Greater self-love hath no man than to sacrifice a friend’s life
for his own. Our grateful nation awards the Medal of Honor to those
few whose valor in combat is above and beyond the call of duty. But
what is the polar opposite of the Medal? It is essential we decide,
because Richard Armitage — former Deputy Secretary of State — has
earned it for his uncommon treachery, beneath and beyond the call
of knavery.
Begin with the fact that Armitage — and his boss, Colin Powell
— were always outsiders. Powell, by his own discomfort with Bush’s
inner circle, was not part of it. But both were high-ranking
members of the administration and owed it political loyalty.
For reasons I have theorized before, the CIA sent anti-war
activist Joe Wilson to Niger to “investigate” the attempts by
Saddam’s regime to buy uranium “yellowcake” there. On July 6, 2003,
an op-ed by Wilson appeared in the New York Times about
his Niger mission and his conclusion that Iraq hadn’t sought
uranium from Niger. Robert Novak’s July 14, 2003 column disclosed
that Mrs. Wilson — Valerie Plame — was a CIA employee whom Novak
described imprecisely as a CIA “operative.” What followed was the
most damaging contrived news story since George Bush took
office.
Wilson bellowed — and the media and the Democratic leadership
chimed in — demanding a criminal investigation into the leak of
Plame’s name. Wilson accused Karl Rove of trying to smear him, and
said Rove should be “frog-marched” out of the White House in
handcuffs. The 527 Media — the New York Times,
Washington Post, CBS, NBC and ABC — all covered the story
not as even liberally biased publications, but as political
activists making campaign commercials for the Dems.
Schumer and Co. solemnly condemned the smear campaign against
Wilson, the White House’s horrific crime of leaking the name of a
covert agent, and the hunt was on for the leaker. The
ever-responsive George Tenet asked the Justice Department to open a
criminal investigation and, after overcoming objections, it did.
Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to investigate the leak on
December 30, 2003. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was indicted for
perjury on October 28, 2005.
(For the record, the Libby indictment says Plame’s employment
was “classified.” Not covert; classified. Between the two is the
gap between a “NOC” — a “not official cover,” covert agent — and
any desk jockey at Langley.)
Long before the indictment, Wilson’s story had fallen apart. His
lies about the Niger “investigation” were revealed by the 9-11
Commission, British intelligence and many others who found that
Saddam had pursued a uranium deal in Niger. But as more and more of
Wilson’s claims were disproved, serial liar Wilson and his media
pals didn’t slow down.
Now we know, as Paul Harvey might say, the rest of the story.
Neither Karl Rove nor Scooter Libby was Novak’s source in July
2003. Richard Armitage was. And, at least as of October 1, 2003,
Colin Powell knew that. Almost three months later, when Patrick
Fitzgerald was appointed on December 30, 2003, he knew there was no
crime to investigate. No covert operator’s name had been divulged.
It is an entirely separate scandal — one probably including real
criminal conduct — that the Fitzgerald investigation was even
begun despite knowledge that no crime had been committed. Libby’s
crime, if there was one, was manufactured by Fitzgerald in the
grand jury room. And all the while Fitzgerald knew what neither the
White House nor the public did: that Armitage was the source.
Armitage is doing an elaborate CYA dance for the 527 Media. He’s
saying that he didn’t know that he was Novak’s source until the day
he told Colin Powell he was. He’s also saying that he mentioned
Plame casually to Novak. To his credit, Novak is making clear now
what his pledge of confidentiality to Armitage made him conceal
earlier. In his September 14, 2006 column, Novak wrote that Armitage specifically
called him in for an interview he’d been trying to get for two and
a half years. Novak wrote:
[Armitage] had told me unequivocally that Mrs. Wilson
worked in the CIA’s Counterproliferation Division and that she had
suggested her husband’s mission. As for his current implication
that he never expected this to be published, he noted that the
story of Mrs. Wilson’s role fit the style of the old Evans-Novak
column — implying to me that it continued reporting Washington
inside information.
It was an act of supreme disloyalty for Armitage to keep the fact
that he was Novak’s source from the president — and thus the
public — for three years. The same goes for Powell. There was no
reason whatever — other than the desire to do political damage to
the administration — for Armitage and Powell to remain silent
while the 527 Media and the Dems fired a three-year long barrage of
political fire at the President, the Vice President, Karl Rove and
Scooter Libby. We expect the Dems and the political-activist media
to do this. But we don’t expect the craven, cowardly conduct of
Armitage and Powell.
What they did enabled Fitzgerald to continue his pursuit of Rove
and the rest of the White House without the restraint imposed by
public knowledge of the single most important fact. There was no
White House conspiracy to “out” Paper Pusher Plame to punish Ol’
Joe. The non-leak came from Armitage, not the White House.
Thanks to Armitage, Scooter Libby has lost his job and is now
immersed in a criminal case that must have already cost him
millions in legal fees and will certainly cost him millions more.
Fitzgerald is waiting until 2007 to try Libby.
Thanks to Armitage, the White House has been hobbled by this
phony scandal for three years. Its credibility — in Congress and
in relations with other governments — was damaged significantly by
the charge of lawbreaking. The Democrats have linked the phony
Plame scandal to every other allegation of abuse of intelligence
they make to discredit the handling of the war. How many times have
we heard Schumer, Rockefeller, Durbin and the rest say we can’t
trust this administration, using Wilson-Plame as proof? The
revelation of Armitage’s responsibility creates another situation
like Reagan’s Labor Secretary, Ray Donovan, faced when exonerated
of corruption charges. Where does the Bush administration go to get
its reputation back?
Armitage’s leak was not innocent, idle chatter. And worse, much
worse, was his cravenness in not telling the truth to the president
he supposedly served. Armitage told Powell on October 1, 2003. If
he felt his loyalty to Powell required him to call his boss on that
date, he had a greater loyalty to tell the president before the sun
set that day. The facts that neither he nor Powell told the
president, that both allowed the Democrats and the media to damage
the Bush administration for almost three years afterward and let
Scooter Libby’s life to be ruined, disqualifies both Armitage and
Powell from ever holding public office again. Let them retire in
the ignominy they deserve.
What medal shall we give the man who leaked and remained silent?
Hester Prynne wore the scarlet letter. For the leaker who hid while
the political lynch mob hoisted his president and Scooter Libby,
there has to be a special reward. There’s only one name for it: the
Armitage Award.
TAS contributing editor Jed Babbin is the author
of Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe Are
Worse Than You Think (Regnery, 2004) and, with Edward
Timperlake, Showdown: Why China Wants War With the United
States (Regnery, May 2006 — click here).
