According to what Miller says Libby told her.
Well, I finally read Judy Miller’s account of her testimony. The following three paragraphs struck me as odd when she is referring to her July 8, 2003 breakfast meeting with Libby:
Mr. Libby then proceeded through a lengthy and sharp critique of Mr. Wilson and what Mr. Libby viewed as the C.I.A.’s backpedaling on the intelligence leading to war. According to my notes, he began with a chronology of what he described as credible evidence of Iraq’s efforts to procure uranium. As I told Mr. Fitzgerald and the grand jury, Mr. Libby alluded to the existence of two intelligence reports about Iraq’s uranium procurement efforts. One report dated from February 2002. The other indicated that Iraq was seeking a broad trade relationship with Niger in 1999, a relationship that he said Niger officials had interpreted as an effort by Iraq to obtain uranium.
My notes indicate that Mr. Libby told me the report on the 1999 delegation had been attributed to Joe Wilson.
Mr. Libby also told me that <u>on the basis of these two reports</u> and other intelligence, his office had asked the C.I.A. for more analysis and investigation of Iraq’s dealings with Niger. According to my interview notes, Mr. Libby told me that the resulting cable – based on Mr. Wilson’s fact-finding mission, as it turned out – barely made it out of the bowels of the C.I.A. He asserted that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, had never even heard of Mr. Wilson.
Libby’s timeline is screwy:
- Two Intelligence reports (one from 2002 and one from 1999 that Libby attributes to Wilson).
- These reports prompted the VP office to ask the CIA for more info.
- The CIA sent Wilson.
- Wilson gave a report that “never left the bowels of the CIA”.
So what Intelligence report attributed to Wilson is Libby talking about in point 1? Did Wilson make 2 trips to Niger? I don’t think so…
So, I went to check (damn emptywheel for being on vacation!) and spent two hours reviewing information on this and I can’t find anywhere indicating that Wilson did a written report on his trip. Just that he was de-briefed by the CIA and that the “report” of his findings never made it to Cheney’s office. Libby even told Miller on the June 23 meeting that the CIA never delivered a report. So what 1999 report, attributed to Wilson, is Libby talking about????
Also, July 8, 2003 was well before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report was issued that covered in detail Wilson’s testimony concerning the 1999 allegations. So Libby couldn’t have been referring to that. Was he then referring to the INR write-up that was done and circulated on Air Force 1? Well that wasn’t out BEFORE Wilson’s 2002 trip.
There is just something in here that is making my spidey sense tingle and I just can’t put my finger on it. Perhaps all of you Plamegate officionados here can provide some enlightenment.
Oh, and one final thing. Remember Novak’s original article? This quote inparticular:
The story, actually, is whether the administration deliberately ignored Wilson’s advice, and that requires scrutinizing the CIA summary of what their envoy reported. The Agency <u>never before has declassified that kind of information</u>, but the <u>White House would like it to do just that now</u> — in its and in the public’s interest.
Did the CIA ever declassify that summary? If there was a summary, then obviously it’s classified. So did Cheney’s office see that write-up about Wilson’s trip or not?
My theory? Cheney’s office DID get the CIA report about Wilson’s trip and shredded it… Libby practically admitted it to Judy Miller. And guess what else? Fitz knows it.
Geez, I do so hope you ae right. I suspect thre is way much more to this investigation that we all really do know anything about here.
I am hoping that it gets to open the pandora’s box of all time. This is, after all, the reason for fixing the intel to fit the policy. Lets not forget this!
Judy says: “Mr. Libby told me the report on the 1999 delegation had been attributed to Joe Wilson.”
But the relevant trip was the one that Wilson took in February 2002. In the first meeting on June 23, Libby’s aim seemed to be to convince Miller that Cheney didn’t know about it. In that meeting Miller said about Libby:
“he added that the C.I.A. “took it upon itself to try and figure out more” by sending a “clandestine guy” to Niger to investigate. I told Mr. Fitzgerald that I thought “clandestine guy” was a reference to Mr. Wilson – Mr. Libby’s first reference to him in my notes…
…My notes indicate that Mr. Libby took issue with the suggestion that his boss had had anything to do with Mr. Wilson’s trip. “Veep didn’t know of Joe Wilson,” I wrote, referring to the vice president. “Veep never knew what he did or what was said. Agency did not report to us.”
So, are you saying that, based on Miller”s account of the July 8 conversation, that Cheney did know about Wilson’s February 2002 trip, which Libby denied Cheney knew in the June 23 meeting.
Ach, this stuff really exercises the brain. I hope that this makes sense.
This from Raw Story:
“Two officials close to Fitzgerald told RAW STORY they have seen documents obtained from the White House Iraq Group which state that Cheney was present at several of the group’s meetings. They say Cheney personally discussed with individuals in attendance at least two interviews in May and June of 2003 Wilson gave to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, in which he claimed the administration “twisted” prewar intelligence and what the response from the administration should be.”
Cheney seems to have known about wilson’s February 2002 trip, but when?
well this is big news! it has to be before wilson’s piece came out in the NYT on July 6th otherwise Cheney would have mentioned that not the two interviews where he wasn’t named with kristoff and pincus…
Iraq was seeking a broad trade relationship with Niger in 1999, a relationship that he said Niger officials had interpreted as an effort by Iraq to obtain uranium.
My notes indicate that Mr. Libby told me the report on the 1999 delegation had been attributed to Joe Wilson.
If Wilson indeed investigated this trade relationship, my guess is that he pursued it from the Iraqi side and knowledge from the delegation instead of from the Niger side. This might have been when he acquainted himself with the Niger officials he later contacted. Not to mention the French companies extracting the ore in Niger.
If Wilson did report in 1999, that might have been his primary qualification for investigating the situation in 2002.
It’s conceiveable, but it seems to be an incredible conflation of 1999 and 2002 either in Libby’s account of Miller’s reminiscence.
.
Wed Feb 09, 2005 at 08:45:52 AM PDT
Comment:
Thank You from Joe Wilson
In conclusion:
Jeff Gannon was planted by the administration to disseminate their talking points unfettered by any journalism ethics or investigation shortly after the Iraq war, when the failure to find WMDs was becoming apparent. He became incredibly useful in L’Affaire Plame to continue to push the dual stories that
a) Plame’s name was already common knowledge and therefore ‘outing’ her was not a crime
b) to continue to help discredit the CIA and Wilson.
Based on the evidence, I believe the 2002 CIA memo was leaked to Gannon when Novak became unusable and when the ‘mainstream’ reporters with CIA contacts were not pushing the WH’s preferred story line. They needed cover, and they got it.
And as is evidenced by his remarkable access to Scott McClellan and President Bush in the White House press room, to this day, he was rewarded handsomely…
And it continues as business as usual… until today when he became expendable and ‘resigned’ from Talon News.
Comment:
From Joe Wilson
My trip to Niger took place close to eight months before I ever wrote on the subject. My first article was lauded by both Brent Scowcroft and the first President Bush (in a letter). I articulated a position that emphasized real concern about WMD. <snip>
The article I wrote in the New York Times was written only after repeated contacts with the administration, direct, indirect and through background stories in the press yeilded only Condi Rice saying to Tim Russert that “perhaps somebody in the bowels of the Agency knew something about this but nobody in my circle.” Within 24 hours of the publication of my article the WH acknowledged that the “sixteen words did not rise to the level of inclusion in the state of the union.”
The Senate Select Committee report, if anybody in the press were interested enough to read it, made clear that almost four months before the State of the Union both the White House and the Senate were apprised by the most senior intelligence officials in the land that American intelligence believed the British “exaggerated” or “stretched” the case on uranium sales from Africa to Iraq. George Tenet called the White House and sent two written messages.
Within a week of my article appearing, Steve Hadley offered his resignation and shortly thereafter Condi Rice offered her regrets on PBS. Who is lying???
Neither Valerie nor I had or have anything to gain by lying. Senior administration officials have a lot to lose by telling the truth. That is what the smear campaign is all about. If they tell the truth about who leaked Valerie’s name they might well be prosecuted. If they lie to make Valerie and me the issue, they think they might skate. I sure hope not.
▼ ▼ ▼ A MUST READ
I`ll never stop believing Bolton is the one who knew Ms. plame`s status
& outed her to gain more brown-nose points. He was always a vindictive
SOB from what I`ve read. The bravado of a bully is what I`ve seen.
I hope I`m right & would love to see him at the head of the parade with Cheney & all the other bums. When they shave them all bald in prison, they`ll have to shave his womb broom & you`ll see a little weasel- mouthed coward saying he was only following orders.Once Cheney`s office saw Wilson`s report I bet he was drooling for the assignment to screw Wilson through outing his wife.
I have said the very same thing over and over and time after time. Look at his personality and his job for Cheney. It all stemed from him and only him. This is why Judy would not talk about any thing other than scooter….Remember when Bolton visited Judy in prison??!! Would loved to have been a fly on the wall with their conversation.
From USNews & World Report: