FWIW, a Wayne Madsen report on Treasongate

[steve2470]

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/



July 22, 2005 -- State Department memo paragraph containing Valerie Wilson's name marked "S" -- Secret. The Washington Post is reporting today that a June 10, 2003 State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) three-page memo that discussed Ambassador Joseph Wilson's fact finding trip to Niger on behalf of the CIA and mentioned in the second paragraph the name of his covert CIA wife, Valerie Wilson, was, at a minimum, classified at the Secret level. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the entire memo was classified Top Secret/NOFORN (No Foreign Dissemination). The paragraph containing Plame's name was marked "(S/NF)" "Secret, No Foreign Dissemination." The disclosure of that information by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby is a clear violation of laws governing the handling of classified material and is now a focus of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Apparently, two sentences in the seven sentence S/NF paragraph dealt with Mrs. Wilson and her husband's visit to Niger -- the remainder emphasized previously-reported State Department diplomatic intelligence that reiterated that Iraq had not attempted to obtain uranium from Niger. In fact, the memo may have thrown cold water on an attempt by neocons to shop around phony intelligence that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium not only from Niger but from three other African countries: South Africa, Namibia, and Gabon. (Gabon is where Amb. Wilson served as ambassador under George H. W. Bush; Niger was Wilson's first diplomatic posting). Hence, Bush's "16 word" State of the Union address sentence that referred to British intelligence and "Africa."



Secretary of State Colin Powell had the memo in his possession on Air Force One when he accompanied President Bush on his July 7-12, 2003 trip to Africa. Then-Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett accompanied Bush on the trip and are also the focus of the criminal probe of the security leak. Other White House communications aides, including Scott McClellan, Adam Levine, and Claire Buchan, were subpoenaed by Fitzgerald, along with Fleischer and Bartlett, and testified before the Grand Jury. The prosecutor has also shown an interest in Robert Joseph, the NSC official responsible for counter-WMD proliferation, and Karen Hughes, Bush's then-Communications chief. Hughes is due to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at her confirmation hearing for Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Senators will have to navigate questions on Rovegate gingerly to avoid any legal interference with the Fitzgerald probe.

on edit: removed confusing word

[Peace Patriot]

1. An intriguing time-line coincidence:

Circa Feb-June, 2003: Wilson calls Condi Rice about Iraq/Niger nuke claim; she says (thru intermediaries, giving her time to consult with others) that she's not interested in his information, but if he's so concerned about it, why doesn't he publish it? (This is, almost word for word, from a Wilson interview I read--but I don't know exactly when it happened.)

July 6, 2003: Wilson article published.

July 14, 2003: Novak outs Plame.

July 18, 2003: Brit WMD expert David Kelly found dead, under extremely suspicious circumstances (after whistleblowing to BBC on Blairite "sexing up" of Iraq intel docs).

July 22, 2003: They go further, and Novak outs CIA front company and all its WMD projects and contacts.

My guess: Kelly was onto plot to plant WMDs in Iraq. Blair was warned on 7/7/03 that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things"--so they were worried about what he "could say," not what he HAD said. Something turned Kelly around about the war and false intel in April-May 2003--that's what it feels like to me. He had supported the war, then whistleblew AFTER it. The Blairites hunted him down within the gov't, interrogated him in secret, then outed his name to the press, and sent him home without protection. Tough guy, scientist, slits a wrist and takes painkillers out in the open, in the rain, near his home, and bleeds to death all night. Brit intel service, having failed to put him under surveillance (uh-huh), immediately confiscates all his computers and notes.

Panic on AF-1 in Africa. They call at least SIX reporters. Got to get this done NOW (Novak 7/14, after Kelly interrogation). And (after Kelly's dead and his computers are searched) not just Plame, her entire network (Novak 7/22).

In one of his last emails, Kelly expressed worry about the "many dark actors playing games." This email (later disclosed by his family) was to Judith Miller (quite a story there, I think). His various emails just before he died show he was looking forward to his daughter's wedding and returning to Iraq, and thought the whole thing would blow over in a week. My guess: he'd assured the Blairites he would keep their worst secret. Not good enough. They had him offed. The secret was just too dangerous.

So, this would mean that Rovegate is just misdirection, a cover story. They--Cheney et al--were planning for some time to disable Plame and her WMD network; maybe even placed the Iraq Niger claim in the SOTU speech to bait someone; Rice actively baits Wilson; he falls into their snare. Kelly had started whistleblowing on the intel on 5/22, but no one knew who it was until the end of June. As that story gets more and more serious--the whistleblower is Brit's chief WMD specialist--and with the planting of WMDs at some stage of implementation (Judith Miller avidly looking for them in Iraq, her reward will be the "scoop")--but with that scheme possibly already foiled--they quicken their plot against the CIA (Rice baits Wilson; he publishes on 7/6).

They find out Kelly's knows something (7/7). They out Plame (7/14) making it look like Rovian revenge. Kelly is taken care of three days later (7/17). Then they find out the details of what Kelly knew (perhaps his contacts) when his computers are searched, and they out her front company and network (7/22) to prevent discovery of their nefarious scheme (or to punish, disable, kill any who helped foil them; also, it's part of a long term plan for future wars--planting, using WMDs in Iran, Syria, etc.).

The 7/22 additonal Novak outing of the CIA company bothers me. Why take that much greater risk of treason charges--if the motive was just teaching Wilson a lesson? What a completely stupid thing to do--unless you had immediate fear of something far worse being detected. (No doubt they had a long term plan to disable the CIA, especially on WMDs, but the way they did it seems awkward and precipitous--and very risky.)

I've also found puzzling the story that Wilson being married to a WMD expert somehow taints or discredits Wilson. The opposite seems true, that it would ENHANCE his ability to carry out the Niger mission, and underscore his credentials. (--unless the whole thing is a crock; a cover story; Rovian revenge all too believable).

Quite a lot of novel-writing here, it's true. But this Kelly thing happening right in the middle of it all, just seems too coincidental.

[mod mom]

2. Thanks P P. I'm starting to feel MOMENTUM!

[Al-CIAda]

3. Novak 'outed' 'PLAME', as opposed to 'Wilson'

Novak 'outed' 'PLAME', as opposed to 'Wilson' in testimony today. CIA analyst Larry Johnson testified that even he, who went through training with her, only knew her as 'Val P". She went by 'Wilson" to those familiar. The secret memo from my understanding mentions NO 'Plame'. So, how did Novak come by the name 'Plane'? Furthermore, her operative name (Plame) was the one associated with her ongoing undecover work, is the name of her cover .

Whoever fed Novak his info was up to more than just discrediting Joe Wilson. Something perhaps even larger.

[Peace Patriot]

4. I think I see what you're saying, Al-CIAda. I hadn't grasped the full

significance of the name Novak used. It furthers the hypothesis that the main goal of the outing was to disable Plame/CIA WMD monitoring capability, not to punish Wilson. These dates are sure intriguing to me:

July 7, 2003: Blair told Kelly knew something worse than "sexed up" intel.
July 14, 2003: Plame outed, disabled and put at risk (using her CIA name).
July 17-19, 2003: Kelly dead, computers confiscated.
July 22, 2003: Plame/CIA front company outed, all WMD projects disabled, all agents put at risk.

The connection could merely be that they were shutting everybody up, trying to crush all whistleblowers and all dissent, especially on the false justifications for the war. And it's POSSIBLE (maybe 1% possibility, in my view) that Kelly committed suicide, and that his death had nothing directly to do with the Plame outing, or that at most access to his computers (occasioned by his suicide) gave them some relevant info.

...except for the CONTEXT. They desperately needed a find of WMDs in Iraq. It was THE Bush/Blair political need that summer (and to this day). That context is what makes the closeness of those dates so resonant. (--especially with this intriguing connection of the "dark actors" email to WMD-propagandist Miller.)

So, what were they DOING to satisfy their most urgent political need? Nothing? They were just sitting around HOPING that US troops and Judith Miller would stumble upon something they knew wasn't there?

Right.