Some Questions For Valerie Plame By: Mark W Adams

Chairman Henry Waxman has invited Valerie Plame Wilson to testify before his House Committee on Oversight and Government next Friday, March 16th. I'd like to know if Valerie Plame, and more broadly the CIA's counter-proliferation division and it's front company, Brewster Jennings & Associates (which "covered Ms. Plame), was specifically targeted -- and not simply a casualty of war.

Not since Fawn Hall have I awaited Congressional Testimony with quite the same emotional reaction. There's nothing quite like a blond bombshell with movie star good-looks telling a panel of boring old men all the sorted details of an administration bent on waging a war that neither the American people or a majority of Congress support.

But if that isn't enough to get your attention, maybe this will:

Brewster Jennings CIA counter-proliferation network prevented a WMD "salting" operation by Bush White House in Iraq.

I'm going to wear out my popcorn maker. Giving us all a full week to hype the event will guarantee a lot of interest -- genius.

The effect on the Non-Proliferation division, and particularly Brewster Jennings is one particular area of questioning I plan on paying particular attention to. There are bound to be questions about the personal effects of Plame's outing by Robert "The Douchebag" Novakula gossiping with Armitage, and the concerted effort of Rove, and of course Dick Cheney's hatchet man, Scooter, to expose her.

But America needs to understand not just what this did to her life and career, but also the company used as her non-official cover. Were the chickenhawks surrounding the office of Vice President so bungleheaded, so callously ignorant to put the lives of anyone ever connected to Brewster Jenning at risk -- or was that the plan all along? (A feature, not a bug.)

"According to U.S. intelligence sources, the White House exposure of Valerie Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates was intended to retaliate against the CIA's work in limiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

WMR has reported in the past on this aspect of the scandal. In addition to identifying the involvement of individuals in the White House who were close to key players in nuclear proliferation, the CIA Counter-Proliferation Division prevented the shipment of binary VX nerve gas from Turkey into Iraq in November 2002.

The Brewster Jennings network in Turkey was able to intercept this shipment which was intended to be hidden in Iraq and later used as evidence that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence sources revealed that this was a major reason the Bush White House targeted Plame and her network."

Anyone who has paid more than a passing interest in the Plame case knows that Brewster Jennings was a CIA front company "employing" Ms. Plame and untold others who relied on it to explain their interest in activities relating to their mission: to track and prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the world. What we know little about was just how successful they were.

Brewster Jennings seems just a casualty of the war -- the war the neo-cons have been waging against liberalism since the Nixon administration. However, there's some very suspicious facts making it around the Toobz, some of which has been buried in plain sight for a while. True Plameologists probably think this is old news, but not all of us have committed the After Downing Street revelations to memory -- or are even done reading the comprehensive coverage of the Libby trial by FireDogLake (who are the best evidence that the Pulizer Prize needs to be opened up to blogs.)

In fact, U.S. intelligence sources report that the first shipment of VX nerve gas to Saddam Hussein was carried out between 1988 and 1989. The gas was shipped to Iraq by a U.S. company that was established in 1987 -- The Carlyle Group.

U.S. intelligence sources have also confirmed that Israeli military officers served unofficially with the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Baghdad. The Israelis were attached to the J2X (Joint Intelligence Liaison) in Baghdad. Their presence in Baghdad, according to the sources, was kept secret." Wayne Madsen Report

At the risk of running out of aluminum foil head-gear, if questions of Brewster Jennings' being deliberately shut down are conspicuous by their absence next week, enjoy the show, because that's all it will be -- puppet theater.