The recent revalations that "Conspiracy charges" may be in the pipe line, offer further evidence that the investigation by Fitzgerald is evolving from one focused on who leaked the name Valerie Plame to why would you leak the name Valerie Plame, an important distiction.
If Fitzgerald wanted to avoid a major scandal with himself in the center, he would have simply focused on who made the leak to Novak, but he and the judge have obviously heard disconcerting testimony in grand jury hearings that cannot be ignored by a principled man of justice.
So what have they heard, where is it going, who is going to take a fall?
Nobody really knows, I would suspect Fitzgerald doesn't at this point. We have to ask ourselves why did the administration leak the name? The obvious answer is to mitigate political damage caused by Joe Wilson's op ed piece and previous leaks to press that the Vice President knew the Niger Iraq Uranium Deal was bogus. However it seems the Vice President was much more sensitive to challenging the Niger/Iraq Uranium deal than the Alluminum Tube story that was also trumpeted and later we found out was debunked by DOE experts too.
Why was the VP sensitive to the Iraq/Niger Uranium Evidence?
Because this was Cheney's baby.
Cheney had designed an intelligence agency within a government, with his man John Bolton at State and Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon, all reporting to him, circumventing the CIA and the PDB's.
Cheney wanted to go after Iraq after 9-11 so did Rumsfeld, Bush, and others but they knew they didn't have the goods right then. Cheney took charge and intently went after his own intelligence that the CIA would find dubious to support his case. His distaste for the CIA and intelligence gathering has been evident for a long time and he knew if left to the CIA the intelligence needed to invade Iraq would never get past analysts in intelligence products without qualifications that would take the teeth out of a war argument.
So he figured out a way to circumvent the CIA and bring dubious but deeply concerning intelligence to the top levels of government and the media without the nuance and analysis it so much deserved.
The forged documents puporting a sale of Uranium between Iraq and Niger was one of these intelligence gems. It is reasonable to suggest that this little nugget of intelligence was forged in order to sell it to incompetent western intelligence agencies for profit. It just so happen that Cheney's group was the perfect sucker. So Blinded by idealogy and devoid of integrity they would engage in these acts they thought would later be justified. Well they later weren't justified and when people started whispering in water cooler corners they became worried. So worried they pounced on Joe Wilson when he was the first to say this is bullshit. Criminal Conspiracy, absolutely, from the beginning to the end. Their whole intention was to circumvent government protocals to engage in war, they knew they were wrong as evidenced by the super defensivessnes they displayed when Joe Wilson spoke up, and now their trying to figure out who is going to take the fall.
All Fitzgerald has to do is bring the charges and let the rats scatter. More intent on saving thier own skin they will eat each other alive. Finally we will begin to hear truth again in this coutry. Truth will bring this entire criminal enterprise of an adminstration crashing down. I don't think anybody has a clue the long-term implications of what is about to happen but I want to suggest that America will be changed forever next month.