Pincus apparently has a social relationship with the Wilsons. According to research done by another FReeper (Wolfstar or dirtboy, I can't recall), Pincus has dined with the Wilsons at their home -- several times in close proximity to the publication of Wilson's op-ed.
But, thanks to Shermy's research, one thing becomes very clear -- the familiarity that Wilson, Pincus, et al have with purported intelligence matters concerning the uranium market in Africa, apparently as understood by both the CIA and MI-6.
In retrospect, there can be only one source for this purported knowledge: Valerie Plame. Wilson's current wife was employed by the CIA, doing what...??? Was it not "covert work on nuclear proliferation"?
Plame IS the leaker. And is, thereby, herself a security risk.
Moreover, one cannot escape the conclusion that this has been a political operation from the get-go. It was not an opening or accidental oversight that Wilson, Plame, Pincus, et al decided to exploit. Instead, the issue was created out of whole cloth for the sole purpose of their exploitation.
Moreover, the media has been fully complicit -- Walter Pincus, Andrea Mitchell and all those who willfully ignore the statements by the administration (and British intelligence, indeed Wilson himself) that the "forged documents" and "Niger" are, neither one, part of the evidence.
Initially, Wilson was careful to qualify this evidence himself -- but his interrogators simply ignored it, in order to serve their mutual agenda.
And, once again, I am left wondering just exactly what Alan Foley's role in all this was. Was he the CIA "source" for Novak (and Newsday)?
The stench at CIA and State is stifling.
Live 9/11 Commission Thread [testifying today Freeh, Reno, Ashcroft]
Post 1,976 is a good summary of the gist. For my own comments on Pincus, see Posts 2,041 and following. Among other things I learned that Pincus was in Army counterintelligence in the 1950s; joined the CIA in the late 50s and had his cover blown c. 1967; since the Watergate era has been linked to people like Daniel Ellsberg and Bob Woodward and Anthony Lake and organizations like the Institute for Policy Studies; and played a key role in the media coverage of Vince Foster's death. I've been meaning to start another thread summing up the info on him; will try to do that over the weekend.