Follow the Yellowcake Road. - Democratic Underground

Meldread

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Mon Jul-04-05 01:34 PM
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Follow the Yellowcake Road.

How we got where we are today.

"Wilson never worked for the CIA," wrote conservative Republican columnist Robert Novak, "but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate."

Those two sentences, published on July 14, 2003 -- almost two years ago -- may have sealed the fate of the Bush Administration. No one really disputes why Plame was outed -- it was a political attack against her husband, Joseph Wilson, plain and simple. It's the "who" that everyone is focused on, and one alleged (and likely guilty) source is Karl Rove. There was also another, according to Novak, but that person has yet to be discovered -- but we may find out very soon.

Let's reflect on what caused all this to come about. It is time to flash back to the year 2002. Joseph Wilson, husband of the illegally outed CIA agent, finds himself in Niger investigating the Yellowcake Forgery, documents which implied that Iraq had been attempting to illegally purchase uranium from that country.

In late February 2002 Wilson reported too both the CIA and the State Department that the information was "unequivocally wrong" and that the documents had been forged. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on March 7, 2003, just days before the invasion of Iraq, released their analysis of the documents. It only took the IAEA officials a matter of hours to determine that the documents were a fake. They used a simple Google search, and discovered laughable mistakes such as incorrect names of Niger officials. The IAEA then reported their findings to the United Nations Security Council.

President Bush during his 2003 State of the Union address, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the United Nations Security Council sited the forged documents as "indisputable" evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.

In an Op-Ed piece entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa," published on July 6, 2003 in the New York Times, Ambassador Wilson denounced the Bush Administration for using the falsified documents stating, "some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

Here is a rough timeline of what happened after Wilson exposed the Administration's use of false information.

On July 11, 2003 while on the McLaughlin Group former Presidential Candidate and conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan echoed Wilson's statements stating, "The truth now, we know, is that a forgery was put together to get this country into a war with Iraq, that forgery found its way into our intelligence agencies, it found its way into the State of the Union, and the president of the United States should show more indignation and outrage that this was done." He also added, "Somebody in our own government knew very well that it was a forgery, and they advanced it on up the line."

On July 14, 2003, Robert Novak published his "Mission to Niger" article that exposed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA Operative.

On July 17, 2003 "A War on Wilson" is published on Time Magazine's website as a web exclusive with Matthew Cooper listed as the lead journalist.

On July 21, 2003 Newsday publishes, "Columnist Names CIA Iraq Operative", with Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce as its authors. In the article, they attribute the intelligence information leaked to them about Plame as coming from "intelligence officials" and a "senior intelligence official." (Both Phelps and Royce were subpoenaed.)

On August 26, 2003 Ambassador Wilson participated on a public panel in Washington and was quoted as saying, "At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the white House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words."

On September 29, 2003 the new White House Press Secretary (who had recently just assumed the position after Ari Fleischer resigned on July 15, 2003) stated, "He wasn't involved... The President knows he wasn't involved. ... It's simply not true."

Also on September 29, 2003 Novak was reported as saying 'Nobody in the Bush Administration called me to leak this.' Novak claimed that while he was interviewing a senior Bush Administration official, that the official told him in July that Wilson's trip to Niger was 'inspired by his wife,' and that the CIA confirmed her 'involvement in the mission for her husband.' He is also reported as saying, 'They asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else.' He is reported as claiming that his sources in the CIA told him, 'Plame was an analyst -- not a covert operator and not in charge of undercover operators."

Also on September 29, 2003 the Washington Post revealed that White House officials had contacted at least six Washington reporters to disclose Plame's CIA identity.

On October 1, 2003 Ted Koppel on an episode of Nightline stated that "Washington reporters told that senior White House adviser Karl Rove said his wife was 'fair game'."

Nearly a year passes and the story seems to fade out of the spotlight.

On June 3, 2004 President Bush announces that he will higher attorney James E. Sharp if he is questioned by the investigation.

On June 24, 2004 President Bush is interviewed for more than an hour regarding the Plame leak.

On February 15, 2005 A unanimous three-judge panel of federal appeals court in Washington held that reporters, Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine may have witnessed a federal crime - the disclosure by government officials of the identity of a CIA officer. The panel ruled that the First Amendment (freedom of the press) does not give reporters the right to refuse to cooperate with a grand jury investigating such crimes.

On June 27, 2005 the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear appeals by Miller and Cooper of the February 15 ruling.

On June 30, 2005 Norman Pearlstine, Time's editor in chief agreed to provide documents concerning the confidential sources of Matthew Cooper to a grand jury.

On July 1, 2005 Lawrence O'Donnell, a senior MSNBC political analyst, on the McLaughlin Group stated: "And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time Magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

This brings us up to current times. As we can see by reviewing the timeline this is much larger than simply who outed Plame. This scandal could easily rival Watergate in both scope and proportion.

A late 14th Century proverb says, "All roads lead to Rome." Not in America. "All roads are made of Yellowcake and lead to Iraq." As the outing of Plame is investigated it is inevitable that the Yellowcake investigation -- who forged the documents and why -- will be once again reopened. Because of that, the reasoning behind going to war with Iraq may truly come to light and be uncovered. The lies told to get us there will ultimately be exposed.

I personally believe that this has been an "open secret" in Washington and at least in the Media for sometime. Of course, now there is proof to the rumors. I have to wonder what will happen next. We all saw the poll numbers where a sizeable majority of Americans favor Impeaching Bush if he lied about taking us to war with Iraq. As things are revealed, I think that number will grow and eventually the Republicans as a whole will have a huge problem on their hands.

If this gets the coverage it deserves and doesn't slip away this may effectively keep Bush busy thereby keeping him from being able to effectively appoint Supreme Court Justices. Ironic that O'Connor resigned just a day before the story broke and right after refusing to hear the Cooper/Miller case. Was she thumbing her nose at the Bush Administration?

I think everyone knows this is the end of Bush and his Administration. I have a feeling we're going to see some rats start jumping ship very soon. (The Rats who haven't already started the swim for shore -- Powell, Fleischer, Ashcroft and others.)

Here are some questions: What role does Judith Miller play, when did she find out, and why isn't she talking? It is rumored that she might have some (very close) connections with David Kelly, who was reported to have committed "suicide." He died on July 18, 2003 around the same time Wilson was trying to be silenced. Does he still have a role to play in this? What exactly does Miller know, and in addition to that what does Cooper know and why aren't they talking? Time is complying with the Court order but Cooper still refuses to talk. If they know something of importance I say we send them down to Guantanamo for a few months until they feel "compelled" to reveal their sources and what they know. These two are very likely aiding and protecting not only traitors but REAL (not imagined) terrorists of America.