The more I read about the testimony at this trial, the more I
realize that all the lying and all the conspiracy that has put people
in jeopardy is really not about a leak of a CIA officer's employment at
the CIA. The whole impetus for leaking that Wilson's trip to Niger was
engineered by his wife, Valerie Plame, was to counter the idea, which
was being rumored, that V.P Cheney had been the cause of Amb. Wlson's
being sent to Niger. The "nepotism" dodge was a clear fabrication, and
it was ridiculous on its face, but the reason to leak that Valerie had
sent him to Niger was to counter the story that it was really V.P.
Cheney who had caused that mission (by pressuring CIA to refute the
Niger uranium purchase story) which actually produced Wilson's total
refutation--in the NYTimes, no less.
So what it amounts to is all about our paranoid V.P. Here's what he
said to his staff: "Put out the word that it wasn't me who sent this
so-called Amb. Wilson to Niger! Find somebody else who sent him. Maybe
some lower-level character at the CIA! Just so it is not me! I don't
want to be blamed for sending this idiot to Niger (where is Niger?) when
he brings back such a negative report about why we went into Iraq. By
the way, where is Iraq? Don't answer. It will make me sound like an
idiot. Shut up. I am not an idiot. I am the Vice President. Hey, we do
what we want!"
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Robert V. Keeley