Anyone asked why Colin Powell took Plame memo on Africa trip with Bush?

[flpoljunkie]

Or asked Colin Powell himself why he took the memo with him on the Africa trip with Bush, for that matter. I understand Powell was out of the country over the weekend, and unavailable for comment. I also understand Powell testified before the grand jury on July 16, 2004. Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5570006/site/newsweek/

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/politics/16memo.html?pagewanted=print

July 16, 2005

State Dept. Memo Gets Scrutiny in Leak Inquiry on C.I.A. Officer

By RICHARD STEVENSON

This article was reported by Douglas Jehl, David Johnston and Richard W. Stevenson and was written by Mr. Stevenson.

WASHINGTON, July 15 - Prosecutors in the C.I.A. leak case have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat came to be dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission and the role of his wife, a C.I.A. officer, in the trip, people who have been officially briefed on the case said.

Investigators in the case have been trying to learn whether officials at the White House and elsewhere in the administration learned of the C.I.A. officer's identity from the memorandum. They are seeking to determineif any officials then passed the name along to journalists and if officials were truthful in testifying about whether they had read the memo, the people who have been briefed said, asking not to be named because the special prosecutor heading the investigation had requested that no one discuss the case.

The memorandum was sent to Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, just before or as he traveled with President Bush and other senior officials to Africa starting on July 7, 2003, when the White House was scrambling to defend itself from a blast of criticism a few days earlier from the former diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson IV, current and former government officials said. (That would be Wilson's July 6, 2003--the day before the Africa trip--op-ed in the New York Times)

Mr. Powell was seen walking around Air Force One during the trip with the memorandum in hand, said a person involved in the case who also requested anonymity because of the prosecutor's admonitions about talking about the investigation.

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[electron_blue]

1. Excellent question!!

Why did he bring it?

Why was he walking around the airplane with it? Think about it, folks - you've probably been on airplanes. What would it take for you to walk around with a MEMO, for crying out loud?

Maybe he was on his way to the loo with it... I dunno.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Josh Marshall,Talkingpointsmemo is writing about this very issue today...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_07_17.php#006134

(July 19, 2005 -- 08:08 AM EDT

Over the last few days I've done several posts on how that classified State Department memo in the Plame case made its way through the State Department and then to then-Secy. Powell on the president's trip to Africa. Last night I got an email from a longtime reader who is a retired US ambassador, a career foreign service officer and Asia specialist ...

Josh, in your posting on talking points, you asked about the briefing books for Presidential trips. For your background info:

The State Department is responsible for preparing the briefing books for the President. The NSC often boils the big briefing books (very thick, usually one or two volumes) down into more concise memos and talking points for the President.

The Secretary of State has additional briefing books that consist of memos for any meetings that are his/her own and separate from the President. In addition, the Secretary's staff often puts together an informal collection of materials for the Secretary to read while on the plane.

As you noted, on July 6 Rich Armitage asked Carl Ford to send a copy of the June INR memo to Powell. I read that the original memo in June was from INR to Marc Grossman. The way State works, someone on the 7th floor could have made a copy of the June memo for Armitage, or Grossman could have brought it to Armitage's attention. That's how he learned about it, and when he read Joe's op-ed on that July Sunday, he immediately remembered about it and called Ford and said to send Powell a copy.

The question is, did that memo end up in the President's briefing book, the Secretary's briefing book, or the Secretary's pile of reading material?

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[woodsprite]

3. Did they think AF1 = Control's 'Dome of Silence'?

If they hauled that memo and Plame's file on that plane, then sure as sh1t they are all in this neck deep. Or as I heard someplace a long time ago, they're sinking into the lake of he11, the lake is up to their chin, right now they're treading water, but the devil is about to go waterskiing.

Except it's a lake of justice and the prosecutor is about to hop on the jetski.