I think we have all been trying to piece together the pieces of the puzzle. Now with the latest
NYT article that seems to say that all roads lead to Aspen, oops, Cheney, the puzzle may be completing its border, at least.
Interestingly, enough, all roads also lead to the New York Times. No, Not to Judy Miller. But to Nicholas Kristof.
more below the fold
Time to Analyze and Revise the Timeline once again!
I read this article by Ray McGovern. Cheney's Chickens Coming Home to Roost, a few days ago at antiwar.com. I don't know this website or McGovern, so I don't know if all his prescient information is actually true and believable. Sharon Jumper reports that he is a former CIA inteligence analyst (similar to Larry Johnson?).
But it does raise questions about: What did Cheney know and when did he know it, which is important to find out in light of today's New York Times article. So, even though McGovern's article has been diaried / by Sharon Jumper on Thursday, Oct. 20, it might be useful to bring it up again to help us put this in context of a revised timeline.
I started this journey this past summer, with the reporters finally giving up their info, thinking that Joe Wilson's July 6, 2003, op ed got the White House, Cheney and company so riled up, that they were faxing, calling each other from Air Force One, which led to Novak's column the following week.
Then we get the info that the WH learned about Wilson in June - not July - with Libby talking to Miller in late June and that there was some kind of report having being written the beginning of June that mentions Wilson.
Now today we learn that Cheney and Libby may have talked about Wilson earlier in June (June 12) as well. But do we have a date for the Cheney Tenet phone call as well?
But, in any case, June is too late as well.
I say we have to push back the time line at least another month to May 6, 2003 when the yellowcake hit the fan, again, so to speak.
According to Ray McGovern, he learned in May 2003 that Wilson would be sharing keynote duties at an Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) conference to be held on June 14. McGovern writes,," "since Wilson had served as an ambassador in Africa, I thought he might be able to throw light on a question bedeviling me since May 6, when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an intriguing story about a mission to Niger by "a former U.S. ambassador to Africa...." and that "according to Kristof, that mission was undertaken at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney's office to investigate a report that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger." (emphasis mine)
Who else became "bedeviled on May 6, when he learned about some former U.S. ambassador to Africa who had gone on a mission to Niger...at the behest of VP Cheney's office? Could it be, could possibly be .... Cheney? Who would he ask to find out about this? Who would he or his underlings call to find out about this mission if they did not already know about it? And if they already knew about it, wouldn't they be interested in knowing why, more than a year after the February 2002 trip occurred, it was being brought up in the New York Times, of all places?
According to McGovern, "[Condi] Rice claimed that the information did not come to her attention until more than a month later. "(I guess she doesn't read the NY Times and neither do her staff)
McGovern goes on to say that at the June 14 conference he, was introduced to "former ambassador Wilson...and wasted no time asking him - rather naively, it turned out - if he knew who the former U.S. ambassador who went to Niger was. He smiled and said, `You're looking at him.' I asked when he intended to go public; in a couple of weeks, was the answer."
(Maybe he was already trying to see who might publish his op-ed piece or had made the arrangements with the New York Times already).
Okay, Kristof publishes his op-ed on May 6, and at least one person connected to the White House reads the article (Rice, once again is out of the loop or so she claims- sounds familiar when anything important is printed).
It gets back to Cheney and Libby who want to find out WHO is this mysterious former ambassador to an African country who was sent to investigate. Who might set the inquiries in motion? Libby, Hadley and others with connections. Bolton?
Pure speculation
So let's start filling in the puzzle. At some point after May 6 and before June 23, Cheney talks to Tenet about the Niger information hitting MSM. Maybe after other calls around got him at least a name - Wilson.
Maybe he called to ask Tenet who this guy is claiming to know info that the Bush Administration presented was false.
Maybe he called because one of his underlings confirmed that Kristof's article was right - Wilson was sent by the CIA at when the VP's office inquired about information the year before.
Maybe he called to find out if Wilson had actually written a report that he wanted to get pronto.
I speculate once again.
Maybe Tenet tells him that Wilson is a straight shooter - with a history in Africa and familiarity with some of these issues and perhaps his name came up early on because his wife works for the agency on the issue of WMD. Maybe he said she was a NOC, maybe not. Cheney should certainly know that CIA personnel is not a topic to be bandied about - so maybe Tenet felt he didn't even have to warn him!
Or he tried to warn him off - telling that this guy would be a credible critic given his history - and that at this point Cheney needed to know more about Wilson if he was to get discredited.
Remember, by May things were getting dicey:
- The yellowcake starts hitting the fan. No weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. The insurgency was growing - not fading away.
- McGovern reminds us that "On March 7, Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced to the UN Security Council that the documents [forged Italian documents?] upon which the Iraq-Niger reporting was based were "not authentic."
- And it stands out because Bush's State of the Union address contained a reference to the Iraq-Niger uranium connection but Colin Powell pointedly did NOT repeat it a month later in February 2003, a month after Bush's State of the Union speech in his passionate speech to the U.N.
What's a boy to do? How does one discredit a hero- which Wilson seemed to be -according to Bush's own father, Bush 41? Now remember around this time, Rove and Libby were assigned the job to "control" the yellowcase situation and talk with CIA about who should take the fall and how to word the "retraction" about the yellowcake. More talk, emails.
Maybe, Rove, the consummate assassin comes up with his standard method - slander the person and his family so he will either back down (not go public as it was becoming apparent Wilson was planning) or to discredit him so no one focuses on the truths in his article.
On June 14, according to McGovern, Wilson suspected something was coming - he just didn't know what: McGovern continues, "Wilson then turned dead serious and, with considerable emphasis, told me the White House had already launched a full-court press in an effort to dredge up dirt on him."
Had word got back to him about White House probings? Remember, we now know that there was a June 12 convesation about Wilson between Cheny and Libby and that Cheney supposedly got his info from Tenet? I wonder what he heard and how? Did Tenet tell/warn Valerie Wilson that the White House was asking about Wilson?
Wilson added, "When I do speak out, they are going to go after me big time. I don't know the precise nature the retaliation will take, but I can tell you now it will be swift and vindictive. They cannot afford to have people thinking they can escape unscathed if they spill the beans on the dishonesty undergirding this war."
The rest is now history. Or the start of some more disreputable White House/American history.
Commentary
The lies have been flying fast and furious in the White House and out. Bush and Cheney both need to tell this country what they knew about all this. If Bush didn't know anything then, and didn't know anything up to now - he should resign because he does not even have control over his closest people.
RED alert should kick in when the WH and its people make any categorical statements like:
They told me they had nothing to do with the leak (Scotty)
And the rather pointed and constant refrain from the VP and everyone around him that he
didn't know about Joe Wilson, or his report.
Maybe he didn't know the name when the report was named, but he sure knew in 2003 and he still let the impression be had that he didn't know anything about this guy. And Bush is tied to this guys hip. Rove was involved as well. Why would we think that Bush didn't know sooner or later? And why did Bush continue to support and defend both Rove and the VP with his lack of outrage and action?
If Bush and Cheny didn't know then, but found out since then, he should be impeached or resigned because not only was he not honest with us, he promoted a man who has lied to us - Karl Rove.
And is he knew about this he should be impeached or drummed out of office along with Cheney the pit bull and all the other assholes.
Hopefully Fitzgerald will be as honest and effective as he has been praised. The truth must come out. Maybe God will mercy on their souls. That's up to her. But, my prayer is for Fitzgerald: May he bring down the swift hand of (human) justice on all these black-hearted bastards.
So let's speculate together - when did Cheney find out about Wilson?