June 22, 2007 / by emptywheel

 

CIPA Fun, One

So Jeff Lomonaco and I were trying to figure out the best place for us to meet face to face after having emailed obsessively on the Plame case for two years. We thought of the best place to meet: at Prettyman Courthouse so we could read through the CIPA filings submitted last year in the case. This post will lay out some general items of interest. In a follow-up later this weekend (or maybe Monday), I’m going to talk about how the CIPA materials support the argument that Dick Cheney was trying to launder the information he had learned on June 10, 2003–information on DOD and State’s interest in the Niger intelligence, and information on Valerie Plame’s identity–so he could publish it. But first the general points.

Dorn Tidbits
Marilyn Dorn from the CIA wrote several statements over the course of the CIPA process describing the information that CIA needed to protect. In one of those, she provides the answer to a question bandied about for some time: whether the CIA did a damage assessment or not on the Plame leak. Dorn writes:

The CIA has not undertaken a “damage assessment”in this case. In accordance with its standard policy, the CIA does not conducta formal damage assessment to determine the actual damage to national securitycaused by an unauthorized disclosure while a criminal investigation orproduction of the matter is pending.

In other words, CIA didn’t do an assessment, but that doesn’t mean there was no damage. Rather, they simply didn’t do an assessment because they don’t, when there is a criminal investigation pending.

But Dorn does provide the following details, none of which are surprising, but describe some of the damage:

The CIA disestablished certain entities that had provided coversupport to Ms. Wilson, such as providing cover backstopping. These coverentities also provided cover support to other CIA personnel. These CIApersonnel were notified of the potential compromise of their identities and weremoved to other cover entities. The CIA notified cover providers whoseclandestine relationships with the CIA were potentially compromised by theWilson leak.

 

In other words, when Novak good and burned Brewster and Jennings in Fall 2003, a bunch of people had to get new cover.

Copyright © 2007 emptywheel. All rights reserved.
Originally Posted @ https://www.emptywheel.net/2007/06/22/cipa-fun-one/