[Fedora]

If I were investigating it I'd also be inclined to look in the directions you suggest. Unfortunately I think Fitzgerald's investigation will by its nature be limited to what's relevant for bringing a prosectuion, and there will be trails of clues that don't get followed up because they aren't relevant to his case, even if they're relevant to the public interest and to the historical facts. I think it will be up to citizen investigators to bring some of the facts to light if we want to see them brought to trial or at least to media attention.

The French angle becomes more plausible if Wilson's financial interests are factored in: his wife prior to Valerie was a French diplomat (serving a function frequently used as a cover by French intelligence) and, along with the French-American politician Pierre Salinger, a registered lobbyist for the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo, who was the chief African ally of the French oil company TotalFinaElf, a major beneficiary of the Oil-for-Food bribes which prior to the Iraq War had a contract with Saddam's regime worth an estimated 12.5 to 27.0 billion barrels of oil reserves.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Good points, especially the French oil interests - the oil contract that Saddam offered to Total created an extremely powerful financial interest in France (as well as Russia, as I recall) against regime change. We should also consider that it need not necessarily be the case that French intelligence per se is behind the uranium contract forgery and other efforts to undermine the US; in other words even though Chirac, French oil interests and others may have been actively working against us (and using Wilson as a tool), I would not assume that that is necessarily the case for the professionals constituting the leadership of French intelligence.