A Quote from Hardball w/ Chris Matthews

(Apologies for caps, they were cut and pasted directly from the source).

I mentioned this the other day, but here's the direct quote from Hardball, along with some additional information from Friday's Countdown With Keith Olbermann.

First, the quote: INTELLIGENCE SOURCES SAY VALERIE WILSON WAS PART OF AN OPERATION THREE YEARS AGO TRACKING THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS MATERIAL INTO IRAN. AND THE SOURCES ALLEGE THAT WHEN MRS. WILSON'S COVER WAS BLOWN, THE ADMINISTRATION'S ABILITY TO TRACK IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS WAS DAMAGED AS WELL.

Friday's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (also on MSNBC) reported additionally that according to Scooter Libby's defense team, between the time Libby first spoke with Judith Miller (about Plame) and when he gave the same information to Matt Cooper, the CIA warned him (Libby) of the implications of outing Valerie Plame.

The defense theory is that the since he'd ALREADY spoken with Judith Miller, this sets up an "I didn't know any better" defense, although since Libby has been charged with making false statements instead of with the leak itself, it's hard to see how that would be relevant. Also there's the tiny detail that if this exonerates him in the discussion with Miller, it implicates him all the more seriously in his later discussion with Cooper.

But why would the CIA bother to warn anyone, if she was not covert and if there would be no damage to the release of the information?

Liam.