Man, you can say all sorts of silly shit anonymously on the internet. Who's gonna believe it? Such a leaker would have to drop all sorts of hints, specifically to people who had interest and resources to follow up, and providing enough clues to verify the rumor could just as easily set you up to be caught.

The tipster can say silly shit. The blogger, unless he wanted to get sued, would do a little fact-checking and then post it.

And then it would spread quickly.

Republican-friendly leaks never spread far in the liberal media. The liberal media always wants to know "Who leaked this? Who is doing all this nefarious leaking?" when it comes to such leaks.

With liberal-friendly, leaks, of course, they're only interested in the leak itself. And leaking doesn't seem so nefarious to them then.

I am not a blogosphere triumphalist but I guarantee the Plame-sent-Joe story would have gotten much more play for the story itself (not the story of the leaking) had it been given to a blogger. It barely rated in the MSM.

I bet it would've worked if it wasn't anonymously sourced. And that would have really made things interesting when they tried to press bloggers to reveal their sources.

I can see some of the big blogs coming out with "I have this from an extremely credible source that I cannot name, blah blah blah" and being taken seriously.

But someone drops by a whisper in comments or email that Joe Wilson was sent by his wife? The best we could get out of that is a rumor going if bloggers decide to believe it or not, and without something hard, I don't see a lot of people beliving it.

For me, Wilson wasn't even on the map until he started squealing like a stuck pig over someone picking on him and his wife after Novak published, and Wilson wouldn't have reacted that way to blog rumors that could be passed off as rumors. ... or maybe he would, for all I know. He's enough of a melodramatic buffoon for it.

The blogs are good for stuff like Dan Rather and his magical memos. Bullshit that is totally obvious to the common folk that previously no one would have had the resources or communication network necessary to bust the story so fast. Pre-blogs, the people with the knowledge to blow that scam would have cussed at their televisions at the obvious fakes, maybe told their co-workers, and their complaints would have died while the story went on to live a comfortable life and maybe get retracted years after the damage was done.

It was only thanks to the internet that people could get together and put out a credible case that those things were as fake as they looked and it snowballed into outrage over how little credit the media gave our intellegence.

But put Joe Wilson in the crosshairs and I don't see a bunch of interested laymen being able to step up and say "Plame sent her husband on a conjob," because we've got no way to verify that with our own eyes. A bunch of reporters who actually always knew that Plame was CIA would be much more credible with that claim.

Interesting idea, really. Just really get on and promote the hell out of the leak, all anonymously, of course... then get others actually investigating it a bit. Hmm... I wonder.

Sortelli,

I don't think you get what I'm saying. I'm not saying we pass things on on the strength of an anonymous tip. I'm saying that, given the tip, we could source it ourselves.

As Andrea Mitchell said, it was a fairly open secret among reporters working in the intel field that Plame was CIA.

Tom Maguire showed that there was a lot of public info on Plame that would suggest she might be CIA.
Take that plus a phone call to the right person -- heck, even the CIA -- and the story comes out.

I mean, let's just consider the CIA. If someone calls up and says I have a tip and intend to run it unless you warn me off, they have to respond to you. In Novak's case, apparently, they didn't give him a serious warning.

So maybe the CIA's press liason gives a weak warning. Some bloggers don't run with it (I don't know if I would have, personally, without being sure she wasn't covert, which I couldn't have found out at the time-- that stuff came out later).

But others would have.

Your point is, "Well, going the blogger route, the story wouldn't have gotten much play." Well-- did the story get any play going the MSM route? No, it got almost zero play... until left-leaning bloggers made an issue of the leak itself. THEN it got play.

That approach would depend on the assumption that Wilson and the Democrats are right about the White House trying to destroy Plame's career out of mere spite.

There are all sorts of reasons why the Democrats (and the media) would think that, given the Bush/Rove's campaign tactics in 2000 against McCain (the the press and the Democrats are very sore about) and Rove's reputation. Not to mention past Democrat campaigns Rove undermined by pointing out to the proper authorities and media group where they were breaking the law. Ever the fans of the double-standard, Democrats consider such tactics "dirty tricks".

But I don't believe that's what happened. That's not what Matthew Cooper said what happened. It's their sworn testimony vs. pompous vain Bush-hater Joseph Wilson who's throwing these bombs.

Tom Maguire showed that there was a lot of public info on Plame that would suggest she might be CIA.

The "I am a CIA Soccer Mom" bumpersticker on the back of her van was a clue.

Hillary has a 12 year old female sex slave with a surgically forked tongue that she purchased in Syria.

Run with it.

Own up to it, Ace-- you're just upset that Scooter Libby never returned your phone calls. All those chocolates and Knicks tickets, and you got bupkus.

BTW, my favorite leak-recipient in all of Washington *has* to be Bill Gertz. He's like the DEBKA of Pentagon reporters-- everything that gets leaked to him is either from the "Duh" file or total bullshit. Yet, you want to get a rise out of anyone from the CIA, just mention Gertz-- you might as well say something nice about Hitler at an ADL convention.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

What about this story that Plame's identity as a 'covert agent' had already been blown by Aldridge Ames, and Cuba for one thus knew about it (and arguably shared it with the REALLY bad guys) -- and the reason she was transferred to a desk job in Langley was exactly BECAUSE she was now useless as a covert agent?

This whole affair is a CYA move by the CIA nothing more. Their are only two possabilitis and they don't reflect highly on the CIA.
1) The CIA gives the POTUS intelligence that points to Iraqs continuing research and procurement of WMD, remember Tenet: It's a slam dunk. This intelligence proves to be incorrect. So that means this intelligence was wrong before the war and going back to at least 1995. You had promenent Dems. and officials all saying that Saddam was a grave and growing threat. Anyone remeber the N0-Fly zones, sanctions, weapons inspectors, etc. Why were they neccesary if everyone did not believe Saddam was a threat?
2) If this intelligence was correct from 1995 to right beforce the war, then the CIA missed weapons transfers out of Iraq, probably to Syria with the help of the Russians.

Either way the CIA is a corrupt and useless organization. They have been wrong on so many levels. Pakistan going nuclear, Chinese technology theft, 1993 WTC bombing, 9/11, etc.

I think it is time the CIA got a top-to-bottom
overhaul!!!!

Goss tried. The dems were slamming him for doing some house cleaning a while ago.

Ace has just realized that being the go-to guy for government leaks might be his ticket to that ever-elusive Crazy Blog Money(TM).

"Hi, I'm Ace. In spite of all my posts against leaks, I'd just like to mention that blogs are leak-a-riffic. And I just happen to run a blog. Know what I'm sayin'? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Eh?"

Radical Centrist:
I think it is time the CIA got a top-to-bottom overhaul!!!!

Yeah. They need to be downsized (and maybe even eliminated completely). Many of their functions belong in other agencies. Some of their work should be taken over by the military.

So let me get this straight. Wilson is at fault for outing his wife because he should have known as soon as he wrote the op-ed that foreign intelligence agencies would look closely at him and discover his wife works for the CIA (although I have yet to hear how they would find out.)

But Novak publishes a column explicitly naming her, and no one would have ever known if the big bad left leaning MSM hadn't made a big deal out of it. You guys are spinning so hard the contradicitions are starting to get away from you.

But Novak publishes a column explicitly naming her, and no one would have ever known if the big bad left leaning MSM hadn't made a big deal out of it.

Reading comprehension is clearly not your strong suit. If you like, I'll explain it to you, but you really ought to try to figure it out yourself.

Uh, geoff, that's not really a response. Nice try, though.

Uh, geoff, that's not really a response. Nice try, though.

Just wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. Oh well, I guess you do need me to explain it to you.

Ace's point is not that the MSM aggravated the revelation of Plame's identity, but that the original Novak article discounting Wilson's story wasn't getting much attention until the MSM leapt on the Plame angle. That is, if Libby was trying to undermine Wilson's play in the press, his approach wasn't very effective until the Plame angle emerged.

Ace wasn't blaming the MSM at all.

Geoff, congrats!

Err, I have not really followed this thread, but I am sure that the poor covert NOC Plame has been dodging assassins bullets and shit.

Er, so what about the exposure of CIA transports and jails that were actually secret. Thats what we are talking about rihgt?