Newsweek: Prelude to a Leak (Gang fight - Cheney's gang)

[Pirate Smile]

Prelude to a Leak

Gang fight: How Cheney and his tight-knit team launched the Iraq war, chased their critics—and set the stage for a special prosecutor's dramatic probe.

By John Barry, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek

Oct. 31, 2005 issue -



-snip-
Central to that case was the belief that Saddam was determined to get nukes—a claim helped by the Niger story, which the White House doggedly pushed. A prideful man who enjoys the spotlight, Joseph Wilson grew increasingly agitated that the White House had not come clean about how the African-uranium claim made it into George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address. In June, Condoleezza Rice went on TV and denied she knew that documents underlying the uranium story were, in fact, crude forgeries: "Maybe somebody in the bowels of the agency knew something about this," she said, "but nobody in my circles." For Wilson, that was it. "That was a slap in the face," he told NEWSWEEK. "She was saying 'F--- you, Washington, we don't care.' Or rather 'F--- you, America'." On July 6, Wilson went public about his Niger trip in his landmark New York Times op-ed piece.

-snip-
When Bush was elected in 2000, Cheney—who had been impressed with Libby's political savvy and mastery of detail—tapped him as his No. 2. Libby was perhaps the group's most relentless digger. An intense former litigator, he acted as a conduit for Cheney's obsessions. Soon after 9/11, Libby began routinely calling intelligence officials, high and low, to pump them for any scraps of information on Iraq. He would read obscure, unvetted intelligence reports and grill analysts about them, but always in a courtly manner. The intel officials were often more than a little surprised. It was unusual for the vice president's office to step so far outside of channels and make personal appeals to mere analysts. "He was deep into the raw intel," says one government official who didn't want to be named for fear of retribution. (Cheney's office declined to comment on specific questions for this story, beyond saying that the vice president and his staff are cooperating with Fitzgerald's probe.)

-snip-
Cheney and the commissars seemed especially determined to prove a now discredited claim: that Muhammad Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, had secretly met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence officer in April 2001. If true, it would have backed administration assertions of a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda, one of Bush and Cheney's arguments justifying an invasion. The story fell apart on serious examination by the FBI and CIA—Atta was apparently in the United States at the time of the alleged visit. But Cheney continued to repeat the story in speeches and interviews, even after the 9/11 Commission found no evidence to support it.

Behind the scenes, no one pushed the terror link harder than Libby. He urged Colin Powell's staff to include the Prague meeting in the secretary of State's speech to the United Nations. But Powell wanted no part of it. After one long session debating the evidence before the speech, Libby turned to a Powell aide. "Don't worry about any of this," he said, according to someone who was in the room. "We'll get back in what you take out." They didn't. Powell refused to use the line, but Libby's audacity stunned everyone at the table. "The notion that they've become a gang has some merit," says a longtime colleague of Libby's who requested anonymity to preserve the friendship. "A small group who only talk to each other ... You pay a price for that."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9787692/site/newsweek/

[mike_c]

1. the whole criminal scheme is unraveling on them...

...more and more every day. Note too that Fitzgerald has not released any of this information-- the basic facts have been available since 2003 and journalists are only now beginning to follow the leads and connect the dots. That's one of the things that amazes me the most. Journalists hear that Fitzgerald is investigating Libby's role in manipulating intel and they run out and find the information that was there all along, had they only been paying attention. Much of this was discussed over a year ago on DU, but the MSM is only just now getting the clue.

[pretzel4gore]

2. you hear it all the time

on a local radio station 'saddam killed millions, and we saved countless lives invading iraq' etc or a few weeks ago on a call in show from somewhere in usa "bush was a top gun pilot during 'nam" etc.
this stuff is everywhere. and the 'journalists' who sit by and listen know it's stupid and false, but they're the biggest part of the problem.

[sarcasmo]

3. That is one evil man. Hope he enjoys his 7million dollars in profits

from Halliburton stock since his stay in office.

[cliss]

4. Well, Cheney is looking

a little sweaty these days. If you look at recent photos, you can definitely see some tension in his face. His notorious crooked smile is frozen halfway up.

He's sweaty. Notice the bags under his eyes. He's laying in bed at night, trying to figure out what to do next. What are his options at this point? Instead of sleeping, he's trying to second-guess the SP.

Wishes he could just quit, and enjoy his millions. He's got enough, at this point. This is just a Pandora's Box. What a mess.

Heh he

[Rodger Dodger]

5. It has every appearance of a Cabal to me.

The intrigue those reports indicate that there is a cabal at work in the Executive Branch of our government.

More specifically there appears to be a Junto a foot. It in may be an archaic spelling but it more to the point... A takeover of government by intrigue, its not quite like junta: though over time them combined the meanings.

They are not actually taking the government: simply manipulating it for the Capitalists' sect within our country.

So much for all the talk about democracy.

[lovuian]

6. It started when the Supreme Court put this regime in after they

stole the election from the people!!! And Congress stood back and let them do it!!!

and they have gone rampantly destroying America!!!

Its about time people in the government fought back!!!

Wilson did it!!! Fitz did it!!! And Spitz did it!!!