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Bush has yet to be nailed with the "exposure." The leak that Libby said Bush authorized was that of the Nat'l Intel Estimate--a pack of lies, in itself--to counter the truth that Joseph Wilson was speaking (that the Niger part was a lie and based on forgeries). What Fitzgerald said, in papers filed this week, is that he has evidence that several people in the White House wanted to expose covert CIA agent Plame and there was a coordinated effort to do so, with the purpose of harming her husband, Joseph Wilson (punish him for speaking the truth).
Fitz has to be cautious. He didn't use the word "conspiracy" and said "several" not many people. These latter are the ones he has evidence on--probably Rove and Hadley (and possibly Andrew Card, who resigned last week). His indictment of Libby also pointed to Cheney. (Also keep in mind that Card was the organizer of the White House Iraq Group--WHIG--whose purpose was to "sell" the Iraq war, and which included all of the above, plus many more, like Condi Rice. And one* of the major problems of "selling the war" would be none other than Joseph Wilson.)
So it seems to me quite likely that everyone around Bush was into exposing Plame**--that it was a general White House conspiracy--and that what we are seeing just the surface of, right now, is efforts to protect Bush (and thus, the Bush junta, and Bushism--i.e., endless war profiteering and tax cuts for the rich) from treason charges (and more felonies--in addition to massive domestic spying without a warrant). Bush's leaking of NIE info is technically not a crime--at least the way he and Cheney construe the law. But outing Plame IS a crime--and not one that it will be easy for them to get around. (It was a law written by Daddy Bush!)
Libby is trying to paint a picture of general looseness and delegated authority, re: classified info, WITHOUT nabbing Bush (and his boss Cheney) as the one who ordered others to put Valerie Plame and her entire counter-proliferation network of covert agents and contacts in great danger, also crippling the CIA's counter-proliferation project.
It is a very serious crime--treason, in the opinion of many (me included). The NIE thing is likely a distraction--or something of one. In theory, the President can classify and unclassify info, although there is a process that's supposed to be followed (that wasn't). But this does NOT include the identities of our covert agents!
So the game that's being played here--and it's a very serious game, indeed--is who ORDERED Plame AND her entire network to be outed. Under whose authority was it done? Who is the most responsible party? (**There were TWO outings, by Novak, one of Plame herself, and a second one of the Brewster-Jennings front company, headquarters for the covert network.)
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*(Note on their motive: I think that the Plame/BJ outing was actually a coverup for something else--something even worse. I'm sure they wanted to squash all dissent and hated Wilson, but I'm not sure that that was their sole, or even primary, motive in destroying the CIA's counter-proliferation project. I think Plame/BJ may have been the main target--and what is involved here may be, a) a Bush junta effort to PLANT nukes in Iraq--that the Niger forgeries were a buildup to--a plot that got foiled by SOMEONE; or b) something to do with Cheney and other Bushites illicit arms/nuke dealings and/or paper trails or other evidence related to their many crimes. There is also the extraordinary coincidence of dates between the Plame outing and the death, under highly suspicious circumstances, of the Brits' chief WMD expert David Kelly, who was whistleblowing to the BBC about the prewar WMD intel during the same period. Plame was outed on 7/14/03. Kelly was found dead four days later on 7/18/03. His office and computers were searched. Then Brewster-Jennings was outed on 7/22/03. The theory is that possibly Kelly knew about the foiled plot to plant nukes in Iraq; that Blair found out on 7/7/03, the day after Wilson published his article (7/6/03), and called Bush, and that the Bushites' panicky-looking reactions in the week of 7/6/03 through 7/14/03, have more to do with Kelly and what he knew, than with Wilson's article--which, after all, was just an op-ed piece by an ex-diplomat, in a newsstream that the Bushites had no trouble manipulating.)
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