Valerie Plame's job was to help prevent Iran from getting nukes

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CBS News Teaser for 60 Minutes interview with Valerie Plame

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But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.

Preview of the 60 Minutes interview with Valerie Plame Wilson, October 18, 2007

Plame Wilson's 20 years at the CIA put her in touch with many individuals with whom she linked up secretly while pursuing intelligence on her mission to keep rogue nations from obtaining nuclear weapons. Did she ever hear if any of these individuals suffered because of the leak of her identity? "Yes I have. That's all I can say," she tells Couric, who then asks if it was bad news. "I have heard -- I have had some news," she replies.

Think Progress, 10/20/2007

Plame’s CIA job was to stop Iran from obtaining nukes.

In her first interview since Bush administration officials outed her as a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson reveals to CBS 60 Minutes that she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview to be aired this Sunday, CBS reports that she was “involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran.”

Transcript:

KATIE COURIC: This Sunday on 60 Minutes, Valerie Plame Wilson gives her first interview since top Bush administration officials exposed her role as an undercover CIA agent four years ago. CBS News has learned she was involved in operations to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview, we talked about what it meant to have her identity revealed.

[BEGIN 60 MINUTES CLIP]

COURIC: What went through your mind when you saw your name in print?

PLAME: Oh, it was horrifying, absolutely horrifying.

COURIC: She served 20 years in the CIA, many undercover in the agency’s counterproliferation division, rising to top positions and confronting one of the most ominous threats of our time.

PLAME: Our mission was to make sure that the bad guys, basically, did not get nuclear weapons.

COURIC: When senior administration officials leaked her name to reporters, they may have exposed other spies and damaged operations targeting Iran. CBS News has learned that she was involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran. It was called Operation Merlin, and it was first revealed in a book by investigative reporter James Risen.

COURIC: Are you familiar with that?

PLAME: I don’t think I can tell you.

COURIC: He said the idea was to give the Iranians blueprints for the bomb that were seriously flawed to set them back. Does that sound like something the counter-proliferation division would do?

PLAME: I think I can say it sounds like a good idea.

COURIC: Were you surprised to read about Operation Merlin in the press?

PLAME: Indeed.

COURIC: Is that problematic for the CIA?

PLAME: Leaks are always bad news.

COURIC: She should know, revealing for the first time that the leak of her name had serious repercussions.

PLAME: I can tell you all the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databases to see did anyone by this name come in the country? When? Do we know anything about it? Where did she stay? Who did she see?

COURIC: And what would be the ramifications of that?

PLAME: Well, it was very serious. It puts in danger, if not shuts down, the operations that I had worked on.

The Raw Story, "Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say," February 13, 2006:

[...] While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.

[...]Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.

[...]Three intelligence officers confirmed that other CIA non-official cover officers were compromised, but did not indicate the number of people operating under non-official cover that were affected or the way in which these individuals were impaired. None of the sources would say whether there were American or foreign casualties as a result of the leak.

Several intelligence officials described the damage in terms of how long it would take for the agency to recover. According to their own assessment, the CIA would be impaired for up to "ten years" in its capacity to adequately monitor nuclear proliferation on the level of efficiency and accuracy it had prior to the White House leak of Plame Wilson's identity.

Three points:

1. Double check the date on that last set of quotes. The article was written over 18 months ago, in February of 2006. Even before then - but especially since - we've been hearing the ever loudening beat of the war drums as Bush and the neocons. Yet, no candidate, political activist group, op-ed commentators or major bloggers have either paid attention to the heinously hypocritical stance of Bush and the neocons, or - if they have paid it any attention - they've been unable to get this story the kind of attention it deserves.
   
   
2. Bush's comment during the press conference apparently means that he's not intrested in preventing World War III since he obviously doesn't give a damn about preventing the Iranians to get a hold of the knowledge necessary to make an atomic weapon.
   
   
3. Some politician - preferably a Democratic Presidential front runner - or some pundit (I'm looking your way, Mr. Olbermann!) needs to start making a regular practice of making a big deal of bringing up Bush's comments about preventing World War III by keeping Iran from getting the knowledge to make nuclear weapons, followed by Mrs. Plame Wilson's comments that her work as part of the CIA's counterproliferation team was to prevent Iran from getting the knowledge to make nuclear weapons, and that damage to our ability to do just that, has - as a direct result of her being outed as a CIA agent to punish her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson - been severely damaged.