Harry, you little political creep, what has this lie got to do with
economics?

"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:iesanvk8e8lbfp5ikva8q9p355vt002c8n@4ax.com...

From MSNBC, 9/26/03:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/937524.asp?0cv=CB10&cp1=1

CIA seeks probe of White House

Agency asks Justice to investigate leak of employee's identity

EXCLUSIVE
MSNBC AND NBC NEWS

WASHINGTON --

The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations
that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of
one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman's
husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush's
since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium
from Africa, NBC News has learned.

THE FORMER ENVOY, Joseph Wilson, who was acting ambassador to Iraq
before the first Gulf War, was dispatched to Niger in 2002 to
investigate a British intelligence report that Iraq sought to buy
uranium there.

Although Wilson discredited the report, Bush cited it in his State of
the Union address in January among the evidence he said justified
military action in Iraq.

The administration has since had to repudiate the claim.

CIA Director George Tenet said the 16-word sentence should not have
been included in Bush's Jan. 28 speech and publicly accepted
responsibility for allowing it to remain in the president's text.

Wilson published an article in July alleging, however, that the White
House recklessly made the charge knowing it was false.

"We spend billions of dollars on intelligence," Wilson wrote.

"But we end up putting something in the State of the Union address,
something we got from another intelligence agency, something we cannot
independently verify, in an area of Africa where the British have no
on-the-ground presence."

WHITE HOUSE DENIALS

The next week, columnist Robert Novak published an article in which he
revealed that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA operative
specializing in weapons of mass destruction.

"Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested
sending him to Niger to investigate," Novak wrote.

The White House has denied being Novak's source, whom he has refused
to identify.

But Wilson has said other reporters have told him White House
officials leaked Plame's identity.

NBC News' Andrea Mitchell reported Friday night that the CIA has asked
the Justice Department to investigate whether White House officials
blew Plame's cover in retaliation against Wilson.

Revealing the identities of covert officials is a violation of two
laws, the National Agents' Identity Act and the Unauthorized Release
of Classified Information Act.

ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE CLAIM

When the Niger claim first arose, in February 2002, the CIA sent
Wilson to Africa to investigate.

He reported finding no credible evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium
from Niger.

The CIA's doubts about the uranium claim were reported through routine
intelligence traffic throughout the government, U.S. intelligence
officials said.

Those doubts were also reported to the British.

The Niger report included a notation that it was unconfirmed when it
was published in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, the
classified summary of intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs.

The CIA had the Niger claim removed from at least two speeches before
they were given:

Bush's October address on the Iraqi threat, and a speech by U.N.
Ambassador John Negroponte.

As the State of the Union address was being written, CIA officials
protested over how the alleged uranium connection was being portrayed,
so the administration changed it to attribute it to the British, who
had made the assertion in a Sept. 24 dossier.

_________________________________________________________

How d'ya like that. The un-American CIA not supporting the
right-wingers presidunce. It's treason.

Harry