New Book Details How the CIA Undermines U.S. Security

Human Events, Jul 23, 2007 by Babbin, Jed

SCARBOROUGH: The ClA was so suspicious and so angry at the Bush Administration's policies that it had no interest in doing a proper investigation of Niger. That's what it boiled down to.

Look at Vice President Dick Cheney. There's a report from the Defense Intelligence Agency that Saddam Hussein's regime may have contacted Niger to buy some "yellowcake," which is lowlevel processed uranium and is used to make bomb-grade uranium. This was not farfetched, because Saddam had bought yellowcake from Niger before, and in fact, the yellowcake was still in his country, supposedly under seal. So a request goes over from Dick Cheney's office to lhe ClA and what happens? How is it handled? Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson's wife-it comes down to her division, the Counter-Proliferation Division, and she decides, "Let's send my former-ambassador husband down to investigate." That's what she decides. And she recommends him for the trip. He is not a trained intelligence investigator. He's a former diplomat who decides he will fly to Niger and jusl ask some questions and then return.

So the bureaucracy sends a former ambassador to Niger for one of the most important pre-war questions on Iraq, instead of a trained investigator. He is not asked to sign even a confidentiality agreement on not disclosing what he finds, which is extremely unusual. So off he goes to Niger, unbeknownst to Dick Cheney-who wanted the question answered-and unbeknownst to Tenet or his top people at headquarters.

After the 2003 State of the Union address. Wilson decides to leak his trip, breaking his own [self-imposed) vow of confidentiality. Valérie Plume was sitting right next to him when he leaked it to Nick Kristof of the New York Times. She knew her role in getting him the trip. She wrote a memo recommending him. Spouses, in the" CIA, are responsible for protecting the confidentiality of the covert status of their spouse. So at that moment, the Wilsons were, in a sense, outing Valérie Plame, because they had to realize that when this [report about the trip] appeared in the New York Times that people were going to ask, "Who is this ambassador, and how did he get sent to Niger?"

And the answer was going to come back: His wife got him the trip. And thal's exactly what happened, because when that column appeared in the New York Times, the White House said. "What? Who? Why?" and "When did this happen'.'" And they made an inquiry to the CIA, and the bureaucracy reported back that [Wilson's] wife got him the lrip. And that is what spawned this scandal, not some diabolical plot to get Wilson's wife as punishment. It was just gossip. That's how Joe Wilson got the trip.

More recently we've seen at least evidence of some political machinations by the CIA at the top levels, even after George Tenet's departure, We have now Gen. Mike Hayden there. Tell me, what was the impetus for Michael Hayden to go to the Hill and prepare Democratic Chairman Henry Waxman [Calif.] for the Plame hearing? Did he prepare the Republicans as well? And if not, why not?