Sludge Report: Novak accuses Armitage of being deceptive re: Plame leak

[sabra]

[napi21]

1. UH OH! The rats are attacking each other again!

Did he make you look bad Bob? Is this now PAY BACK?

I love it when the Pubshold a bout of infighting!

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. If it wasn't casual chitchat...

Then Isikoff's article must have been bullshit. Who knew?

Armitage was the vanguard of the coordinated leak from the administration. He didn't tell Novak until it was clear that Woodward wasn't going to publish the leak that Armitage told him two weeks prior.

Armitage was chosen to do this because he was in a position where he could plausibly claim ignorance of her covert status.

[originalpckelly]

5. Our supposedly "Good Republican" is a ratfucker.

Lovely. Does anyone think this is a big deal? What if Armitage's intent was the same as Libby's, Rove's and the VP's? That crap sounds like the stuff written down on Cheney's copy of the New York Times (with the Wilson article.)

This my dear Watson is highly interesting.

[originalpckelly]

6. He signed the PNAC letter. So that means he probably had...

strong feelings towards the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

Powell, the real moderate he has repeatedly been associated with DID NOT sign the letter. It makes me wonder if these PNACers put Armitage on Powell to work on him to change his opinion. The real moderate assistant to Powell was that general fella. Poor guy can't remember his name at this moment. Both of the real moderates were against the war in Iraq.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. This is exactly how they operate.

They stick a tick on you to suck you dry of information, but also to be in a position to influence the information you receive and the decisions you make.

[librechik]

7. Mike's book is juicy, but smells of Mockingbird dodo

if you know what I mean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOCKINGBIRD

[JDPriestly]

3. Ah, the onion is slowly being peeled. This is but another layer.

There is much more. Was Armitage the claw of the beast, the fang?

[FormerDittoHead]

8. Novak cries: oh no! Those (evil) Democrats were blaming ROVE!

...and Armitage was the man "behind it all". Riiiight.... Those Republicans do a lot of things without needing their lockstep marching orders from powers on-high. And that's why Bush has been so lax about finding out the truth, etc etc.

[librechik]

4. Novakula can say "tardy self-disclosure" with a straight face?

That takes the case.

Everybody's story on this stinks. And now the MSM say, oh shut up, that's old news and solved. That stinks too.

[DURHAM D]

9. Having watched Isikoff lead the media charge against

Clinton just a few years ago I have been shocked that 1) David Corn was willing to work with him and 2)anyone buys anything he has to say that sounds negative about a Rethug. Isikoff is justing trying to "capture" the issue to make it appear that his storyline is accurate when all he ever really does is spin. He is a right wing ideologue, not a journalist.

Also, I am amazed at the noise machine's constant referral to Armitage as "not a partisan". That is an RNC talking point and a lie of monumental proportions.

[grasswire]

10. I don't trust Mikey OR Corn

Corn's been wobbly since FOX put him on its payroll. There was always talk of him being close to the CIA, too. Gotta keep one eye on him.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Hmmm...the plot thickens.

[Peace Patriot]

13. And what about Novak's SECOND outing--of the entire CIA...

...WMD counter-proliferation network, Brewster-Jennings, in the SECOND column (July 22, 2003)? If those who would kill our covert counter-proliferation agents and contacts around the world couldn't "connect the dots" to Plame, they were aided in identifying such agents by Novak's broadcasting of the name of her brass plate company, in the SECOND column.

Reminder:

May-June 2003: David Kelly, the Brits chief WMD expert, begins whistleblowing, anonymously, to the BBC, about the exaggerated pre-war WMD intel; he is outed to his bosses (still a mystery) in late June, and interrogated at a "safe house" and threatened with the Official Secrets Act, in the first week of July.

July 6, 2003: Wilson publishes his article.

July 7, 2003: Tony Blair is informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things" (could say, not HAD said--Hutton report).

July 14, 2003: Plame outed (by Novak).

July 17, 2003: Kelly emails to old colleague Judith Miller, his concern about the "many dark actors playing games."

July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances; his office and computers are searched.

July 22, 2003: The entire covert counter-proliferation network, Brewster-Jennings, is outed (also by Novak).

What were the "uncomfortable things" that Kelly COULD say, and had not yet said? What could he have known that got him killed?

This is not just about Plame.

[desi]

14. Novak is contradicting himself.

And it appears that he has opened up another can of worms if this is true. Did he not at first claim that a "Top WH Official" uttered her name without malice in a social setting? Now he claims that Armitage used and abused him? "Developing" for sure. Gonna have to go back to his original piece and some of Crossfire's transcripts. IMHO Armitage is being thrown under the bus (to cover for Cheney, Libby Rove, AND Bush AND Powell)and Novak appears to be a willing accomplice.

[rodeodance]

15. perhaps--this 'gossipty ol goose"--as the press makes him out to be --

is not that?---what if he pulled the wool over Fritz's eye?

[DemReadingDU]

16. Spin, spin. Something is going on

All this diversion about Armitage leads me to believe there is something else they don't want us to find out about.