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[AssMan]

Mr. Smith came to Washington again Monday, as an alias for a Central Intelligence Agency officer who works covertly. Senators, however, may have blown his cover.


During questioning on John R. Bolton's nomination to be President Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton and members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee referred to "Mr. Smith" as one official among several who were involved in a dispute over what Democrats asserted was Bolton's inappropriate treatment of an intelligence analyst who disagreed with him.


"We referred to this other analyst at the CIA, whom I'll try and call Mr. Smith here, I hope I can keep that straight," Bolton said at one point.


Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., both mentioned a name, Fulton Armstrong, that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.


It is not clear whether Armstrong is the undercover officer, but an exchange between Kerry and Bolton suggests that he may be.


In questioning Bolton, Kerry read from a transcript of closed-door interviews that committee staffers conducted with State Department officials prior to Monday's hearing.


"Did Otto Reich share his belief that Fulton Armstrong should be removed from his position? The answer is yes," Kerry said, characterizing one interview. "Did John Bolton share that view?" Kerry said, and then said the answer again was yes.


"As I said, I had lost confidence in Mr. Smith, and I conveyed that," Bolton replied evenly. "I thought that was the honest thing to do."




LOL. They even had to stop the hearing for a bit, because of Kerry's comment.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/11/national/w172934D43.DTL

 

[explodet]

Robert "Douchebag of Liberty" Novak did the same thing, yes?
I didn't get the whole story.

 

[AssMan]

Yes. Just thought I'd add Kerry's name in the title. =P

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

I think the justice department has a backlog on outing of CIA agents. Just being me I think they should go ahead and take care the first one first and get to this one. I mean I know they are working SO hard of uncovering the culprit in the Plume fiasco.

 

[Mandark]

Dur, if they wanted to keep Fulton Armstrong's job as an intelligence analyst as a secret, they should probably not include his name, job description, and a sample of his work on the CIA website.

edit: Hey, they used to have a biography for the guy, too.

Fulton Armstrong
National Intelligence Officer for Latin America
Fulton T. Armstrong was appointed National Intelligence Officer for Latin America on 1 June 2000. Previously Mr. Armstrong served as Chief of Staff of the DCI Crime and Narcotics Center (CNC). Prior to that, he served two terms as a Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council (1995-97 and 1998-99) and as Deputy NIO for Latin America (1997-98).

Mr. Armstrong began his government career in 1980 as Legislative Assistant and Press Secretary to US Representative Jim Leach. In 1984-95, he served as analyst, political-economic officer, and manager specializing in Latin America in the both the intelligence and policy communities.

Prior to joining government, Mr. Armstrong worked four years as a reporter, editor, and translator in Taiwan. He earned his B.S. in Linguistics and Spanish at Georgetown University in 1976. He is fluent in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

 

[Dkong]

 

[Doth Togo]

Spanish and Mandarin Chinese? That's no joke. Good for him.

 

[Triumph]

Robert "Douchebag of Liberty" Novak did the same thing, yes?
I didn't get the whole story.

Yeah, I got beat to the Valerie Plame punch. Oh well.

 

[Drozmight]

good. screw the cia.

 

[Dilbert]

I'm getting really sick of this shit.

Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., both mentioned a name, Fulton Armstrong, that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.

Care to explain a) why you conveniently overlooked the fact that Lugar ALSO allegedly mentioned the name of the agent and b) why the already misleading title of your thread claims that Kerry is at it "again?"

I'll be expecting a response shortly, including some links to previous Kerry outings of secret agents.

And, if you are interested in getting some bonus points, you can also explain why Robert Novak isn't in jail. I have a security clearance, and I know exactly what would happen to me if I pulled the same shit that Novak did.

 

[Mandark]

Well, it doesn't really matter whether Lugar or Kerry mentioned the name first. The guy wasn't undercover to begin with. Heck, if Salon is allowed to use his name, why can't the US Senate? Is it somehow more of a risk? Are the enemies of America unwilling to sit through the flash ads for the free one-day trial?

My question is why the AP writer thought he was "covert" in the first place. I'm willing to chip in to get the AP a dial-up connection, and will even bookmark Google for them.

 

[FoneBone]

:lol :lol :lol
Even Michelle "Japanese internment camps were a good thing" Malkin says it's bullshit.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002056.htm

 

[Fragamemnon]

When even wild-eyed internment apologists say it's no big deal, it's no big deal.

You also fail to mention Sen. Lugar doing the same thing in the same meeting. The election is over, but the right wing is still obsessed on making sure that Kerry = traitor, Bush = Patriotic Dear Leader because they had such a grand time doing it in the election cycle.

Bolton's an embarassment. Nominated for the position because Condi can't handle his erratic , uncontrollable behavior like Powell could and with no one willing to give him the time of day after his power play to replace Richard Armitage in Condi's state department, Cheney (who's a big Bolton fan) had to give him a job somewhere, and where better than the UN, a high-level position where he'd be away from the Beltway policy and intelligence/diplomacy players that can't stand him.

Go on with your Kerry hating. Some of us voted for him, and not for the guy who nominated this sick, twisted, mirror universe Captain Kangaroo.

Edit: See, this is why political threads on GA aren't as good as they could be. The freepers drive-by and then haul off, and never stay for the fun get-your-noses-bloody part of the fight that's the most entertaining. LAME.

 

[Azih]

Dear god, the poster who started this thread really should add a "Fucked Up The" to his nick after this reaming.

 

[Loki]

Heck, if Salon is allowed to use his name, why can't the US Senate? Is it somehow more of a risk? Are the enemies of America unwilling to sit through the flash ads for the free one-day trial?

:lol

 

[bishoptl]

As our aptly named friend hasn't seen fit to respond to your queries, jinx - I'll do the honours.

 

[whytemyke]

anyone else here agree that if you're a politician and you out someone thats involved in black ops that you deserve to be hanged by your nuts in Ft Leavenworth?

And what ever came of that incident when the Bush administration outed that one spy about a year ago? The FBI needs to figure out who the fuck leaked that shit and then kill them. I have zero tolerance for people that betray those who are underneath them.

Mind you, it's these same people who out the agents that will sit and bitch because the US Clandestine services are godawful. Know why we're allies with Israel? Because we need Mossad intel. I'm sure the CIA/NSA would be doing just as well if the various white house administrations didn't handicap them from the beginning by turning spy jobs into political jobs.

fuck, i'm still pissed about Bush getting Tenet removed.

 

[Xenon]

Who is this Kerry fellow?

 

[Mandark]

Pretty soon I'm going to be reduced to either trolling efralope/Alciabades, or arguing with Loki. Jeez!

 

[Triumph]

I can pretty much say that while trolling Alcilope/Efrabiades is fun, it loses it's luster quick. There's no sport in fighting the handicapped.

Arguing with Loki can be fun, but only if you've got like eight spare hours to type bibles of responses back at his bibles of responses.