The Lie That WH Was Duped by CIA Incompetence (TPM re:Waas)

[kpete]

By Matthew Yglesias

This Murray Waas article Josh linked to has a nice scoop up at the top, then goes on for many words, but then has something at the end worth paying attention to:

The Plame affair was not so much a reflection of any personal animus toward Wilson or Plame, says one former senior administration official who knows most of the principals involved, but rather the direct result of long-standing antipathy toward the CIA by Cheney, Libby, and others involved. They viewed Wilson's outspoken criticism of the Bush administration as an indirect attack by the spy agency.

Those grievances were also perhaps illustrated by comments that Vice President Cheney himself wrote on one of Feith's reports detailing purported evidence of links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. In barely legible handwriting, Cheney wrote in the margin of the report:

"This is very good indeed … Encouraging … Not like the crap we are all so used to getting out of CIA."
I've long thought that -- rather than a desire to "get Wilson" per se -- was the correct interpretation of the Plame affair. It's good to see some kind of reporting-related confirmation. The issue gets back to what about the fact that "Wilson's wife works for the CIA" was supposed to tend to discredit Wilson. The answer is that the CIA, as witnessed by Cheney's note on the Feith memo and other things, was regarded as unduly "soft" on Saddam Hussein. That reality, in turn, gives the lie to the theory that the White House was somehow duped by CIA incompetence into invading Iraq.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/22/23541/082
http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1122nj1.htm

[Ouabache]

1. "the crap we are all so used to getting out of CIA" -Cheney

That says it all. The CIA comes up with all kinds of analysis and data that does not support what the Neocons want to do, so they minimize it as "crap".

[peacetalksforall]

2. I don';t agree. Cheney was out to stop the work of Brewster-Jennings.

The reasons most people give for invading Iraq (quickly) never include the reasoned assumption and rumor that Hussein was getting ready to switch to the Euro for oil trading. There was a threat that others would follow.

Cheney had too much invested in his dealings with Khan type traders in wmd and nuclear equipment and knowledge. This is exactly the kind of trafficking that Brewster-Jennings was tracking.

I think Murray Waas is excellent, but his explanations and interpretations fall short. Because he is a professional, I guess.

[Roland99]

3. Oh yeah, when I saw that yesterday I knew that was THE bombshell!

[nolabels]

4. The Cheney Fishing Expedition needs to be hammered home....

The corporate press cowed to whatever flimsy or made up evidence this man and fellow cabal members could spew out.

The "Stay the course" is a result of now being on other end of the ugly stick. The true villains they are, know no shame and are clueless when it is lobed at them.

[kentuck]

5. That helps explain the OSP also...

Where they created their own "intelligence"...

[applegrove]

6. Oh gosh - they were duped by their own cabal. They were duped by

drinking Utopia juice. They were duped by their own people (at least Bush was). His fault. He hired Cheney and the gang.