Cheney outed CIA agent Valerie Plame worked to keep Iran nuke free

The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.
One former counterintelligence official described the CIA's reasons for not seeking congressional assistance on the matter as follows: "[The CIA Leadership] made a conscious decision not to do a formal inquiry because they knew it might become public," the source said. "They referred it [to the Justice Department] instead because they believed a criminal investigation was needed."

The source described the findings of the assessment as showing "significant damage to operational equities."

Another counterintelligence official, also wishing to remain anonymous due to the nature of the subject matter, described "operational equities" as including both people and agency operations that involve the "cover mechanism," "front companies," and other CIA officers and assets.

Three intelligence officers confirmed that other CIA non-official cover officers were compromised, but did not indicate the number of people operating under non-official cover that were affected or the way in which these individuals were impaired. None of the sources would say whether there were American or foreign casualties as a result of the leak.

Washington Note: Valerie Plame Leak Sabotaged America's Iran-Watching Intelligence Effort

If Cheney & Co. outed one of the key intelligence operations monitoring the inputs and outputs of Iran's nuclear program -- then Cheney & Co. did vast damage to our ability to know what is real and contrived inside Iran.

He also notes that Wilson found evidence that Iran was unsuccessfully trying to purchase uranium from Niger.

Making this personal

Several years ago now my NASA friend wrote a long essay that I was scapegoating the Bush administration. He based that conclusion on my strong expression that the administration and GOP leaders in Congress were threatening the security of the U.S. by their actions regarding terrorists getting their hands on nukes.

The evidence I presented was
1.) the outing of Valerie Plame;
2.) the repeated attempts by GOP congressional leaders to eliminate paying Russia to safeguard nuclear materials;
3.) the very low priority the GOP Congress placed on controlling nuclear material, and
4.) the inattention and low priority the administration placed on the threat of nuclear weapons in terrorist hands.

Since then some bipartisan leaders went to the trouble of helping to create a DVD and HBO special on the dangers of Russian nuclear material and the terrorist threat of nuclear weapons. I even have my free copy of Last Best Chance. I argued then that this was an attempt to educate and put pressure on primarily GOP leaders who were dismissing this threat.

"I am not cavalier. I detest the incompetent, lying, unethical, Machavelian's S.O.B.'s who are the one's cavalierly dismissing threats for their political and economic ambitions."

I have been outraged over the Valerie Plame outing and have called it for what it is - treason, from the moment it occurred. The biggest physical military threat the US faces today is terrorists with nuclear weapons. I don't know what word other than traitors to call people who expose someone trying to prevent that for petty reasons. I think this is a good example of the difference between rage and outrage. I stand by my statements regarding this administration and the GOP congressional leaders and think history is bearing me out.

Peter's attempt in his essay to put me in a box contains unsupportable statements that he is unable to see from within his box. Too bad he is inside a box where we cannot even agree on some of the facts on politics, much less the opinions. I am pleased that some of his latest expansion of the original essay has an area of our agreement - opposing the radical left's opposition to Bush's Afghanistan War and the theory of no just wars. I supported the Afghan war although with rare criticisms of some tactics and a belief that some of the motivations were hidden.

I wonder if Peter still thinks my criticism is simply scapegoating?

Tags: Cheney, Plame, Wilson, Iran, terrorism, nuclear threat, proliferation, Niger, treason, traitor, outrage, video