From the department of fixed facts

This is a whistleblower whose story needs a good look-see, since we know that what he is charging has already been perpetrated against us to trump up one war. A former CIA operative is coming in from the cold and, through an attorney, since he is forbidden from revealing his identity by the agency. (Cheney will decide when to release his name and tell Bob Novak.)

filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.

The former operative alleged in a 2004 lawsuit that the CIA fired him after he repeatedly clashed with senior managers over his attempts to file reports that challenged the conventional wisdom about weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Key details of his claim have not been made public because they describe events the CIA deems secret.

You have no idea how deeply it pains me, and on what level, that we live in an era not of rogue agents, but a rogue agency.


Roy Krieger, the attorney representing the former undercover operative, asserts that the NIE on Iran's nuclear capabilities that was released last winter undermined the agency's case for censoring his lawsuit. "On five occasions he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all," Krieger said in an interview.

The former officer charges in court filings and statements through his attorney, that his 22 year career was destroyed when he raised questions about the nuclear programs of Iraq and Iran. The officer in question is a native of the Middle East, fluent in both Farsi and Arabic, and had engaged in undercover work in the Persian Gulf region, where he successfully recruited an informant with access to sensitive information about Iran's nuclear program.

The informant provided secret evidence that Tehran had halted its research into designing and building a nuclear weapon. Yet, when the operative sought to file reports on the findings, his attempts were "thwarted by CIA employees," according to court papers. Later he was told to "remove himself from any further handling" of the informant, the documents say.

In the months after the conflict, the operative became the target of two internal investigations, one of them alleging an improper sexual relationship with a female informant, and the other alleging financial improprieties. Krieger said his client cooperated with investigators in both cases and the allegations of wrongdoing were never substantiated. Krieger contends in court documents that the investigations were a "pretext to discredit."

Krieger maintains that his client is being further punished by the agency's decision prohibiting him from fully regaining his identity. "He is not even allowed to attend court hearings about his own case," Krieger said.

The agency issued the standard denials, that they don't fix facts, blah blah blah blah blah...and there was a time I would have taken their word for it. But that time is long past.

In fact, it is high time that the Intelligence committees of both chambers get together behind closed doors in a joint session with this fellow and have a little chat, under oath.