[Wolfstar]

Thanks for the valuable info, Cyncooper. Everything about the Plame-Wilson saga stinks to high heaven. I hope the grand jury is looking into more than just the narrow question of who may have leaked her name to Novak (if it was, indeed, a bona fide leak as opposed to an innocent mention in passing without thinking of the implications).

[piasa]

JULY 19?, 2003 : (WHITE HOUSE REJECTS SENATOR DURBIN'S CLAIMS) The White House official rejected charges by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday that the White House pressured a reluctant CIA official to include the uranium claim in Bush's speech and settled on attributing it to British intelligence because of CIA doubts. The official disputed reports that there were "protracted" negotiations over how to word the uranium claim and said to the best of his knowledge there were no negotiations at all and no red flags raised. The official said the speech's original draft said "we know" that Iraq is trying to get African uranium and the speechwriters decided instead to attribute a series of charges about Iraq's weapons to specific sources for greater credibility.
The official added that the CIA man vetting the speech raised no objections about the uranium reference, even though CIA Director George Tenet removed a more specific reference from an earlier Bush speech. Tenet objected in the earlier speech because the claim rested on a single source, not because he believed it was wrong, the official said. - "CIA UNVEILS MORE NUKE-PLAN PROOF," by DEBORAH ORIN, New York Post, 7/19/03