Yes, many of the same players but I doubt the intel got funneled thru the Aspen Inst.

My opinion is they wanted the war for reasons they knew wouldn’t fly with Congress of the public, and so the happily took bogus intel, stovepiped it via the OSP so it couldn’t be properly vetted, but still has something to point to, to cover their asses. If there’s any justice they will ultimately pay for that.

Wolfowitz outright said they “settled on WMD for beaurocratic reasons” in one interview.

They probably figured even if the WMDs weren;t there, at least they were into Iraq and it would be too late for anyone to change that. True, but Wilson called them to account and they screwed in trying discredit him.

It’s Roves MO to use folks and then bust them for it. He did it with Saddam (who was really the agressor here?), with reporters (you just ~know~ it was his idea to tag reporters for the Plame outing) and with the CIA (for questioning the causus belli). Rove (and Bush) were almost certainly behind the selling of the war and the use of what they ~knew~ to be shaky and bogus intel. Hence the the entire Powell speech, all the smoking gun talks (threats to us, really) and – of course – the 16 words that finally led to them being them facing a Federal Court.

I am sure Bush huddled with Rove over all of it. It’s what they do.

But it can’t possibly be legal, can it?

Maybe this is why he goes by Scooter . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U077BiDMmPE

Oh yeah, the 142nd fastest gun in the West!

Cheney, Libby, Miller, Chalabi – all members of the Aspen Institute – and connected through Chalabi to the unreliable ‘Curveball.’

Here’s a link to a WaPo article that depicts Miller as a ‘liason’ on the ground in Iraq between the Army and Ahmed Chalabi:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..55_pf.html

One of the Money Sections in the article:

“But Miller’s work stood out. She relied on a collection of Iraqi defectors whose information proved faulty and whose credibility in many cases was suspect. And during the war, when other newspeople and experts began realizing that the lack of evidence of Iraq’s WMD was likely an indicator that there was no WMD, Miller held out longer and continued to write from the field as if they would be found any day.

“In early 2003, as the war began, Miller was embedded with one of the U.S. Army teams whose sole task was to find a WMD. The unit was called Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, and Miller played a strangely involved role in it, according to Washington Post reports of that time.

“She appeared to act as a liaison of sorts between the Army and Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, one of the exiles she had known for several years, and whose veracity on Iraq’s weapons turned out to be suspect.

“Several military personnel involved with the weapons hunt told The Washington Post two years ago that they felt Miller had virtually hijacked the team.”

—

So, what are the chances that the ’second stream’ of Intel was coming to the Aspen-Cluster via:

‘Curveball’ who gave his frightening, but contrived, WMD intel to Chalabi.

Chalabi then passes it on to Cheney, Libby and Miller through the Aspen Institute.

Cheney vettes ‘his’ info through OSP and WHIG, by-passing the national intelligence establishment.

When it comes time to make the case for War, Cheney:

- disparages Wilson’s Niger Report (’bad methodology’,) while

- using his ’second stream’ intel to promote the Niger story to CAUSUS BELLI for the SOTU

Bush and Cheney were SO SURE Saddam had WMDs that all they were looking for back in January of ‘03 was a ‘pretext’ for pre-emptive War.

They had the Brits in bed with them on the Niger story.

All Cheney had to do was to keep any internal dissent on the Niger story suppressed, and they were home free to invade Iraq, and have Bush fly over for ‘congratulatory’ pictures taken standing by the centerfuges.

So, Cheney gambled on the Aspen-Cluster to give him the pretext for an ‘immoral’ War of Choice.

Once it failed due to NO WMDs, he didn’t get to re-write history like a ‘victor’ does. Instead, he now had to defend his actions against his critics – like Joe Wilson, who KNEW the Niger claim was FALSE.

Cheney chose to ‘deal’ with Wilson by orchestrating a LEAK CAMPAIGN – off the record – to discredit Wilson with a charge of *nepotism* based on his wife having something to do with him going on the trip to Niger.

When Cheney sent his minions out to LEAK, they were doing so with the belief that they were completely protected by the Press’ Confidentiality of Sources.

And then Rove and Libby, in the very act of sliming a GOOD man’s integrity with a low-blow, ‘hay-maker’ shot, HIT a real, live covert CIA Agent.

Fitz, with the help of the Supremes, took down the Confidential Source Shields and what did he find? Rove and Libby cowering with a list of 6 reporters, and carefully coordinated talking points intended to point the blame for the 16 Words at the CIA and (unfairly) destroy the reputation of a good man.

Could it be something like that? Or, am I just dreaming?

No wonder Judy was so close to him.

But that was then. Now is different.

“Gone is the romance that was so divine… “

(EPU’d)

I’m curious – What was the “second stream” referred to in JM’s testimony?

Libby’s sister, Sandra Libby, is married to John Rendon. He runs the Rendon Group, a public relations firm that played a major role in leading the U.S. into war through its work for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. Could the “second stream” have been referring to Feith, the OSP, Chalabi, the INC, etc? The channel the CIA was being shut out of the loop from?

Or was Libby just lieing to JM and using her by suggesting there was much harder intel in the part of the NIE supposedly not declassified?

Very interesting!

I was thinking if Cheney happened to die of heart complications…..the good news is that he is already lying in state.

Autopsy, DNA test, and a wooden chopstick soaked in garlic juice, wrapped in silver wire, and shoved through the remains of his heart. That’s what I want when he keels over.