I hope Fitz asks Cheney: “Why did you use the term ‘junket’ when you wrote notes on Wilson’s op-ed?” if only to show what an asshole he is.

“What does the term ‘junket’ mean to you?”

“When Hans Blix and David Kay went to Iraq to look for WMD, were those also ‘junkets’?”

Because a junket would be Halliburton sending Pentagon employees to the Caribbean to play golf. Not a government entity sending a former government employee to research WMD issues.

Niger is the second poorest country in Africa. Paris, it ain’t.

It could be that the ‘wobbly’ communications people were closed out because more classified information than just the NIE was being used for leaks.

“Walton warning jury against media.”

Hahahaha.

Many compliments on the narration, emptywheel.

My comment got mixed up with #251 – sorry.

I’m sure I saw something on the Wilson report that said IRAN had attempted to purchase 400 tons of yellowcake from Niger in 1989 – it also said that Iraq had approached Niger, but that Niger would not sell to rogue nations because of the UN sanctions – in reference to Iraq, it never mentioned any tonnage

I’m pretty sure that this is a reference to a “1999″ effort by Iran to purchase 400 tons of yellowcake. And the “approach” to Niger is highly ambiguous as to what the contact was about. At the same time Iraqi delegations were approaching several 3rd World nations regarding an upcoming UN vote on renewing the COMMERCIAL sanctions against to regime. Most of the nations approached had no WMD-related materials at all. The approaches were diplomatic in nature, offering the opportunity of the politicians in these countries to “visit and see what the impact of sanctions is having on average Iraqis”.

Here’s a link to the INR Report that Grossman passed on to Libby that has just been declassified for this trial. Remarkably it contains an appendix…a summary of Wilson’s trip report made by the CIA debriefer.

CLEARLY the State Department got a copy of Wilson’s report…after all…it was sent through “normal intelligence channels”. It’s surprising then that it never reached the Office of the Vice President.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..121036/158

Wilson’s conclusions were that:

A) Nigerien gov’t officials he contacted stated that there had been no contracts signed b/w Niger and any rogue states regarding yellowcake from at least 1997.

B)Ibrahim Mayaki (Niger For. Minister 1997-98; PM 1997-99) stated he was unaware of any contracts signed. He did relate that in June 1999 a Nigerien/Algerien businessman named Barka Tefridj, approached him insistant that he meet with a Iraqi business delegation for the purposes of “expanding commercial relations”

[Note: This meeting apparently occurred, not in Niger, but at a trade fair in Algiers. No meeting actually ever took place.]

Mayaki let the matter drop due to the UN commercial sanctions currently in place against Iraq. Mayaki INTERPRETED the reference to “expanding commercial relations” to relate to sales of yellowcake.

[Note: Since there was no actual contact between the delegation and Mayaki Iraq did not broach the subject with Mayaki, it’s simply his surmise].

3) Boucar (Mai Manga) [Nigerien Minister of Mines and Energy from the mid 1980’s - April 1999] stated no sales or contracts with any rogue states had occurred in his tenure. He admitted that a Pakistani delegation made an approach to purchase
“yellowcake” several years earlier, and that a Mr. Blaisher (Director General of SOMAIR and current Director at COGEMA) brought an IRANIAN delegation to him in 1998 to discuss purchasing 400 tons of Uranium ore. No deal was ever signed.

[Thus Mai Manga was forthright about two contacts with two rogue states and even mentioned an individual that was involved….although this may have been information already ferreted out by Wilson back on his prior visit for the CIA in 1999).

4) Mai Manga expressed his understanding that even a single kilogram of missing yellowcake would be detected due to tight inventory controls at the mines, and that it would be difficult if not impossible for a shipment to be smuggled to a pariah state.

I’m no plameologist, but IIRC, the point was that Cathie had been frozen out of critical parts of DeadEye’s deception. The fact that Scooter didn’t mention Plame to Cathie is extremely relevant. He was only releasing it to reporters, not to Cathie.
This gets into issues of classified material, which are not the focus of this trial.

No, read the notes from EW, last thread.CM overheard the call from Libby to Cooper. This is the call in which Cooper says Libby spoke to him about Plame. CM says Libby did not mention Plame. She’s lying.

I don’t know.

Why didn’t her lawyers pick it up?

Shitz!