, this old story again? LOL. I wrote Gibson

"Mr. Gibson,

If you Google the name of the CIA agent that Kerry "outed", you will see that the CIA agent had already been exposed.

I know, I know. It's "hard work" actually checking facts before writing an article, isn't it?

At least you aren't trying to pass yourself off as a real journalist. You aren't fit to shine Gannon/Guckert's fake Marine boots."

[InternalDialogue]

14. Nice.

On a personal level, Gibson viscerally repulses me more than just about any asshat rightie blowhard. So there's nothing like a measured, mellow, devastating swipe at him to make me grin.

:7

[Totally Committed]

13. It serves none of us to use FOX News as a source for any news...

especially about a Democrat (possible exception: Joe Lieberman, but that's another story...)

I am no fan of John Kerry, but this is a blatant attempt by the RW media to smear him, and no matter what any of us thinks of him, we should not be doing their work for them by cutting and pasting it directly from their website to this website, and then linking to it.


TC

[Rex_Goodheart]

16. Huh?

I didn't cut and paste anything from their website... not that we should be sheltered from what other people are saying, anyway.

[Totally Committed]

36. I meant, generally...

I am sorry the wording seemed to imply that's what you had done. But, you did link us there, and that's bad enough.

Again, I apologize, and for my penance, I will re-read "Eats Shoots and Leaves" again before trying to make a salient point.

TC

[tishaLA]

17. Thank you for alerting me to this story

It's terribly terribly important! Can you do some research and get back to us?! :eyes:

[kerrygoddess]

26. It's been debunked all over the place

By both the liberals and conservatives.

Lugar was the first to use the name. The name has been in the news in regards to Bolton since '02.

[tishaLA]

27. Yeah but

I always forget about that sarcasm tag when I think my intent is clear :P

[Leilani]

19. Although the name had been published previously,

it is still an issue.

Yesterday on Washington Journal, it was discussed by host, & both names, Lugar & Kerry were mentioned.

[saltpoint]

23. It's an issue because the "liberal" media want to --

-- embarrass Kerry and the Democrats as national security risks, and not because it's truly, actually an issue.

The man's name was published and known long prior to the Bolton nomination hearings.

[kerrygoddess]

24. It also seems to be an issue here...

Because certain people who say it's an issue could perhaps like to perpetuate whatever issues they can against Kerry.

Unfortunately in the last thread about this, the same person you responded to also refused to let the issue go.

[Leilani]

29. Perception is reality

Perhaps Sen Kerry could issue a statement debunking the issue.

I heard Lugar was questioned by the press & refused to answer them.

[saltpoint]

31. Something like LBJ deciding to call his opponent --

-- "a pigfucker" -- LBJ's words, not mine -- LBJ's aides telling him he could NOT do that because it was untrue, and LBJ responding by insisting that they nevertheless force the opponent to call a press conference to deny it.

Under your suggestion, Kerry would now have to issue a statement or call such a press conference to DENY outing a CIA agent when in fact that name had been published and known long prior.

The point stands.

[Leilani]

41. Fine, ignore it.

I clearly don't care.

[saltpoint]

47. With respect to you, Leilani, you cared enough to put --

-- a liberal Democrat in the exact position Rove would like him.

My point stands, does it not? Lugar did NOT out anybody in the CIA. Kerry did NOT out anybody in the CIA.

Here is one account of the Drudge-generated attack:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200504120007

I'm not hauling my personal opinion alone here. This is the perception, to use your term, among progressives and liberals. Others postes in this thread are obviously doing a better job than I am in expressing this, but as I posited, the point stands: Drudge, a right-wing scandal-mongering asshole, wants to pretend there's a scoop here. The scoop is that a CIA agent might have been outed. The scoop is baseless, false, and underhanded because the man's name -- Armstrong -- has been known and published long prior to the Bolton confirmation hearings.

That's all I said.

[kerrygoddess]

33. There is nothing to issue a statement for.

You perpetuated this in the last thread. It's been debunked.

[bobthedrummer]

32. Yep, and that attitude is spreading here at DU, but not in some particular

group's way, of course. They don't like opposition to their "team".
Yet we are all "an army of one.".

[kerrygoddess]

34. Army of one of many factions! LOL!

[bobthedrummer]

35. ROTF!

:rofl:

[Crunchy Frog]

37. What are you talking about?

[bobthedrummer]

38. I'm an army of one.

O8)

[ClarkUSA]

42. As opposed to another groups's bashing a "particular group's way"

every chance they get. Dish it out, baby.

[Crunchy Frog]

21. I wouldn't believe everything you read or hear on Fox News,

or indeed anything from Fox News. The information on that CIA agent has been out and available for a long time. He was mentioned in an article in Salon over a year ago.

I'm wondering why no attention is being focused on the outing of Valerie Plame, or why it's Kerry being blamed for this "outing" rather than Lugar.

[Norquist Nemesis]

22. Answer to Q1: No! Answer to Q2: You'll not find it at Faux Views.

[Clark2008]

28. Heh... it wasn't just Faux. It was AP who did the shilling this time!

The Associated Press reported the story. The infamous Internet gossip Matt Drudge reported the story. And oh, by the way, Grudge blamed Democrat John Kerry while leaving out Republican Richard Lugar.

But it turns out there was no cover left to be blown by anybody. When Kerry and Lugar forgot to call Fulton Armstrong Mr. Smith, it marked at least the 10th time in the last five years that Armstrong had been publicly identified as a CIA or national intelligence officer.

First, to the nonexposure-exposure moment itself. Good political comedy, but evidently not much more than that. Everybody else called Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Smith. Senators Lugar and Kerry kind of forgot.

SNIP

OLBERMANN: The usually impeccable Associated Press turned that into a story headline, “Senators Try, and Maybe Fail, to Keep an Undercover Officer‘s Name a Secret.” Actually, they didn‘t. Since 1999, Fulton Armstrong has been identified by at least four newspapers, two magazines, a federal agency, a House committee, and in a list of expert speakers on the Web site of the American Management Association, which described Mr. Armstrong as, quote, “National intelligence officer for Latin America, long-time CIA expert in the region.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7489704/

[karynnj]

39. The procedure they were using was at fault as much as anything

In this case the name was already out, but what if it weren't. Neither Kerry or Lugar would ever intentionally out an agent. I would argue that anyone quoting from documents that include the real name would at some point slip and read what was written. I'm surprised that the issue was discussed in an open meeting. What was weird was that in looking at the replay, no one on the committee looked alarmed - it passed unnoticed in both cases.

This is not the same as Plame where there was an intentional premeditated release of a name.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

40. i watched that committe hearing and it was Lugar who outed the name.....

before Kerry

[rman]

45. Why even bother with Fox?

-

[0007]

48. FAUX is for entertainment & mindless people

Please don't bother me with this stupid garbage.

[Catchawave]

49. I heard about this, but also heard....

..it's a name that's been "out" there for a long time!

[Clark2008]

51. All of you are missing the real point!

The Associated Press did the story and it ended up in hundreds of AP-subscribed newspapers all over this country.
There was no proof, no rebuttal by Kerry or Lugar and it ended up being absolutely false.
It's NOT just Faux News who ran with it.
Local newspapers subscribe to use the AP service for national and international news since they don't have the funds to send their own staff to all these places. They trust that the AP will properly vet the story and that it will be accurate.
If AP has done such a lousy job investigating this, imagine what else they come up with that has about has much connection to reality as a, well, reality show?!