BUSH-Targeted Wilson's Wife Long Before Article Appeared & Reason May Be MORE THAN JUST YELLOWCAKE

[kpete]

BLOGGED BY Margie Burns ON 2/25/2007 4:57PM
Bush Admin Targeted Wilson's Wife Long Before Wilson's Article Appeared
Trial Docs, Testimony Reveal Admin Reasons for Outting CIA WMD Analyst May Be More Than Simple Retaliation Over 'Yellowcake'
Op-Ed...
What Were They REALLY After?
*** Special to The BRAD BLOG
*** by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns

In today’s Washington Post ombudsman column, “Covert Question, Open Controversy,” Deborah Howell says, “Wilson's New York Times op-ed piece, critical of the Bush administration's use of intelligence, set off a chain of events that led to the disclosure of Plame's job.”

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But information and testimony revealed during the course of the Libby Trial indicates that it wasn't Wilson's op-ed piece that set the off the chain of events leading to their disclosure of the CIA WMD analyst and her covert network. The Bush administration began its campaign to discredit Valerie Plame/Wilson at least a month prior to the release of her husband's article.

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What did happen in May – between Kristof’s piece and the inquiries to Marc Grossman – is that Seymour Hersh published a devastating New Yorker article, “Iraq Post Mortem,” partly about the forged Niger documents that generated the "yellowcake" brouhaha. Did the administration simply decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Wilson, convinced that his going public would be the last straw on the "mushroom cloud"? Did it go for a two-fer, moving to disrupt analysis in the WMD counter-proliferation unit at the CIA where Mrs. Wilson worked?

If so, it moved fast: by the time Wilson’s column appeared, his wife’s name and CIA connection had already been leaked to Bob Woodward of the Post and Judith Miller of the Times – for 23 days and 13 days, respectively. Note: Armitage, Woodward’s source, is another Cheney man and has been since before Bush 41.

Whatever the reasons for the activity and whatever the trial outcome, one point continues to be clear: The man at the top who chose Dick Cheney as his Vice, is ultimately --- and Constitutionally --- responsible.

timeline and more at:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4188