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"Actually, you don't need a big conspiracy at the CIA to damage an Administration. What you need are some disgruntled CIA employees, their contacts on the outside who are no longer with the Agency, and a few sympathetic journalists. Which I think is close to the truth in the Wilson case."

I don't think this was a set-up from the very start, i.e., I don't think Wilson went to Niger with the express purpose of using it to undermine Bush. I think it's more likely that he was mainly going there to pursue private business contacts, and maybe his wife saw that adding in the bogus "investigation" would be a way to kill two birds with one stone - reply to Cheney's request for Niger info "on the cheap," and have the CIA pick up the tab for Wilson's trip. So Wilson went to Niger, made his half-assed investigation, was briefed, and the report died in the bowels of the CIA, never even getting back to Cheney.

That might have ended it, but - a year later - the missing WMD's became a political issue, Wilson joined the Kerry camp, and they suddenly saw this as an opportunity to make political trouble for Bush. So Wilson went to sympathetic reporters with a story that kept changing. Emboldened, he then went public, and when his wife's name was mentioned by Novak, someone in the Kerry camp - or perhaps Cooper or some other journalist friendly to Wilson - had the bright idea of spinning the "outing" story, and the media - always dreaming of another Watergate - eagerly bought it. Then some disgruntled CIA hands - present and former - joined in for both anti-Bush and CYA motives.

What you need are some disgruntled CIA employees, their contacts on the outside who are no longer with the Agency, and a few sympathetic journalists. Which I think is close to the truth in the Wilson case."

You mean like Larry Johnson, who runs around the country telling anyone who will listen about the corrupt Bush Administration. larry johnson.

I think you are close to the truth. Wilson's story about Niger changed (according to the Intelligence Committee report) and outing Plame as revenge is really a lame accusation. The President getting revenge by revealing Plame's identity is really a pitiful sort of revenge, isn't it? I mean, what sort of revenge is it that gets someone a 6-figure book deal and appearances on all the political talk shows? I have never understood why anyone believed this was a deliberate attempt at revenge, anyway!