Eye on Innovation, Design and Technology

The First Leak

In June 2003, prior to Wilson's moment in the sun, W. Pincus published the first report regarding the tea-drinking ambassador's trip

the CIA in early February 2002 dispatched a retired U.S. ambassador to the country to investigate the claims, according to the senior U.S. officials and the former government official, who is familiar with the event. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity and on condition that the name of the former ambassador not be disclosed.

Thus the questions are:

Who were "The Sources" that leaked this information to Pincus?

Was this information considered classified at the time and if so was there any law broken?

If this report was already public, why did Wilson feel the need to go public in his own name, thus putting his wife's cover at risk as described below?

Wilson was the first person to expose Valerie Plame

In the entire Joseph Wilson/Valerie Plame controversy, one point has been overlooked

David Corn states:

"Revealing an undercover officer's relationship to the CIA is what blows the cover."

Yes it does. And from that we can conclude that
the first outing of Valerie Plame occurred the day her husband, a former ambassador, published in the NYT an editorial stating that he had a project with the CIA regarding finding WMD. The reason is because WILSON'S BIOS ON THE INTERNET HAD VALERIE PLAME BY NAME AS HIS WIFE.  Her name was posted on the internet as his wife in at least three different bios of Wilson at the time of the NYT op ed. One can be found here. I understant at least one of them has been removed.
IF (and a big IF) Plame was such a covert agent, considering that her name and her relationship to Wilson were searchable on the internet, don't
you consider that Wilson's actions would have made her ability to continue carrying
covert operations a bit difficult?
If you are under deep cover, do you want the
bad guys to know that you are married to someone who brags that has done
projects on WMD for the CIA and then writes editorials for the largest
newspapers in the U.S., goes on T.V. and gives press conferences about it,
while your name is associated to your spouse's bio that is posted on the internet?
The whole point of DEEP COVER is that there is no way that you can be
associated with governmental spy entities.
The day Wilson's editorial appeared in the NYT Valerie Plame went from being the wife of Joseph Wilson, former ambassador, retired, to the wife of Joseph Wilson, CIA contractor that investigates WMD and can not keep his mouth shut.
I think that the hypothetical conversation between the bad guys that I
outline below under such an scenario would have been fairly plausible, even if Novak's column would have never been published.

Ms. Plame is in Russia in 2004, back in business, trying to obtain WMD information from
black market dealers.
> > > Dealer 1: So who is this chick Plame?
> > > Dealer 2: I do not know, let me check on the Internet.
> > > Dealer 2: I found on Google this site where it says that she is the wife of some
> > > Joseph Wilson.
> > > Dealer 1: What?
> > > Dealer 2: Joseph Wilson, former ambasador.
> > > Dealer 1: The Joseph Wilson? The one that wrote in U.S. papers that he
> > > worked for the CIA looking for WMD?
> > > Dealer 2: I guess so.
> > > Dealer 1: The next time you see this chick make sure that our names never appear on the paper.

Note I did not say that Wilson leaked classified information nor that he broke the law. Simply that his boundless ego compromised his wife's cover so that from there on she would always be at risk of her cover being blown, thus effectively ending her career.
He could have actually published the same information under a fake name and the damage would not have occurred. But his obvious quest for publicity would not let him do that, thus by looking for the limelight under his own name, he was the first person that caused irreparable harm to her career.

Update:

This is the reference to the now gone Wilson's bio at, of all places, the Saudi-linked Middle East Institute that was available back in July 2003.

Update 2

Apparently I am not the only one that thinks that Wilson's Op-Ed was in itself a significant risk to his wife's cover.
Only 36 major news organization and reporter's groups agree with me. Perhaps there might me others that disagree but I will be happy with those.
I recommend reading the following document, it makes for fascinating reading.
"Motion of 36 major news organizations and reporters groups for leave to file a brief Amici Curiae and brief Amici Curiae in support for rehearing Em Banc of appelants Judith Miller, Matthew Cooper and Time, Inc.".   A link to the document: (Hat tip:  Kausfiles)

It has the following gold nugget on page 11.

Wilson Op-Ed. Did no one at Langley think that Plame's Identity might be compromised if her spouse writes a nationally distributed Op-Ed piece discussing a foreign mission about a volatile political issue that focused on her subject matter expertise?

Update 3.

The original Wilson's bio from the Middle East Institute in this link, with copyright date of 2002 and archive date of 2003.   Thus, in conclusion, Valerie Plame's name, and its married relationship to Wilson were PUBLIC DOMAIN INFORMATION prior to Wilson's Op ed and Novak's article.

Liability Lawsuits and the Influenza Vaccine

The ongoing story regarding the shortage of influenza vaccine has the pundits looking for the causes. Instapundit refers to a post from Kevin Drum that discounts liability lawsuits as the main reason. Professor Bainbridge covers the subject here
Polipundit then referred to a story from Frontpage magazine that stated

In the late 80’s a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company.

What did he do? He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million!

On the other hand, Snopes claims that this story is an urban legend.

the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 eliminated most of those lawsuits through the creation of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), a no-fault compensation alternative to suing vaccine manufacturers and providers for people injured or killed by vaccines. According to a 2003 report by the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), "vaccine shortages do not appear to be liability related":

Unfortunately, Snopes does not have the whole story, since the Vaccine Injury Compensation program does not cover the influenza vaccine.

Vaccines covered under the program include those that protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), and polio. The program continues to evolve consistent with medical science, and recently, HHS expanded coverage to four new vaccines: hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), Hemophilus influenzae type b, and rotavirus; pneumococcal vaccine will soon be covered, too.

Note that Hemophilus Influenzae type b is NOT the same as the most commonly known influenza or flu that afflicts the general population

The injury table for the program can be found in this link and it does not provide for compensation for injuries derived from the influenza vaccine. Thus, the Snopes article does not prove that that liability lawsuits have not driven the vaccine manufacturers away from manufacturing the influenza vaccine while other sources point to them as a significant factor affecting the cost of vaccine supply.

Broadening an Ideological Perspective

Paul Beston, a producer of the NPR program "Bridges" describes how his show, intended to provide the audience with points of view from both sides of the spectrum, ended up significantly influencing his perceptions about conservatives in general and and his ideological beliefs in particular.

It quickly became clear that my understanding of conservatism was a cartoon. The writers took perfectly reasonable positions and argued them with eloquence. Always, there was the sense of limits to what one could hope for — and the warning that taking action could make things worse instead of better. After my years in the fervent environs of the left, the sober skepticism of the conservatives was very appealing. I couldn't help but think that many of my fellow liberals had, like me, assiduously avoided coming in contact with their arguments. That was easy to do in New York City.

None of these squared with my superficial view of the right — on culture, as prudes and scolds who didn't really care for the arts anyway; on history, as blithely indifferent to human suffering; and on communism, as rabid and paranoid.

Hat Tip: Ed Driscoll

US Unborn Victim Law Stirs Abortion Controversy

Voice of America has a good summary on the controversy regarding the new legislation that would make it a separate offense to harm or kill a fetus if a pregnant woman is attacked in a federal crime.

Under the bill, which the House passed last month, violence against a pregnant woman would be viewed as two separate crimes: one against her and one against the fetus at any stage of the pregnancy. The assailant would not have to know the woman was pregnant to be prosecuted.

opponents argue the legislation is an effort to erode abortion rights, established by the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Roe versus Wade, by recognizing for the first time a fetus or embryo as a person with separate legal rights in the eyes of federal law.

Opinion polls indicate the legislation enjoys wide public support, particularly in the aftermath of a high-profile murder case in California

U.S. Foreign Aid set to Grow

D. Francis discusses the foreign aid policies of G. Bush and concludes that they have significant liberal overtones.

US official development assistance amounted to $11.4 billion in 2001 and $13.2 billion in 2002, as measured by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based club of mostly rich nations. And if Congress provides all the money sought by Bush for his Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA), his HIV/AIDs initiative, and other smaller programs, the total could about double by 2008.

Or look at AIDS. Projections point to 40 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa in the years ahead. The administration figures that by reducing the ravages of the epidemic it can reduce poverty and promote free markets in that section of the world. Bush has called for $15 billion over five years for AIDS prevention programs. Bush's budget calls for authorizations to reach $2.6 billion by 2008. "We are on track," says the staffer.

U.S. OK’d plan to topple Taliban a day before 9/11

While Richard Clarke's declarations are getting a lot of publicity, the news that the 9/11 comission did find that the adminstration had a plan to go after the Taliban and Al Qaeda just prior to 9/11 are getting a lot less press.

After years of delay caused by inadequate intelligence, the U.S. government decided just one day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that it would try to overthrow the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan if a diplomatic push to expel Osama bin Laden from the country failed, the independent panel investigating the attacks reported Tuesday.

that links to a 2002 report that states

President Bush was expected to sign detailed plans for a worldwide war against al-Qaida two days before Sept. 11 but did not have the chance before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, U.S. and foreign sources told NBC News

In another striking parallel to the war plan adopted after Sept. 11, the security directive included efforts to persuade Afghanistan’s Taliban government to turn al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden over to the United States, with provisions to use military force if it refused

More on the subject of Clarke from Instapundit , the Washington Post and Security Focus

Former Mexican president recalls notorious 1988 election

Former Mexican president recalls notorious 1988 election

Even by Mexican politics standards, the explosive confesion of former president Miguel de la Madrid is exceptional. In his autobiography, excerpts of which have been published in mexican newspapers, he accepts that the PRI stole the results of the 1988 presidential elections.

De la Madrid recalls learning how initial results from the capital region showed Carlos Salinas Gortari, candidate for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, was losing badly to opposition candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. "I felt like a bucket of ice water had fallen on me," De la Madrid writes in excerpts from the memoir published Monday in the Mexican newspaper Reforma. "I became afraid that the results were similar across the country and that the PRI would lose the presidency." He recalls the words of the PRI's president at the time: "You have to proclaim the triumph of the PRI. It is a tradition that we cannot break without causing great alarm among the citizens. ... if we don't declare now, it will be impossible to convince the people." Without an official vote count, the PRI then declared itself the winner. The true results of the election were never made public.

While this is not news to informed Mexican citizens of voting age at the time of the election, the clear cut confesion by a former president is truly ground breaking. J. Henry provides more details about this election which he calls (and I agree) one of the "first computer assisted electoral frauds" where the state of the art computer system counting the votes "crashed" and was not restored for a week. Finally, the ballot boxes were burned a couple of years later.

Then, at about 3 A.M. on July 7, the supervisor
called a halt, and with tears in his eyes, he told us: ”If you care for your families,
your jobs, and your lives, enter all votes from now on in favor of the PRI.
I went back to work and did as I was told. I wanted to cry, but I had to do it.
Computer worker,
1988 Mexican elections

Aristide's bodyguard says that Aristide wasn't forced out

Aristide wasn't forced out

There have been a number of contradictory statements regarding Aristide's departure from Haiti. The link above documents the testimony of one of Aristide's bodyguards supporting the U.S. Government contention that Aristide's departure was voluntary

We left with him (but) I won't talk about where we went," Refinger said Friday from his home in Jacksonville where he just returned. "We escorted him safely out.

"Everything was done with the full knowledge and cooperation of the president. There was no forcing the president to go anywhere. We protected our principal without a shot fired and he is safe."

Mexico Video Corruption Scandals Continue

Videos document corruption in Mexican Politics

To supplement the post below, the link above is a good summary of all of the videos about corruption in Mexican politics that have recently become public. Another link documents a significant impact to the popularity of Mexico City's Mayor, who may now have significant hurdles to overcome in his quest for Mexico's presidency. Mexidata describes the video implicating the leader of Mexico's Green Party.