Plamegate + Khangate = Cheney the Traitor

On WNYC's Brian Lehrer show this morning, Steve Clemons of the Washington Note stated that Raw Story will be breaking the story later today that Valerie Plame's unit was tracking and investigating the dealings of the  A Q Khan's international nuclear weapons marketing venture. (Clemons has been working with Raw Story on this one.)  A Q Khan was dealing nuclear secrets out of Pakistan, protected by our "best ally in the region".  Clemons said that this revelation of Plame's unit has done the US almost uncalculable harm.

And to this day, Porter Goss's CIA has not done a formal damage assessment (contrary to what Bob Woodward may have reported.)

By even my meager analysis, the implications here are enormous. Cheney may have outed Plame not because he simply wanted to discredit Wilson, but to purposely destroy Plame's unit.  Halliburton, through its subsidiaries, had direct business dealing with Khan Research Labs and made plenty of money selling them materials. But did the Bush administration punish or sanction Halliburton, Khan Research, or Pakistan? The very suggestion would make a cat laugh.

Quite the opposite. The NSA, right after Bush got into office, effectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories, the Pakistani agency in charge of the bomb project.  Then the Vice-President blew the cover on the very CIA unit that was focused on shutting down the Khan network. (And Halliburton's subsidiary KBR just got a $385 million ACOE contract to build "detention camps" in the United States to support "ongoing operations". The Afghanistan-Iraq moneyfest goes without saying.)

The reason that the Bush White House has backed out of every arms control agreement is because they are making money on the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It's not just the House of Bush - it's the House of Saud, as well.  The CIA and other agents told BBC they could not investigate the spread of "Islamic Bombs" through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia. Seymour Hersh has  spoken about this at some length in his interviews. SA has wanted to acquire nuclear capabilities since 1975, at least, for a variety of reasons. They financed Khan's labs and have negotiated with him for purchases.

And Khan? Musharraf pardoned him immediately after the "arrest". The Pakistani military has him in "protective custody", reported here in the States as "house arrest", but more likely protection against "extraordinary rendition".

Deal nuclear arms to rogue nations and terrorists: millions of dollars. Use the threat of nuclear-armed terrorists to start an endless war: billions of dollars. Use the war to destroy the US Constitution and take over the country: priceless.

There are some governments money can't buy. For every other tyranny, there's MasterCheneyCard.

•  That's it!

  I will be under my bed for the forseeable future.
  Jeeze, what next?

  by mpc 12 on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:11:43 AM PDT

•  Or maybe not.

  Raw Story: Outed CIA officer was working on Iran

  While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.

  by NWMethodist on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:18:03 AM PDT

  •  Doesn't this seem to make it worse

    If you follow the bouncing ball throughout the Bush/Cheney escapades in Foreign Intelligence, it would seem to nake sense that you would NOT want serious intelligence coming in on a country that was next on your hit list.  If you can't get good info out of CIA, you would have to go see the jokers in Rumsfeld's DIA.  There you could exactly the intelligence you want and need to find the next smoking "mushroom cloud" gun.

    Damnit, where's my tinfoil?

    by pleon1967 on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:24:13 AM PDT

  •  Pakistan has filtered Khan's actions

    and the US supposedly gained some form of cooperating with Musharraf to try and figure out what Iran knows and has relative to nuclear technology.  Not specifically on what Khan shared, though.  And, to this day, we don't know how much has been provided by Khanm who remains oddly protected by Musharraf from international investigators.

    So, if Plame's outfit was concentrating on the Iran side of this situation, it would seem that an potentially valuable espionage investment was lost.

    by wader on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 10:30:51 AM PDT

•  Important Post!!!

  Thanx for the excellent diary.  Randi Rhodes on Air America was talking about this months ago, but few seemed to be listening.  Brewster-Jennings, Valerie Plame's cover company, was very close, as I understand it, to real breakthroughs on not only the Khan Network, but also Aramco in Saudi Arabia, thus giving the Bushes and Cheney at least two big reasons for wanting to shut it down.  

  Well, make it three.  As has already been covered, Wilson's revelations punctured their rationale for the Iraq invasion.  And Brewster-Jennings was, apparently 10x more successful than anything supposed nonproliferator John Bolton had ever done in the area.  Hmmm...maybe that was the way it's supposed to be, and why he's now at the UN, despite lacking Congressional approval.  

  Right now, Rummy is in North Africa selling hardware.  You think War's not big business??!!

  by serrano on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:19:36 AM PDT

•  Maybe we can get Siebel Edmonds

  ungagged now? How does one ungag a 'State Security Secret'? I'll bet this Khangate is part of what she ran into. Brewster Jennings(Plame's cover) has been rumored to have been in the arms/nukes discovery business for a long time.  

  by sailmaker on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:20:23 AM PDT

•  Thanks for posting this

  by middleagedhousewife on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:20:54 AM PDT

•  One of these days

  something is going to have to wake up the rest of the country on this.  Maybe this will do it.

  by Alma on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:30:41 AM PDT

•  Fucking shit, that's why judge's kept Fitz going

  It was always interesting to read why judge's kept cooperating with Fitz all along the way.  There were indications here and there about the Plame leak causing substantial damage US national security.
  and now we know why, Plame was close to Khan and how much info he gave to the Iranians.  Dumbshit Cheney probably either didn't know or didn't care how important Plame's work was or figured that Iran was next on the list anyway regardless of what ever Plame was learning about Iran's nuke program.  fucking shit

  by gaspare on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:57:53 AM PDT

•  Recommended

  This should be at the top of the homepage.

  by AntiChimp on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 10:12:37 AM PDT

•  see also Iran Crypto Leak

  If you don't know what that is, look it up (I don't have time to write up the usual explanation right now).

  Major damage to our intel capabilities.  A couple of years later, still no one indicted or prosecuted.  

  WTF...?

  by G2geek on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 11:02:10 AM PDT

•  cheney bush

  cheney bush guard thy arse
  rover hops upon thy hearse

  by robertpetrecca33 on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 12:51:28 PM PDT