Look who snitched.

David Wurmser, the weasel

Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby, Hadley, those close to leak investigation say

Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovna

With the possibility of indictments just days away, sources close to the investigation into who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have provided RAW STORY a more detailed account into how and why Plame's name was leaked and what role the Pentagon and the vice president's office played.

Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told him that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle because she was a CIA agent, the sources said.

Libby then shared the information with Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, the sources said. Wurmser also passed on the same information about Wilson and his CIA to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, they added.

Within a week, Wurmser, on orders from "executives in the office of the vice president," was told to leak her name to a specific group of reporters in an effort to muzzle her husband, Wilson, who had become a thorn in the side of the administration, those close to the inquiry say. It is unclear who Wurmser had spoken with in the media, the sources said, but they confirmed he did speak with reporters at national media outlets about Plame.

"Libby wanted to discredit him right from the start," one source close to the investigation told RAW STORY. "He used David Wurmser to help him do that."

Neither Wurmser or Libby could be reached for comment.

Wurmser had a direct link to the CIA because of his work on intelligence issues related to Iraq and frequently met with CIA analysts who worked on weapons of mass destruction. Through his contacts, Wurmser was told that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent working on WMD issues and it was she who had recommended Wilson for the trip, the sources said. Those familiar with the investigation say, however, it is unclear whether Wurmser was told that she operating as a covert agent. They believe it was likely he was told she was an "analyst" working on WMDs in a similar capacity to the other agents Wurmser had interacted with.

Those familiar with information provided to Fitzgerald say that shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Wurmser was handpicked by Harold Rhode, a Foreign Affairs Specialist in the Office of Net Assessment, a Pentagon "think tank," and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith to head a top secret Pentagon "cell" whose job was to comb through CIA intelligence documents and find evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States and its neighbors in the Middle East so a case could be made to launch a preemptive military strike. Wurmser largely invented evidence that Iraq had close ties to Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, sources knowledgeable about his work told RAW STORY.

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For two years, Wurmser, Feith, Perle, Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had a tumultous relationship with the CIA who they blamed for not providing them with the type of evidence they wanted to see, specific, tailor made assessments that Iraq was an imminent threat. But with Wilson they feared a public backlash.

In June of 2003 that Libby first learned that Wilson was discrediting the administration's intelligence information, specifically the claims that Iraq tried to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Africa for an atomic bomb.

Wilson went to African country of Niger in 2002 to investigate the allegations and reported that the uranium claim was unfounded. According to a Senate report, the mission grew out of a request by Vice President Cheney earlier that year. Vehemently denying that his boss had requested the trip, Libby became so incensed by Wilson that he sent word to Wurmser to find out who Wilson was and sought details of his trip, those familiar with the investigation say.

Yeah, but this isn't the whole story.

Of course, Libby had to confirm she was actually a CIA employee and once they did that, the SECRET classification connected to her name would have sprung up. Even as mild a request as to confirm her employment at CIA would have sent up red flags. Because ANY inquiry into her employment status would be regarded as a danger sign. Wurmser would have had to confirm her employment as well. Even if he was told she was an analyst, any attempt to confirm that would have drawn a red flag.

The deputy director of the CIA called Bob Novak to disuade him from publishing Plame's name. You think they didn't respond to a WH request with similar information. As in, "please do not use her name in any communications".

Why? Because how do you know this wasn't an attempt by a foreign power to track her. The agency would have been deeply curious as to who wanted to know anything about her.

I don't think the agency forgot this. I think they started to track the inquiries into her and who did it. Why? Because if her name became public, they wanted to know who to blame. And more importantly, who'd they have to save if this blew up.

And I think Pat Fitzgerald knows who asked about her and what they were told.

And why did Wurmser snitch?

Because he was going to pound me in the ass prison. And be broke at the end of it. No one was going to defend him. He was expendable and Fitzgerald made sure he knew it. If he had kept his mouth shut, the world would have landed on him. Which, his wife reminded him, would have been silly. Rove wasn't going to save him, Libby wasn't going to save him. He had to save himself.

posted by Steve @ 4:55:00 PM