CHENEY AIDES CONSPIRED TO OUT PLAME!!!-By Jason Leopold

[kpete]

NSC, Cheney Aides Conspired to Out CIA Operative
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report

Monday 20 February 2006

The investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson is heating up. Evidence is mounting that senior officials in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Security Council conspired to unmask Plame Wilson's identity to reporters in an effort to stop her husband from publicly criticizing the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence, according to sources close to the two-year-old probe.

In recent weeks, investigators working for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald have narrowed their focus to a specific group of officials who played a direct role in pushing the White House to cite bogus documents claiming that Iraq attempted to purchase 500 tons of uranium from Niger, which Plame Wilson's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had exposed as highly suspect.

One high level behind-the-scenes player who has been named by witnesses in the case as a possible source for reporters in the leak is Robert Joseph, formerly the director of nonproliferation at the National Security Council. Joseph is responsible for placing the infamous "sixteen words" about Iraq's attempt to purchase uranium from Niger in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

.................

Sources close to the probe said witnesses involved in the case told FBI investigators that Joseph was one of the recipients of a classified State Department memo in June 2003 that not only debunked the Niger allegations but also included a top-secret reference to Valerie Plame Wilson's work for the CIA, and that she may have been responsible for recommending that the CIA send her husband to Niger to investigate the uranium claims in February 2002.

MORE AT:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006Z.shtml

[Burried News]

1. Senator Robert's is part of the CONspiracy. Otherwise we would

have seen the Senate Intelligence Committee PHASE II Report long ago.

[Independent_Liberal]

16. Indict Roberts!

I hope to God he gets nailed in either this investigation or the Abramoff scandal.

[FreedomAngel82]

33. Exactly

I wonder why Reid hasn't done anything else? Maybe they're trying to behind the scenes?

[mzteris]

2. I said Joseph in July 05. . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1903435#1903556


In his (Robert Joseph) positions as special assistant to the president and director for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation, and Homeland Defense, Joseph was a central figure in formulating the U.S. government's new counterproliferation strategy (including launching the Security Proliferation Initiative together with John Bolton). He led the effort to formulate and implement the U.S. National Strategy to Combat Weapons and the U.S. National Strategy for BioDefense."

[H2O Man]

8. A related article

from that same time:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/12975

[mzteris]

11. Joseph, Bolton, Fleitz, Rice, Cheney . .

all tied together with the White House Iraq Group . . .

I hope they all go down.

Robert Joseph: Director for Nonproliferation at National Security Council (2001-2005); Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs (2005-Present)

JOSEPH SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR INCLUSION OF URANIUM CLAIM IN STATE OF THE UNION: The New York Times reported that senior intelligence officials said that Alan Foley, a C.I.A. expert on weapons of mass destruction, said “he was asked by Bob Joseph, the director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council, whether the president’s address could include a reference to Iraq’s seeking uranium from Niger.”

JOSEPH GUIDED WMD CASE AGAINST IRAQ: Bob Joseph, “the senior director dealing with weapons of mass destruction, guided the process of building the case against Iraq” from the White House. Thus, it appears likely he would have seen the State Department memo that contained Plame’s identity.

[H2O Man]

17. One of the most important

lines in Roger Morris's article is found at March 23, 2003: "Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WVa) writes FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for an investigation of the Niger letters. 'There is a possibility,' Rockefeller says, 'that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at munipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq'."

[H2O Man]

3. Nominated.

Thank you for your continued effort to bring important news stories to DUers.

[Benhurst]

4. I'll second that. And nominate the post. NT

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. NSC = Condi

Drip Drip Drip

Everyone in the WHIG group should be up on charges of treason.

[berni_mccoy]

6. K&R! Thank you KPETE!

:kick:

[susu369]

7. Bravo, Jason Leopold

Leopold really embodies the term intrepid reporter.

[ewagner]

9. K & R

The conspiracy has to be exposed....

we're getting incrementally closer to doing that....

[Canuckistanian]

10. Thanks, kpete

Not only was this a conspiracy involving top cabinet members, it was a colosally stupid one.

They outed an operative just to get a misleading story out to the media that somehow discredited Wilson.

And it was a stupid story, on MANY levels.

FIRST, Valerie Plame didn't have the authority to send anyone anywhere. That was not her job, nor was it probably a priority for her.

SECOND, even if she DID send Wilson, why would that be suspect? Wilson was the last ambassador to Iraq and the last US official to ever meet with Saddam. He was also very familiar with Niger and intelligence issues. He seemed to be the ideal candidate to go on such a fact-finding mission.

THIRD, it was clear that although Cheney "had not sent him directly", Cheney did ask the CIA to investigate. Wilson was delegated to this task. Another easy choice.

FOURTH, this little side-story that "his wife sent him" is intended as a sort of schoolboyish smear, a sort of "lookie who wears the pants in THAT family" snickering put-down. Childish.

[klook]

14. Good analysis. Not only that,

but this has succeeded most in giving Joe Wilson, who was unknown to most Americans before the Plame ID leak, a fairly loud megaphone.

Not only that, but now the leak scandal is tearing a gaping hole in the side of this vulturous administration. Even hard-core Republicans understand (whether they'll admit it publicly or not) that it's treasonous to publicize the identify of an undercover CIA operative. And the more they try to pooh-pooh the outing, the more idiotic and/or duplicitous they look.

I hate their dirty tricks, but I love it when they backfire. :evilgrin:

[H2O Man]

15. Re: SECOND

Wilson was the single most qualified American for the job. It's why he was sent.

[eppur_se_muova]

47. "lookie who wears the pants in THAT family" snickering put-down...

For some reason, when I heard that they were trying to show that his wife arranged the trip, this was the aspect that stood out to my mind -- mostly because I just couldn't see what other reasons they really had. I wouldn't put it past these morons to think that this was enough by itself to "discredit"(!!) Wilson.

[dansolo]

59. I don't think that was it

My take on the insinuation was that Jow Wilson got the job through cronyism, not because of his qualifications. That is truly laughable for two big reasons. First, Joe Wilson was probably the single most qualified person to undertake the job, of which he wasn't even compensated for, and second, considering that every single person in this administration is a crony, to throw that out is quite telling.

[eppur_se_muova]

60. I guess it didn't occur to me the pot would call the kettle black! nt

[emulatorloo]

12. kicking n/t

[seemslikeadream]

13. Dick Cheney American Judas - The wicked stench of exploitation

Dick Cheney exposed Valerie Plame to cover up his association with A.Q. Khan's Nuclear Walmart. Read about it here: http://s93118771.onlinehome.us/DU/AMERICANJUDAS.pdf

The weakest man in Babylon

The richest man in babylon

There is no quidance in your kingdom
Your wicked walk in Babylon
There is no wisdom to your freedom
The richest man in babylon

Your beggars sleep outside your doorway
Your prophets leave to wonder on
You fall asleep at night with worry
The saddest man in Babylon

The wicked stench of exploitation
Hangs in the air and lingers on
Beneath the praise and admiration
The weakest man in Babylon

There is no hope left in your kingdom
Your servants have burned all their songs
Nobody here remembers freedom
The richest man in Babylon

Si la lou babylon go 'dain
Babylon gon' be rich again
But to we don' sick again
But no we no weak again
Babyloooon on on on on
(Rasta scat)
Sal la lou ca uba whoa
Si la douba douba do wa bay
??
Si la loo babylon come 'round
You better know you better understand
'Fact you know you better hear what they say
Babylon this is your final day
Babylon this is your final call
Read the writin' it's on the wall
Said United we stand
And together we fall
And if I know that
You're not 'gon catch me in a rat pack
We not go fallin' on your death trap
No way...

Whoooooa oh oh oh oh whoa oh who oh oh
Whooooooa oh oh oh
Whoa oh oh o oh

Thiervery Corporation

[leveymg]

18. Just last Friday, the message seemed to be "No conspiracy charges"

Recall the articles that said Fitz was countering the "greymail? strategy being pursued by Libby's lawyers with a strategy of restricting charges to individualized charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

If Fitz were indeed intending to go after the participants with conspiracy charges, he might have been required to release a somewhat wider range of classified documents in response to defense discovery requests.

There seems to ample evidence at this point to hit everyone -- from Cheney on down -- with indictments for perjury or obstruction of justice -- which greatly reduces the chance the prosecution might get dragged out on motions or even overturned on appeals.

So, I must say, this article goes against what I thought we had learned just a few days ago. It can't be one way with Libby and the other with the rest. Once Fitz adopts this basic strategy, there doesn't seem to be any going back without greatly increasing the risk of having the case reversed.

This tells me the prosecution already has a very solid case that the guys at the top lied. That raises some speculation that Fitz may have already obtained sealed indictments as a way to pressure Rove and some of the other biggies to turn on Cheney and possibly Bush.

Does that make sense to you?

[H2O Man]

20. Another possibility

that we might consider is that Fitzgerald is making very clear to Libby's legal team that Scooter is caught. He is not going to beat any of the five charges that he is charged with. The attempts at grey mail and to create a foundation for appeals of the convictions do not look to good. These attorneys know that. And they are interested in getting the best outcome possible for Scooter.

There is little question that, over this holiday weekend, Mr. Libby is considering the options that they have put in front of him: roll the dice, and be sure of being convicted, and hope for either an appeal or a pardon, or agree to cooperate with Mr. Fitzgerald. And, if Scooter cops a plea, you will see conspiracy charges on a scale that will send the VP's office/WHIG spinning.

[leveymg]

21. Fitz has Cheney already on OOJ

Recall that Cheney told Fitz that he first learned about Plame from Libby, but Libby testified that his "original source" was Cheney. Somebody's lying, and I'll betya that Fitz can convince a jury that it was Dick.

So, if you have Dick dead to rights on OOJ, why bother to risk it all just to add another count, when Dick's already facing a minimum of five or ten years?

BTW - I love a good conspiracy charge as much as anyone, but Fitz's latest response letter to Libby's lawyer really forced me to reconsider where I thought this case was going. I'm open to changing my mind again, of course! :7

[Me.]

31. Either Way, FitzG. Wins

Just say Libby, needing cash and reluctant to give up his "pals" rolls the dice and is subsequently found guilty on all 5 and receives a sentence, this gives FitG. more leverage on additional charges against him. Something like , "well how about 20 more years, unless you testify as to who leaked"? And then the case goes forward just as he planned. The other way it can go is that Libby's lawyers convince him to pick door #2. Either way FitzG. gets what he wants.

As to the question of why not get them on lesser charges, I think FitzG.'s strategy has been the same all along, he just never showed his hand. He 's going to knock the players off the board, one at a time. And while we would be happy to see these felons convicted of any crime, and he considers perjury and ooj serious crimes...if we have read his character correctly, I believe he is offended by traitors and will do whatever he can to charge them with exactly that.

[leveymg]

45. Fitz will take the shortest, surest way to conviction and prison

I agree, all patriotic, law-abiding Americans win if the ringleaders of this treasonous cabal are convicted of multiple felony counts. Justice would be served if it ends up being under perjury/ooj statutes.

But, if he can get convictions on additional conspiracy and disclosure of classified identities and documents charges, all the better.

[stop the bleeding]

49. H2Oman hit the nail on the head --

that we might consider is that Fitzgerald is making very clear to Libby's legal team that Scooter is caught. He is not going to beat any of the five charges that he is charged with. The attempts at grey mail and to create a foundation for appeals of the convictions do not look to good. These attorneys know that. And they are interested in getting the best outcome possible for Scooter.

There is little question that, over this holiday weekend, Mr. Libby is considering the options that they have put in front of him: roll the dice, and be sure of being convicted, and hope for either an appeal or a pardon, or agree to cooperate with Mr. Fitzgerald. And, if Scooter cops a plea, you will see conspiracy charges on a scale that will send the VP's office/WHIG spinning.


The whole story changes once you have a witness that is cooperating, especially with one of Libby's knowledge. Fitz will be able to take different charges/strategies on the other possible indicted officials.

Also I like how Me's win win theory was explained up thread in this line of conversation.

Needless to say better stock up on :beer::popcorn:

[kpete]

53. stop the bleeding

I was wondering when you would show up.

You are right H20man gets it right again...Scooter goes down and takes at least some of them down. The question is who?

[stop the bleeding]

54. Based on the emails that were going around between Rove, Hadley and others

The sources said it was during this time that Libby, Hadley, Joseph, Hannah and Rove plotted to silence Wilson by leaking his wife's name to a specific group of reporters, saying that she chose him for the fact-finding mission to Niger and as a result his investigation was highly suspect. It's unclear what role, if any, Cheney played, but the sources said Fitzgerald is trying to determine if the vice president was involved.

The sources said Hannah is one of the cooperating witnesses in the probe.

The sources said this time frame was chosen because there were "rumors" that Wilson was "going to go public" and reveal that he had checked out the Niger claims on behalf of the CIA and that there was no truth to them. According to the sources close to the probe, all five of the officials have spoken with reporters about Plame Wilson.

At the same time that Plame Wilson's CIA status was leaked to reporters, Libby, Rove and Hadley had been exchanging emails that included draft statements explaining how the "sixteen words" ended up in President Bush's State of the Union address, the sources added.




This is where I expect Fitz to make part of a case, also remember we really do not know what else Fitz has on anyone including Scooter. Once Fibby starts to talk, it is really hard to say how events will play out. Rove and Hadley are still prime targets on the list, but lets not forget all of the news that has come out recently about Darth Cheney. As far as the Plame DU'ers have been able to deduce is that he(Darth) is looking at the same charges as Fibby plus the Conspiracy charge, plus any other radiating charges that stem from the base charges.

I have a question for everyone playing.

Will Fitz wait on Fibby to go after other people? Or is Fitz gonna go after Joseph? and when Fitz does, will Joseph turn on the other people?

I just jumped into DU for a quick look see tonight needless to say my head is swimming with questions right now, I can not wait to see what else is said on this subject. Time to get another Red Stripe:beer:

[kpete]

55. Wow, wow and wow

Libby for sure, probably Joseph, maybe Rove and Hadley and good chance for Cheney...I like it so far!

[stop the bleeding]

57. Remember H2Oman's Chess analogy - Fitz is working his way through

some pawns by going through Joseph, Fitz scored a big move by effectively taking Fibby(knight) out play even though he is still on the board. I have been saying Rove(bishop), and Hadley(Rook or another knight) all along as being on Fitz's next targets. As stated in last post Cheney(Queen) is now in the cross hairs based on recent reports. Having the above named pieces removed from the board will leave the King(Bush) naked and vulnerable. How that vulnerability may be exploited by the press remains to be seen.

[myrna minx]

64. Oooohhh--it *is* win/win, isn't it.

:bounce: I appreciate you thoughts on this. :bounce:

[Gregorian]

19. Despite what they say, WMD's meant nothing to these people.

It's all so right out in the open. Eveything is so obvious. All they wanted was money. Phoney national security in some kind of misnamed Patriot Act. Every day IHOP refuses to leave my thoughts. After all, if they'd out Plame, then they didn't care about wmd's. And that's all there is to it. They just wanted war/money. Bush IS a war president. But he should have been more accurate- he's a war family. Whether it's Hitler or Bin Laden, the Bush family has a profit partner.

[WinkyDink]

32. Precisely. Stopping dead in its tracks THE covert operation to MONITOR

the proliferation of WMD's in Iraq/Iran/Syria PROVES beyond a shadow of a doubt (not just "reasonable") that Bushco couldn't care less about WMD's, whether the non-existent Iraqi ones or the possibly extant others.
UNLESS~~~Cheneyco was actually TRADING in them.

This outing of Plame wasn't from any snit, or from any revenge against JW, or merely to plant unobstructed a lie about Niger's uranium; it was to KILL any "outing" of the treasonous financial dealings of Bush and Cheney.

Poor Fitz; nobody knows the evil he's seen.

[HereSince1628]

22. Have witnesses appeared before Fitz' new grand jury?

Who would know that the new GJ is asking questions about senior officials, and be willing to leak knowledge of that?

[leveymg]

23. All the leaks seem to be coming from defense lawyers.

These new leaks -- if there's anything to this -- would seem to have originated with Joseph's team.

[HereSince1628]

24. But how would defense lawyers know what's going on in the new GJ

if they haven't had witnesses present before the new GJ?

Is it reasonable that Fitzgerald's staff would approach someone and say "The Grand Jury would like your client to answer the following question(s)?"

I don't know, I'm just asking. I understand that Libby's defense sprinkled out comments over the past several months.

[leveymg]

25. My guess is that Joseph testified recently

I can't imagine Fitz would give witnesses a list of 20 questions before calling them.

The reason that underlings, like Joseph, are being called now seems to be that Fitz is cementing his perjury/OOJ charges against somebody else. That mught point toward the present National Security Advisor, toward Rove, toward Condi, or toward Cheney. Or, all of the above.

[HereSince1628]

27. Yes, well, that's why I wondered if the new GJ had heard witnesses

I wasn't aware of any sightings of witnesses coming or going from this GJ.
But I suppose that's why they call them "secret" Grand Jury hearings.

[leveymg]

28. GJs can travel to obtain evidence

It's possible that Fitz is having them meet at locations outside the US Courthouse. This is just speculation.

By the way, I would not want to be a newsman or anyone else caught by the US Marshalls trailing Members of the Grand Jury. That seems like a quick ticket straight to jail, at least for a few days.

Anybody have a take on that?

[HereSince1628]

29. Interesting point. I was thinking some reporters stake out the court

building.

[Pithy Cherub]

26. We are in unchartered waters folks!

This VP has shown a distinct contempt for Bush's perceived authority as president, used (and probably inserted) the executive order process to try and indemnify his actions as VP, cherry picked in intelligence to support a pre-conceived case and conspired with other unethical political operatives masquerading as professionals inside the White House. They used 9/11 as pre-test and prologue to sustain their blurry and blind dishonorable intentions of empire and manifest destiny. Bush has not held one person accountable and all of this is known.

No wonder Fitzgerald is taking his time, he is going to insure each one of the National Security Council prinicipals and underlings is trapped and caught by more than one piece of significant evidence before bringing charges. Bush has shown who really is in charge and he needs a *Mr. Fixit* to reel in Cheney's power. Libby is but the first and if Fizgerald can eviscerate his lame defense, then the others are going to fall hard and quickly rushing to make deals. High stakes and no one has paid a higher price than those who have died.

We are living in very interesting times.
:popcorn:

[leveymg]

30. Pass the popcorn. The one with extra butter.

:popcorn:

[mia]

58. Listen to the Deadeye Dick Re-mix & Quail Hunter's Rhapsody...

while you munch.

http://www.reidreport.com/juicecaster/juicecast.php?id=720

[Patsy Stone]

34. Wasn't Hadley concerned at one point that he would be indicted?

I seem to remember he was telling his friends he expected it. So now in this article it says, "Hadley's spokeswoman also did not return calls for comment, but she has said in the past that Hadley played no role in the leak." Thus begging the question for what then is/was/will he be in fear of indictment?

Also, my opinion as to the Fitz discussion:

There are charges on the table, and those are the only charges at the moment. Fitz isn't going to release anything he doesn't have to because he may never charge Libby with anything else. If he does, there will a superseding indictment (because those charges would be much more serious than the current ones), and then there will no doubt be another round of these requests from Libby's defense team and as it says in the article.

Rec'd and thanks!

[H2O Man]

42. Yes.

Mr. Hadley indeed has been concerned that he would be charged in this case.

Regarding his spokeswoman saying to reporters that he played no role, I would suggest putting it into the context of Mr. Libby's folks saying he played no role, or Scott Peterson's mother saying he played no role.

[Roland99]

35. Who is Robert Joseph? >>>>>>>>>

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/jspecial071803.html

Joseph is the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation and Homeland Defense, and a key member of the neoconservative group in the administration. As Dana Milbank pointed out in the Washington Post :

" Perle's allies favor a more hawkish foreign policy and an inclination for the United States to go it alone. Perle's lineup of like-minded thinkers is impressive, starting with Vice President Cheney. The vice president sometimes stays neutral, but his sympathies undoubtedly are with the Perle crowd. Cheney deputies Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Eric Edelman relay neoconservative views to Rice at the National Security Council. At the NSC, they have a sympathetic audience in Elliott Abrams, Robert Joseph, Wayne Downing and Zalmay Khalilzad."

...

"At this writing, twenty-two CSP advisers – including additional Reagan-era remnants like Elliott Abrams, Ken deGraffenreid, Paula Dobriansky, Sven Kraemer, Robert Joseph, Robert Andrews and J.D. Crouch – have reoccupied key positions in the national security establishment, as have other true believers of more recent vintage."

Joseph is among the chief advocates of "counter-proliferation," – as opposed to "non-proliferation," – which seeks to use the issue of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons as a pretext for war rather than a reason to engage in disarmament negotiations. If a dangerous wackiness is a general characteristic of the neocons in government, then surely the National Institute for Public Policy's 2001 report "Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control," in which Joseph collaborated, bore all the hallmarks. As William Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca put it, the report recommends "developing a new generation of 'usable' lower-yield nuclear weapons, expanding the U.S. nuclear 'hit list' and expanding the set of scenarios in which nuclear weapons may be used."

February 10, 2006
Neocons Weigh In on Iran's A-Bomb
Robert Dreyfuss
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m20506&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Joesph, the undersecretary of state for arms control (the post previously held by John Bolton), spoke this week at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. In his remarks, he contradicted many others who say that Iran is far from the ability to develop nuclear weapons:

"I would say that Iran does have the capability to develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them," he said in a response to a question.

With the Europeans having declared two years of negotiations with Iran at a dead-end, Joseph said "there is no end of diplomacy" and that taking Iran to the Security Council was "moving diplomacy to the next level."
"We are giving every chance to diplomacy to work," Joseph said.

At the same time, the official said, "No options are off the table. We cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran."

[Emit]

36. Thanks, here's more on Joseph

The top U.S. government official in charge of arms control advocates the offensive use of nuclear weapons and has deep roots in the neoconservative political camp . Moving into John Bolton’s old job, Robert G. Joseph is the right-wing’s advance man for counterproliferation as the conceptual core of a new U.S. military policy. Within the administration, he leads a band of counterproliferationists who—working closely with such militarist policy institutes as the National Institute for Public Policy and the Center for Security Policy—have placed preemptive attacks and weapons of mass destruction at the center of U.S. national security strategy.

~snip~

The Bush administration has given free rein to Robert Joseph’s militarist and treaty-breaking convictions.

~snip~

In arguing his case for the deployment of an ambitious national missile defense system, Joseph frequently cites the findings of the 1998 Donald Rumsfeld-chaired Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, whose findings have been widely disputed. (7)

“The unanimous findings of the bipartisan Rumsfeld Commission and the most recent assessments of the intelligence community leave little reasonable doubt about the growing challenges to the security of the American homeland from missile attack,” said Joseph.

~snip~

Two decades ago, Joseph and other Bush administration officials formed part of the militarist faction in the Reagan administration that argued against détente and for an offensive or rollback strategy against the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union. ...

~snip~

Although not self-identified as a neoconservative, Joseph moves in the same circles as other military strategists such as the CSP’s Frank Gaffney, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz. In a Washington Post article (May 2, 2002), “Who’s Pulling the Foreign Policy Strings,” Dana Milbank wrote: “The vice president sometimes stays neutral but his sympathies undoubtedly are with the Perle crowd. Cheney deputies Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Eric Edelman relay neoconservative views to Rice at the National Security Council. At the NSC, they have a sympathetic audience in Elliott Abrams, Robert Joseph, Wayne Downing, and Zalmay Khalilzad.”

Joseph participated as a team member in crafting the influential 2001 report by the National Institute for Public Policy titled Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control. The report recommended that the U.S. government develop a new generation of “usable” lower-yield nuclear arms. (14) At the same time, the NIPP study recommended that the government expand the nuclear “hit list” to include countries without nuclear capacity themselves as well as expanding the array of scenarios that would justify U.S. nuclear strikes. (15) The NIPP study served as the blueprint for George W. Bush’s controversial Nuclear Posture Review. (4) (5) (10)

In addition to Joseph, other NIPP study team participants entered the Bush administration as officials or advisers, including Stephen Hadley and Stephen Cambone, both of whom oversaw the administration’s Nuclear Review Process; and Kurt Guthe, Linton Brooks, James Woolsey, and Keith Payne who served on the Deterrence Concepts Advisory Panel during Bush’s first term.

Joseph was instrumental in inserting the concept of counterproliferation into the center of the Bush administration’s national security strategy. Counterproliferation is the first of the three pillars of the administration’s WMD defense strategy, as outlined in the National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction—a document that Joseph helped draft—and in the White House’s National Security Strategy.

Cont'd:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:8WpRsFRsr3UJ:rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/joseph/joseph.php+Robert+Joseph&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

[Roland99]

37. Hmm...Ballistic Missile Threats. Wonder what Joseph thought of Pakistan's

test the other day of a nuclear-warhead-capable missile?

[stop the bleeding]

50. Thanks Emit and Roland99 for providing the info on who Joseph is,

you guys rock!:headbang::headbang:

[kpete]

61. from born at the crest

If this conspiracy of five is charged, it would cripple the White House, even without Cheney. If Cheney is implicated, the scandal would be huge. Charges around this leaking would be notoriously tricky, and perhaps that's why Fitzgerald is moving so slowly and trying to get each and every one of them to turn. Jason says to expect the investigation to stretch into spring.

[TexasLawyer]

56. WOW, what a GREAT

director of nonproliferation!
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[Higans]

38. Pointing out hypocrisy

Evidence is mounting that senior officials in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Security Council conspired to unmask Plame Wilson's identity to reporters in an effort to stop her husband from publicly criticizing the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence, according to sources close to the two-year-old probe.

(snip)

Hmmmmmmm....... as of yet this is un-proven making it a theory right? and this sentence states that the NSC "conspired" right? wouldn't that make this a "Conspiracy theory"?

Well per DU rules:

Do not quote or link to "conspiracy theory" websites, except in our September 11 forum, which is the only forum on Democratic Underground where we permit members to debate highly speculative conspiracy theories. A reasonable person should be able to identify a conspiracy theory website without much difficulty.

So I must ask what is this topic doing on the front page?????

[H2O Man]

41. Lost. n/t

[leveymg]

48. "As of yet un-proven" does not make it a "conspiracy theory"

Unless you believe the U.S. Attorney from Chicago is a conspiracy theorist. By the standard you just laid down, that would relegate all news reported posted about the prosecution to the 9/11 forum.

There used to a species of what was called "crackpot realists", to whom the enemies of the Cold War were always implacable and a peaceful resolution with the Soviet Union and China was unthinkable. That category may just need updating.

[Julius Civitatus]

39. Does this exonerate Cheney from any wrongdoing?

Seems to me that everyone second to Cheney and right underneath direct command from Cheney conspired to out Plame right at Cheney's undisclosed location... but Cheney, I guess was hunting quails.

It seems too damn convenient, IMHO.

:tinfoilhat:

[H2O Man]

40. This in no way

removes Cheney from suspicion.

[Disturbed]

43. Darth Cheney is a control freak.

There is no way that any of his staff took any actions in the V. Plame situation without Darth's knowlege and urging. Cheney is the prime mover behind the lie that Saddam was trying to acquire "yellow cake" from Niger. When the fake doc was exposed, Cheney wanted more proof to back up the Bush Regime's WMD and Nuke claims but did not anticipate that the CIA would send someone that would actually report the facts, the truth, that no such request from Saddam ever occurred.

[H2O Man]

44. The fact that

Mr. Libby has testified that VP Cheney told him to spread classified information to journalists indicates who was calling the shots.

[Mugsy]

46. New questions to ask Cheney

VP Cheney appears to be constructing a new defense for his former Chief of Staff: "Libby did nothing wrong because the info he leaked had already been declassified."

Q1: "If you had already declassified Plame's identity long ago, why did we go through all this "finger pointing" and years of obfuscation, claiming Libby "heard the info from reporters first"?

Q2: "Why did you feel it necessary to "declassify" the identity of Valery Plame?

Answer to #1 is obvious: He never did. And you can't "retroactively" declassify something in order to skirt prosecution. That's what "pardons" are for.

Answer to #2 is interesting. A neocon I know says "it was to expose Wilson's lies". But NO ONE in the Bush Administration has accussed Wilson of lying. In fact, just the opposite, as both Bush and Rice have conceeded that "the claim about 'Uranium from Niger' should not have been in his (2003) State of the Union (because it has since been proven to be based on extremely questionable forged documents).

I *REALLY* want to hear someone ask Cheney these questions. Anyone else?

[H2O Man]

52. There is no evidence

that Cheney declassified Plame's identity. Libby said he was instructed to talk to journalists about the NIE. As stated in Murray Waas's 2-9 article in The National Journal, "Libby has never claimed that Cheney encouraged him to disclose information about Plame to the media."

[stop the bleeding]

51. Thanks kpete! K,R and bookmarked!!!

:headbang::headbang:

[BuyingThyme]

62. elyts reccos kcik

[lonestarnot]

63. 9 more months!