TIME: WH Knew Plame's ID in Early June >

[Stephanie]

So weeks before Wilson's July 6 op-ed, the WH knew about his wife. The timeline is getting clearer and the excuses are disappearing. Rove is toast.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/08/01/plame.tm/index.html?section=cnn_latest

When they knew

By MASSIMO CALABRESI
Monday, August 1, 2005; Posted: 4:09 p.m. EDT (20:09 GMT)

As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration.

***

That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts.

The previously undisclosed fact gathering began in the first week of June 2003 at the CIA, when its public-affairs office received an inquiry about Wilson's trip to Africa from veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus.

***

When Pincus' article ran on June 12, the circle of senior officials who knew about the identity of Wilson's wife expanded.

"After Pincus," a former intelligence officer says, "there was general discussion with the National Security Council and the White House and State Department and others" about Wilson's trip and its origins.

<more at link>

[Supersedeas]

1. general discussion by the NSC--Condi had to get her claws into him

Don't you bad mouth my war, boy!!!

[KittyWampus]

2. This Increases Chances Wilson Was Set Up As Means To Scuttle Plame's

work.

[Stephanie]

3. you're right

Why were they working up Joe Wilson weeks before his op-ed?

[FreedomAngel82]

5. They weren't

He's their excuse. They were working on getting her because of her job. This goes to show all of their "she's a desk clerk" crap is just that. Crap. She was in their way and they had to get rid of her. Why her? :shrug:

[FreedomAngel82]

4. Of course

They were planning this. It has nothing to do with Joe Wilson like they're trying to make it out to be. He just wrote an opinion piece. How many people do you think read that? :shrug: But this goes to show that she was way more important then a desk clerk. Why would they do all this for a desk clerk? They wouldn't. It's her job. She followed terrorist groups and company's like Halliburton and she and her group were a threat to this administration. Do you think this could go to the top?