Let me know if it's a dupe I just saw this, I'll update as possible. The rawstory is substantial not just a bit. Check it out.
Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say
Anyone else see this covered? Please throw me a link, I'll include it in the update.
Excerpt:
The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.
According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.
Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program...
[UPDATE1] Here's some other links to the blogosphere's reaction to the story.
Valerie Plame Leak Sabotaged America's Iran-Watching Intelligence Effort Front page at Washington Note, Steve Clemons collaborated on the story
No Quarter Larry Johnson is a great source for this story. Let's see how he covers it. Nothing specific yet
Jane Hamsher at firedoglake is also a great source on this story. Nothing yet up at her blog. Keep checking for her unique take on this development
Plamegate + Khangate = Cheney the Traitor Previous Kos diary with more analysis. Written prior to the release of the rawstory piece. Discusses the Steve Clemons interview this morning on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show.
WNYC podcast page Don't subscribe myself. This may contain the Steve Clemons interview. Not sure.
[UPDATE2] More from Steve Clemons from the front page story. Excerpt:
...There are different directions this story may go.
The first might be that one of the reasons that Plame was outed had to do with bureaucratic and/or political enemies who were predisposed against the intelligence results of her team's Iran WMD-watching efforts. I would have to be further convinced of that case -- as I think that internal pettiness inside the Bush White House over Joe Wilson's public outing of the contrived Iraq-Niger-Uranium is a pretty compelling rationale for Cheney's machine to out Plame.
But another dimension of this story has to do with an assessment of the damage that her outing caused this nation. As we now start down a path towards harder-edged threats against Iran, allies will naturally question the quality of our intelligence given our failures on Iraq WMDs.
If Cheney & Co. outed one of the key intelligence operations monitoring the inputs and outputs of Iran's nuclear program -- then Cheney & Co. did vast damage to our ability to know what is real and contrived inside Iran.
One other piece to this that TWN needs to go back to -- so please take the following with a bit of pause, until I further clarify...
Roger that Mr. Clemons, let's not get hysterical
unless no one in the MSM covers this story. Then we get hysterical.