A lot of what went down seems like an effort at misdirection, away from Cheney--for instance, that Plame somehow authorized her husband's mission to Niger (just can't happen). I've always been puzzled about why Wilson being married to Plame, a WMD expert, would taint or discredit Wilson in any way. It would seem to do the opposite--to ENHANCE his ability to carry out the Niger mission. So, why did they treat it this way--why did this assumption get around that it discredits him, when it doesn't?
I think it's a sort of sidelight, or fuzzied or garbled point of the leak, the REAL point being to aim away from Cheney as the mastermind of the entire affair, which, from the beginning was designed to blind and disable the CIA--to out Plame and her entire network of eyes and ears on WMDs around the world--to hide, cover up, prevent detection of, Cheney arms dealings and other nefarious Bush Cartel WMD activities.
I suspect that one of those activities may have been a plot to PLANT WMDs in Iraq. Remember the political climate that summer. A find of WMDs in Iraq was badly needed, politically--not just by Bush, but also by Blair. And guess what was happening in England at the exact same moment as the plot against Plame (with, in my opinion, Wilson being "collateral damage," not the other way around): the effort to shut up Brit WMD expert Dr. David Kelly--who, after supporting the invasion, had a sudden and surprising change of heart, and began whistleblowing to the BBC about the Blairites' WMD exaggerations ("sexing up" of the Brit intel on Iraq), in May '03. This caused quite a tither of fear and scrambling by the Blairites: a "security style interview" of Kelly, Blair being told that Kelly could say "some uncomfortable things," the gov't outing Kelly's name to the press, then letting him go home without protection, where, a day later, he was found dead near his home, under extremely suspicious circumstances. What did he know that could have gotten him killed?
Wilson article on Iraq nukes/Niger, 7/6/03
Novak outing of Plame, 7/14/03.
Death of Kelly, 7/17/03 (three days later).
Connective tissue: Judith Miller (get to that in a moment).
Wilson didn't publish his whistleblow on Bush lies about Iraq nukes until July 6, 2003. Kelly was whistleblowing on Blair lies about Iraq nukes and other items several months before this, in May 2003. So Kelly was FIRST. And what was a tither in England was surely a tither in Washington DC as well. Cheney's alarm bells go off. Plame outing is already in progress (the WHIG meeting, the AF-1 memo), and it is CONVENIENT that she's married to Wilson. That was a little item Cheney was holding in his back pocket. He okayed the mission to Niger (no way he could not have done so--no mission like that undertaken without top level okay); he knew who Plame was and that Wilson and Plame were married; he also knew Wilson would find nothing in Niger (the whole thing was a crock, based on forgeries; he knew that--Niger trip was a wild goose chase.) Wilson marriage to Plame gives Cheney an excuse to shut her down, and make it look like Rovian political revenge. He's most concerned at this point about what else Kelly might know (it was the Blairites' concern as well), and in Plame NOT FINDING OUT.
According to Wilson, Wilson was calling around within the top levels of the Bush regime, to get an explanation of why/how/ by whom the nuke falsehood got into Bush's speech. He called Condi Rice. Through intermediaries, she says she's not interested in his information, but if he's so concerned about it, why doesn't he publish something? (--this, possibly from Cheney to Rice to Wilson--PUBLISH IT, WE DARE YOU!). Thus, the Plame outing, conceived long before on general concerns about CIA snooping on Bush Cartel WMDs, is triggered by the Kelly crisis (Kelly whistleblowing; Blair concerns about what else he knows), and unfolds, starting with Novak 7/14--to prevent Plame from finding out what David Kelly is, at that same moment, getting assassinated for (on 7/17).
One of Kelly's last emails is to Judith Miller--the one in which he warns of "many dark actors playing games". She also had used him as a major source in her book, "Germs." In the news article she writes about his death (NYT, 7/21/03) she fails to mention her connections to Kelly, and does not disclose the "dark actors" email. (It was later disclosed by his family.) Why does she hide her connections to Kelly at this critical moment in the WMD treason story? (I suspect that she furthermore put words in Kelly's mouth about U.S. troops lack of diligence in hunting for WMDs post-invasion in Iraq--just doesn't fit with whistleblower/changed viewpoint/change of heart Kelly--she "scrupulously" leaves out any quotation marks on those statements.)
After being outed to the press by the Blair gov't, and sent home without protection, Kelly was found dead on 7/18/03, near his home, outdoors in the rain, under a tree, having apparently slit one wrist and taken painkillers, and slowly bled to death all night. (Where was Brit intel surveillance when this was happening?) His other emails indicate that he was looking forward to his daughter's wedding and returning to Iraq, and thought the controversy surrounding him would blow over in a week. (It looks like he had assured the gov't that he would say no more.) He was a brilliant scientist, according to all reports (slitting one wrist--outdoors in the cold and rain?), and a strong-willed man who had stood up to Saddam Hussein and the Russians on WMD issues. Not the suicidal type; no suicide note; no evidence of depression. The "Lord Hutton" report BLAMED THE *BBC* FOR HIS DEATH, exonerated Blair & co., and ignored eyewitnesses and expert dissent on all sorts of anomalies at his death scene (body moved; not enough blood, etc.).
Whatever the internal fracas between him and his bosses and the Blairites, HE thought it was resolved--so why would he kill himself?--but he was nevertheless sensing the dark shadows around him (the "many dark actors playing games"). Given all of these facts, it seems quite likely to me that the Blairites now knew that he knew something really bad (way beyond "sexing up" of the intel docs), threatened him with prosecution (official secrets act; loss of pension) to find out what it was, then patted him on the head and sent him home, and had him offed. They were not about to trust his word that he wouldn't reveal the worst of it. (An alternative scenario is that he didn't just know about a plant to plot WMDs in Iraq; he is the one who foiled it.)
It's impossible to know what role Judith Miller might have played in Kelly's death (if any), but it's just too much of a coincidence that all this is happening in England, while all this other is happening in the U.S. at exactly the same time, on exactly the same issues--all of it simultaneous with the fruitless hunt for WMDs in Iraq (in which Miller was an enthusiastic participant)--and with Miller thickly involved on the one side (probably laundering Plame's identity to other reporters to protect Cheney, Libby and/or Rove), and peripherally involved on the other (with the oddity of trying to hide her connection to Kelly). (She, of course, was the prime mover of the Iraq war in the press--some call it "Judith Miller's war"--publishing numerous lies about Iraq WMDs straight from Ahmed Chalabi, on the front pages of the NYT, throughout the buildup to the invasion.)
There have been other hypotheses--that Plame was onto Saudi 9/11 money, or Cheney arms dealings, both quite credible hypothesis. Something BIG was at stake--beyond mere political talk about war lies and "sexing up" of intel docs (what modern war was ever perpetrated without with such talk and dissent?). The "something" that was at stake was something that merited the risk of treason charges (not to mention murder charges). And there seems to have been a kind of panic about it, in both cases. A panic to shut David Kelly up. A panic to shut Valerie Plame and her WMD network down (calling at least six reporters, to make sure it gets done, quickly).
As this story has unfolded, I've been trying to check my hypothesis against emerging facts-- the hypotheses that Wilson was set up, that Plame was the real target, and that the motivator, the trigger for the Plame outing, was not Wilson's article--7/6/03, that was just an excuse--but fear of what DAVID KELLY knew and might disclose, and Plame's ability to detect it, or verify it.
One of the holes in my theory was, how did Cheney get Wilson to write that article? Was he just counting on Wilson getting pissed off (so as to become an excuse to out Plame)? (Is that why this provable lie was put in Bush's SOTU speech?) Well, I just stumbled across Wilson's statement about Rice telling him to publish his complaint. That pretty much nails it for me, that Wilson was set up, and the target all along was Plame and her WMD network. (Plame may have recommended her husband, but Cheney OKAYED the trip--knowing Wilson would find nothing--and then just held the Plame-Wilson marriage in reserve, and used it opportunistically. Wilson phones Rice; she doesn't speak to Wilson directly, and so has time to consult with Cheney, then through intermediaries tells him to publish it. Was Rice doing something good here? Possibly, but I don't really think so. I think Wilson was being baited.)
Note: Joseph Wilson recently stated that both his wife and Judith Miller are "collateral damage" in the Bush regime's war on dissent. This statement does not at all fit with my suspicions of Miller.
And NO FACTS have emerged that directly point to a plot to plant WMDs in Iraq. It's just a hunch. But there sure are a lot of surrounding facts that make it a good working hypothesis for further investigation (including Miller's active participation in the hunt for WMDs in Iraq--to the point of annoying and threatening commanders in the field--she acted as if she KNEW they would be found, and was acutely disappointed when they weren't.) My theory fits the Kelly story. And it fits Bushites risking treason to prevent it from being discovered on this side of the Pond.
It also may explain the inexplicable: U.S. news monopoly reporters covering this story (the Plame outing) with some of them even seeming to become journalists again. If it was a plot to plant WMDs in Iraq (a truly scandalous deed, pointing to Cheney arms dealing), and Kelly stumbled upon it or foiled it (fits his character and state of mind at the time), and was killed to prevent his disclosing it (outright murder of an insider white guy), and Plame and the whole CIA WMD operation was outed to prevent them from finding it out (a treasonous act), then the Bushites have become so dirty, so unscrupulous and so out of control, that even the Corporate Rulers and other key Republicans are appalled, and have given the okay to clean house in Bushville. (I was surprised to find out that Joseph Wilson is apparently friends with James Baker--Baker has always struck me as the sort of Mafia lawyer who cleans the blood off the carpet, but I suppose he could be that and still have a bit of a conscience, or maybe has some investments that are at risk.) (Diebold? ES&S? Iran nuke energy?)
And Patrick Fitzgerald is a Republican.
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Further caveat: Armchair conspiracy theorist, here. No insider knowledge. Just what I read in the papers and on the net. And I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as some are, about the various players and details. I just think this hypothesis is useful. That's why I'm putting it out here--especially the coincidence in time and theme with Kelly.
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The answer to the stink in Washington DC is restoring our right to vote, by throwing Bushite electronic voting machine companies--Diebold, ES&S and brethren--out of the election business NOW--or, at the least, achieving some measure of election transparency with paper ballot backups, strict auditing and security, and no secret, proprietary programming code owned and controlled by major Bush donors and campaign chairs! The only place where we can get this done is in state/local jurisdictions, where the authority over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some say. The bipartisan corruption in the electronic voting business at the state/local level is daunting, but it is nothing compared to the bipartisan corruption in Washington DC, and it is local and therefore much more fixable. See the DU Forum "2004 Election Results and Discussion" for information and action ideas:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203
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