Armitage Admits to Being First Source of C.I.A. Leak, Lawyer Says
by Pamela LeaveyA lawyer involved in the Plame case said on Tuesday that Richard Armitage has “acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case.”
Mr. Armitage did not return calls for comment. But the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage have said he has confirmed that he was the initial and primary source for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, identified Valerie Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.
The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.
It seems this is all still up in the air, even with Armitage’s confession. Fitzgerald declined to charge Armitage, the investigation is still open… Bill Scher breaks it all down neatly: What We Know About PlameGate and he notes that Jeralyn suspects they are still looking at dead-eye Dick.
The NY Times has a Timeline on the Plame Leak Case here.
* (Louai Beshara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)
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Pardon my ignorance but who is this guy? Why do we go from hearing big names like Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to some asshole I never heard of? Is sum flunkly taking the heat for Dick?
It sure does look like BushCo has chosen their fall guy for the Dick.
Richard Armitage has been in the thick of national security for decades. He is a former Navy Seal who was Colin Powell’s deputy and filled in for him on 9/11 because Powell was not in DC. He worked with Richard Clarke for years and is a significant figure in Against All Enemies
The real nugget is that Armitage was one of the original signers of PNAC – along with Cheney, Perle, Wolfie and others. He’s a neo-con to the core.
Very interesting that Fitz is not taking the decoy.
Here’s the Wikipedia site on Armitage.
Which has a correction to my info – he was not a Navy Seal. That started up somewhere (Clarke contributed) and has been corrected by Armitage since.