NYT needs to read this 12/03 WaPo article on Plame's role in Niger trip

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/politics/16memo.html?ei=5094&en=73e6600ab118b6c9&hp=&ex=1121486400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

The memorandum was prepared at the State Department, relying on notes by an analyst who was involved in meetings in early 2002 to discuss whether to send someone to Africa to investigate allegations that Iraq was pursuing uranium purchases. The C.I.A. was asked by Mr. Cheney's office and the State and Defense Departments to look into the reports. (At least, they got this right.)

According to a July 9, 2004, Senate Intelligence Committee report, the notes described a Feb. 19, 2002, meeting at C.I.A. headquarters on whether Mr. Wilson should go to Niger.

The notes, which did not identify Ms. Wilson or her husband by name, said the meeting was "apparently convened by" the wife of a former ambassador "who had the idea to dispatch" him to Niger because of his contacts in the region. Mr. Wilson had been ambassador to Gabon.

The Intelligence Committee report said the former ambassador's wife had a different account of her role, saying she introduced him and left after about three minutes.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A30842-2003Dec25¬Found=true

Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it.

CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the INR document, the official said, because the agency officer identified as talking about Plame's alleged role in arranging Wilson's trip could not have attended the meeting.

"It has been circulated around," one official said. CIA and State Department officials have refused to discuss the document.

[emulatorloo]

1. Seems to be difficult for NYT to separate Bush Admin Smear from the truth

and it seems difficult to get a message to the NYT. Although I am sending them one right now.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Difficult, indeed. Perhaps because Judy Miller's WMD stories made Dubya's

case for war in Iraq easier to sell to the American people.

[cestpaspossible]

4. They are active participants in this criminal conspiracy,

so they have no reason to expose it.

[Toots]

3. State Dept official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research

The person who wrote this should be fairly easy to determine and then find out where the information he wrote about came from. CIA denies the validity of it. It appears they are now writing false memos and that could spell the end. Paper trails are a bitch..

[OzarkDem]

5. False memos

Isn't that considered obstuction of justice? Cover up?