Why out Plame BEFORE the Wilson op-ed?

[Peachhead22]

If my reading comprehension skills are up to snuff, recent news stories and evidence indicate that Libby, Rove and others had already outed Valerie Plame to several reporters well before Joseph Wilson wrote the Niger yellowcake op-ed in the NY Times. Why?

That's basically saying they were trying to discredit Wilson before they knew they needed to discredited him. The timeline doesn't wash.

IMO a CIA agent working on non-proliferation was outed to out a CIA agent working on non-proliferation. Period. Nothing more, nothing less.

That she was married to a guy who eventually became an administration critic is just a convienient coincidence (for them}. It allows them to say they did it because of her husband, instead of they did it because she was on to something incredibly bad and incredibly big. And I mean bigger than fudging the case for war.

What gives?

[savemefromdumbya]

1. I think some weeks past

I think you also have to look at the the British documents re: WMD to get the whole picture

[ginnyinWI]

2. yup some are on to this already

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5049555

interesting stuff!

[babylonsister]

3. I'm hoping Fitz will explain it all to us, in

excruciating detail. I also think Plame and her CIA undercover work, Brewster Jennings, etc., were the main focus of the admin's efforts to discredit Wilson and, by extension, Plame. Seems to have blown up in their petty little faces though. :)

[TomInTib]

4. Wilson had been trying for weeks to get admin to listen..

but they kept brushing him off.

They new it was coming and were trying to head him off at the pass.

[lovuian]

5. I'm thoroughly convinced it was all about Brewster & Jennings

the NeoCons and Bush Mafia wanted it destroyed!!!

[Eric J in MN]

6. What is that? (nt)

nt

[hang a left]

15. The Brass Plate CIA Proprietary Front Company

that Plame worked undercover for.

[TomInTib]

9. Didn't they pretty much accomplish that by outing Plame?

[stillcool]

11. i'm with you on that one...

the selling of nukes is right up there with drugs, and all their other defense toys, and big money for these guys.

[leesa]

7. I agree. They wanted to out her because she was getting too close to the

Bush Crime Syndicate's WMD money trail. I think she had, or was close to getting, the goods on the Bush Crime Syndicate's trade in terrorism, drugs and WMDs.

[hang a left]

16. If this turns out to be a correct theory....

wouldn't Fitzgerald be all over this? Or would all the information that BJ was compiling be classified and not be disclosed to him by for instance, Valerie Plame, if she has testified, or was interviewed?

[agates]

8. Threat to CIA

It was to threaten any honest CIA people not to tell the truth about the flimsy case for the war. The White House knew that Wilson was telling his story. They didn't wait for him to publish the op-ed. They wanted to hurt Plame and Wilson while letting everyone else in the intelligence community to keep their mouths shut about the lies in the run up to the war.

[Garbo 2004]

10. Wilson himself had been trying to get the Administration to acknowledge

the Niger claims were wrong. When that didn't work, he went to the press and was a source for articles. This was months before his July Op Ed.

[lovuian]

12. Its to close down Brewster & Jennings!!! Thats what this was all

about!!!

[creeksneakers2]

13. Miller and Libby both knew who the source was

While Wilson remained anonymous, the objective was to discredit Wilson's story. Libby mentioned Valerie to make it look like the trip was a spur of the moment event, unknown by Cheney.

I'm wondering if Judith was the only one to hear the message that the Wilson trip story had no basis. After the original anonymous source stories about Wilson's trip appeared in the Post and the Times, very little attention was paid to Wilson's claims.

[Zen Democrat]

14. Oh, Wilson's opposition was very known to the White House.

It has been acknowledged that Wilson was talking to reporters as a confidential source in the months before he wrote the Times op-ed in July. And the WH knew he was talking. The WH was getting out their spin -- basically that Wilson was supporting the CIA faction that was blaming the Bush Administration and was doing so because his WIFE worked at the CIA on nuclear proliferation. They were trying to destroy Wilson's credibility with Washington reporters to move them away from reporting on his Niger findings. It was a conspiracy to "taint" Joe WIlson and in the process they outed a NOC agent. They were trapped in their own tangled web.

[proud patriot]

17. Her cover company was investigating Oil company corruption

in the middle east .

[Neil Lisst]

18. Peachhead22, I know this has been answered, but I'll add ...

They DID know Wilson was their problem BEFORE he had his article in July in the NYT. Wilson was serving as a source for stories that were blowing the lid off the yellow cake story in JUNE. Libby and Rove had learned that the source for those stories was Joe Wilson.

How did they learn? They have sources, and Judith Miller might be one of them. The fact is, they knew it was Wilson at least 2 weeks before his article came out.

Someone asked why they were on it before then. They are on ANY significant problem, and this was a big one.