Novak used the name "Valerie Flame" in an article appearing in a Human Events article in October 2003.
This is old news I know that I hadn't looked closely at before today. Before Judy testified, this would have been seen as a mere typo...
In the Diary below, I list a few facts that may be helpful in understanding where this TraitorGate story is going. Observations about Judy, Novak, Carville, Chalabi, Hannah, Dickey follow.
Get ready to get dizzy below the fold...
[UPDATED]
Consider the following facts and/or stories that have appeared in the press.
Judy spells Plame incorrectly as FLAME. Novak publishes an article about his initial outing of Valerie PLAME but in the text of the article the last name PLAME is misspelled as FLAME. In the same paragraph that contains the FLAME misspelling, Novak says he got the name from Who's Who. Novak leaves the CNN set in a bizarre incident in the presence of (we assume) a knowing James Carville and a certain Who's Who volume. Judy can't remember who she got the Valerie FLAME name from. Judy has a known relationship with Chalabi. Newsweek's insightful Christopher Dickey, who has worked with Judy, hints that he thinks Chalabi may have been involved in the PLAME outing in the same article in which he can't stop repeating the name FLAME. Chalabi is accused of turning over US secret information to the Iranians. Hannah is the contact man for Chalabi in the Vice President's office but also works for Cheney. The latest news today is that Fitzgerald flipped Hannah as a key witness inside the White House.
Dizzy yet? Yah. Me too. This may all be nothing but then again...
I don't have a complete and coherent story to tell. Just bits and pieces of information that seem important and perhaps they are parts of a larger puzzle the outlines of which can't completely be seen. Here they are:
1 From Novak's Human Events article in October 2003
How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Flame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's Who's Who in America entry.
2 In an incredibly insightful post below, emptywheel hypothesizes that the reason Bob Novak walked off the CNN set with Carville there was because the interviewer had a copy of Who's Who on the desk with the Plame spelling and yet Novak's October 2003 article spelled the name "Flame". In short, Novak's seeming irrational behavior was rooted in his not wanting the SPELLING difference to be highlighted and he had to assume that Carville knew that the SPELLING difference was important.
3 I quote Newsweek's Christopher Dickey at length in a post below. Take a look at that post and/or his article and see for yourself that he seems awfully anxious to keep repeating what we have been taking to be a simple spelling mistake by Judy.
4 Laura at at at WarAndPiece.com on October 18, 2005 calls attention to the same Christopher Dickey article I reference but calls attention to the Dickey's hunch that Chalabi was the Plame leaker.
5 Take a look at kant's Diary regarding possible flipper John Hannah and his relationship to Chalabi. kant notes that:
Dec. 2003, MSNBC documentary evidence: Cheney's office and Hannah specifically was "a principal point of contact" with Chalabi's INC to receive and disseminate intelligence.
6 And then we learned yesterday that Fitzgerald may have flipped Hannah.
Dizzy yet? Yah, me too.
[UPDATE 2: 2005-10-19 7:30AM PDT]
I got a bit of sleep and have a few more thoughts that make this more interesting.
I'm not sure why it must be assumed that the use of Flame instead of Plame was part of a ruse. Mistakes happen, the biggest obviously here would be Novak or someone else confused about Plame/Flame in the October Human Events article.
The nexus of relationships in my post above provide an interesting twist on some old puzzles making them easier to understand:
1 Chalabi home raid... Remember back in May 2004 when Chalabi's home was raided and it was said that he might have taken US intelligence materials and shared them with Iran... Would he REALLY still be a player if that were so? I vaguely recall the media highlighting a conflict on this raid within the US government. Well, there certainly would be conflict about this if the raid was conducted to get at Plame materials right? But, of course, the public could not be told that the raid was about Plame.
2 Why did Fitz let Judy off without pressing her on the unrecalled source? Simple. The reference to "Valerie Flame" IN ITSELF gives away the source perhaps even implicating Judy without her knowing it.
3 Why would Hannah flip and why would he be the first flipper to be announced? Well, if he gave materials to Chalabi that outed Plame it seems to me that he would be in much greater jeapordy. And if a star was added at the wall at the CIA then even the death penalty would have been in play for Fitz to get leverage with.
4 "Me" at FireDogLake, who appears to have good sources, says that calls are coming in from the perps for deals. Might it be the case that the perps are thinking "sh-t, if Hannah has flipped, then, the whole house of cards is coming down."
Just some thoughts. And please, again, pull me from this speculative edge if I've it's clear that I've become a blathering idiot.
[UPDATE 3: 2005-10-19 10:05AM PDT]
Found this nugget at, of all places, Fox News...
It seems Chalabi's home in Baghdad was raided back in May 2004. So, who are these guys making the raid. Hmmm. It looks like there is a difference of opinion.
Coalition officials in Baghdad portrayed the raid as one in which the United States did not have a major role. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said it was led by Iraqi authorities with support from the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
Senior Department of Defense officials told Fox News that early reports that U.S. troops were involved in the actual raid itself were untrue. Instead, they said, soldiers provided a security perimeter but didn't accompany Iraqi police inside the Chalabi house."
He [Chalabi] said that more than five Humvees, filled with what he alleges were FBI and CIA officers and American civilians, came to the house where he and the defense minister live and forced their way in."
A U.S. official told Fox News that while the FBI and the United States Marshals Service were involved in Thursday's action, the CIA was not.
Well that last statement obviously can't be true. The raid had to do with Chalabi providing secret US intelligence to Iran and the UN Oil for Food Program right? So, to say that US Marshalls and the FBI were involved but the CIA was NOT is ridiculous, right?
Hmmm. Could one of the documents retrieved in the raid contain the name of a certain "Valerie Flame"?
Feel free to try to cool down this speculative fever I'm experiencing.
[UPDATE 4: 2005-10-19 11:55AM PDT]
Let's think about this for a minute...
The perceptive Christopher Dickey of Newsweek in his latest online post after Judy's testimony tells us a couple things...
1 his best theory of the crime is that Chalabi is the source
2 he enjoys writing out the name "Flame"
Mr. Dickey works for Newsweek. He cannot post an article that sketches the whole of his best theory. But he can hint.
I know, I know. But my fever is running hot. Cool me down.
So, now I have an opinion about the "P" versus the "F" distinction in Plame/Flame was an oral communication error or a document error. This opinion is based on a couple of so far not well explained Novak and Miller episodes.
It seems to me that the mistake of the "F" instead of a "P" for both Miller and Novak had nothing to do with not correctly hearing the pronunciation of a native speaker of english or arabic.
The error, whether purposefully made or not, was in a document.
First the Novak story.
We can presume it was a document because it makes no sense that Novak would make the spelling mistake in his Human Events article if it weren't. He's on TV all the time. He can think on his feet. He doesn't make errors like that much. He or, more likely, someone working for him, copied the spelling of Plame/Flame from the wrong document.
See, even smart perps make mistakes.
Carville also knew there was a document. He probably also knew whether it had turned up or not. So, he knew that Novak would not be able to say that it was merely a typo.
Carville, being the playful guy that he is, arranged in some way to have a Who's Who on the interviewer desk...
And the rest is, um, er, WAS Bob Novak's history. His bizarre behavior is explained by the fact that he knows there's document out there to be deathly afraid of. Hence, quick side exit.
And then there's Miller...
I have not yet heard a good explanation of why Fitz let Judy Miller off the hook on the unexplained source. The fact is, if there is a document that describes a "Valerie Flame" and Fitz has it in his possession, he didn't let her off.
Calling Robert Bennett. Calling Robert Bennett. Robert Bennet to the Judy Miller courtesy phone.
Hi Bob. It's Judy. He knows. It's time for us to cut a deal. Oh, we already cut a deal and I was supposed to tell the truth? Oh, that's right. Hey, can we call him back and cut another deal?