It's a short leap if you take it in steps. The key link is the forged documents you're asking about in #206, which lead back to French intelligence. France had an interest in Oil-for-Food due to Saddam's bribes to French businessmen and officials. When the UN was debating war with Iraq, French intelligence was trying to pass the forgeries off as genuine to British and US intelligence in order to embarrass the pro-war case. Wilson allegedly was sent to check the documents' validity, which was the ostensible purpose of his trip to Africa, where he was supposed to investigate whether Saddam had tried to buy uranium from a French-controlled uranium mine. His investigation, which was arranged by Plame and lasted a total of 8 days, concluded that Saddam could not have smuggled uranium out of Niger without the complicity of the French-controlled company, and therefore, Wilson argued, it was inconceivable. After thus clearing the French, he wrote an article trying to discredit Bush's case for war by falsely claiming Bush's case was based on misleading the public by portraying the forged documents as real. This all preceded Plame's "outing".
Alright..this is all coming back to me now. I remember alot of this...the dates and even Kelly's dissapearance.
But the Plame issue....to me seems to be a relevant issue on a totally different playing field. Meaning , like I said, the Rove issue is a diversion from the real story.
So put this in context for me. Are you suggesting that Wilson's " fact finding " mission was a deliberate attempt to shield a French company from inquiry?
Because his article about Bush was not until the debate was at a fever pitch....if his info was so daming to Bush you would think it would have been pronounced post-haste.
Also are you intermingling oil for food= oil for nukes?
There's also the issue of control of the mines. As I recall, there were several statements - from Niger - that there were mines that weren't controlled, and that there was concern about unofficial sales being not only possible, but entirely plausible.