Stephen Hadley, the NSC, and Condi - All Part of It

[joemurphy]

As early as June, 2003 when Wilson's trip and its empty findings as to an Iraqi-Nigerien uranium deal were coming out, the White House was in damage control. Condi was sent out to lie and do deep public denial. Our intelligence was good, she proclaims! We never knew about any CIA Report about a special trip by a U.S. ambassador to Niger. Maybe there was one -- buried in the bowels of the CIA--but we never saw it.

While Condi is so employed. Cheney and his boys have a "workup" done on Wilson. The "workup" is a dirty laundry list. It checks into his political donations and his voting record. It also includes a special State Department "Air Force One Memo" dated June 20th, that states (correctly) that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent working on WMD and (less accurately) that she was the one responsible for sending him to Niger. Why did State prepare a memo? Possibly its chief, Colin Powell wanted to know what was going on. More likely, Bolton did. The workup on Wilson and his wife then proceeds apace.

Meanwhile, the press is getting interested in this trip to Niger. Kristof and Pincus write some more articles. The true believers surrounding Cheney, the NSC people, and the WH become a bit more concerned.

Then we segue to July 6th and 7th. On the 6th Wilson comes out of the woodwork and blasts the Bush Administration on the Niger uranium. He says it "twisted" intelligence on the uranium.
The 6th is a Sunday.

On the 7th, Tenet comes forward and does a half-baked mea culpa. He, as always, takes the blame for not vetting the uranium out of Bush's January State of the Union address. It's the only apology for hyped intelligence the Bush Administration will make.

The Bushies see from their "workup" on Wilson that he's perhaps not so clean. He looks like -- gasp -- a partisan! "He's a Democrat" screams Rove! And that's enough to swing the guns into action.

But there's more! Not only is he a closet Democrat, his wife is CIA! Yeah, CIA! The same CIA that wanted to rein in Cheney, the NSC, and the WHIG's efforts to trumpet Saddam as an imminent threat. Mrs. Wilson, thus, is "fair game".

Rove and his buddies are the same people that gave us the "mushroom cloud" metaphor. And it was the NSC that talked one of Tenet's lackeys into including the words -- "British intelligence says" -- as an acceptable preface to an otherwise objectionable phrase -- "the Iraqis are trying to buy uranium" -- that the CIA wanted taken out of the State of the Union.

But back to the story. On the 7th, Bush, Powell, Rice, and Ari Fleischer are all on Air Force One. Before leaving, Powell's No. 2, Richard Armitage orders, and then delivers, a copy of the June "Air Force One Memo" to Powell, who takes it with him on the flight to Africa.

Powell is seen with the Memo on the plane according to one source. Ari Fleischer is also seen with it according to another.

Also, while our aviators are all still airborne, Condi's loyal NSC staff --led of course by her No. 2 Stephen Hadley -- is busy doing damage control. The loyal NSC staff is mad. Wilson must pay! The CIA must pay! Condi must be protected!

The loyal NSC staff then puts together a "Briefing Book" with all the poop the NSC can find on Wilson and his wife. Reportedly, this "Briefing Book" also contains excerpts from the June "Air Force One Memo". The "Briefing Book" is then faxed by the loyal NSC staff to their leaders on the plane. Condi, Rummy, Powell, and Ari must have some facts and talking points ready to counter Wilson and the CIA upon their return from Africa.

Interestingly, both the "Air Force One Memo" and the hastily put together "Briefing Book" are marked "Top Secret" and contain classified information -- i.e., the fact that Wilson's wife, Plame, works on a covert CIA project that monitors proliferation of WMDs.

A plot is hatched. The happy travelers return from Africa. Rove and Cheney's "right arm", Scooter Libby, now take charge. They begin talking to the press -- dropping hints that Wilson's no citizen-hero. He's really a puppet for his wife, who's CIA. Both, you see, are the enemy. Take their disclosures, therefore, with a big grain of salt. All of D.C. knows that the CIA is beginning to get flack because no one can find WMDs in Iraq and people are beginning to mutter that maybe there weren't any. And a lot of CIA mid-level people are angry and don't like Cheney and what the White House had done to their intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War. Rove et. al. are not saps. Wilson and his CIA wife need to be disciplined.

So Rove slimes Wilson -- first in a confirmation call placed by Novak and next in an original call placed by Cooper. Cooper is calling because he's heard about the sliming operation and wants to know what's going on. Why is Wilson being targeted? Are you doing it because he made the White House look bad?

"Don't get too far out on this Wilson guy, Matt" -- Rove cautions -- his wife is CIA and she's working on WMDs. She had him sent to Niger. Ignore Wilson. There's plenty of intelligence for the Iraqi uranium buys. Pretty soon we're going to be declassifying a document that will put the lie to Wilson and his nefarious scheme to discredit our President's motives for going to War...but perhaps I've already told you too much."

Rove hangs up and, guess what, he reports to Stephen Hadley,
Condi's No. 2 man and tells Hadley the whole story of his call to Wilson.

I wonder why? Could there be a conspiracy afoot here? Was the NSC part of it? Was Condi involved? Powell? Was Ari talking to the press too?

My guess is that fairly soon Hadley will tell us that he forgot to tell Condi about Karl's email too.

But lets remember the Top Secret "Air Force One Memo" and the Top Secret "Briefing Book" containing classified information. Keep in mind who saw them and what was done with the classified information they contained.

Now, explain to me why the Espionage Act hasn't been violated.

[goclark]

1. kick