Entries by emptywheel

Now THIS Is a Scoop

David Corn has posted the scoop that should have been the first teaser from his and Isikoff’s Hubris–a post detailing Valerie Plame’s role in the CIA. It turns out Plame managed the group tasked with studying Iraq’s WMDs, the Joint Iraq Task Force.

Though Cheney was already looking toward war, the officers of theagency’s Joint Task Force on Iraq–part of the CounterproliferationDivision of the agency’s clandestine Directorate of Operations–werefrantically toiling away in

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What Tipped the Balance?

John Amato provides some perspective on the most ominous development of the week, when Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani announced that he can no longer restrain his followers. Sistani announced this in the last few days. But, as one of Amato’s readers pointed out, David Ignatius reported that Sistani was worried about this back in July.

David:..

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I'm Not Surprised

I’m not surprised by several things in the WaPo’s disingenuous editorial on the Plame Affair today. For example, I’m not surprised it relies on the word, “primary.”

But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of thenot-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspapercolumn in which Ms.

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Rove's Silence Amid the Din

The credulous journalists are making quite the racket, with everyone reading NYT’s “lawyer involved in the case” to be Armitage’s lawyer, admitting that Armitage was Novak’s first and primary source–something that Armitage has no direct way of knowing (Fitzgerald may have told him, but Novak apparently hasn’t spoken to him since the leak conversation, so Armitage could only go by Novak’s public comments).

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Why Are They Afraid of a Living Wage, Clean Air, and Free Speech?

Well, the Republicans have launched their long-planned attack on the Representatives who will be Committee Chairs when we take back Congress. It will get nastier than this–the WSJ hides, at least, the degree to which this fear campaign depends on race-baiting and gay-baiting. But let’s look at some of the things they fear:

Energyand Commerce would return to the untender mercies of John Dingell, thelongest-serving Member first elected in 1955, who was

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Primary Source

As part of my new practice of reminding journalists that even my dog–McCaffrey the MilleniaLab–knows more than them about the Valerie Plame leak, here he is, ready to walk a journalist or two around the block.

For example, McCaffrey knows that Marc Grossman did not write the famous INR memo. Rather, someone in INR did.

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Clearing the Air on Iran: Ledeen v. Cirincione

I’d like to recommend Teri Gross’ Fresh Air (Part One Part Two). She juxtaposed the Neocon crazyman Michael Ledeen with the sane Joseph Cirincione to show both sides in the battle over our next war, with Iran. But rather than simply expose Ledeen’s nuttiness, the juxtaposition served to show the holes in both the Neocon exhortations and the pragmatists’ rationality.

I knew it was going to be an intriguing program when I

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