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"Bottom line is that someone in the CIA is a bigtime culprit, if I read the green tea leaves right."

I don't think so. The story surfaced when a purported "CIA briefer" claimed on the record that "Bush knew the CIA had doubts about the uranium story" at the briefings leading up to the SOTU address. This is the guy that William McKinley uncovered as a fraud. Then Wilson chimes in with his take that his incompetent bungling on a mission to corraborate the yellowcake story was proof of the phony CIA briefer's claims. As near as I can tell -- and if someone could correct me if I am wrong, please do -- the CIA is blameless in this. They did their job in a credible manner.

This is the perfect screw, because an innocent party (in this case the CIA) is left holding the bag when the game is over. Not that the CIA has not done things that should be criticized in the past. Rather, I cannot see what the CIA or Tenet did in this case that is worth condemnation.

" the CIA is blameless in this. They did their job in a credible manner."

I respectfully disagree. I hope the CIA has better operatives in place to investigate allegations on North Korea's nukes, Iran's nukes, etc-than a political appointee with zero expertise in the area.He took everyone's denials at face value,like a true defense lawyer.Wilson acted like Saddam's Johnny Cochran-"The documents don't fit,you must acquit."All Wilson did was chat up his buds in Africa-he brought no team to investigate,he never saw any documents,I bet he thinks yellowcake is a type of Duncan Hines cake mix.Wilson is a friend of Bill Clinton and a former Gore staffer,with a track record of great fondness for Saddam and is an anti war leftist.The CIA should never have relied on just one person,clearly unqualified,to give the thumbs up or down on a nuclear program,run by a terrorist. If the CIA had sent Joseph Wilson to Afghanistan prior to 9/11,he probably would have reported back that he sipped mint tea with Osama and was assured that the Al Queda had no interest in airliners.

and if someone could correct me if I am wrong, please do -- the CIA is blameless in this. They did their job in a credible manner.

Sending a partisan political hack with no intelegence or investigative backgroud to find out if intel is correct does not leave the CIA blameless but puts their motives very much under question. Who even though that this was a good idea needs investigation.