Okay Albob you are married to this Plame desk jockey concept that's so popular right now. I'll let you off the hook with that at the moment because that concept is obfuscating the real issue here. What is
more important is that Libby lied to protect the people above him and has been convicted for that. Period. He's
G*U*I*L*T*Y.
The real issue underlying this entire story is why did he lie? The Wilsons were the original source for the evidence that Bush lied about our reasons for going into Iraq. No Republican wants to accept that the entire WMD premise was a complete fabrication, so any single item or person that can prove Bush lied has to be publicly decimated. Libby's lies are another attempt to insulate BushCo from that truth.
BushCo has taken many steps to remove the breads crumbs leading to their door in this case but it can't be done. Slam Plame, toss Libby to the wolves, and muck it all up with talks of pardons and NOC status. It all really comes down to that underlying question of did the American public get the truth as it was then known about Sodomy's WMD potential from BushCo. The bread crumbs have still been followed ... and the answer is no.
Here is a time line on the intel BushCo wants so desperately to remain hidden. I've tried to cut and paste, compile, and edit this in a way that's free of my own political opinions.
March, 2002
A CIA report describing the findings of Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger*findings discrediting the claim that Saddam attempted to obtain yellowcake uranium from that country*is
circulated widely throughout the intelligence community. It is
not flagged for high-level White House officials, and they do not see it.
March 1, 2002
The State Department's intelligence bureau, INR, publishes an assessment entitled, "Niger: Sale of Uranium to Iraq Is Unlikely." According to the 2004
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, the INR analyst who drafted the document said it was produced at the behest of the Vice President's office.
October 5, 2002
George Tenet reads a draft of a speech George Bush is set to deliver in Cincinnati on October 7. It includes the claim that Saddam has "been caught attempting to purchase" uranium in Niger.
The CIA tells Stephen Hadley and others at the White House that the statement is incorrect.
Specifically, they say: "[R]emove the sentence because the amount is in dispute and it is debatable whether it can be acquired from the source. We told Congress that the Brits have exaggerated this issue. Finally, the Iraqis already have 550 metric tons of uranium oxide in their inventory."
December 19, 2002
The US
discounts the Iraqi weapons declaration because it fails to account for various weapons that a UN inspection team said it "could have produced," and because it does not mention the tubes purchased for a uranium centrifuge or the attempts to procure uranium from Niger.
Secretary of State Colin Powell declares, "The Iraqi regime is required by Resolution 1441 to report those attempts. Iraq, however, has failed to provide adequate information about the procurement and use of these tubes. Most brazenly of all, the Iraqi declaration denies the existence of any prohibited weapons programs at all." The State Department issues a
fact sheet saying that "The [Iraqi] Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger."
January, 2003
Two reports from the National Intelligence Council warn Bush that an Iraq invasion could spark sectarian violence and an anti-US insurgency. One says an occupation could "increase popular sympathy for terrorist objectives." They also
express skepticism about the Niger uranium story.
March 7, 2003
Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, appears before the Security Council and says that searches have found "no evidence" of mobile biological production facilities in Iraq. He also says that the Iraqis are cooperating with the inspectors. The IAEA's ElBaradei also speaks and
says, "After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq." He says the Niger uranium documents are "not authentic."
Mid June, 2003
An unnamed administration official, later
revealed to be Colin Powell's deputy Richard Armitage,
tells Bob Woodward that Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, works for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction, making him, in all likelihood, the first leakee.
June 17, 2003
CIA analysts write to George Tenet and
retract their Niger uranium reporting. "Since learning that the Iraq-Niger uranium deal was based on false documents earlier this spring, we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq pursued uranium from abroad."
