Jim Lobe at AlterNet offers to help Patrick Fitzgerald get to the bottom of the Plame leak

February 17, 2004

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald:

Please forgive my presumptuousness in writing to you, but as a concerned citizen I could not help but notice that the White House has been less than cooperative in your efforts to identify the source of the Plame leak. I think I may have a solution to your problems. His name is Clifford May.

...He is the president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-profit organization founded two days after the 9/11 attacks that, in its words, "conducts research and education on the war on terrorism." More importantly, there is no reason why Mr. May should have known about Plame's CIA credentials, nor did he possess the requisite security clearances to do so. Tracking down the source of his "leak" could well bring us closer to identifying the culprits who gave the same information to the likes of Bob Novak.

Mr. May has not been coy about sharing his knowledge of Plame's CIA background. On Sept. 29, the same day that the Washington Post confirmed that the CIA had asked for a criminal investigation of Novak's sources, the National Review Online published a column by Mr. May claiming to be in the know long before Novak blew her cover. "That wasn't news to me," he wrote. "I had been told that – but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of." Mr. May later told Fox News the same day that Plame's identity was "something of an open secret."

...Mr. May is, of course, a longtime Republican operative. Once the director of communications at the Republican National Committee, he also worked for BSMG Worldwide, one of the world's largest and most politically connected public and media relations firms, before founding the FDD in 2001. His organization is packed with Republican "insiders."

...Of course, the "insiders" Mr. May referred to in his column need not be members of his own board. But it isn't unreasonable to view them as likely candidates for that role. Gingrich, Woolsey, and Perle all serve on the DPB and carry high-level security clearances. Although it is difficult to imagine how or why Plame's identity would come up in official DPB deliberations, but these three men also have close informal relationships with the offices of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney – the two men who were most annoyed by Wilson's revelations. Woolsey, Perle and Gaffney also fit the description of "someone who formerly worked in the government."

But why not ask. Mr. May who his informant(s) was? He told me just last week that he had not even been contacted by the FBI or any other investigators about the case.

...Mr. May and his organization have long expressed great concern about the threats posed by terrorism and nuclear proliferation – indeed that has been FDD's very raison d'etre. And although he insists that Plame was not working undercover at the time of Novak's column, he has personally expressed outrage at any attempt to "out" an active covert agent. Given his protestations, he really ought to volunteer to reveal his sources to you.

But rather than wait for him to fulfill his civic duty, I suggest you give Mr. May a call. I suspect that a nice, long chat with Mr. May will make it a lot easier to obtain those White House waivers – that is, if you still need them.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Jim Lobe  full letter

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway....(he probably said)

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