First, weeding through the article here's the meat:
"Woodward's statement said he testified: "I told Walter Pincus, a reporter at The Post, without naming my source, that I understood Wilson's wife worked at the CIA as a WMD analyst."
Pincus said he does not recall Woodward telling him that. In an interview, Pincus said he cannot imagine he would have forgotten such a conversation around the same time he was writing about Wilson.
"Are you kidding?" Pincus said. "I certainly would have remembered that."
Pincus said Woodward may be confused about the timing and the exact nature of the conversation. He said he remembers Woodward making a vague mention to him in October 2003. That month, Pincus had written a story explaining how an administration source had contacted him about Wilson. He recalled Woodward telling him that Pincus was not the only person who had been contacted.
Pincus and fellow Post reporter Glenn Kessler have been questioned in the investigation.
Woodward, who is preparing a third book on the Bush administration, has called Fitzgerald "a junkyard-dog prosecutor" who turns over every rock looking for evidence. The night before Fitzgerald announced Libby's indictment, Woodward said he did not see evidence of criminal intent or of a major crime behind the leak.
"When the story comes out, I'm quite confident we're going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter," he told CNN's Larry King.
Woodward also said in interviews this summer and fall that the damage done by Plame's name being revealed in the media was "quite minimal."
"When I think all of the facts come out in this case, it's going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great," he told National Public Radio this summer."
First, this blows Fitzgerald's investigation to pieces. Libby wasn't the first to talk about Plame. Second, and most important because of Bob's "confession" I ask the question again, Who didn't know about Wilson's wife?"
Yet more important we get' Pincus's source (fellow reporter and White House Psychic Woodward). But the plot thickens, Pincus denies Woodward's assertian. This of course throws my theory in a loop about Wilson being "shopped around" to reporters, unless Wilson went to Woodward first.
Mr. Woodward in his statement says:
"I was first contacted by Fitzgerald's office on Nov. 3 after one of these officials went to Fitzgerald to discuss an interview with me in mid-June 2003 during which the person told me Wilson's wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst.
I have not been released to disclose the source's name publicly.
Fitzgerald asked for my impression about the context in which Mrs. Wilson was mentioned. I testified that the reference seemed to me to be casual and offhand, and that it did not appear to me to be either classified or sensitive. I testified that according to my understanding an analyst in the CIA is not normally an undercover position.
I testified that after the mid-June 2003 interview, I told Walter Pincus, a reporter at The Post, without naming my source, that I understood Wilson's wife worked at the CIA as a WMD analyst. Pincus does not recall that I passed this information on."
Heh, again, the Pincus/Woodward war will rage, but that aside, Woodward is an experienced reporter, and aside from the fact that I'm no fan of his, even he didn't take Plame's position at the CIA to be classified or any big deal that it was being discussed.
That's still the main story - the truth about the status of Plame. The fact is, and Fitzgerald as much said by NOT indicting anyone on the original charge, that she wasn't covert and hadn't been for years. In fact, she had been out and about, attending DNC PAC conferences, and having breakfast with Nicolas Krisof and his wife Sheryl! Some secret agent. The investigation into the outing of a CIA operative was over in October of 2004 and I believe Fitz determined at that time there was NO leak.
The indictment of Scooter Libby is based on him not telling the truth, or getting mixed up in the truth, or simply pissing Fitz off. The latter the more likely case.
Watch now for a motion to dismiss.
But also we get even more confirmation of how much of a farse this "leak gate" was. The real story is what in the hell was Wilson and Plame cooking up and who knew and still knows about that.
More at AJ Strata; Cpt Ed; Michelle Malkin; Decision08; and Tom Mcguire
UPDATE: The coming war between editors and reporters and reporters against reporters.
Watch and see as they begin to rat one another out. Who's going to rat first? Pincus? Corn? Kristof? Or was it the "Nuke Option - Woodward?
Filed under: judith miller valerie plame karl rove Valerie Plame PlameGate john hannahcheney libbyjoe wilsonwoodwardbob woodward
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