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Edited on Thu Jan-05-06 03:51 PM by Peace Patriot
There were several reports in the Islamic press in March 2003 of foiled US attempts to plant WMDs in Iraq, one in Basra involving a covert WMD shipment that had false Red Cross labels on it, and another at an unidentified location that met with "friendly fire." There may have been other efforts later on. If true, these are the ones that got noticed.
The WMD-planting theory of Treasongate is that there is a connection between these highly deceitful and dangerous, off-the-record Rumsfeld projects, and the outing of Valerie Plame and the entire CIA Brewster-Jennings counter-proliferation network--which disabled all the above-board WMD-monitoring projects and put all of its covert agents/contacts at great risk of getting killed. The theory also posits a possible connection to the death of the Brits chief WMD expert David Kelly, in the same week. Here's the time-line:
Late May 2003: Kelly starts whistleblowing anonymously to the BBC about exaggerated pre-war WMD intel.
Mid-June 2003: Judith Miller meets with Scooter Libby (about Plame).
Late June 2003: Kelly is mysteriously outed to his bosses, interrogated at a safe house, and threatened with the Official Secrets Act in an effort to find out what ELSE he knows.
July 7, 2003*: Tony Blair is informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things"--not had said, COULD say. (Hutton report.)
July 14, 2003: Plame outed (by Novak).
July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances; his office and computers searched.
July 22, 2003: CIA/Brewster-Jennings entire counter-proliferation group outed (also by Novak).
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IF the "uncomfortable things" that Kelly "could say" had to do with a Bushite plot to plant WMDs in Iraq, one thing he might have known was who foiled that plot.
The WMD-planting theory of Treasongate goes back to the creation of the "crude" Niger forgeries, which were so "crude" that they may have been INTENDED to be exposed as forgeries, in order to draw the CIA into a public position of no nukes in Iraq--and then, Part 2 of the plot, would have been the phony "find" of the planted nukes in order to discredit the honest part of the CIA and make it more purge-able by Bushites, as well as reaping enormous political benefit for Bush/Blair and the cause of slaughtering innocent Muslims to get their oil.
Another part of the theory: Rumsfeld positioned Judith Miller to enact the "find" of the nukes in Iraq, giving her a special "embed" contract signed by himself to accompany the US troops who were "hunting" for the WMDs. (She seemed to have extraordinary authority in that effort--for a reporter.)
Kelly was an old hand at Iraq, and a top scientist, who believed in his work of non-proliferation. He supported the invasion--he wanted Saddam ousted--but something turned him around about the war in spring 2003, after the invasion, and he began whistleblowing about the war's false premises. He had friends in Iraq. He was in a good position to hear about a WMD-planting plot (and its foiling), and there were Islamic news reports about it. Discovery of such a plot seems like a good candidate for what turned him around.
*July 6. July 7. Wilson published his article about the phony Niger claims on July 6. This appears to be the trigger for Treasongate (the outing of Plame). But is it? There is evidence that the Bushites EXPECTED his article. (He'd been talking to them, trying to get them to back off that claim, for months.) But what they may NOT have expected is Kelly's whistleblowing and (if true) his knowledge of their dirty scheme to actually plant the nukes. If the WMD-planting schemes were the "uncomfortable things" that Blair was apprised of on July 7 (that Kelly "could say"), and Blair told Bush (they were in close communication at that time), then we may have the real cause of the apparent panic among the Bushites that week--for instance, their calls to at least SIX reporters (six journalist witnesses to treason) in the week of July 6-12, in what looks like a very rushed and foolish effort to find a patsy newsman to immediately out Plame/Brewster-Jennings, an effort that put numerous top Bushites at maximum risk of treason charges, and for which Rovian revenge against Wilson was a cover story.
On the day he died, July 17, David Kelly emailed Judith Miller (yup, they were old buds), stating his concern about the "many dark actors playing games." She wrote his obit news article for the NYT a couple of days later, and failed to mention this email, or her close connections to Kelly.
He had been through a rough couple of months--big media controversy in England (black-holed news story here)--but thought it would all blow over. He was looking forward to his daughter's wedding and returning to Iraq. His "dark actors" comment may have had to do with the mystery of how he got outed (a guess). He had promised his bosses he wasn't going to reveal any "state secrets." After interrogating him and threatening him, they outed his name to the press, and sent him home without protection and apparently without surveillance (!?). He went for his normal afternoon walk, and, according to the official story, sat down under a tree, out in the cold and the rain, took some painkillers (not enough to kill him), slit one wrist, and bled to death outdoors all night.
The Hutton inquiry ignored: 1) reports by paramedics of not enough blood at the scene for the method of death; 2) body was moved; 3) unlikely method of suicide for a top scientist (and a man--a notable "tough guy"); 4): no note, no evidence of despair (on the contrary, he was forward-looking); 5) many forensic experts objecting to the conclusion of suicide.
The facts just don't add up for a conclusion of suicide. But if, upon a real inquiry, it could be determined with good certainty that it was, what drove him to it could have been what he had found out about his government (profound disillusionment--no sign of it though), or their threats against him or his family. Simply being in the midst of a media/gov't controversy does not seem sufficient to drive Kelly to kill himself. He was an experienced hand at media relations (as well as at WMD inspections in Iraq and Russia). But gov't bullying and threats could conceivably have led him to feel trapped or despairing (again--no sign of it).
Whether he was assassinated (likely), or committed suicide (unlikely), is not critical to the WMD-planting theory of Treasongate, except as to the level of desperation of the people who were outing Plame/BJ. Their reason for outing Plame/BJ could be to cover up their WMD-planting scheme, whether or not Kelly was killed, and even whether or not he knew of their schemes. (Also, possibly he knew something ELSE.)
One of the Islamic press articles said that the whistleblower (a person named Nella Rogers) was a Pentagon debriefer who had heard descriptions of an effort to plant WMDs in Iraq that met with "friendly fire." She assumed that it was a CIA operation that had been foiled. But, given all of the above, it seems far more likely that it was Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans, operating contrary to CIA and US policy, and engaging in proliferation in an effort to deceive the public.
I've wondered about the "Rome group"--the ones who probably cooked up the "crude" Niger forgeries, and the presence at that meeting of the notorious Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar. I suspect that they were cooking up more than easily detectable forgeries.
This theory of Treasongate is just a theory, but it continues to hold up well as new information has emerged. I would treat it as a plausible and useful working hypothesis.
There are other theories of why Plame/BJ was outed--that the BJ network was getting close to Saudi/Bush/9/11 money connections, dirty Cheney arms dealings, or other Bush Cartel crime. It's quite possible the Bushites had multiple reasons for getting rid of honest CIA operations. However, the coincidence of Plame/Kelly dates, and the matter at hand when those events occurred, the thing on everybody's mind--the big "hunt" for WMDs in Iraq--and the feel of rush and panic in the way Plame/BJ was outed, all point to a specific trigger that week, and the choice (apparently) is between the Wilson publication (July 6), and Kelly's whistleblowing and subsequent interrogation (July 7).
That Valerie Plame's career was ruined and her life's work destroyed--with some of her agents/contacts possibly killed, or at the least disabled--and David Kelly, working on the same issue, in the same kind of controversy, ended up dead, all in the same week, seems a bit much of a coincidence. TWO of our top non-proliferation experts--the very people we need most--swept off the scene in one week, within the two governments who claimed to be so concerned about WMDs that they had to kill tens of thousands of innocent people because of it.
It's an old saw, I know, but it sure rings true here: sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees.
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