[CyberAnt]

"former high-level intelligence official" in the Clinton administration "

Yes, yes! I saw that and Mrs. Wilson was my first candidate.

Also .. this brings up a standard operating procedure for the democrats (which I'm sure you're aware of). Blame conservatives for doing what the democrats are actually doing. In other words, here was this "official" vetting information which indicated that this "official" suspected the Bush admin was doing something wrong - when in reality - I believe the "official" was revealing the truth about what the democrats (clinton holdover goons) were actually doing TO the Bush admin.

Did I make that clear ..?? The democrats have been using this method for years and years. The only problem for the democrats is - we now know about this method - and we are able to recognize it very readily. It also informs us OF WHAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE ACTUALLY DOING - I'd say this "official" has just admitted that they were fully aware of a "set-up" against the Bush admin. because they were involved in it.

[Wolfstar]

One thing that always bugs me about how reporters attribute anonymous sources is that they use a sort of inside-baseball code to vaguely describe the source's qualifications for saying whatever is being quoted. The problem is that the those of us who don't know the code are left scratching our heads trying to put pieces of a puzzle together. In any case, when someone is described as an administration official, I take that to mean one of the political appointees rather than one of the career bureaucrats and agents who populate the government no matter who is president.

On re-reading the Hersh exerpt to refresh my memory from a couple of days ago, it appears he has two sources. One is a former Clinton administration official who claims the British government was spreading disinformation and that the Clinton administration knew about it. This person seems to be blaming the Brits for Iraq-Niger "hoax" (if it really was a hoax). The other is described both as a former intelligence officer, and as a former high-level intelligence official. In any case, "former" is a key word, and indicates that Mrs. Wilson can't be the source for Hersh's "set up" quote if she's still in the government.

What's most significant about Hersh's piece is that in March, as the controversy over the Iraq-Niger reference in the SOUA was building, a "former high-level intelligence official" stated declaratively that the insertion of that reference in the SOUA was a set up. It is no great stretch to observe that Wilson then either piggybacked his insertion into the story onto the original set up, or he continued to develop the set up. In my opinion, the latter is most likely.

What I think is possible, although we have no evidence and may never know for sure, is that Mrs. Plame-Wilson was among the (or THE) lower-level CIA analysts who OK'd use of the Iraq-Niger reference in the SOUA. WMD is supposedly her area of expertise, after all, and her husband did go to Niger for the CIA 11 months prior. Oh, the outlines of a set up are quite clear, no doubt. In my opinion, Justice is now investigating the wrong end of this saga. They should start at its genesis rather than poke around in one of its all-but-inevitable by-products, the supposed "outing" of Mrs. Plame-Wilson.