Crossing the Cabal

[cynatnite]

snip:
That’s fine if Fitzgerald narrowly defines his work to mean the naming of the CIA officer in question. But there’s every sign—at least from the range of witnesses he’s called to the grand jury—that this is a far broader investigation. That suggests it’s not just a matter of law, it’s a matter of motive. One of the most perplexing pieces of the Plame puzzle is the question of why? Why did certain officials feel so passionately about former ambassador Joe Wilson’s comments about uranium in Niger that they would seek to discredit him by targeting his wife?

The answer to that may come from the only real source of dissent inside the administration in this period: Colin Powell’s State Department. It was Powell’s intelligence office that wrote the critical (and classified) memo that detailed why Wilson was sent to Niger and the minor role of his wife in that mission. That report was circulating on Air Force One in the days after Wilson’s op-ed appeared in The New York Times.

For Powell and his staff, the searing experience of the run-up to war and its chaotic aftermath was not about conflict in Baghdad, but conflict in Washington. It was intense, personal and emotional. Their enemy: the vice president’s office and the Pentagon. It was clear at the time how dismal relations were between the State and Defense departments. After all, the Pentagon trashed State’s planning for the postwar period and they openly feuded in their assessments of whether to trust Iraqi exiles or not.

snip:
But his observations are also directly relevant to the Plame affair. Joe Wilson’s mistake was that he crossed the so-called cabal by saying the administration knew there was nothing to the Niger story even before President George W. Bush cited it in his State of the Union Message in early 2003. Just like Powell’s dissent in the run-up to war, the response inside the administration was personally critical and had a chilling effect on internal debate.

Whether or not you agree with the war, and whether or not Fitzgerald indicts anyone, it’s worth remembering why Joe Wilson was at all important to the White House and the vice president’s office in particular. As the president said in his 2003 State of the Union address, “Sending Americans into battle is the most profound decision a president can make.” The Plame game gets to the heart of how that decision was made—and whether anyone could offer an alternative view and survive with their reputation intact.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9756244/site/newsweek/

Very good article.

[BootinUp]

1. Yes it is

Bush's new trifecta

Richard Clarke
Paul O'Neil
Larry Wilkerson

The final trifecta me believes.

[BootinUp]

2. kick

for the afternoon crowd.

[Ksec]

3. We were right, they were wrong

If nothing else comes of this investigation , at least it puts a spotlight on the run up to war and the lies they told. The investigation has answered lots of questions about why ,who, and where, so to me even if no indictments are handed out it gave us enough time to figure out the bigger picture of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. It has served its purpose by at least focusing media and educating the masses on bushs bogus invasion.
I feared that the people would try to make bush out as some kind of hero . At least now I believe there will be no such move by anyone to put hero status on a manipulative bum who did nothing but lie us into war and get thousands killed for no reason.