Ashcroft is perhaps the most disturbing and dangerous
human beings to hold high office in my lifetime. Will
he investigate? I answer that question with another
one: Where is Ken Lay? HOWEVER, this turn of events is
very significant and provides evidence of further
loosening of the Bush cabal's grip on the political
life of US...Remember, when the _resident declared
that he was Commander-in-Chief and one of the things
he liked about it was he didn't have to explain
himself to anyone? Well, he clearly knew as little
about his Constitutional office as he knew about the
Constitution itself...He knows little, he cares less.
And although Ashcroft knows much more about the
Constitution thsn the _resident does, he cares
probably even less about it, because I think he really
loathes it. They are both going to their political
ruin. It will take time but it is going to go down.
" 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."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/937524.asp?0cv=CA00&cp1=1
Former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson 4th, speaks on
NBC's 'Meet the Press' July 6, 2003.
CIA seeks probe of White House
Agency asks Justice to investigate leak of employee’s
identity
EXCLUSIVE
MSNBC AND NBC NEWS
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — 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.
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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.
By MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson with NBC’s Andrea
Mitchell.
Former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson 4th, speaks on
NBC's 'Meet the Press' July 6, 2003.