Wednesday February 13, 2008
Former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson says the recent disclosures in the UK's Sunday Times concerning the sale of U.S. nuclear secrets to the foreign black market, as aided by high-ranking government officials, are "stunning." (very poor audio quality)

* source = http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5685#more-5685
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HENRY RAINES: I imagine that you still follow closely news about the topic that you were working on, the counter-proliferation.

VALERIE PLAME WILSON: Oh, absolutely. I, between that and terrorism, those are the two primary most critical threats facing our nation today.

RAINES: There's a really disturbing series of articles, investigative articles, that have been appearing in the Times of London over the last month or so, I think there've been three installments so far …

VPW: Yes, mm-hmm.

RAINES: …and there's practically a mainstream news blackout here in the United States. We've done numerous shows on it since the very first installment came out. In fact, we about a week and a half ago we interviewed the first person to have a column or article written in a American daily newspaper, which was the North Mississippi Journal. So, you know, we hear all these worries and concerns about Iran building this or …

VPW: Mm-hmm.

RAINES: … some other country building that, but the story in the Times of London front page, respected newspaper, is about the third highest person in the State Department, identified in the American Conservative as Marc Grossman …

VPW: Mm-hmm.

RAINES: … actually selling our secrets to Turkey and to Israel, and then Turkey would resell them to Pakistan …

VPW: Right. No, it's stunning. I've seen the series. I don't, right, I think it's very interesting that it's showing up across the pond and not here at all, in any of our newspapers. I have no insight into it, any more than what you're reading, but it's very interesting. But I think, I think it's fair to say that in general the American media has been extremely intimidated, it's been supine, and I think it's let the American people down. Look at the run-up to the war with Iraq, for starters, and how, again in general, they took simply what the Administration was dishing up and didn't question it, didn't analyze it, didn't go seek secondary sources. And look where we are today as a result of that. I think the media understands this and is grappling with these issues but because of consolidation and increasingly shrinking budgets, foreign and otherwise, devoted to any sort of investigative or foreign reporting, we're just going to, it's sort of thin gruel out there right now, with a couple of brighter spots, but pretty thin otherwise.

RAINES: And how would you suggest our audience can help this story see the light of day? Because it's just amazing to me, an act of, I'm not a legal scholar on this, but an act of treason, I would think, when the third highest person in the State Department is selling this, bears investigation.

VPW: I agree! It is stunning. As I've traveled across the country speaking in the last couple of months, it is clear to me that Americans of all political stripes are really hungry for information. And it comes to, it's so watered down, and you don't, of course, know the veracity of what it is you're reading, whether it's on the Internet or whether it's mainstream media. It's a very frustrating period. And I, I don't have any terrific suggestions on how to get this story played in the United States. Maybe they do have plans, I don't know if they have a sort a sister paper in the United States for it to run here.

RAINES: Well, it would be, I don't know, Fox News. It's a Rupert Murdoch paper. Wouldn't be hard to get the story out if the motivation was there. I understand from Sibel Edmonds that it is, the investigation is increasing. The Times of London is putting more resources into it because it's becoming a prestigious investigation there.

In our last couple of minutes, I want to ask you one more question related to that … because the third installment of the story deals directly, well, you can't acknowledge it directly, but is very similar to what the firestorm around you was. Because the same State Department official is alleged to have tipped off the American Turkish Council …

VPW: Mm-hmm.

RAINES: … which was going to hire a firm called Brewster Jennings, which would have given an insight into what was going on, he tipped them off and said, 'Don't hire them, they're …"

VPW: Yeah.

RAINES: "… CIA." That's got to be disturbing to you.

VPW: Not only can I say, 'No comment,' but I mean 'no comment' because I don't know anything to add to it. Certainly during the run-up to the war and until I was outed, I was focused almost to the exclusion of anything else on just trying to run safe and effective operations, trying to figure out what the hell was going on in Iraq, what were the scientists, what were they doing, where were their secret sites. For me personally it wasn't until Colin Powell, General Colin Powell, gave his speech before the U.N. in February 2003, right before the war, that, as I write in my book, it was sort of the first time that I got my head out of the operational weeds and said, "Wait a minute. What he is saying does not match with my, with my understanding and my knowledge of the intelligence on this issue." And I would, I just felt absolutely sick because I knew that what he was saying, it sounded much more robust than what it was in reality. And I just thought, uh!, I just hope someone well above me in the ranks knew, had much better access to information than I did, because it just did not match up. I felt absolutely sick at heart about it.

RAINES: I apologize to our listeners, they've been ringing off the hook but Alan and I have decided to keep Valerie Plame Wilson all to ourselves …

VPW: [laughs]

RAINES: … and we've got 60 seconds, Alan, if you want to get something else in here.

ALAN CROSS: Just real quick question. In your book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House , I guess the question I have is, did you work as a lone operativeall by yourself, or did you have a team of people that worked for you?

VPW: I think that's one of the constructs that Hollywood constantly makes. We think of The Bourne Identity identity or James Bond, the fact is that we're, you are never alone. It is always a team effort. It is not some rogue operator out there changing into his tux to walk into some casino in Monaco. You have the analysts, you have the technical people, you have the folks that are putting together the questions, you have your surveillance team. It really is a team effort. And the people working, my former colleagues at the CIA for the most part are very smart, extremely dedicated people that right now are laboring under a heavily politicized yoke and I hope that that direction can be changed in the future.

More MP3 Audio Clips >

Sibel Edmonds is trying her best to follow the law.
Why isn't he? Did he at least forward her allegations to the appropriate authorities?
If not, why shouldn't HE be charged with misprision of treason?

United States Code, Title 18
Part I - CRIMES
Chapter 115 - TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES

§ 2382. MISPRISION OF TREASON

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.

busy.