If it’s true the network in Iran was ‘rolled up’, then there would have to have been some cover story provided, some reason for doing it. There’s probably a record somewhere in CIA archives.

I suppose the whole idea started back during the 1980s (if not before that) since Mr. Bhutto was ousted and hanged way back when and his daughter Benazir was also kicked out a time or two before we got Musharref. He has apparently been a pretty good ally for some time. But, now Benazir Bhutto has gone back. What can we make of this? Has the project finished and now they’re returning Pakistan to it’s regularly scheduled Democracy?

When does America get to return to it’s regularly scheduled program of Democracy?

BTW, I consider B. Bhutto incredibly courageous for going back to Pakistan as she did. Facing an assassination plot must muddle one’s brain rather quickly. I hope she survives and thrives and helps us crush the enemy (whomever they are and whereever they are).

Just because somebody says the Taliban are our enemy doesn’t make it so. Remember, it was the Pakistani ISI and our CIA who formed the Taliban and installed it in Afghanistan. We wanted stability there. Now it appears somebody doesn’t want stability there, but is okay with poppy crops there.

Remind me, why is they call George H. W. Bush “Poppy”?

Please pass along my best wishes to her!

Ha! I needed a good laugh!
Thank you Ambassador!

I just wanted to update this thread about Mrs. Wilson’s media plans:
The Daily Show Tuesday the 30th

I saw this.

jayt @ 33

Valerie Plame Wilson will be our guest for a special FDL Book Salon for her book “Fair Game,” hosted by Sidney Blumenthal on Monday, October 22nd, at 10:30am -12:30pm PT/ 1:30-3:30pm ET.

hmmm…. this doesn’t give me much time to put together a cleverly designed set of questions designed to convince Mrs. Wilson that she can do better than her present husband, subtly inform her that I’m available, and that her future would be brightened and enhanced immensely via a move into my glorious one-bedroom bachelor pad overlooking downtown Indianapolis, where it never rains, the people are all friendly (if a bit dull), and no one would ever “out” her as being my main squeeze…

(off to plot my campaign….)

OOPS Jayt. You busted! *g*

jayt @ 33

Valerie Plame Wilson will be our guest for a special FDL Book Salon for her book “Fair Game,” hosted by Sidney Blumenthal on Monday, October 22nd, at 10:30am -12:30pm PT/ 1:30-3:30pm ET.

hmmm…. this doesn’t give me much time to put together a cleverly designed set of questions designed to convince Mrs. Wilson that she can do better than her present husband, subtly inform her that I’m available, and that her future would be brightened and enhanced immensely via a move into my glorious one-bedroom bachelor pad overlooking downtown Indianapolis, where it never rains, the people are all friendly (if a bit dull), and no one would ever “out” her as being my main squeeze…

(off to plot my campaign….)

Does anybody believe that Scooter Libby won’t arise from convicted-felon-land, like the Undead Eliot Abrahms, to serve a future Republican president?

It’s possible. We just need to keep the Republicans out of office long enough…

jon @ 118

I think you are taking the leaked revelations about Operation Merlin at face value. I think that it’s just a little bit bizarre that Operation Merlin was leaked to James Risen in 2006…just as the evidence that Plame WAS an active covert agent working on Iranian non-proliferation was being disclosed.

And that leak wasn’t just of the raw program…it included the so-called Russian-Iranian exposure of the “flaws”.

Seems that the leak was intentional to me. Someone wanted to denigrate her activities. So who would have known about the Russian intermediary-Iranian link…or was that simply bogus spin by some White House flunky.

Some food for thought there that needs some chewing over.

My understanding was that the Iranian’s were informed of the deficiencies in the nuke design at, or shortly after, the hand off. I don’t recall that the Iranian’s ever sought the weapon design, more that it was forced upon them and they didn’t hand it back.

IF the Iranian’s had been work on a nuke design, and IF they followed the compromised design faithfully, and IF everything else went according to plan, THEN a low yield with confirming seismic and radiation signatures would be conclusive evidence. Events have shifted now and that premise will likely never be tested in fact. Is that what happened in North Korea? Maybe. But I have not heard anything to that effect. It could just be that a high yielding warhead is hard to do and they don’t have the skills or resources to pull it off.

But aiding the production of a nuclear weapon, where after a failed test, the builder’s would have enough data to correct the deficiency in the next one, just doesn’t strike me as all that clever. There’s long been a great deal of data available on the design and fabrication of nuclear weapons. About 30 years ago it was shown that a physics grad student could design a rudimentary, functional warhead using only open source data. If you want to build a nuclear weapon, you probably want to look at as many designs as possible, to increase your knowledge and to permit you to build the best, most advanced or elegant design at the outset. A good physicist might study the plans, locate the flaw and remedy it before the test. The effort to transfer plans, flawed though they might be, strikes me as treasonous. At best, horribly misguided, sort of like sending the Ayatollah a birthday cake in the shape of a key, along with a bible…

Your recounting is the first I have heard of the mechanics of the roll up of Plame’s network. It would go without saying that the Iranian nuclear industry would be heavily populated by security and political ‘operatives’. I’d like to know more, if you have the cites.

Could the story leaked to Risen be an effort to further smear Plame? Maybe. Many things may be true. I would say that sufficient evidence to make an informed judgment doesn’t yet exist. Not for me, anyhow. It is, however, beyond question that the White House went to extraordinary lengths to smear and destroy Plame and Wilson.

However, I’ve always found it curious that Wilson maintained that there was no Iraqi effort to source uranium from Africa, on the basis of his trip to Niger. I believe that he accurately found that uranium ore could not have been moved legally, or in large quantities without detection from Niger.

That, however, leaves the potential for collusion in the movement of uranium out of Niger, particularly overland. It also leaves other uranium producing countries in Africa that Wilson did not investigate.

Did Wilson do other research, heretofore undisclosed? Did he have access to other research on other nations and the security of their nuclear industries? Has he extrapolated to the general from his specific case? I don’t know as that has been asked or answered adequately. The UK continues to hold to their claim of ‘multiple’ intelligence sources for the Iraqi program, without releasing any detail. They may not be lying about everything.

Myself, I was certain that Saddam would reconstitute his nuclear program (and other weapons) if he had a clear shot and thought he could manage it. We knew he had an ample supply of yellowcake under UN seal in Iraqi warehouses. There was no compelling necessity for him to seek more yellowcake, if that is what he truly wanted right then. Therefore, it seemed somewhat obvious the the NCB weapon claims were strained and simply a handy argument to justify an invasion. Maybe even better if the evidence could never be produced, as he would then be shown to be continuing to refuse to hand it over. Saddam colluded in his own demise by his prior reluctance to demonstrate just how thin his defensive capabilities really were.

Iran now seems to be lined up for more of the same. Maybe they’re sourcing a nuke, maybe not. I’d rather not. But the issue is being used to justify putting the machinery of war into place for a massive bombing campaign only peripherally concerned with their putative nuclear program.

I would think that Pakistan’s well proven acquisition of nukes and proliferation efforts is vastly more destabilizing than any effort of Iran’s. So is Israel’s, almost certain, nuclear weapon inventory. It seems that we do most of our trade and foreign aid with nuclearized countries, so I’m not sure we have that much to fear from Iran.

And I think that there is essentially no chance that any government would willing permit a nuke to be transferred to a terrorist group. It’s a toy you keep for yourself. ISI could have proliferated to al Qaeda, instead they chose governments. There is a strain of thought (still to be fully proven) that suggests that nuclear weapons forces governments to assume greater maturity.

As for the DPRK ‘test’, one explanation for the ‘fizzle’ yield was that they didn’t want to show off too much and call down an air strike. They could have sandbagged themselves and been satisfied with the results of a ‘fizzle’ that met their calculated value.

I don’t think that they wanted a nuke, necessarily. I think they wanted the US to deliver on prior promises that W reneged upon. W wasted what, 4 years?, only to wind up with the deal they had before, and the DPRK wound up with a bone fide weapon for their trouble. More to the point, by being belligerent and forging ahead with their weapons program, they ensured that they would not be invaded, bombed or overthrown. I’d say they won.

But the bottom line here is that Plame, Wilson, and others were villified for trying to do their jobs well, tell the truth as they saw it, and set the record straight. The country was lied into invading another country on false pretenses, and the engineers of that have not been punished. Thousands of dead and wounded americans. Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis. Trillions of dollars spent and our military hollowed out. And it seems that we are on course for more of the same in Iran. Why this doesn’t lead the news all day, every day; why the country hasn’t forced a change, I understand but can’t accept.