Going from bad to worse for Bush
I got some information from a couple of my well-connected political blogs that has put me in the very best of moods. According to sources, there is a good chance that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could hand down as many as 22 indictments against Bush admininistration officials in the Valerie Plame CIA leak probe. Here's a quick recap of what this means:
1. In January of 2003 in the State of the Union address Bush made the claim that Saddam Hussein had secretly sought quantities of uranium from Niger. This was part of the attempt to convince Americans that Saddam had WMDs, which was the justification for war. The CIA had grave doubts about the Niger uranium claim and Colin Powell had refused to use it. The "secret memo" about the Niger uranium was a known forgery.
2. On July 6th of 2003, former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an op/ed article in the New York Times in which he accused the administration of twisting the intelligence on WMDS in the lead up to the war. A year before, Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Niger to investigate the claim. He came back and stated clearly that there was no evidence it was true and plenty of evidence that it was not.
3. On July 7, a memo is faxed to Colin Powell traveling with Bush on Air Force One. The memo is labeled top secret and reveals that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is an undercover operative for the CIA. The memo is passed around the plane and read by several top level Bush aides. The aides, including Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove and Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby begin to discuss a strategy to discredit Joseph Wilson.
4. On July 14, columnist Robert Novak writes an article based on an interview with a White House secret source in which he reveals that Plame is an operative with the CIA working on WMD issues.
5. In December of 2003 the CIA officially requested that the Justice Department investigate who illegally revealed the identity of one of their undercover operatives. It is a crime to reveal the identity of a CIA operative or even to reveal classified information. Plame was a NOC, a non-official cover operative, which is the most secret of CIA spies. The revelation is a huge national security threat and puts in danger all of her contacts for the last 15 years. Attorney General John Ashcroft is involved in the case, until his tight connections to Karl Rove are revealed and he has to recuse himself.
6. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald convened a grand jury and has been investigating the case for 18 months. The White House had officially denied involvement by anybody, including Rove and Libby. Bush originally said he would fire anyone involved in a leak. this summer, after journalists testified before the grand jury that Rove and Libby had leaked the information, Bush changed and said he would fire anyone who committed a crime.
7. If the information on the blogs is true, Bush may get his chance sooner rather than later. Indictments in the White House would be a huge thing and would destroy any perceived credibility this administration still has.
Cat is under strict orders to call me at work if she gets any CNN Breaking News e-mails about it. If you see me doing a happy dance at work, you'll know why. :-)
1. In January of 2003 in the State of the Union address Bush made the claim that Saddam Hussein had secretly sought quantities of uranium from Niger. This was part of the attempt to convince Americans that Saddam had WMDs, which was the justification for war. The CIA had grave doubts about the Niger uranium claim and Colin Powell had refused to use it. The "secret memo" about the Niger uranium was a known forgery.
2. On July 6th of 2003, former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an op/ed article in the New York Times in which he accused the administration of twisting the intelligence on WMDS in the lead up to the war. A year before, Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Niger to investigate the claim. He came back and stated clearly that there was no evidence it was true and plenty of evidence that it was not.
3. On July 7, a memo is faxed to Colin Powell traveling with Bush on Air Force One. The memo is labeled top secret and reveals that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is an undercover operative for the CIA. The memo is passed around the plane and read by several top level Bush aides. The aides, including Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove and Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby begin to discuss a strategy to discredit Joseph Wilson.
4. On July 14, columnist Robert Novak writes an article based on an interview with a White House secret source in which he reveals that Plame is an operative with the CIA working on WMD issues.
5. In December of 2003 the CIA officially requested that the Justice Department investigate who illegally revealed the identity of one of their undercover operatives. It is a crime to reveal the identity of a CIA operative or even to reveal classified information. Plame was a NOC, a non-official cover operative, which is the most secret of CIA spies. The revelation is a huge national security threat and puts in danger all of her contacts for the last 15 years. Attorney General John Ashcroft is involved in the case, until his tight connections to Karl Rove are revealed and he has to recuse himself.
6. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald convened a grand jury and has been investigating the case for 18 months. The White House had officially denied involvement by anybody, including Rove and Libby. Bush originally said he would fire anyone involved in a leak. this summer, after journalists testified before the grand jury that Rove and Libby had leaked the information, Bush changed and said he would fire anyone who committed a crime.
7. If the information on the blogs is true, Bush may get his chance sooner rather than later. Indictments in the White House would be a huge thing and would destroy any perceived credibility this administration still has.
Cat is under strict orders to call me at work if she gets any CNN Breaking News e-mails about it. If you see me doing a happy dance at work, you'll know why. :-)