Informed Comment

Informed Comment


Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents Once upon a time, a former agent of Italian military intelligence named Rocco Martino, who had had some experience in the African country of Niger, came into possession of some forged, fraudulent documents. These alleged Iraqi purchases of yellowcake uranium in 1999. In fact, the signatures were of Nigerien officials who had been in power a decade earlier, in the late 1980s. So they were clumsy forgeries. Martino passed them on to the Italian magazine Panorama, which passed them to the US embassy.Tantalizingly, President George W. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, has an indirect connection to Italian intelligence.Rove's chief adviser on Iran policy is Neoconservative wildman and notorious warmonger Michael Ledeen, who has a longstanding connection to the darker corners of Italian intelligence.Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney heard of the alleged uranium purchase.Cheney asked George Tenet to look into the allegation. The issue went to the Directorate of Operations secret unit on counter-proliferation. Among the field officers there was Valerie Plame Wilson, who had spent her life fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction under cover of a dummy corporation.Valerie Plame Wilson was married to former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, who had served bravely as acting ambassador in Iraq in 1990, and when threatened by Saddam he showed up to a press conference wearing a hanging noose instead of a necktie. President George H. W. Bush highly praised him.Joe Wilson had not only served in Iraq, he also had been ambassador to the West African countries of Gabon and Sao Tome, and spoke fluent French. When Plame Wilson's superiors brought up the possibility of sending him as a private citizen to look into the plausibility of the report that Saddam had bought Nigerien uranium, she was consulted and agreed (she was not part of the decision loop).He went, and soon saw that the uranium industry in Niger was actually under the control of French companies and was strictly monitored.There was no possibility of corrupt Nigerien officials selling it off under the table. A separate military mission led by Marine General Carlton Fulford, Jr, deputy commander of the United States European Command (EUCOM), went to Niger the same month, February 2002.Fulford quickly came to the same conclusion as Wilson, that it was implausible that al-Qaeda or anyone else could secretly buy uranium from Niger.Wilson came back and was orally debriefed by people who wrote a report for Tenet, expecting that Tenet would pass it on to the high officials of the Bush administration.Wilson was amazed when the Niger uranium story was put into Bush's State of the Union address.Then Libby wanted Secretary of State Colin Powell to make allegations about Saddam and al-Qaeda before the United Nations Security Council. Powell was also pressed by someone to bring up the Niger uranium story.Powell is said to have exclaimed, "I'm not reading this bullshit!"Libby appears to have been a big influence on the speech Powell gave, almost every detail of which was inaccurate, and at which United Nations officials who heard it openly laughed.After the war, Wilson wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he revealed his mission and again called into question the Bush administration assertion that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program.Cheney was extremely upset by Wilson's op-ed. He saw it as an allegation that he had personally sent Wilson and then ignored Wilson's report. Or at least that was the spin. But Wilson had said no such thing in the article. He simply said that Cheney had asked Tenet to look into the story, which Cheney probably did.Cheney was afraid that if the American public became convinced that there had been no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the war effort would collapse, along with all those billions of no-bid uncompetitive contracts for Halliburton.Cheney, it has now come out, then authorized Libby to leak the classified 2002 National Intelligence Estimate to the press.The NIE, which may have been produced under pressure from Cheney himself, had incorrectly suggested that Iraq was only a few years from having a nuclear weapon. In fact, Iraq did not have an active weapons program at all after the early 1990s when it was dismantled by the UN inspectors. The pre-war NIE in any case was just old bad intelligence, which was contradicted by David Kay's team on the ground in post-war Iraq, which just wasn't finding much.Libby now began telling reporters that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative, itself classified information, since she was an undercover operative.Karl Rove engaged in the same routine. Apparently Cheney, Rove and Libby (and Bush?) believed that Wilson's credibility would be undermined if the Washington press corps could have it intimated to them that his story was a CIA plant.Robert Novak used the information given him by the White House staff to out Valerie Plame Wilson as an undercover operative. Her career was ruined. All her contacts in the global South were burned, and their lives put in danger. The CIA's careful project combating weapons of mass destruction collapsed.The same administration that alleges it should be able to listen to our phone calls at will for national security purposes deliberately undermined US security for petty political purposes, making us all much less safe. The likelihood is that the crimes of Bush, Cheney, Libby and Rove so far revealed are only the tip of the iceberg.------*The iceberg artwork, signed "Monk," is mirrored on several sites on the internet; I can't find any that seems the original but am glad to give credit if it is sought. It easily comes up on a google.images search.
posted by Juan @ 2/10/2006 06:30:00 AM

31 Comments:
At 8:11 AM, Raphie Frank said...
Wonderful timeline, but we're just a bit late don't you think? In all the commotion during the Alito confirmation process regarding Roe Vs. Wade, a very serious issue was overlooked almost completely. As the Consortium News noted about a month ago..."The 'unitary' theory of presidential power sounds too wonkish for Americans to care about, but the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court could push this radical notion of almost unlimited Executive authority close to becoming a reality."And what is "the unitary theory of presidential power?" In sum it's the idea that "all federal executive power is vested by the Constitution in the President." That's not small potatoes in the era of Plamegate and never ending wars of choice. And where does Alito stand on this issue? Again from the Consortium News..."At a Federalist Society symposium in 2001, Alito recalled that when he was in the Office of Legal Counsel in Ronald Reagan’s White House, 'we were strong proponents of the theory of the unitary executive...'"Made me think back to the nomination of Harriet Miers. Just after she withdrew from consideration for a seat on the Supreme Court I posted the following comment on another blog "... this Administration is going to have a hard time justifying the safeguarding of classified information related to Administration misconduct when it so willingly divulges classified information in direct opposition to national security interests and is suspected of selectively revealing information regarding the ideological purity of a life time appointee.to the nation's judicial branch. "See: "Harriet Miers Redux" for full text of post.But never no mind. If CYA doesn't work the first time, just CYA again. It's easy as pie when no one is looking at the writing on the wall. And now? Now Harriet can rest easy on the ranch with "awesome" Dubya because no one will be looking at the writings from the Oval Office either.Google results for "Alito Roe Wade"? 2,330,000. For "Clinton Cigar"? 758,000 "Impotent democrats" 263,00 And for "Alito Executive Privilege"? 187,000.Case closed.The tip of the iceberg is all we'll ever see is my guess.
At 8:25 AM, jj said...
Wow. Nice artwork. Good stab at reality.
At 12:18 PM, LTJ said...
A truly superb piece of work (as usual for Dr. Cole)!I would love to see this given as a PowerPoint-like presentation to the next Neocon convention.
At 12:36 PM, Michael Murry said...
These reactionary Republicans simply have no shame. As columnist and PBS commentator Mark Shields always says about them: "They'll steal the stove and then go back for the smoke." It must get tiring, though, setting minds on fire -- not to mention the Middle East. Thus the need for some: "Reactionary R & R" Deputy Dubya went back to the ranch He needed another vacation He found it hard work spreading lies and deceit, Starting wars, and bankrupting the nation Sheriff Dick Cheney approved the request Having few words for Dubya to mime With those checks from his old firm arriving on cue Just to count them took most of his time "Let us think of the things you have done, little man!" The Sheriff intoned solemnly "And the steely-eyed judgment you've shown in your job Since I picked myself for your V.P.” “You need a reprieve from the wearisome toil Of repeating what others have written For each time that you fumble and bumble a line Our own asses get royally bitten” “Pay no mind to that woman out there in the ditch We’ve got more kids than hers to consume Just depress wages further; they’ll join for a job And our war fraud can then just resume” “As our slogan says: first take the money and run! Let the compounded interest start working Later on when their tax burden squeezes them dry We can laugh as their chains we keep jerking” “When the rubes figure out how we’ve looted the bank With our war spending out of control We can point to the absence of asteroid strikes As the proof of our time on patrol” “For the fools cannot disprove what hasn’t transpired: That what hasn’t yet happened will not Then we’ll afterwards claim that we did no such thing As produce this disaster we’ve got” “We’ll pretend that you haven’t been President, see: Which in your case will work, never fear Like that old court insanity plea for the dumb I’ll just whisper your cues in your ear” “Head back to your ranch, now, and get some more rest You can shovel some cattle ordure Anyway you’ve got nothing to do around here You’ve got R & R coming for sure” Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright 2006
At 2:33 PM, George Buddy said...
The (few) people I know that support the war, etc., would not understand this post. Too complicated for them. Possibly if you could redo it as cartoons???
At 2:57 PM, Rayne Today said...
Thank you very much for this elementary primer. There are many people who are unaware of the timeline and background of Plame-CIA Leak investigation -- like my spouse, who only gets news in 10 second snippets from cable news networks while in the airport terminal between flights. We also have to counteract the rdaily barrage of disinformation with simple, clear, straightforward explanations. Thanks again.
At 2:57 PM, Matt in NYC said...
Brilliant ... and actually less complicated and "wonky" than the plot of Syriana. Maybe if you turn it into a film script people will finally get upset enough about it to take some serious action?
At 3:35 PM, Mauricio Babilonia said...
Porter Goss' timing is perfect. Today he lectures us about the dangers of leaking classified information in a New York Times op-ed entitled Loose Lips Sink Spies.Wow.
At 4:35 PM, John Koch said...
Good luck, if you think a prosecutor will ever get a mandate to investigate the really serious issue: the fabrication of false intelligence. The Plame "outing" is something that even anti-Bush people are reluctant to pursue, since many rely on leaks, and some lefties relish exposing "spooks."These affairs are difficult for the public to follow. Exactly who or what got hurt? Isn't Plame alive and well? Don't the radio talk hosts repeatedly remind us that it is the those liberals do the US more damage by leaking reports about alleged US misdeeds?People focus better on issues with known reactions: sex offenders, sports events, celebrity love lives, and (occasionally) freaky professors who appear anti-American.A conspiracy to create false intelligence will garner public attention only if the patriot Right needs a scapegoat for a perceived military failure. Conservatives will rouse to their leader and refrain from doubt so long as US troops remain committed in the field. Bush also has the advanatage of single party control over all three branches of government, plus most of the senior ranks of the military and intelligence community, to say nothing of the corporate community, media, and evangelical flocks. The chance of an impeachment looks close to zero. W, Dick, and Karl look safe in their nests.Watergate destroyed Nixon mainly because conservatives felt betrayed about the decline of fortunes in Vietnam, from which US troops were being withdrawn, the allegations of betrayal of POWs and MIAs, and because of anxieties over detente with the USSR. Had he kept US troops in Vietnam, built the ABM system, and refrained from SALT I. chances are the Scoop Jackson and Barry Goldwater Right (precursors to Reagan / W) would have stayed by Nixon's side. The corporate community also frowned on Nixon's Keynsian interventionism and price controls, which seemed to bring stagflation. The rise in oil prices was also greater, in relative terms, at that time. The Archie Bunker electorate of mid 1970s was bothered more by the atmosphere of betrayal than by oppposition to war or militarism per se.The other facts are that Saddam was a nasty guy, would eventually acquire nukes and endanger Israel, and oil security demanded some change in the withering Iraq sanctions program. Finally, action had to occur while the 9/11 brand was hot and because 9/11 also showed that heavy US military presence in Saudi Arabia was not a good idea.The Battleship Maine was not blown up by Spaniards, but it helped Hearst (the Murdoch of his time) motivate a US intervention that reduced European presence in the hemisphere, and boosted the expansionary trend that lead to the construction of the Panama Canal. T. Roosevelt welcomed, if he did not author, the hoax revolution which founded Panama. He did not care what Colombia or the US Congress thought. Might future historians see the Iraq intervention in these lights and care not a hoot about the phoney yellowcake letter?If fortunes in Iraq do not improve, Rove and the GOP will able to deflect the blame, attributing any failures to sellouts by the "liberal media" and intellectual traitors. The intellectual Right and much of the conservative flocks will buy this and abide under their Commander in Chief so long as he sticks to his guns and does not flinch.It is to the shame of the Democrats that they are stuck in this "heads the GOP wins, tails the Dems lose" conundrum. Sen. Hillary's solution is to move to the Right. However, since few will be convinced by this makeover, the Dems will have to find pro-war Red State cultural figures to challenge whomever the GOP fields in 2006 and 2006.
At 5:57 PM, dus7 said...
Very nicely done. Simplified and illustrated is what some of us need once in a while. Also, blogs are read by people all over the world, not just Americans, so key players being identified all in one place is good for that reason, too. I'm linking to it. TY.
At 6:22 PM, Nur-al-Cubicle said...
And now, the Iranian laptop with the secret plans for Kimeya and missile designs. As if! These busy gnomes never quit!
At 6:38 PM, Dan said...
This is the most concise explanation of the events I have seen to date. It reads like a children's story, and I think that's excellent because it really isn't that complicated when you boil it down to the essential facts: They out and out lied about a link they knew to be false, then abused their power to punish Wilson for pointing out their lie, and put Americans in danger.P.S. I love the iceberg image.
At 7:35 PM, Isafula said...
Now, Juan, please tie this all in with Brewster- Jennings being about to uncover a plan developed by the Carlyle group to ship XV into Itaq via Turkey. So, the REAL reason Plame needed to be outed was to derail Brewster Jennings which was getting too close to the truth that evidence of WMD was going to be planted. Or is this some kind of a nasty rumor?
At 7:53 PM, Paul A. Iversen said...
Great timeline, Juan. One important piece of information that should be added is the repeated claim by Bush and other administration officials that all this information was supplied by British intelligence. Long ago La Republica reported that Rocco Martino also made a trip to Britain to pass off his forgeries on them. Thus the British intelligence-- the only prop the Bush administration and its defenders can continue to point to -- is in all likelihood the same bogus intelligence forged by Rocco. Naturally Blair's government, under the convenient guise of protecting sources, refuses to disclose the nature of the British intelligence.
At 8:34 PM, Spin proof said...
Perfection! The ruling gang's disregard for the USA and her people is understable. We all know what will happen: "I do not recall", "the fifth ammendment". and none of them gets punished. People will discuss the finer points of checks and balances and the constitution, while their politicians screw the nation and get away with it.
At 8:54 PM, Steve said...
I think there is enough evidence to print, as fact, most of what you said in the mainstream media. Instead, they will talk about whether Hillary Clinton has an anger management problem or why Iran is just about to destroy our way of life.
At 9:21 PM, Kaunda said...
Thank you Dr. Cole for your blog. It's not a simple matter to become informed but your lucid and compact posts are great aids.I've always had a problem believing the motive of high government officials as being purely CYA. I feel quite alone in this, but I really wonder if I'm so unusual. While I'm not a supporter of so many of the policies and decisions of the current government, my trouble believing that personal vendetta is at the root of motive isn't so diferent from the many who support the president against all evidence. Patriotism is deep and faith in our officials hard to shake.Saying that goes to Ralphie Frank's comment "nobody is looking at the writing on the wall." I'm not sure we're not looking the problem is having a hard time making it out--finding a meaningful context for understanding.I don't have a better explantion of motive. I wonder what was going on behind the scenes with the A. Q. Khan affair and relations with Pakistan at the time, but that's just wondering. My point is simply that part of the difficulty in making a story from the facts for the public is accepting the callow motives of the principals of the story. And that's why the push back hits so hard with the "Bush-hater" meme.Damn, what's happened makes me sick. Thank you again for your clear-eyed presentations and informed comment.
At 9:28 PM, Ugly Moe said...
Everyone seems to assume that Valerie was outed to punish Joseph Wilson.Why?Is it not possible that the leak hit it's intended target (i.e. Valerie or her work)?There must have been other, less damaging ways, to punish Joseph Wilson than to jeapordize American security.
At 10:45 PM, B. Muse said...
Fulford actually went to Niger before Wilson at the request of then Ambassador to Niger, Babro Owens-Kirkpatrick. Both issued reports to appropriate contacts in the Bush administration and both agreed that it was highly unlikely that there was ever any uranium exchanged between Niger and Iraq. (So, technically Wilson agreed with Fulford) Owens-Kirkpatrick was "retired" from her post in Sept of 2002 and General Fulford from his in December of 2002. Convenient retirements for the Bush administration. Were these planned or forced retirements?
At 10:53 PM, Alex said...
Good coverage, with pictures! :) I would like to know how high up the document creation goes. I just wonder if someone in the white house said: "It would be best if documents were found."Bono is Brian Peppers!
At 11:01 PM, Richard said...
Thank you Dr. Cole .. I read you everyday ... and am grateful for your labours on behalf of the truth and compassion for humanity.I think I'll send a copy onwards to Fitzgerald to use with the Grand Jury.I smell impeachment.
At 12:46 AM, Katy said...
"a former agent of Italian military intelligence named Rocco Martino, who had had some experience in the African country of Niger, came into possession of some forged, fraudulent documents."Seems like you're starting your story in media res. The beginning of the story is perhaps most important of all...might it not come full circle? Makes me think of that 1960s Italian film "Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion": Cheney setting off a chain of events to see if it was possible to trace the forged documents back to his own office, Hadley or such....
At 1:09 AM, capt said...
Mr. Juan Cole, LOVE the pictures and WOWSER great post!
At 3:21 AM, Carol Gee said...
Dr. Cole. You have really come out of your shell! Who could tell there was a graphic artist behind your spectacles, professor. Great post, a very creative and entertaining way to teach some basics to many of us freshmen. Thanks!
At 4:28 AM, sherm said...
I think just about everything the Bush administration has done in the last five years is a product of Cheney's world view. Listening to Bush's cascade of bumper sticker slogans you'd get the impression that no mind is at work.If, in a moment of irrational candor, Cheney were to lay out his world view, then I think the actions of the Bush administration would be revealed as systematic, integrated, focused, and very scary.Michael Murry's terrific poem is so accurate it should be classified - then leaked.
At 10:10 AM, Dan said...
Good summary for those who haven't followed the story.If that's your iceberg artwork, you should take credit (or give it).As for ugly moe's question: I agree. I think the White House thought it was fighting a war with the CIA, and that punishing Plame would make it crystal clear who was in charge. They knew damned well, in other words, what they were doing. Step out of line, and your life is ruined, perhaps endangered -- and the lives of people you know.A very, very dangerous game.This all comes out of Cheney's office, you see, and Cheney was SECDEF. He knows exactly how important NOCs are, and probably exactly how important that program was.In fact, it's entirely possible that the target was the WMD program itself. Indeed, we find that in 2004, Ambassador Negroponte was appointed to the new executive post of Director of National Intelligence, overseeing the CIA and its director (who was originally intended to be that point man, back in the 1940s). Under the enabling legislation from 2004, a National Counter Proliferation Center was created, which reports directly to Negroponte, not through the CIA at all.In other words, this smells a lot like office power politics -- except unlike academic disputes, which are so bitter "because the stakes are so small", this may have crippled an essential tool needed to prevent terrorists like al Qaeda from getting their hands on nuke tech. Who knows how long before the NCPC has the skill set, experience, and contacts that the CIA team had? Years, probably.
At 2:51 PM, hankstone said...
I would like to mention two minor corrections. Ms. Plame did not suggest her husband for the trip. Her superiors decided on Wilson, and she told them how to get in touch with him. Contrary to the Republican talking points, the suggestion did not come from Plame.Second, Wilson did not write a report for the CIA. He was debriefed orally. There were other written reports that essentially got buried.
At 8:58 PM, Howard Garrett said...
This is history written before our eyes, with images, but there's more that needs to be told to erase Cheney's Darth Vader mystique:It is the role played by Ahmed Chalabi in convincing Cheney and a variety of his cohorts and assorted intelligence officials around Europe that the invasion of Iraq would be greeted with hosannas and flowers and that "the Iraqi people" would happily become good democratic citizens in support of their elected government. And further, that the elected governent would be forever in the debt of the neocons and would happily let American oil companies write up the contracts for cheap Iraqi oil. And, they'd gladly let us station 100,000 troops in Iraq forever.Now we know that Chalabi was working on behalf of the Shiite theocracy and in alliance with Iranian officials. Now of course the Shiite majority has voted itself into power to oppress their former oppressors, the Sunnis, and Iran's military, economic and theorcratic infrastructure is virtually anexxing two thirds of the former Iraq. It is logical to assume that Chalabi could easily foresee exactly what was going to happen after he tricked Cheney and the gang into invading Iraq.The point to take home is that Cheney was so stupid and arrogant that he and others were easily fooled into removing Saddam, while violating every American constitutional value and every valuable intelligence officer, in a plot to vastly strengthen Iran. Cheney was the unwitting fool for that axis of evil, that sponsor of terror, that wannabe nuclear power, Iran. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars we don't have, and after exhausting our military and suffering thousands of deaths both here and there, and tens of thousands of permanent disabilities and disrupting millions of lives in America and in Iraq, the US military will likely be summarily booted out of Shiistan, or whatever they'll call it, and when Iran has rebuilt their oil production capacity, it definitely won't be cheap.Cheney basically did it, Rove thought it would get votes, and Bush just didn't know any better. That's a campaign issue I'd like to see sink into the mainstream.
At 10:04 PM, idiotsavant said...
Burning a covert CIA officer (and certianly many of her contacts) seems like an extreme response if the sole aim was to counter Wilson's criticism. Many previous critics of the administration (Blix, O'Neill, Clarke) were effectively smeared with much less risky methods.Sibel Edmonds has suggested that Plame's CIA work involved investigating some of the same organizations that Edmonds identified working as a translator for the FBI, groups she says were involved in drug smuggling, weapons dealing and bribery.Edmonds was quoted in an interview saying, “You can start from the AIPAC angle. You can start from the Plame case. You can start from my case. They all end up going to the same place, and they revolve around the same nucleus of people.”
At 12:41 AM, windje said...
fyi"Monk" has a blog named "inflatable dartboard" at http://darted.blogspot.com/He usually has super graphics.
At 4:14 PM, Postman said...
2 points1. Einstein said, "If you can't explain it to a six year old you don't understand it" ... six yr olds and Republicans should be able to grasp this.Good job, well done ... and without Power Point!2. Hans Christian Andersen has long been misunerstood, when the little boy (Juan) exposed that the Emperor was wearing no clothes, nobody cheered, the Emperer just went striding on...Now we have unified authority in the President it appears (with the aid of Hoo, Bellinger, Gonzalez and other associated legal scum) the President can do what he fucking wants.. who is going to stop him striding on ? Certainly not his chums in Congress.What bewilders me is that Colin Powell (who seems a decent guy to me) got up at the UN (in front of a worldwide audience) and repeated all this nonsense about Niger yellowcake, Winnebagos of Death,vials of Anthrax / Smallpox , etc., Has he got Manchurian Candidates syndrome ?
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