Plame Fallout and Harriet Miers

Aside from the illegality of exposing a CIA agent's cover there are other concerns Showing up from the Plame Leak. One of the notable side stories underscores what was said in the Downing Street Minutes...

CIA leak illustrates selective use of intelligence on Iraq
BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The grand jury probe into the leak of a covert CIA officer's name has opened a new window into how the Bush administration used intelligence from dubious sources to make a case for a pre-emptive war and discarded information that undercut its rationale for attacking Iraq.

CIA officer Valerie Plame was outed in an apparent attempt to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, after he challenged President Bush's allegation in his 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had tried to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from the African nation of Niger.

As for the hows and whens...

The State of the Union speech was one of a number of instances in which Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their aides ignored the qualms of intelligence professionals and instead relied on the claims of Iraqi defectors and other suspect sources or, in the case of Niger, the crudely forged documents.

Like the Niger allegation, almost all of the administration's claims that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had to be ousted before he could develop nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, use them against America or give them to al-Qaida terrorists have turned out to be false. No such weapons or programs have been found, and several official inquiries have concluded that there was no cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida.

Here's How it all ties together...

THE EARLY CASE FOR WAR

The White House launched its public campaign to build support for a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in August 2002.

Top aides led by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and known as the White House Iraq Group directed the effort, according to current and former U.S. officials who requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

The group included I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, who are at the center of the Plame probe.

Other members were then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy and now successor, Stephen J. Hadley, White House communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkerson and legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio.

The Iraqi National Congress, an exile opposition group whose leader, Ahmad Chalabi, was close to Cheney and others, had begun feeding Western reporters Iraqi defectors' tales that Saddam was training Islamic extremists to hit U.S. targets and hiding banned weapons shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The INC, which was deeply distrusted by the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA, piped the same information into Cheney's office and the Pentagon, according to a June 2002 letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee from the group's Washington spokesman.

In an Aug. 26, 2002, speech, Cheney highlighted the main themes of the administration's case for war.

Iraq, he charged, was "amassing" chemical and biological weapons, and "many of us are convinced that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon" and could give them to terrorists.

There was no solid U.S. intelligence to support his assertions, and no such finding by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversaw the destruction of Saddam's pre-1991 Gulf War nuclear weapons program.

U.S. intelligence had no evidence of any alliance between Iraq and al-Qaida, and many analysts doubted that Saddam would give such weapons to Islamic extremists.

Then there were...

THE ALUMINUM TUBES

On Sept. 8, 2002, The New York Times quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying that Iraq had tried "to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes" believed to be intended for centrifuges, devices that enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The story quoted an unnamed senior administration official as saying that "nuclear weapons are his (Saddam's) hole card" and that delaying his overthrow would make him "harder ... to deal with."

The story reinforced the Bush administration's charge that the United States couldn't wait for proof that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.

Its appearance in the nation's most influential paper also gave Cheney and Rice an opportunity to discuss the matter the same day on the Sunday television talk shows. They could discuss the article, but otherwise they wouldn't have been able to talk about classified intelligence in public.

"Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon," Bush said to the U.N. General Assembly five days later.

But again a problem with the intel. That old nagging "Truth" thing keeps getting in the way.

But after consulting U.S. nuclear laboratories, the Department of Energy and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research concluded that the tubes were most likely for ground-to-ground rockets, not for centrifuges.

The International Atomic Energy Agency later reached the same conclusion.

Facts be damned we WILL invade Iraq. Folks we have been lied to in a BIG way. Speaking of not being forthright Bush has refused to release Harriet Miers record. This is like going to a used car lot and being denied a test drive but having the salesman insist you sign the contract anyway. Read On...

Bush refuses to hand over Miers documents / Nominee's chances for confirmation appear in jeopardy: "Washington -- President Bush rejected requests coming from Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers to produce documents about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' work as White House counsel, as conservatives Monday began a formal campaign to force her withdrawal.

The brewing clash between Bush and Senate Republicans over White House documents marks the latest downturn for an embattled nomination that has deeply demoralized Bush's conservative base and raises the prospect that Miers could be defeated by her own party.

'People can learn about Harriet Miers through hearings,' Bush said, speaking briefly to reporters after a Cabinet meeting, 'but we are not going to destroy this business about people being able to walk in the Oval Office and say, 'Mr. President, here's my advice to you, here's what I think is important.' And that's not only important for this president, it's important for future presidents.'

The Presnit refuses to give full disclosure on his nominees. Not good. The Nominee is going down. Note to Ms Miers: Don't pack your office up yet, In fact don't pack at all.