For one, I am grateful for Michael Moore. He let all of us know a vitally important meeting was occurring when absolutely no other news agency did.
Thank you, Michael.
I know this won't make anything to those don't want to hear it, but, I am convinced more than ever that the crafting of Iraq and the exposure of Valerie Plame occurred within the Oval Office.
There was a final statement between Representative Jay Inslee and Jim Marcinkowski that threw open a window to this entire mystery.
Before I get into it I never realized how dearly these people who testified today wanted to be heard. They are great patriots. Their testamony should be required reading for every American.
They had intimate information regarding Valerie Plame. She was outed it didn't matter what they knew anymore and these were retired agents. Valeri's service to this country goes back to 1985. She was a very valuable asset to this country. We profoundly lost not just our intelligence credibility globally but an agent that I am convinced will never be replaced.
She was a very deep agent. She was not a paper pusher as the White House would have us believe. Not only that she was a risk taker in her role as a consultant at the covertly created company "Bruster-Jennings."
She did this.
She put her life on the line to establish connections with people in other countries who could bring back to our intelligence agencies information regarding weapons of mass destruction. She is a brave and valient woman who needs to be appreciated and not ridiculed.
Understanding that set a very serious tone about the underpinnings of the covert operations of the CIA.
In making the next statement I would like to have readers understand I do a lot of interviewing for a variety of reasons. Inevitably when I think the interview is concluded (always an information finding interview, not personnel interview) and we are about to say good-bye I always ask one more question; "Is there anything, I mean anything, I didn't think to ask you that you would like me to know?" This interaction between Mr. Marcinkowski and Rep. Jay Inslee reminded me of that moment at the conclusion of an interview.
At the end of hours of testimony Mr. Marcinkowski reached out to Rep. Jay Inslee to MAKE A POINT. He stated, intelligence is supposed to come to the Executive Branch from the bottom up. Untainted. He was grossly concerned this administration was not accepting the intelligence as it was learned and recorded; but; was creating it from the top down to justify their agenda.
This light went on and I immediately went: Tony Blair.
The secret Downing Street memo
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL
UK EYES ONLY
DAVID MANNING
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY
Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.
John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.
NOT ONLY THAT, but, in the early days of this administration there was a complaint and I want to say the best remembrance of it's ridicule was a Maureen Dowd Op-Ed whereby Dick Cheney was making visits to young and new CIA agents. The practice was unprecedented by a vice president and suspect to influence peddling. I firmly believe "The Downing Street Memo" was co-authored by Bush and Cheney with the information he found in remote and irrelevant files of the CIA maintained by low level agents who were impressed with the authority of the vice president.
After that meeting was complete on C-Span I recalled something I read and I found this in a profile about Cheney:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/cheney_r/cheney_r.php
According to a Washington Post article on September 29, 2003 , Cheney, working with two key advisers--Stephen Hadley and I. Lewis Libby--worked hard to make sure references to the alleged meeting appeared in speeches and policy briefings even after the intelligence regarding the event had been discredited.
This effort apparently alienated some officials in the Bush administration. Reports the Post: "Behind the scenes, the Atta meeting remained tantalizing to Cheney and his staff. Libby--along with deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, a longtime Cheney associate--began pushing to include the Atta claim in Powell's appearance before the UN Security Council a week after the State of the Union speech. Powell's presentation was aimed at convincing the world of Iraq 's ties to terrorists and its pursuit of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. On January 25, 2003 , with a stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby laid out the potential case against Iraq to a packed White House situation room.
On January 25, 2003 , with a stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby laid out the potential case against Iraq to a packed White House situation room.
… with a stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby laid out the potential case against Iraq …
… stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby …
... stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby ...
... stack of notebooks at his side, color-coded with the sources for the information, Libby ...
Rove, Libby Accounts on Plame Differ With Reporters' (Update3)
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to people familiar with the case.
Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified before Fitzgerald that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aBsQ1ErWEsAk&refer=us
