CIA and its Critics: Operation Mockingbird in 2005

[John Simkin]

An article in yesterday’s Guardian claims that there is firm evidence that it was Karl Rove who told right-wing journalist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. Plame was the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson and Rove had mounted a smear campaign against him after he publicly accused the Bush administration of exaggerating the case for going to war. Wilson had previously been on a CIA-sponsored trip to investigate whether Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons. (He discovered the story was untrue.)

Novak published the story placing both Valerie Plame and her sources in physical danger. Both Rove and Novak had done this for partisan political purposes. Just another example of how the CIA works with right-wing politicians and journalists to smear critics of its foreign policy. The same thing happened in the years that followed the JFK Assassination. Operation Mockingbird is clearly still in operation.

[Dawn Meredith]

An article in yesterday’s Guardian claims that there is firm evidence that it was Karl Rove who told right-wing journalist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent.

______________________________

In America we are still awaiting comfirmation that Rove was indeed this source.

Dawn

[Gary Buell]

An article in yesterday’s Guardian claims that there is firm evidence that it was Karl Rove who told right-wing journalist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. Plame was the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson and Rove had mounted a smear campaign against him after he publicly accused the Bush administration of exaggerating the case for going to war. Wilson had previously been on a CIA-sponsored trip to investigate whether Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons. (He discovered the story was untrue.)

Novak published the story placing both Valerie Plame and her sources in physical danger. Both Rove and Novak had done this for partisan political purposes. Just another example of how the CIA works with right-wing politicians and journalists to smear critics of its foreign policy. The same thing happened in the years that followed the JFK Assassination. Operation Mockingbird is clearly still in operation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am sure that something like Mockingbird still exists but I cannot agree that Rove's leaking of Valerie Plame's identity was part of it. To the contrary--when the Plame story first came out it appeared at first that it would quickly sink beneath the waters. Then the Washington Post (which has long had close ties to the CIA) did a story, eventually leading to the appointment of a Special Prosecutor. Bush and Rove have pissed off the CIA. Bush dismissed one CIA analysis as a "guess". The CIA's Director is no longer invited to the principal National Security meeting, unless specifically invited. Bush and Rove have pissed off the CIA royally and I believe they will pay for it.

[Pat Speer]

An article in yesterday’s Guardian claims that there is firm evidence that it was Karl Rove who told right-wing journalist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. Plame was the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson and Rove had mounted a smear campaign against him after he publicly accused the Bush administration of exaggerating the case for going to war. Wilson had previously been on a CIA-sponsored trip to investigate whether Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons. (He discovered the story was untrue.)

Novak published the story placing both Valerie Plame and her sources in physical danger. Both Rove and Novak had done this for partisan political purposes. Just another example of how the CIA works with right-wing politicians and journalists to smear critics of its foreign policy. The same thing happened in the years that followed the JFK Assassination. Operation Mockingbird is clearly still in operation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

John, I don't think this has anything to do with Mockingbird. Mockingird, by my understanding, was the CIA's use of the media to push their own foreign policy. The Plame incident is an example of a right-wing administration crapping all over the CIA in order to push their own right-wing agenda. Having Plame outed as a CIA agent HARMED the CIA, and no CIA director, no matter how loyal to the administration, would stomach it. I honestly don't think Bush even wanted her to be outed, as it made his administration look petty and undoubtedly upset his daddy. The Plame incident was more like a Nixon/Colson operation than a CIA operation. It reeks of Rove/Libby/Perle and not Tenet.

By the way, Richard Perle has been feeding dirt to Novak for over twenty years. He was the biggest believer in Chalabi. He resigned from the administration the same week a special prosecutor was announced. He has since made derogatory comments about Condi Rice. I predict he's going down.

[John Dolva]

John or anyone well versed with this issue, this is an area that I am not familiar with so I wonder if you can comment on Angletons place in this scenario. I am particularly curious about if the mail opening operations in place by cia (and fbi) were under the umbrella of Operation Mockingbird?

John