|
perception of the reporter (Dickerson)--"desperation" and "unsteadiness"--fits quite well with the WMD-planting theory of Traitorgate, which I've done something here at DU to develop. Their actions in the weeks of July 6-22 have always struck me as panicky and rushed--desperate would be the right word. And it just doesn't make sense that all this risky high level involvement--they contacted at least six reporters in one week, for instance (six journalist witnesses to treason)--could have been all about a newspaper article.
The WMD-planting theory is that Traitorgate was the coverup for a failed effort to plant WMDs in Iraq. Their panic had to do with David Kelly (Brits chief WMD expert) finding out about this, or his bosses finding out he had participated in foiling the Bushite plot, or knew about it. Within a week of Kelly's interrogation by his intelligence bosses (and their report to Blair, July 7), Plame was outed (July 14). Four days later (July 18), Kelly was found dead under highly suspicious circumstances. And four days after that (July 22), after Kelly's office was searched and his computers confiscated, Brewster-Jennings (the entire CIA counterproliferation network) was outed by Novak.
This theory says that the Wilson article publication (July 6) was more a coincidence than anything else.* It was expected. What wasn't expected was the news (probably from Blair) the next day, July 7, that Kelly knew of their deceitful scheme to plant WMDs in Iraq. It also posits that Plame/BJ had something to do with foiling their scheme, or at least knew about it and thus was a great danger to the Bush junta, and had to be frightened/silenced.
The WMD-planting theory of Traitorgate has held up quite well as new information has come out. Dickerson's full quote is pertinent: "All administrations discredit their critics through whispers to reporters, but we hadn't seen high-level Bush people do anything like this in the past. It suggested desperation and unsteadiness in a national security team that had often been heralded for its smooth competency."
"...we hadn't seen high-level Bush people do anything like this in the past...". This was one of my points in the WMD-planting theory--the high level involvement and risk. Discrediting a critic is something people like Rove do for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and, in Rove's case, probably in his sleep. Why all this other involvement--Libby, Cheney, and now possibly Rice, Fleischer, and all of the WHIG, who knows?, etc.
------
*(The theory suggests that Wilson might have actually been baited to publish the article, in Part 1 of a plot of discredit the CIA, that goes all the way back to the meeting of the Rome group--the idea being to bait the CIA with easily detectable forgeries about Iraq/Niger into a public position of no nukes in Iraq, then to trump that position with PLANTED nukes. They would thus make fools of the CIA (and make them more purge-able), and would benefit Bush/Blair enormously with a "find" of WMDs in Iraq. (There is evidence that one of the Rome meeting participants, Manucher Ghorbanifar, the notorious Iranian arms dealer, had tried to draw the CIA into another phony story about the Iranians having sneaked into Iraq, prior to the invasion, and stolen Iraq's nukes--a story that the CIA easily discredited.)
|