I was calling because Neal insists upon repeating the lie that Valerie Plame was not covert at the time she was outed by the White House. I got through a week ago or so on the same topic, but wasn't able to convince because I didn't have citations right in front of me. This time, I went prepared.
The surprisingly great thing is that both Netdawg (who was the screener, saving me from Belinda's scorn) and Royal Marshall were pulling for me! Netdawg had showed him the article I tried to reference after our first conversation, but Neal apparently wasn't convinced since he didn't issue a correction. Royal came on the line after Netdawg and gave me a good pep talk - rooting for me and advising to "keep your cool because Neal will hang up on you at the first opportunity."
(Update, I'll include the hasty notes I used to call the show for the hell of it:
*First, we have sworn testimony before congress: ten CIA officials, on July 22, 2005. They testified to Valerie's NOC status. It is a crime to lie before Congress.There. Parenthetical inclusion concluded.)
*Special Counsel Fitzgerald affirmed her status further October 28, 2005 press conference
*Clincher: Judge Hogan Pre-trial ruling - In the February 15, 2005 judge's ruling on the issue, the court's opinion states:As to the leaks’ harmfulness, although the record omits specifics about Plame’s work, it confirms, as alleged in the public record and reported in the press, that she worked for the CIA in some unusual capacity relating to counterproliferation. Addressing deficiencies of proof regarding the IIPA, the special counsel refers to Plame as “a person whose identity the CIA was making specific efforts to conceal and who had carried out covert work overseas within the last 5 years”
**Perhaps Why Neal is misinformed: she hadn't lived overseas for 6 years, but that isn't the requirement. It's overseas *work* within 5 years.
**Why it's hard to prove IIPA violation:
Fitz: "In order to establish a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act], it would be necessary to establish that Libby knew or believed that Plame was a person whose identity the CIA was making specific efforts to conceal and who had carried out covert work overseas within the last 5 years. To date, we have no direct evidence that Libby knew or believed that Wilson's wife was engaged in covert work."
Boortz once again had to fall back on ignorance - claiming he was not able to reference things since he was travelling, and therefore shouldn't be expected to win the argument. In the end, he shouted over me when I tried to give a simple citation for my evidence over the air. At least now his listeners know the truth about Valerie, and the fact that Neal labors to maintain their ignorance.
Finally, I was also able to fluidly get a dig at Ann Coulter's "faggot" comment in there. A coup all around.
