Why I think it was Cheney

[deacon]

In plain talk.

Cheney wanted this war all along--he was only in charge for a few months before he told Powell to shut up about Iraq. Cheney took Powells job early away from him as we all remember.

Cheney was behind paying Chalabi for information that would fit the need for war.

Wilson pops up and provides information that is quite the contrary to what Cheney was attempting to sell.

Cheney sticks Scooter Libby and Karl Rove out to do the dirty deed of shutting Wilson up. Libby and Rove overplay the hand.

[H2O Man]

1. Yes.

You are right.

[dbt]

2. I think Cheney speaks for Poppy Bush.

[B Calm]

3. Everybody knows the puppeteers are Rove and Cheney..

[Wetzelbill]

5. hahaha nice pic

[Wetzelbill]

4. I always felt something similar

although, I think the decision with Rove may have been a mutual one, not necessarily Cheney telling Karl what the deal was. But, Rove is such a hateful prick that he stepped into it himself and now he's getting reamed for it.

[deacon]

6. They get so much power they think they are God-- mastermind

criminals always get caught by doing something that they perceive will slip under the radar.

[Wetzelbill]

7. ego and hubris

when you think you are untouchable you slip.

[Peace Patriot]

8. A lot of things don't add up quite right. Back up a bit. Wilson says

Cheney requested that he go to Niger. But wouldn't Cheney already have known that Wilson would find nothing in Niger on Iraq nukes? (Cheney wasn't after real intel; he wanted cooked intel). So, why did he send him? Wilson then comes back and states the obvious: no Iraq nukes. Then it shows up ANYWAY in Bush's State of the Union speech--the false claim of Iraq nukes--despite Wilson's report. Wilson gets pissed and goes public.

Then, they turn around and, purportedly to punish Wilson, out an entire network of CIA covert eyes and ears around the world on WMDs. A 20+ year effort, probably extremely expensive, too. Put all those people at risk. Put Valerie Plame herself at risk. And get the story around that was done in a fit of pique at Wilson.

A CIA WMD INFORMATION-GATHERING NETWORK! --at a time when WMDs intel is critically important to national security (in Iraq, Iran, No. Korea and many other places).

No, I think something deeper--and far worse--is going on here. I think Wilson was baited and used AS AN EXCUSE to out his wife and her WMD network on purpose. Cheney DIDN'T WANT all those eyes and ears on HIS activities, which might have included a covert plot to plant WMDs in Iraq (Bush/Blair's biggest need in summer '03--a find of WMDs in Iraq after the invasion), and/or to plant them in Iran or Syria, and/or war profiteering in WMDs.

Rove is now taking the fall for Cheney--and will likely be pardoned and richly rewarded.

The bit about Wilson being married to a CIA expert in WMDs somehow discrediting Wilson never made sense to me. Why would that discredit Wilson? It would seem to me to ENHANCE his ability to obtain good intel. I think it's a garbled bit of planted news--run through Judith Plame as the launderer of Plame's identity to reporters (covering for Rove)--and never got explained right. The idea was to throw people off Cheney's scent by saying that it was PLAME's idea to send Wilson to Niger (because she was married to him...???). As I recall, Cheney left no paper trail on this--and Wilson had to fumble around a bit (saying, "But Cheney DID request it...).

See

Plame...the tip of the iceberg... (Plame maybe investigating Cheney arms deals when they busted her CIA weapons op)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2178477#2180220

There is also a curious connection between WMD propagandist Judith Miller and David Kelly, the Brit chief weapons inspector who was suicided during this same period (summer '03). Kelly was whistleblowing on Blair "sexing up" of Iraq WMD intel. His last email was to Judith Miller, in which he expressed concern about "dark actors playing games."

See
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/3/17138/30618

Wilson recently said that his wife and Judith Miller were "collateral damage" in the Bushites' efforts to silence dissent. But he may be in a protective mode, and also it might be hard for him to admit that he was set up. I strongly suspect that Plame and her network were the main target, and that Rove's nasty reputation was used as an element in this scheme. People would tend to believe that he would do such a thing--commit treason--to punish Wilson or shut him up. But would he really take that risk MERELY to silence Wilson? I mean, Rove certainly has other tricks up his sleeve for ruining peoples' lives. Why risk treason when a routine smear campaign would do? Answer: Because the target wasn't Wilson. The goal was to disable Plame's WMD information-gathering capability.

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The answer to the stink in Washington DC is state/local election reform. We must restore our right to vote, by throwing Diebold, ES&S and brethren out of the election business NOW--or at the least achieve some measure of election transparency with paper ballot backups, no secret programming code and strict auditing. The only place where we can get that done is in state/local jurisdictions, where the authority over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some say. See the DU Forum "2004 Election Results and Discussion" for information and action ideas:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

[OneBlueSky]

9. it's really quite simple . . . Cheney runs EVERYTHING . . .

W doesn't have the brains to make any of the real decisions . . . not to mention any understanding of international affairs and all their nuances . . . this has been Cheney's show from Day 1 . . .

remember -- Cheney was the one in charge of Bush's VP search and, lo and behold, chose himself . . . duh! . . .