Richard Armitage, Plame leaker?

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:45 pm

Nah, I don't buy it. Something smells fishy here. Is there a conspiracy of modern times that Armitage wasn't involved in? What's the deal, does he have cancer or something, and so volunteered to be the foolish, gossipy idiot, as we're being led to believe? Pew.

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:26 pm

I'm sorry, but give me a break--we're suppposed to believe that the leak was accidental, the result of gossipyness? From Newsweek: <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533384/site/newsweek/">www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1453.../newsweek/</a> "...Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity. "I'm afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing," he later told Carl Ford Jr., State's intelligence chief. Ford says Armitage admitted to him that he had "slipped up" and told Novak more than he should have. "He was basically beside himself that he was the guy that f---ed up. My sense from Rich is that it was just chitchat," Ford recalls in "Hubris," to be published next week by Crown and co-written by the author of this article and David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation magazine."

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:28 pm

Here's one of the earlier recorded allegations of conspiracies involving Armitage, as reported by Bo Gritz. Now, I'll admit, I don't quite know what to make of Bo Gritz. But it's interesting how this information tied in so compatibly with drug-running in Central America that was later verfied in the Iran/contra investigation. <a href="http://www.serendipity.li/cia/gritz1.htm">www.serendipity.li/cia/gritz1.htm</a> "...Unfortunately, Khun Sa knew nothing about US POWs. He did, however, offer to trade his nation's poppy dependence for a legitimate economy. Instead of receiving an "Atta Boy" for bringing back video tape showing Khun Sa`s offer to stop 900 tons of illegal narcotics and expose dirty USG officials, Scott was jailed and I was threatened. I was told that if I didn't "erase and forget" all that we had discovered, I would, "hurt the government". Further, I was promised a prison sentence of "15 years". I returned to Burma with two other American witnesses, Lance Trimmer, a private detective from San Francisco, and Barry Flynn from Boston. Gen Khun Sa identified some of those in government service he says were dealing in heroin and arms sales. We video taped this second interview and I turned copies over in June 1987, to the Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence; Chairman of the House on Foreign Affairs Task Force on Narcotics Control; Co-Chairman, Senate Narcotics Committee; Senator Harry Reid, NV; Representative James Bilbray, NV; and other Congressional members. Mister Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, is one of those USG officials implicated by Khun Sa. Nothing was done with this evidence that indicated that anyone of authority, including yourself, had intended to do anything more than protect Mr. Armitage. I was charged with "Misuse of Passport". Seems that it is alright for Oliver North and Robert MacFarlane to go into Iran on Irish Passports to negotiate an illegal arms deal that neither you nor anyone else admits condoning, but I can't use a passport that brings back drug information against your friends. Lance Trimmer and I submitted a "Citizen Complaint of Wrongdoing by Federal Officers" to Attorney General Edwin Meese, III on 17 September 1987. Continuous private and Legislative inquiries to date indicate that the Attorney General's Office has "lost" the document. Congressional requests to the Government Accounting Office have resulted in additional government snares and stalls. January 20, 1988, I talked before your Breakfast Club in Houston, Texas. A distinguished group of approximately 125 associates of yours, including the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, expressed assurance that you are a righteous man. Almost all of them raised their hand when I asked how many of them know you personally. If you are a man with good intent, I pray you will do more than respond to this letter. I ask that you seriously look into the possibility that political appointees close to you are guilty of by passing our Constitutional process, and for purposes of promoting illegal covert operations, conspired in the trafficking of narcotics and arms. Please answer why a respected American Citizen like Mister H. Ross Perot can bring you a pile of evidence of wrongdoing by Armitage and others, and you, according to TIME magazine (May 4, page 1<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"> , not only offer him no support, but have your Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci tell Mr. Perot to "stop pursuing Mr. Armitage". Why Sir, will you not look into affidavits gathered by The Christic Institute (Washington, D.C.), which testify that Armitage not only trafficked in heroin, but did so under the guise of an officer charged with bringing home our POWs. If the charges are true, Armitage, who is still responsible for POW recovery as your Assistant Secretary of Defense ISA, has every reason not to want these heros returned to us alive. Clearly, follow on investigations would illuminate the collective crimes of Armitage and others. Several years ago a secretary working for Armitage asked me "Why would he have us expunge his official record of all reference to past POW/MIA assignments and activities?" Not knowing, I ventured a guess that maybe he was considering running for public office and didn't feel the POW -Vietnam association would be a plus in his resume. It was about the same time a CIA agent named by Khun Sa turned up dead in Bangkok under "mysterious circumstances". Also about this time, as an agent of NSC's Intelligence Support Activity, I was told by ISA Chief Jerry King, "...there are still too many bureaucrats in Washington who don't want to see POWs returned alive". I failed to realize the fullness of his meaning, or these other events, until in May 1987, Gen Khun Sa, in his jungle headquarters, named Richard Armitage as a key connection in a ring of heroin trafficking mobsters and USG officials. A U.S. agent I have known for many years stopped by my home last month enroute to his next overseas assignment. He remarked that he had worked for those CIA chiefs named by Khun Sa, and that by his own personal knowledge, he knew what Khun Sa said was true. He was surprised it had taken so long to surface. I am a registered Republican. I voted for you twice. I will not do so again. If you have any love or loyalty in your heart for this nation; if you have not completely sold out, then do something positive to determine the truth of these most serious allegations. You were Director of the CIA in 1975, during a time Khun Sa says Armitage and CIA officials were trafficking in heroin. As Director of Intelligence you were responsible to the American people for the activities of your assistant - even as you should know what some of these same people are doing who are close to you now as our Vice President because I feel these "parallel government" types will only be promoted by you, giving them more reason to bury our POWs. I am enclosing some documentation that supports the charges made. Chief is a letter from Khun Sa to the U.S. Justice Department dated 28 June 1987, wherein Richard Armitage is named along with Theodore Shackley (your former Deputy Director CIA from Covert Operations) and others...."

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:42 pm

It took them three years to get their story straight: <a href="http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976767881">www.gather.com/viewArticl...4976767881</a> "...Incredibly, after all the hoopla and trouble that he's caused, Novak is now back peddling and squirming. On July 22, 2003, he told Newsday, regarding his acquisition of Plame's name and identity, "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it." ...

by **starroute** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:56 pm

Armitage is just about the most unlikely of casual gossipers. He was involved in all sorts of wild stuff from 1973 to 1978, when he is assumed to have been with the CIA. Making arrangements leading up to the fall of Saigon. A DIA consultant in Tehran in 1975-76, when the Shackley/Clines rogue CIA group was moving its arms-drugs-and-assassination operations there. A charter member of the Enterprise, dealing in particular with heroin-smuggling from Thailand and money-laundering of the profits. (Just for shits and giggles, guess the name of the author of Shackley's biography. Hint -- his initials are DC.) In the 80's, became Reagan's Assistant Secretary of Defense. In charge of coordinating covert military operations, including Ollie North's aid to the Contras. Also part of the Iran end of Iran-Contra. And helped Bill Casey run the mujahedeen war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. In the 90's, was a member of the American Turkish Council (the people Sibel Edmonds keeps talking about), the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, and the Aspen Institute. And in the Bush administration, knew beforehand about the Ledeen-Ghorbanifar meetings in Rome in December 2001, helped keep the Niger claims out of Powell's UN address, and requested the Ford memo on Wilson. And we're expected to believe that this man, who has been involved in virtually every covert and dubious operation over the last 35 years, was just flapping his mouth idly for the fun of it? Oh, yeah, and mister, will you please sell me that bridge?

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:05 pm

All I can say on this one is....HUH? Count the conspiracies. And remember, the Phoenix Program assassinated thousands, even tens of thousands of civilians--- old men, women, children and babies. clips <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article30073.html">www.voltairenet.org/article30073.html</a> "....Richard Armitage began his political career in Viet Nam. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1967 and shortly afterwards he was sent to this Asian country. In 1968, he sailed Vietnamese territorial waters when the Tet offensive took place - a significantly violent setback for the US army. Eager to participate in the war, he asked to be sent to the theatre of operations, where he started to act as advisor for the river patrol squads. After receiving a four-week course on Vietnamese language, he got deeply involved in the conflict as he volunteered several times to carry out the most secret and dangerous military operations. Specialist in Secret Operations After a first one-year stay, he became a counterinsurgency instructor in the military base of Coronado, California, where he taught interrogation and ambush techniques from 1969 to 1970. In 1971, he volunteered for another one-year period in Viet Nam where he served as advisor to a group located near the border with Cambodia. As soon as he returned he departed again in 1972 to work as an advisor to an ambush group that operated along the coastline. According to the testimony of many of his acquaintances, friends and collaborators, Armitage at the same time worked for the CIA and, in particular, for the Phoenix program that would allow the elimination of more than 60,000 civilians that were under suspicion of being agents of the Viet Cong. Armitage’s participation is confirmed by Laryy Ropka, who worked with him at that time and later in Iran; and also by Ted Schaklev, head of the CIA services in Saigon. Armitage today denies having taken part directly in the operation. In his opinion, his ambush team transmitted key information to the CIA officials in the region but they never cooperated directly with the US espionage agency..... .....After Jimmy Carter assumed power, in early 1977, the new administration decided to freeze the contracts in the government. Then, it was not possible for Eric Von Marbod to contract Armitage who was unemployed and tried to use his knowledge about Southeast Asia to set up a business in Bangkok with Brigadier General Harry C. Aderholt, a legendary figure of the airborne squads who was involved in numerous secret operations, most of them for the CIA. He parachuted behind the enemy lines during the war of Korea and led operations to create an airlift during the CIA campaign to support the uprising of the Tibetans, in the late 1950s. In 1976 he founded in Bangkok an association called Southeast Asia Travel Agency that aimed at getting contracts that could help the leaders of the Thai army. Thailand was then a center of opium trafficking to the United States, particularly thanks to the active role played by the Thai military [2] . Aderholt’s main client was Air Siam, a small air line company that only had one Boeing 747 flying from Bangkok to Los Angeles. It was then that he recruited Armitage, before the competition of the Thai International air line ruined his business....." ".....His talent as organizer seduced Allen and also Fred IklÃ©. After Reagan assumed power, both of them pressured to have Armitage as a member of the new administration. He obtained a temporary post with Casper Weinberger, the new Defense Secretary, whom he had to help in making up his team. For him, it was easy to ask and obtain a post as assistant to the Under-Secretary of Defense for Asia in which he would not stay very long. In early 1983 he was promoted to the post of Under-Secretary for International Security Affairs, which allowed him to play an important role in the designing of the Pentagon policies. Only the relations with the Soviet Union and Europe, entrusted to Richard Perle - a friend of Paul Wolfowitz and a fierce enemy of the “dÃ©tente” with the Soviet Union -, escaped from him. Colin PowellAt that time, the veteran met Colin Powell, who was Casper Weinberger’s first military assistant. Soon, Powell and Armitage became an indispensable duet in the Pentagon, united and interchangeable....." ".....Coming from modest US families, they both shared to a great extent their vision of the world, characterized by its proximity to the concerns of the middle class. For example, they both sent their children to public schools and became interested in the fight against racial discrimination. Since his returned from Viet Nam, Richard Armitage and his wife adopted six children, including three Afro-Americans, and gave refuge to more than 40 children. The “Reagan Doctrine” These “social” concerns did not prevent Armitage from getting deeply involved in the secret operations carried out at that time in the name of the new “Reagan doctrine”, mainly designed by William Casey, the new CIA Director. It was based in the large-scale military and financial support of armed guerrillas against USSR-backed regimes: Â«The support of those who fight for freedom is self-defenseÂ», said Reagan during his State of the Union speech in 1985. The targets were mainly Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nicaragua and Angola. Armitage traveled around the world organizing the support of the anti-Soviet and anti-Communist insurrection. Every three months, he visited the officials of the Pakistani ISI secret services to speak with them about the best way to support the Afghan mujaheddins. He made contact with different leaders of the troops, particularly with Burhanuddin Rabbani, who would become president of Afghanistan in the early 1990s and head of the North Alliance after the assassination of Massoud in September 2001....." Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 8/27/06 9:15 pm

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:30 pm

More here: <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKarmitage.htm">www.spartacus.schoolnet.c...mitage.htm</a>

by **chiggerbit** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:51 pm

"...On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me.'..." Gag.

by **chiggerbit** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:43 am

Now that you mention Sibel, I recall that she keeps referring to the running of drugs by government people. makes me wonder if she has been talking about Armitage, among other people. Maybe this explains Armitage's role in playing the gossipy leaker. He needs some special protection from people with special information, so is willing to sacrifice his reputation. <a href="http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATcolby.htm">www.btinternet.com/~nlpwe...Tcolby.htm</a> "..The men who perfected the guns-for-dope traffic moved to the Middle East as experts in the sale of sophisticated arms, protected by officials at the top in the Pentagon and CIA. Richard Armitage, now the key Pentagon official in counter-terror and covert operations [under President Bush Snr, former CIA chief] is named consistently by investigators as the man who helped the drug warlords market their crops.... The most prominent name recurring in this [CIA drug tafficking] connection is Vice President George Bush. While he was CIA director, much of these activities blossomed, but more serious charges are being made by former intelligence officers ..... who fear that their institutions have been corrupted by a few self-proclaimed patriots." BANK OF INTRIGUE Toronto Sun, 13 August 1987 Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 8/27/06 10:43 pm

by **chiggerbit** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:28 pm

From Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_08/009408.php August 28, 2006 PLAME AND ARMITAGE....Catching up with the weekend news, I see that David Corn and Michael Isikoff have definitively named former State Department #2 Richard Armitage as the guy who leaked Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak three years ago. Apparently it happened on July 8, 2003, two days after Joe Wilson published an op-ed in the New York Times about his prewar trip to Niger to investigate the "uranium from Africa" story. This opens up a can of worms, no? In one sense, it's no surprise, since Armitage has been on the short list of suspected leakers for quite a long time (see this from November 2005, for example, though suspicions about Armitage go back well before that). And it certainly doesn't bolster the argument that the leak was part of a White House conspiracy to punish Joe Wilson, since Armitage was relatively dovish on the war and has never been considered a hardnosed, Rovian political player. As Isikoff and Corn put it, he was just a "terrible gossip." And yet, there are still some pretty crucial questions remaining: Who gave Novak the name "Valerie Plame"? This has always been at the heart of the mystery, and it still is. You see, Armitage apparently learned about Joe Wilson's trip to Niger on July 7 from a State Department memo that (incorrectly) suggested he had gotten the assignment because his wife, a CIA analyst, had recommended him. But that memo referred to Wilson's wife as "Valerie Wilson," not Valerie Plame. So why did Novak call her by her maiden name, despite the fact that she used her married name routinely? Did Armitage give it to him? That seems unlikely if he had only learned of her existence from a memo the day before. Was it Karl Rove, Novak's second source? The evidence suggests not. So it's somebody else. But who? Judith Miller wrote Plame's name in her notebook weeks before Novak's column appeared, but says she can't remember who gave it to her. Novak isn't talking either. But it's a key part of the mystery. Whoever gave up Plame's name not only knew about the Niger trip, but also knew that she used her maiden name when she was engaged on CIA business and deliberately leaked that name. There was malice of some kind involved in that. When did Armitage realize he had screwed up? Isikoff reports that Armitage realized he was Novak's source after Novak wrote a second column on October 1 claiming that his original source was "not a partisan gunslinger." Isikoff says that after Armitage read this second column, "he knew immediately who the leaker was.....'I'm sure he's talking about me.'" Give me a break. Armitage talked to Novak on July 8 about Plame, a week later Novak's original column hit the street, and Armitage didn't realize then that he was probably Novak's source? That hardly seems likely. Why didn't Armitage fess up earlier? Even taking Armitage's claim at face value, why didn't he go public in October about his role in the Plame case? The Justice Department had only barely started its investigation and a special prosecutor was still months in the future. Armitage could easily have spun his role as innocent, and it might have spared the White House its past few years of turmoil. Why the silence? The obvious answer is that Armitage is hardly the end of the story. Whether his gossiping was innocent or not — about which I remain agnostic — the fact remains that several other people were also aggressively talking to multiple reporters about Plame's role at the same time. If Armitage really didn't have any malicious intent, it's a helluva coincidence that he happened to be gossiping about the exact same thing as a bunch of other people who did have malicious intent. When did Corn and Isikoff learn all this? Hey, we all have to make a living, but Armitage's name was swirling around the rumor circuits just a couple of months ago. Being magazine reporters and all, shouldn't they have written about this at the time instead of saving it up to help promote their book? Just asking. That's it for now. I'll probably think of more questions later. But the bottom line is that this case is far from closed.

by **OnoI812** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:40 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>What's the deal, does he have cancer or something, and so volunteered to be the foolish, gossipy idiot, as we're being led to believe? Pew.<hr></blockquote> No, they're hanging him out to protect someone unprotectable. Armitage can be pardoned. Most likely this is a protection move to save someone who would be much harder to protect.

by **chiggerbit** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:04 pm

It sure took them long enough.

by **robertdreed** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:12 pm

Armitage is taking the fall for Rove. Armitage is "relatively dovish on the war"...if the Brooklyn Bridge is taken already, I can give you a great deal on the Woodrow Wilson. If you oppose the war, then oppose it. Don't just sit it out. And the higher up you were on the inside, the more important it is that you get your message out.

by **FourthBase** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:26 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Richard Armitage and his wife adopted six children, including three Afro-Americans, and gave refuge to more than 40 children<hr></blockquote> *shudders* Anyway...is David Corn finally impeached as a mole?

by **sunny** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:34 pm

All this makes Fitz look as if he's conducted a two year investigation for nothing. Is this an attempt to discredit him? What might be coming down the pike? A Cheney indictment?

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