How do you summarize Plame/Treasongate to explain it?

[texpatriot2004]

How do you condense this story with all it's complexities for people? I mean if you are asked about it or are trying to explain it to someone, what do you consider essential and what is the crucial point to get across. What will convince them? What will reel them in? Say you only have 5 or 10 minutes max, where do you start and what do you say?

I have read too much and it's overwhelming to me; so I know it would be for someone who hears it cold turkey.

[Neil Lisst]

1. here's your intro in under 75 words.

The country was lied to about the reasons for war, and was sold on the war by false materials, forgeries which appear to be tied to the Vice President. When Joe Wilson began acting as a source for stories in June of 2003, the president and vice-president's attack dogs - Scooter Libby and Karl Rove, sniffed out and went after Joe Wilson, and his wife Valerie Plame.

who's the next veep?
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[texpatriot2004]

10. That's good. Thanks. n.t

[patricia92243]

2. 5-10 minutes is not soundbite. A soundbite is about 30 seconds or less.

"Plamegate is the same as Benedict Arnold" not very good but an example of a soundbite.

[yorgatron]

3. "they lied about the WMDs"

"then they blew the cover of an agent whose JOB was looking for WMDs"

[texpatriot2004]

5. Good point. It's late so soundbite was the best I could do. n.t

[sandnsea]

4. WHIG, forgeries, war lies, cover up, treason

A White House Iraqi Group conspired to create forgeries to convince the American people to go to war, got caught, and exposed a CIA operative in trying to cover up their treasonous actions.

[texpatriot2004]

6. Thank you for your input nm

[Skittles]

7. bush inc lied their way into a war

and they were willing to out a CIA agent to cover their lies, with the full cooperation of the corporate media

[lala_rawraw]

8. Could try this

Two groups of ideologues found they had the same goals and joined together to fabricate a war in which the globe would be reshaped in their image (yes, they are crazy). In order to make that war happen, they had to convince us, the people that we were going all die from a WMD attack. The UN and others tried to stop them, but they try to push the Oil for Food scandal to the top of the conversation. As more leaks and stories came out of a fabricated war, they did more to cover it up. In the end, they declared full out war on America by disabling our monitoring of the actual WMD threat, albeit inadvertently, by trying to silence a whistle blower.

The End

[texpatriot2004]

9. Very Creative. I like it. Thanks. n.t

[crispini]

11. Take it back to PNAC.

That explains WHY, which is important, IMO. I've actually done this before, and it seems to work. The trick is to keep it slow, not get over-excited, and DON'T GIVE THEM TOO MUCH DETAIL! especially if they are non-political.

The people who are in the White House today, long before they got into power, were all members of a "think tank" called PNAC. They had this BIG idea that they wanted to make, like, an American empire, with lots of influence in the Middle East.

At this point, your audience gives you the :tinfoilhat: look so you explain that you can look this think tank up on the internet and read their papers.

So when they got into power they had this idea about invading Iraq already in their heads, and instead of looking at what was REALLY happening, in an objective way, like a scientist, they cherrypicked the facts to fit what they already wanted. They pressured the CIA to give them the stuff to make the case for their war even though it wasn't good stuff.

And NOW it's beginning to look like some of them were willing to go so far as to actually make stuff up to prove their point.

And when Joe Wilson called them on it they outed his wife for revenge.

Yeah, I know it doesn't cover the whole Cheney profit motive for keeping things secret, or Brewster Jennings, but hey, it's short and sweet.

[texpatriot2004]

14. Thanks for this. nm

[emulatorloo]

12. here's a real good one from James Moore, author of Bush's Brain

<snip>

We know, however, based upon what we have read and seen and heard that someone created fake documents related to Niger and Iraq and used them as a false pretense to launch America into an invasion of Iraq. And when a former diplomat made an honest effort to find out the facts, a plan was hatched to both discredit and punish him by revealing the identity of his undercover CIA agent wife.

<snip>

published in Huff Post, DU Thread Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5109514

[Loge23]

13. It's really "Too Stupid to...."

For an entertaining, and quite prophetic, version of this affair, I suggest To Stupid to be President's amazing flash. (broadband suggested)

http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/get_stupid.htm