David Corn Reveals More of what is in new Book Hubris

[RamboLiberal]

Read article for more extensive info on Armitage and the Plame leak.

http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/08/hubris_the_armi.php

<snip>

A NOTE OF SELF-PROMOTION: Hubris covers much more than the leak case. It reveals behind-the-scene battles at the White House, the CIA, the State Department, and Capitol Hill that occurred in the year before the invasion of Iraq. It discloses secrets about the CIA's prewar plans for Iraq. It chronicles how Bush and Cheney reacted to the failure to find WMDs in Iraq. It details how Bush and other aides neglected serious planning for the post-invasion period. It recounts how the unproven theories of a little-known academic who was convinced Saddam Hussein was behind all acts of terrorism throughout the world influenced Bush administration officials. It reports what went wrong inside The New York Times regarding its prewar coverage of Iraq's WMDs. It shows precisely how the intelligence agencies screwed up and how the Bush administration misused the faulty and flimsy (and fraudulent) intelligence. The book, a narrative of insider intrigue, also relates episodes in which intelligence analysts and experts made the right calls about Iraq's WMDs but lost the turf battles.

And there's more, including:

* how and why the CIA blew the call on the Niger forgeries

* why US intelligence officials suspected Iranian intelligence was trying to influence US decisionmaking through the Iraqi National Congress

* why members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who doubted the case for war were afraid to challenge the prewar intelligence

And more at linked article

[bleever]

1. Those who might claim this exonerates Libby

will be ignoring passages like this:

"The Armitage leak was not directly a part of the White House's fierce anti-Wilson crusade. But as Hubris notes, it was, in a way, linked to the White House effort, for Amitage had been sent a key memo about Wilson's trip that referred to his wife and her CIA connection, and this memo had been written, according to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, at the request of I. Lewis Scooter Libby, the vice president's chief of staff."

There are spinning opportunities aplenty here, as Mr. Wells will no doubt demonstrate, and yet they are ultimately weak and not exculpatory.

[Supersedeas]

3. Libby was priming the pump at the behest of the PotUS

[peacetalksforall]

2. These two will be well worth reading about:

* why US intelligence officials suspected Iranian intelligence was trying to influence US decisionmaking through the Iraqi National Congress

* why members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who doubted the case for war were afraid to challenge the prewar intelligence

I am constantly trying to figure out why our Dem leaders who voted for the war were and are so wimpy about all this killing, maiming, and desstruction. I depise them for it. I want to forgive. I hope there is something there to believe in and that will explain them to the point where I can forgive. We knew. They had to know. Until I know more and can forgive, I consider them criminals of a political kind. Look at where we are. As of today and yesterday and tomorrow, I say fire them all. Vote them out. They did not do their job. I will be very anxious to understand them, if I can.

Our PNAC leaders are fools, deadly fools.