Beyond Libby's perjury trial

[radfringe]

Fitzgerald is due to wrap up the prosecution on Tuesday (2/6) and then the defense starts. According to the media - the defense still looks like they will put Libby and Cheney on the stand.

Whether it's by design or "accident" - we are finding out more details regarding the "outing of Plame", and the events surrounding the "outing" hint at more than just a question of whether or not Libby lied to the Grand Jury.

So far, all the dots are being pasted on Cheney, with Libby acting as a speed bump.

This is more than just a perjury trial. In a roundabout way it's a trial about the information we were fed in the run-up to the Iraq Invasion.

We know the "yellow cake" reference was pulled from an October speech 2002, and I believe it was also pulled from a speech in Nov or Dec of 2002

We know the CIA, British Intel, and German Intel doubted the accuracy of the Niger Documents.

We know the Niger Documents were forgeries.

We know the "aluminum tubes" story has been shown to be false.

We know there were NO WMDs in Iraq.

We know there was no connection between Saddam and 9-11.

We know there was no connection between Saddam and Osama Bin-Laden.

We know there was no connection between Saddam and Al-Qaeda.

We know PNAC was hot to invade Iraq.

We know Bush was determined to invade Iraq.

What we don't know is the REAL REASON for invading Iraq. If the MSM looks beyond Libby's trial and digs a bit deeper they might strike oil.

[H2O Man]

1. The part about

the yellow cake lie being pulled from the Oct 2002 Cincinnati speech has been known for years. A recent report noted that there were two communications between the Agency and the White House regarding their doubts about the information; in fact, there were two e-mails and one phone call. Hadley would, after Tenet took the blame for the State of the Union's infamous 16 words, claim that he had "forgotten" in the short time between that speech and the SotU that the Agency had debunked the yellow cake business. Right.

[radfringe]

2. heh - lots of people in the white house seem to have "forgotten"

many things... makes you wonder if there's a viral version of alzheimer's disease reaching epidemic proportions in the white house...

[H2O Man]

3. And this the group

that has long taken the "trust us -- we are WAY smarter than anyone else" stance.

[leveymg]

4. The Niger yellowcake lie is referenced by a Dec 02 State Dept briefing

Even though it didn't make its way into the declassified version of the 10/02 CIA NIE, that bogus info was still being circulated by the State Dept., and that was repeated by Powell and Bush:

http://www.traprockpeace.org/iraqweaponsn.html#nuimport

State Department, 19 December 2002: "The Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger. Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?"

White House, January 2003, p.5: "The Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from abroad."

Secretary Powell, 26 January 2003: "Why is Iraq still trying to procure uranium <...>?"