Thinking on paper: What was the real cause of the Plame leak?

[keopeli]

For perspective, it's important to know what happened to the CIA WMD program as a result of the leak. What is the known damage already created as a direct result of the CIA leak?

As listed in Wikipedia with reference to the http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Jul%20archives.htm">Wayne Madsen Report

An anonymous star was added to the wall between named stars that can be dated to deaths on February 5, 2003 and October 25, 2003. The anonymous star thus fits the timing of the Plame leak. Wayne Madsen, a reporter and former NSA employee, has claimed, "CIA sources report that at least one anonymous star placed on the CIA's Wall of Honor at its Langley, Virginia headquarters is a clandestine agent who was executed in a hostile foreign nation as a direct result of the White House leak."

However there is no direct proof that the anonymous star has anything to do with the Plame scandal.

We do know that damage was done, particularly in relation to Plame's work with her cover company, Brewster Jennings & Associates.

We do know that Plame worked on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Karl Rove told that to Matt Cooper

And we know that the Office of Special Plans was created at the Pentagon specifically to bolster the intelligence that Iraq had WMD.

We know Dick Cheney was directly involved with the OSP as well as the CIA. There is no doubt that Cheney and Plame were both heavily involved in the internal debate over Iraq having WMD, even if they never met each other.

Given what we know now, how long would you guess it took the US Military to discover that there were no WMDs in Iraq? The invasion started on March 19, 2003. We know that the shit hit the fan while Bush was in Africa in early July 2003. We know Cheney was talking to Libby specifically about WMD CIA agent Valerie Plame and her marriage to Joe Wilson in early June 2003.

By the end of May 2003, our "mission accomplished, the Iraqi Government was under the control of the US CPA. The Iraqi Army had been dissolved and a massive search for the WMD had gone weeks without a single discovery.

The fact is that Congress had given the Administration the ability to wage preemptive war at its own discretion.

Bush, on behalf of the US, declared to the world, through the favored statesman Colin Powell, that Iraq was an imminent threat. Images of mushroom clouds on US soil were conjured by the White House Iraq Group. Their tactic, obviously, was to scare the public regarding Saddam's imminent threat.

The CIA leak was how the White House reacted to cover up their problem: Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction. At the same time that England's great WMD expert, Dr. Kelly, committed suicide under unusual circumstances, the White House leaked the name and identity of an esteemed US WMD expert, Valerie Plame, and an American CIA agent died.

Apparently, the White House considered our situation to be so grave that exposing one of our very own WMD experts as an under cover CIA agent and risking our entire WMD intelligence network was warranted. And this was at the very time that we learned that there were no WMD in Iraq.

The most important question is: what was so important that the Administration would choose to compromise our own Weapons of Mass Destruction global intelligence service?

I'm not inclined to believe it was the pursuit of the American ideal. Rather, such a drastic step is often the reaction of a desperate criminal situation.

[dennis00]

1. planted WMDs

Preemtive strike against Plame to prevent discovery of plan to plant WMDs in Iraq? Tehran Times reported in April or May of 2004 that US forces were importing WMDS into southern Iraq.

[keopeli]

2. I know of this report, but it begs the question...

Did the Administration know in advance that there were no WMDs, or did they genuinely believe they would find something?

If they knew there were no WMDs, then the planting of WMDs makes no sense, because they would have planned this action well in advance..

The more likely scenario is that they really believed their own lies, which is appaling. But, the panic that would ensue from learning there were no WMDs would definitly generate an attempt to cover up the truth and lead to a series of bizzare events, such as the death of a WMD expert (who was in contact with Judith Miller), the leak that exposed our WMD surveillance, and possibly the death of an unnamed CIA agent.

If this is the case, then the planted WMDs would also be part of a cover up.

You may be right. It's a plausible scenario that the actions were taken to cover up an attempt to plant WMDs so as to justify the war.

For now, it's about the best guess I think.

[keopeli]

3. Welcome to DU, btw!

[izzie]

4. I do not think it was that deep

It is how Rowe works and how Atwater worked. They always go after the messenger. Nixon's hit list came back with this group.