OUT of Iraq, but rather for the Bush junta's operatives taking nuke material INTO Iraq (for a plant of nuke materials to be "found" by the US troops who were "hunting" for WMDs after the invasion--notably accompanied by Judith Miller). If anything went wrong with the transport of the nuke materials INTO Iraq--an accident, or discovery/foiling of their scheme--they would have a story ready, with a trail back not to Rumsfeld and his OSP, or Rice and the NSC, but to a Democratic Congressman (Klink, who involved Weldon).
The WMD-planting theory of Treasongate--a working hypothesis that seems to be holding up well, as new information comes out--is that the "Rome group" (which included Ghorbanifar) was setting up a two-part sting, the dual purpose of which was to discredit the CIA forever, and to provide Bush/Blair with the huge political benefit of WMD "found" in Iraq, post invasion. The first part of the sting was the Niger forgeries, which were so crude as to be almost instantly recognizable as forgeries (wrong dates, wrong names). I've often wondered why the Bush junta, with almost infinite financial resources, could not purchase better forgeries. The answer may be that the forgeries were intended to be easily discoverable. If then, the Bush junta kept using the Niger allegation anyway--despite its basis in proven forgeries--the CIA would be baited into a public no-nukes in Iraq position.
Part 2 of the scheme was to plant the nukes or nuke materials in Iraq, to be "found' by the US/Miller team. The world would thus be greatly gratified that the US slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis was not in vain. WMDs had been "found"! Point to Rove, for many talkings. And the CIA would be made to look like fools, and would become all the more purge-able by the Bush junta.
But somebody found out. This deceitful scheme was foiled. There were two reports from Islamic news sources in March 2003, of foiled US attempts to plant WMDs in Iraq (one in the Basra port under false Red Cross cover, the other at an unknown location which met with "friendly fire"--the former an Iraq Governing Council source, the latter a purported Pentagon whistleblower source).
The Brits chief WMD expert, David Kelly began whistleblowing anonymously to the BBC about the exaggerated ("sexed up") prewar WMD intel on Iraq, in late May 2003. The Blairites were in a tither about it, and went on an avid internal search to hunt down the whistleblower. In late June, somebody tipped them off that it was Kelly (See *note on Judith Miller, below). He was interrogated at a safe house (first week of July), in an effort to find out what ELSE he knew. On July 7, Blair was informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things" (could say, not HAD said). Seven days later, on July 14, Valerie Plame, a CIA senior covert agent, head of the WMD counter-proliferation team, was outed in the press by Robert Novak--after what appears to be a panicked, rushed effort by the Bushites to find a newsman patsy to do this dirty deed (they called at least SIX reporters that week, July 7-14--SIX journalist witnesses to treason--and by this and other actions put many top Bushites at max risk of treason charges).
Four days later (July 18), David Kelly was found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances. His office and computers were searched. And four days after that (July 22), Novak ADDITIONALLY out the Brewster-Jennings front company for the entire CIA counter-proliferation project, disabling all projects and putting all covert agents/contacts at risk of getting killed.
The Plame/BJ outings were given the cover story of being Rovian revenge for Plame's husband Joseph Wilson's publication of an article on July 6, about the Niger forgeries. But there is evidence that his article was expected (and may have been part of the "Rome" plot to bait the CIA with forged documents). What was UNEXPECTED was Kelly's whistleblowing. And the presumption of this theory of Treasongate is that Kelly, an experienced hand at Iraq, who had wanted Saddam ousted and had supported the invasion, soured on the war when he stumbled upon the deceitful scheme to plant WMDs (or possibly helped to foil it); that's why he started whistleblowing (to alert the public that something wasn't right, but not with the intention of revealing "any state secrets" (during interrogation, he promised his bosses he wouldn't)); and that's why he was killed, that he knew something much more damaging than "exaggerated intel," was already whistleblowing and couldn't be trusted (or, as punishment for his part in foiling the WMD-planting deception). (I'm 99% sure that his death wasn't a suicide, and I am not alone in that assessment--many forensics experts and others have strongly objected to the Hutton whitewash.)
Back to the "Rome group" and Ghorbanifar. The planted story about IRAN--that Iran took nukes (or tried to take nukes) out of Iraq prior to the invasion--which ran parallel to the other Treasongate operations and disinformation efforts (in spring/summer 2003), may have had the dual purpose of a cover story, in case the Bush junta plot to plant the nuke material was discovered or foiled, AND as a way to implicate IRAN for future purposes (later assault on Iran). It's even conceivable that the Iran story is still being run--and has been amended or retooled to suit new circumstances. That is, we may some day soon find the Bush junta in Iran, in possession of nuke material, claiming that it came from Iraq--to backwards-justify that slaughter, as well as justifying whatever slaughter they engage in to get control of Iran's oil. (Manucher Ghorbanifar will then be vindicated--and revenge inflicted on the CIA for burning him as a fabricator back in the '80s, and he will probably be made Prime Minister of Iran (or chief of security) as his reward. He apparently has a former Shah minister as an aide--a regime notorious for its extensive use of torture.)
I suspected as much upon reading Libby's "aspens" letter to Judith Miller--that this plot is "deeply rooted," as he says, and that he is taking the fall to preserve the Iran part of it (and he tells her to "come back to life--and work" in order to cover, among other things, the story of Iran's nuke program).
One aspect of the current Iran story is worrisome in this respect--that, while the Iranian team that was supposedly "stealing" nuke material from Iraq suffered radiation poisoning, the fate of the nuke material itself is left unclear. Did they "steal" the stuff, and then die delivering it to Iran (or die afterwards)? Where did it end up? (The suspicion, of course, is that this was the Ghorbanifar/Bush junta team taking nuke material INTO Iraq, that may have met with "friendly fire." But, in either case, what happened to the nuke material?)
If the WMD-planting theory of Treasongate is true--or more or less true--then what we have here is a portion of the CIA that was still doing its proper job in 2003--trying to gather accurate information for our government, and counter covert threats (like illicit WMD shipments around the world)--and they seem also to have been trying to kill false stories, like this one about Iran, while Rumsfeld's OSP and Rice's NSC were trying to promote them and push them along. Thus, we have the mysteries that Weldon experienced, of a interested CIA suddenly withdrawing, and initiating a backchannel effort to find out who "Ali" was, and, having found out, put an end to that story. And, at some point, this "white hat" CIA must have begun to suspect the Bush junta of plotting against THEM--trying to drag them in and fool, distract, embarrass and discredit them, with disinformation.
It's interesting how Ghorbanifar's efforts to plant this story about Iran parallel, in methodology, the Bush junta's efforts to out Plame and Brewster-Jennings.
"By all credible accounts, the source of this dubious tale was Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms dealer who used middle-men and cut-outs to create the appearance of several sources. "
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S._government_0111.htmlThe Bush junta did a similar thing--using "middle-men and cut-outs" (US journalists)--to create the impression that "everybody knew" that Plame was a covert CIA agent married to Wilson, and that junta aides were not promulgating this information, but were LEARNING it from journalists. (--a parallel purpose being to locate the patsy who would out Plame/BJ.)
The whole thing looks like an unbelievably tangled mess, from our current perspective. But I think it will one day be very clear how compromised and treasonous the Bush junta is, and that it has used "cloak and dagger" methods against the American people--internally and externally--to turn our military and our intelligence agencies, and our once great wealth, to illegitimate, private purposes. Thus it is that the methods of a lying, illicit arms dealer and war profiteer--who assisted the Reagan regime in violating US laws in the Iran-Contra plot--can be seen, writ large, in the policies of the United States government.
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*(Note: Judith Miller was a colleague of David Kelly's and the person to whom he wrote one of his last emails, on the day he died, July 17, 2003. In it, he expresses concern about the "many dark actors playing games." Miller failed to mention this email--certainly a newsworthy item--or her close connections with Kelly, in her NYT obit on Kelly. (His family later released those emails.) Miller is my candidate for the person who outed Kelly to his bosses in late June 2003, which began the swift chain of events that ended in his death, about two weeks later.)
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