Reply #83: No question, Plame would have been "in the way" of efforts to plant or exaggerate evidence of

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I have long been convinced that was the true reason why she was "outed" along with BJ and CIA-CPD, more broadly, when on June 1, 2001 Armitage leaked information to Rupert Murdoch's Financial Times that the US was aware of AQ Khan's trade nuclear and missile technology with North Korea.

While I donot feel that I have adequate information to conclude that there actually was an effort to plant false evidence of a resconstituted nuclear program in Iraq, I am convinced that such efforts would have had to utilize HEU produced on Khan equipment, as Khan had earlier been Saddam's primary supplier.

Recall that Tenet and Armitage had met about eight weeks earlier with Gen. Mushariff in Pakistan. Another major related development at about that time was overtures from Khadafi to turn over his nuclear program in response to threats from the incoming Administration that they were going to use military and covert action to remove him if he didn't cooperate.

There's an excellent chronology of the Khan network here: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=17420