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.