tv United States of Scandal CNNW March 24, 2024 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT
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>> i don't know if i'm doing is right. you notice a contraction at this feels like a picture as moment straight out so how can i feel in these moments? >> law can be first and foremost, grateful and >> this was back i know means any easy feat >> the video you just saw, cj was the first time he ever went to the beach. it's the first of many steps forward for cj and his new life and as you heard in the hour, he plans to go back to school to study law thanks for watching the whole story. i'll see you next sunday
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>> in the 30 or so years i've lived in washington, dc. i've watched this company town at work off-duty politicians and members of the press sometimes gathering over dinners are drinks to trade gossip and share secrets. because here information is the coin of the realm. >> but in the early 2000s and the terrible wake of 911, some in the dc media got a little too cozy with the bush white house as it tried to make the case for going to war in iraq and when the bush administration's cause for war started to unravel an explosive allegation became a federal investigation into whether the white house sought to retaliate gate against a critic by disclosing the identity of a covert cia agent whose name was suddenly everywhere back in
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2003. it's seemed as though everyone knew through this woman's name, valerie plane. valerie claimed gallery playing. valerie plane. you've probably heard my name >> but valery plane has a name you and i were never supposed to know because she was a covert cia operative who's covered was blown by some of the most powerful people on the planet. >> my name on it kennedy, were carelessly and recklessly abuse by senior government officials in both the white house and the state department. >> so why would the us government exposed with its own secret agents? well, to hear plane tell it, that's because her husband tried to blow the whistle on the white house's shaky justification for it. iraq, but that's just one version of the store and the whole truth is actually more illuminating. and in some ways, troubling the story begins in
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the wake of 911 with, bush administration officials fearful that saddam hussein over iraq might have weapons of mass destruction >> saddam hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction. >> the only thing that would keep americans safe would be to invade iraq take him out, which said, and so we did within the year, one man's step forward with what he believed to be the truth >> ambassador joe wilson >> valerie claims husband. wilson wrote an op-ed in the new york times claiming that but the bush administration was relying on shaky intelligence to assert that saddam was seeking uranium from africa because he was the guy who had been to niger or to find out >> there was no reason to believe that the transaction that had been alleged in these documents that were later deemed to be forgeries had ever taken place or could have taken place and the bush white house did not appreciate that this claim sets off a firestorm in
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washington a week after wilson blew the whistle, columnist robert novak working >> on a tip from the bush administration, published an article, not only refuting wilson's claim but also suggesting that the trip you took, the niger was green-lit by low level cia operatives without the knowledge of higher-ups, the bush administration struck back by revealing the identity of his wife a cia operative, >> somebody deliberately blew her covered. >> so serious matter, not only do you put her at risk, but you also put the sources they have worked with over the years here's a considerable risk >> the fallout from the whole debacle was massive. the equivalent of a scandal dirty bomb almost every senior white house official had to testify. >> the law makes it illegal who knowingly and maliciously reveal the identity of a code agent. >> the preliminary inquiry had given way to a full blown criminal investigation that will of course, focus on the president's inner circle.
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>> this story was incredibly influential to my identity as a journalist. it was a reminder that the press must always challenge the people in power no matter how much public support those politicians may have in the lead up to the war are fragile system of checks and balances this meant that instead of sounding the alarm some in the fourth estate to many of us joined the drumbeat for war that resulted in the deaths the more than 100,000 iraqis and thousands of us troops. one that diminishing trust in the news media. and destroyed the cia career of 11 mean at the center of it. all >> we good >> great. >> were you concerned at all that the revealing of your name could put lives at risk, is that possible? >> yes, it is possible absolutely. there's a reason that obs work undercover, which is so that you can move around
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the world. you can recruit, you can handle the assets without endangering them or their families the fact that a journalist knew my true cia affiliation or somehow was put onto it, whether it was confirmed or not, was deeply unsettling to me unsettling to also believe that being outed as a covert cia agent is the work of the government. you are risking your life to protect to take a step back for those of you who don't remember the bush years, let's remind you of the cast of characters here. president george w bush campaigned in the year 2000 as a compassionate conservative decidedly not focused overseas the bush administration. understood itself to be a domestic policy administration prior to 911 there wasn't much of foreign policy strategy in place. >> bush, of course, wanted to be taken seriously on the international stage, but just three years earlier, he
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couldn't name the leaders here's a foreign powers who had nuclear weapons after 911. of course, all that changed the most powerful individuals on this subject was vice president richard cheney, vice president dick cheney, architect of a neo conservative foreign policy that reshaped the middle east and adding to his menacing public persona, drew comparisons to darth vader. >> public image. he ultimately embraced >> if we're going to talk sorry about star wars, we might as long indict darth vader >> he had developed a reputation as kind of a very service pithy, tough-guy if you provide sanctuary to terrorist, you face the full wrath of the united states of america >> he was arguably the most powerful vip in history then there were various said secretaries and aids widely beloved secretary of state colin powell and his close friend and deputy richard armitage the tough guy secretary of defense don rumsfeld and louis scooter,
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libby affectionally referred to around the white house as dick cheney's dick cheney >> libby was chief of staff to the vice president. so he was a senior person and helping keeps trains on time. >> and finally, someone who always had president bush's ear, senior advisor to the president karl rove call row hopefully this one of pushes top political people and media gurus. >> he was always colorful character. he will run. but when you give him money look at him both donor rapid wrapping aka rome. >> it was a weird time, but ultimately this was a scandal that could not have happened without the news media and of course, after months of us troops in iraq, still no serious stockpile of weapons of mass destruction had been found. >> it makes sense, except if
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you look at it from that place and time where the administration is in a little bit of a panic no wmd has been found. we've been told there's an imminent nuclear threat. the americans are kind of getting restless and they decided they would want to make an sample of joe wilson and valerie plane to shut that down >> but is that actually what happened >> there is >> no media >> personality >> businesswomen, celebrity chef, like her the many lives of martha stewart. now streaming on macs >> hello me >> are you ready to eat your demise? >> now we really need to upgrade your trash top >> night shot, shot taker. >> who programmed you
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at the white house blow the cover of a cia operative after her husband criticize the run-up to the war the white house has certainly been thrown out a defense and as a result of this issue, but it does have a real scandal on his hands >> the plane the fair did not follow the usual scandal playbook claims downfall was not caused by her own flaws or mistakes >> now >> she was a woman just doing her job until she ran up against the hubris and egos of several menn so when you joined the cia, i understand your mom was worried as every mother wouldn't be the central intelligence agency needs men and women with backgrounds in computer and physical sciences to you, we say these are times to put your training and ability to work where it really comes after cia so this is the 1990s and why would you want to join the cia? like how did that? >> just because it was the reagan era and patriotism was part of, that was part i come from a family of public service. so there was this idea
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in my family of quiet patriotism, not to mention it sounded like it was a lot more interesting than what any of my friends were doing the need for cia covert operations has been essential both before and after the collapse of the soviet union. and with the soviet nuclear stockpile scattered terrorists at the time were eager to get their hands on any nuclear weapons they could find valerie playing was part of a clandestine group responsible for making sure that didn't happen. i mean, how would you describe yourself? what were you there was undercover an undercover cia officer? yes. i always what's called a case officer. i did operations. i was undercover. >> own your spine? >> yeah. >> i just picture i have all sorts of pictures of like, you know, here you are in casa blanca wearing a hijab and talking to an arms dealer for what sets it a piece of it. yes. essentially making sure the bad guys do not get nuclear weapons. i loved what i did. i was proud to serve my country i
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thought i had the best job in the world valerie and i served our country for collective 43 years. she served for 20 and i served for 23. we served our country as a matter americans. >> he worked under george hw bush. >> absolutely hw bush called him a true american hero. >> what was it like when you madam was love at first sight, where you swept off your feet, where he was? >> yes. yes. yes he was handsome and so intelligent and spoke perfect french and he was kind of in my world hold having lived and worked overseas ambassador wilson gained considerable distinction the outset of the gulf war in 1991 for saving american citizens we're resident in kuwait city at the time of the iraq invasion, after five months of having, having worked as hard as we have been able to work. having the hostages home is real pleasure to be back here. >> he was something of a heroic figure in the state department at that time
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>> joe willis sen. was a very flamboyant diplomat didn't suffer fools gladly. and he definitely had confidence dense in his own abilities. >> once it i'm hussein threatened to hang anyone who assisted american hostages escaping kuwait city. wilson showed up to a press conference with a noose around his neck, bringing new meaning to the term statement piece it's fair to say, i think that he had a certain degree of showmanship is that fair to say? >> i mean, yeah, he was really combative. he understood that sometimes the only way you i can deal with a bully is get right up into his face. >> but the united states decade of intelligence gathering could not prepare them for the largest international terrorist attack the us ever faced >> we believe a commercial jet has crashed into one of the towers of the world trade center. at this point, we do not have official injury updates to bring you >> 911 happens.
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>> how did >> that affect your professional wife >> hi, guess everyone else it you knew immediately, we were at war within days, the us sent troops to afghanistan to root out al-qaeda operatives, responded well for 911. and so with the war on terror officially underway, president bush adopted a policy to combat any potential threats from around the world the bush doctrine of preemptive strikes hit them before they hit us. >> george w bush had become convinced that the way to keep him erica, safe from future terrorist attacks is to spread freedom. and the way to spread freedom in the middle east, whose to confront threats before they merged. >> if we wait for threats to fully materialize paralyze we will have waited too long i >> personally supported us going into afghanistan routing the caliban. there's no question that was the root of what had happened with 911 but
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there were still smoke coming off the world trade towers when it camp david rumsfeld is unfolding maps of iraq, saying, now here, we have some real targets. >> are you all star deems return for a waterfront redemption? didn't you down, like in a brand, but only one will make us flash. i think we nailed it up the block, all new monday 99 on hgtv. >> this will be a goldmine of local intel. just you way. >> so tell us about this corn festival. he got your corn pudding. you've got your corn chowder what does it safe for anterior? sometime. >> the family of eight were to need a cold plunge. where would they find it? >> then they dip it in butter and bam, it goes right, really cute vampire bar like a deselect lesson on the comer donut shops. how far from >> know eyebrows. think about light. it'll feel in the summer we kind of run 11,000 or neighborhoods to go >> homes.com my store, my design business works but my
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the arizona mexico cnn there are many theories as to why bush wanted to to stop a potential threat >> to spread democracy in the middle east to m, the reign of a leader who supported what a terrorism, to exact revenge for saddam, trying to kill his dad president george hw bush. and on, and on >> and yet, >> even though trade his elements were ultimately detecting, it was nothing on the scale of ready to use
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stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction >> at this point the white house it's trying to build consensus around the fact that iraq has weapons of mass destruction >> let us flash to 2002 after 911 there is this determination to not only go after al-qaeda, but to make sure that any other potential threat is not able to hit the united let states. >> that's right. i don't think the country had quite yet realized that we were already pivoting, poured a rock >> a >> younger junior analysts received a phone call from the office of the vice president and they wanted to know about this report that was circulating and the intelligence community at that time about this tremendous sale, 500 tons of yellow cake uranium, which is used in the process to make highly enriched uranium from niger to iraq. so my boss at the time asked me to
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go home and ask my husband ambassador joe wilson did come into the cia headquarters we're they could talk with him about this report and see if he might be willing to go to niger to check it out further. >> wilson had trusted connections with the political elites of new share. and obviously if there was any truth to these radioactive allegations, wilson would want on to alert the bush administration >> he >> flies back from new share. what happens? >> there cia analysts there at the house to debrief them immediately because this information, it goes back to the office of the vice president they sit down in the living room. angel said, look, this report about yellowcake uranium, this could never have happened. this is a totally bogus report >> here's >> who i spoke to. here's what they know, and so forth. >> thank you very much, >> ambassador wilson, and they left and that was but the public heard a different message dictated by the white
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house information group headed up karl rove, scooter, libby national security adviser, condoleezza rice, and vice president dick cheney. their mission was to get and sell the iraq war driving home the message of the president and to some who bought the message as supporting details stood out in that march 2002 cia intelligence report based on wilson's visit to niger, mentioning that wilson learned of an inquiry iraq had made about expanding commercial relations with niger who's leading export was uranium. but since there was no active deal, what was reported was that there wasn't much to it >> the >> ways in which the news media and the white house interact can be very inside baseball, but it's crucial to understanding just how exactly the story unfolded. because i was not a matter of the white house press corps at the time. i turn to my old friend, matthew cooper, who was on the beat for time magazine in 2002. and ended up being caught in the eye of the storm in some
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ways, i look back at the bush years and how there was not enough critical coverage of the case for when the bush administration was making it. i don't think no press >> i >> think dropped the ball at times. right? >> what is the >> gang of a white house correspondent other than reporting on what the president does and trying to break stories two gig is to have relationships, but it's to never forget what those relationships are for their in service of getting information to the reader. it's not about you making friends or it's not about you feeling important i mean, look, people in the world biden has noted that you're not there to be their friend but sometimes it serves their interests to leak certain things >> washington, dc is a company town. everyone is here to participate in politics cortex, knowing people in relationships is actually the key to journalism. >> you can be at a table at brunch and someone very powerful is sitting next you, and you can get good dc is just
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that kind of talent. it never shuts off the information is churning 24 hours >> and with a grief stricken nation, fully supporting them after 911, the bush administration was headed towards for its war in iraq. and the further their case they planted intelligence with new york times reporter judith miller, who along with matthew cooper from time magazine, was among the white house press corps heavy hitters. scooter libby met with miller and september 2002 judith miller and writes an article in the new york times. it alleges that the iraqi government has quotes, sought to buy thousands of specialty designed aluminum tubes which american officials believed were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium. now, we've later find out scooter libby who is vice president cheney's chief of staff, told this to judith miller, right? yes. so you're at a point where it's a total echo chamber, right? >> the echo chamber worked like
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this. the white house would leak opinions and information to select friendly journalists. those they had a strong relationship with those journalists would report that information sometimes without independently confirming it to be true. and then officials from the white house would go on tv and cite those journalists as proof of their claims >> there's a story that new york times this morning that in fact he has been seeking to acquire the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge. and the centrifuges required to take low grade uranium and enhance it into highly enriched gradient, which is what you have to have in order to build a bomb >> it worked so well, they kept doing it >> we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. you can't distinguish between al-qaeda and saddam, when he talked about the war on terror >> and while they've been building their case for war through the news media pipeline, the could grant came at the state of the union address when president bush read these 16 words that were absolute we chilling the
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british government has learned to saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa as we prepare to go to combat in march 2003 i thought maybe the president and his inner circle has access to intelligence far beyond my pay grade. >> you were giving him the benefit of the doubt. >> was >> no, but joe wasn't necessarily know was just continuing to dig away at the state of the union to address, which you know, is the most heavily vetted. each word is way and thought and argued how did that get in? that doesn't thank sense >> seven astronauts setting off on a scientific mission, columbia, houston check. >> i didn't know anything concerning it happen there were people that did though >> the space shuttle accident, it's usually not one thing, it's a series of events >> you follow the debris.
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fellow v0 to three-to-one, three-to-one. today >> i've are still alvarez at the white house and this is cnn my march 2003, the us invaded iraq partly using bushes, infamous 16 words as a final >> justification for war and now with the war on terror raging in both iraq and afghanistan popular culture followed suit in favor of tobi keith, aggressive brand of patriots criticism. >> we have pulled up many reputations wrong. and so many americans watching the war unfold on tv scene comforted to know that, yes, our troops were indeed kicking >> we're continuing to watch the skies over baghdad on a very active night. they're having what have been characterized as a relative we
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easy time of it disappointed that the bombs, the cruise missiles fell before you've got your orders to move forward? >> no, sir. >> it's post 911 america and the white house can ride that story line forever. and in some ways, the preska to the whole world was watching. >> and then just six weeks into the invasion of iraq, a new made for tv spectacle. president bush hitching a ride on a fighter jet to the uss abraham blinken just off the coast of san diego to make what proved to premature announcement. north's w bush puts on a flight suit >> yeah, >> a tight one >> frankly >> he's got the luck, doesn't he will tell you that is the fighter pilot stride if i ever saw it, he's it's got to go and i'm crews >> and then he gives a speech about the end of combat operations with a huge banner behind him. it says, mission accomplished the mission was not accomplished. >> no, not remote be accomplished in it'll go down
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as well. so the great moments of presidential hubris of all time in the battle of iraq >> the united states and our allies have prevailed the united states have not won a war in iraq. united states had started a war in iraq. >> this moment capsulated everything they critics of the iraq war were saying which was that this was too much about marketing and not enough about solid intelligence. >> and then the other thing that was not particularly covered here as aggressively as i think you would agree, it should have, which is where are the weapons of mass destruction? where are they exactly? >> i mean, we get there and there's no secret labs, there's no reactor, there's no centrifuges. the whole cost of war suddenly seems rather suspect >> there's an understatement. because as soon as us troops landed in iraq, it quickly became apparent that americans were saved from wmd is in iraq
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as the troops actively searching for them. >> oh, weapons of mass destruction were found at far from being a quick victory iraq went up in sectarian flames i remember this very well. i was writing for the web salon.com, and i was covering the way us service members were not finding weapons of mass destruction most americans and journalists seemed to take it for granted that wmd would eventually be found. but of course that's because none of us knew what joe wilson had been up to and watching the war proceed was just too much for joe so what did joe due from the state of the union? 2003 >> he turn this over every moment joe was like look i know i went to new share. i investigated these reports. that wasn't true who spoke to his former colleagues and the state department? he spoke to people up on the hill that this isn't right. >> i became an obsession yes
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>> joe wilson >> was so upset that after months of stewing over bushes, false statement, he published an op-ed in the new york times refuting bush's state of the union address, claim, basically calling the president out as a liar can accuse the white house and manipulating the intelligence from niger to justify an invasion of iraq. >> new questions about the president's case against her rock with some of the base, i'm bad intelligence. so tell me about when you first read >> joe wilson's op-ed. it was really like a lightning bolt galvanizing >> he had a >> lot of credit because he had been a bush one ambassador. then all the sudden that kind of wait, where the hell are the nuclear? your weapons question was front and center >> all hell broke loose did the administration mislead us on weapons of mass destruction? >> the british government has learned to saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa
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>> and wilson refuting those 16 words cause the white asked to retreat from the statement faster than you could say, freedom fries. >> no one. now what we did not know at the time of the state of the union and the president in retrospect, when i've included that remarks, and the state of the union speeches, you can expect the president to know every detail about every phrase and such a long complex address unless of course, you go to the most unlikely of sources, the white house's own website which displays a picture of the president, quote, reviewing the state of the union address line in by line, word by word, behind the scenes, vice president cheney strongly opposed the white house taking it back. >> the >> british after all, were standing by their intelligence your husband, he made his point. the white house conceded is point done. >> that's right. >> except to watson. >> the bush team could have dropped this right then and there but they didn't. where were you when the robert novak column came out in the washington post? >> the first time i read it in
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print was the morning of but you didn't know that he had done it. you knew i had no idea. no idea. we had no idea robert novak was a legendary conservative columnist with more than 40 years of reporting in washington dc. >> i'm robert hold back. >> but to many of his colleagues, he was known as the prince of darkness, who was a fixture on cable news. >> do you think democrats have got their house in order? i'm taking a pasting from the republicans last november no way >> he was very tied into the bush administration. and if he was saying something you knew that he was getting it straight from the white house? >> the washington post lands on your stoop? >> yeah. brighten early 530 >> joe picks >> up the paper, comes upstairs and he through the paper on the bet and i snatched it up, read it >> there's a journalist out there my name undercover
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>> no bank was trying to discredit ambassador wilson with the leak of my name i just felt like i'd been sucker punched the son of a did it >> you ready? >> yeah. i can somebody asked you, what are you to do glasgow sometimes say american >> i would imagine sought in these roles, know what they say safety. >> third, i'm a disabled person just like you're not a person with black nets i'm a. trying to be commendation. all right. in the visa i'm trying to be conversational sometimes it takes a different approach >> to imagine your future differently this capella universities game changing flux path format set your own deadlines and access coursework anytime
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>> in late 2003 while the bush administration was very busy sending troops into iraq to not find any wmd. valerie plane was dealing with her own show after her covert cia status was revealed by robert novak and his syndicated opinion column, >> wilson never worked for the cia, but his wife, valerie the flame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. >> you must have a theory about why they did this. i think that the white house was feeling pretty vulnerable. and so they decided to make the story about joe wilson and valerie plane. >> were you worried about your babies? >> i was it's because there's a lot of people out there that don't think highly of the cia. >> but >> whatever happens to me happens to me, it's part of the deal, but my children and that was absolutely horrifying >> you are outed as a cia operative, undercover and all
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sorts of countries can then go back and look at cia sources that are in their own governments in their own countries and potentially even in torture or kill them. >> exactly. this is horrifying. it pains me to think that i even inadvertently would put anyone in danger. >> it is really, truly despicable. a public servant is wasting his time attacking my family with valerie being the talk of the town, wilson and playing wanted justice. >> wilson says the leak was payback for his criticism of the administration's iraq policy. >> i would hope that an investigation would yield the information as to who was responsible for the precise leak. >> the >> cia was, in fact, very upset about what happened and they ultimately asked justice department apartment to do an investigation but justice department as launched an inquiry into who gave a nationally syndicated columnist the name of a cia age. >> if there's a leak out of my administration, i want so good. yes. if the person has violated
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laws of personal be taken care of, the justice department began an investigation into the leak in september 2003, the first journalist who have reported her name was novak, obviously so the prosecutor, patrick fitzgerald summon novak for a private meeting the public did not learn about this for years, but it turns out that the late robert novak, the all prince of darkness, immediately revealed his confidential sources >> patrick fitzgerald knew that armitage was the lake because in the first secret interrogation of me if it's gero indicated he knew the identity of not only my primary source, but my secondary source of my tertiary source >> deputy secretary of state richard armitage had apparently inadvertently leaked planes identity and karl rove, to his surprise, became novak's second source. based only on what he remembers telling novak, quote, i heard that too. it came originally from the state department the league. >> well, what we now know is
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that there were actually multiple points. >> there are multiple points of late. we know that it was richard armitage who was the deputy secretary of state, correct? >> and with that much internal chatter about the op-ed valerie planes named found its way to journalists, including judith miller in matthew cooper cooper published an article in time saying government officials had revealed to him valerie is name miller didn't publish anything the justice department subpoena them both to testify about who their sources were they want to know who your sources were. >> it was clear that that's what they were interested >> and you wouldn't tell them. >> i would tell them >> and judith miller was in jail? >> yes, she was found in contempt as she did go to jail >> it is a sad time when >> to journalists faced the prospect i'm going to prison for keeping those confidences. >> cooper narrowly avoided jail time when his source, karl rove, granted cooper permission to reveal his identity. if
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it's heralds grand jury. >> and you heard valerie planes name from i heard from a couple of people created from karl rove in shorter form from scooter, libby, vice president's chief of staff however called rove. and he's >> like wilson's wife's all cia and carlos like, right. but you totally can't tell anyone. i told you that was all i totally oh, and carles, all you double secret. >> and that was >> totally super secret. double steeper secret won't tell by this point so many bush officials have been identified as leakers. it seemed easier to ask who was not involved? finger-pointing was everywhere. joe wilson earned iyer within the white house for what he was saying, such as at a forum in seattle when he said, quote wouldn't it be funny to see karl rove frog marched out of the white house and handcuffs. >> but >> as for who actually got in trouble for the league, only one member of the information task took the fall louis scooter, libby, the vice president's right-hand man to actually testified that he
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first heard the name from late nbc washington bureau chief, tim roster did you, know, that a back of the wilson's white work at the in and i was a little taken aback by that i said no, i don't know that >> but roster disputed that and fitzgerald charged libby with perjury >> the indictment charges libby with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of false statements to fbi agents, and two counts of perjury i wish fitzgerald had been able to convict more because clearly there was a conspiracy and there was a >> law that passed under reagan, making it a crime to out intelligence operatives. that's >> correct. it's called the intelligence identities protection act unfortunately, the bar is pretty high to be able to prove that someone did it knowingly and this is what
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special prosecutor, fitzgerald was up against to try to prove that any of them had my identity revealed four the far east purposes for me, what when i found this out, i felt like there were passing out my name like candy. are you kidding me? >> whether you >> know, my covert status are not, you just don't do that. so do that and armitage should have known better >> what's weird is it armitage kind of escapes this whole thing with his reputation intact, do anything? yeah. hey guys, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i did that >> well, i feel terrible every day. i think i went down the president, i'll let down the secretary of state. i let down by department, my family and i so let down mr. mrs. wilson. >> others should have been held accountable. clearly, there was a conspiracy >> was there. >> it all started after all when robert novak ran into joe wilson in the nbc meet pressed green room, novak thought wilson was a quote asl then
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when novak talk to armitage a couple of days later, he asked why the cia would say and wilson tunisia >> what's up with this guy? >> and that's when armitage told him, well >> i think his wife sent him washington, dc is more gossipy than a high school london through his washington more like house of cards or is it more like vip? and i'm here to tell you, washington is more like vip stupidity always the explanation in washington, dc, there was a sort of conspiracy to push out this certain narrative dick cheney had written in the model margins of joseph bed, who's his wife question mark >> what cheney had actually written, quote have they done this sort of thing before send an ambassador to answer? question, do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us or did his wife sent him on a junkie bush white house supporters note that patrick fits gerald never charged anyone, but libby never proved
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to conspiracy and never prove that anyone new plane was covert. >> but it is closing arguments at libby sentencing. fitzgerald stated, quote, there is a cloud over what the vice president did that week. we didn't put that cloud there that cloud remains because the defendant has obstructed justice lied about what happened >> las vegas wouldn't be here if it wasn't in casa state of evolution. >> he really get inaugurated a new hero for the stars boy, did it get me vegas? >> the story of sensitive next on cnn >> on the chasing life pod cast, dr. sanjay gupta goes inside the world of weight loss. the numerical drugs and what we've really tells us about her health chasing life with dr. sanjay to listen wherever you get your podcasts >> only at vanguard, your more than just an investor, you're an owner are financial planning
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in the, fallout from the plane investigation, only scooter libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison, which george w bush >> later commuted jaime thought libby was guilty of nothing worse than a faulty memory and thought bush would pardon him. but at a private lunch, bush told cheney he would not >> mr. president. >> cheney told >> him you are leaving a good man wounded on the field of babble i was clearly >> not happy in that we in effect life scooter sort of hanging in the wind beyond all of it, armitage, bush cheney wrote libby fitzgerald was valerie playing a woman who had done nothing but serve her country and it was now left to pick up the pieces of her life and career you and joe separated before he passed away in 2019? i mean, did this tear you apart or was it caused a great deal of damage because i couldn't speak out for some time. he was carrying the water for both of us and i think
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ultimately it just cuts so deeply >> hoping to prevent future leaks, congress called a hearing on whether white house officials followed protocol for protecting valerie planes identity we in the cia always know that we might be exposed and threatened by foreign enemies. it was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my hover leaving her with well a lot of shock and all >> ultimately, we were sort of a template for what we see today in terms of distortion and disinformation and the involvement in the media unwittingly or not >> as the wilson plane brahma ended on the domestic front, the cost on the international stage of the wmd issue was much harsher with an entire region paying a much deadlier price because of a war, many americans would come to view as a mistake this was a, war that
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ended up with tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dead innocent iraqis complete destabilization of iraq, thousands of american dead service members wounded, service members, service members who went on to take their own lives. they thought they were doing good, but the result of it is hard to justify >> we're not just talking about an abstract thing let's kinda, you know, who, who is right, who is wrong, was good, who is bad. this had real consequences and so this is the rare scandal that really mattered. >> one year into the war, it was finally dawning on the bush administration. the gravity of its actions >> so tonight i'm going to do one of my slide shows those weapons of mass destruction got to be somewhere >> i'm kidding. obviously that didn't happen.
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>> nope, no weapons over we're there >> i vividly remember sitting in that very room in credulous people were dead or wounded because of this hunt for wmd. this wasn't funny it made me sick. and a whole room full of news media was all in on the so-called joe a joke that had a body count what is this about? is it a bout media being two chow me with politicians? is it about and administration so blinded by their desire to go to war and justify it that they're willing to do anything if the old adage show you the first casualty of war is the truth. it's really true here. >> i mean they did want to extend their prefabrication. they're lying, however you want to put it about the war through another means. but it's also about a culture of the press that's not always
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responsible i found, the administration side and the press side. >> so many people in the media, we're taking the bush administration's words at face value, >> totally. everybody has to do a hard look at themselves afterwards. >> looking back at this scandal, i am struck by the fact that the real source of the leak was dick armitage someone who seemed to have just gotten caught up in gaza in an incestuous gab fast with a columnist with an agenda. and then my focus, turns to us maybe in the plane affair we in the news media found it convenient narrative to go after the bush administration because we did not push back enough on its defense of faulty intelligence. the first time >> this information is rampant, trust in the media is the lowest. it's ever been >> if we >> encounter an event that unites the country has feverish liu september 11, 2001 did well that's when we'll see how much we've actually learned
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and what about president bush recently he spoke against vladimir putin's barbaric invasion of ukraine, which putin justified by citing bushes, iraq war and while the comparison differs in many key ways, putin was not the only one with iraq on his mind >> the result is an absence of checks and balances in russia and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of iraq i mean ukraine all right. anyway one of the most uncomfortable freudian slips i've ever seen
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