Republican Vindictiveness and Hubris

[joemurphy]

The entire outing of Valerie Plame makes little sense except as an exercise in Republican vindictiveness and hubris.

Wilson visited Niger and delivered his report to the CIA in March, 2002.

On October 7, 2002, in a big speech Bush delivered in Cincinnati, the CIA, who vetted it beforehand, told Deputy NSC Director Stephen Hadley that Bush should not make any mention in it about attempted Iraqi uranium purchases because the intelligence on the matter was unreliable and weak.

In the January, 2003 State of the Union Speech, Hadley was told again by the CIA to omit any references on uranium purchases from the speech. Hadley negotiated and the reference to "a British report" about the supposed purchases was left in.

The reports were largely based on a forged document that the IAEA deteceted was forged prior to the opening of hostilities in Iraq in March, 2003.

Wilson's op-ed piece in the New York Times was written in May, 2003. As a result of the article, the Bush administration conceded publicly that the reference to the uranium purchases should not have been included in the speech. Tenet was forced to take the blame for Bush's "mistake". Hadley supposedly offered to resign because of the foul up but was kept on board. He now has Condoleezza Rice's old job as NSC Director.

So it was really all over. The Iraqi uranium deal had been shown to be a fabrication and the Administration had already conceded the error. Why then did they feel the need to still discredit Wilson by outing his wife's status as a CIA agent?

Apparently, they still wanted to punish Wilson and his CIA wife and did so because they thought they could get away with it. Vindictiveness and hubris. That's just the way they are.

[babylonsister]

1. Have you followed Plame's career path with the CIA?

HAve you considered she, and the CIA, and Brewster Jennings, were the target? Because of her 'outing', some of this is out there.

[joemurphy]

2. So you're saying that she'd have been outed anyway and

Wilson's article had nothing to do with it?

[babylonsister]

3. No, I didn't say that. But there are sly devils in this admin.

Perhaps this brouhaha happened to negate what she was trying to accomplish in her undercover mission w/BJ, CIA, proving there were no WMDs. Who knows, but it's a thought, and not so out of the realm of possibility.

[joemurphy]

4. I think it's more likely that in their zeal to punish Wilson, the

Republican's ham-handedly and ignorantly wrecked Brewster-Jennings. I seriously doubt that this was intentional. My guess is that the 8 blank pages in the Court of Appeal's opinion sustaining Miller's being held in contempt has something to do with Brewster-Jennings.

[babylonsister]

5. However it worked, they messed up big time!

As far as Brewster Jennings, I would like a full accounting of this place after Plame was outed. I've read some very serious charges but have never heard them backed up.

[joemurphy]

6. We'll probably never hear the whole story on BJ.

Probably highly classified stuff.