92^nd in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. Things get even hotter behind the scenes in the Office of the Vice President, the State Department, and Defense as further accounts of Joseph Wilson’s Niger trip begin to surface. Meanwhile, this same period continues to confirm, for some Iraqis, the Westerners’ priorities:  with the country of Iraq itself sorely in need of every imaginable supply, its most valuable resource is being shipped out of the country as expeditiously as possible while the occupiers continue to plead their inability to restore even household electricity in Baghdad. So Iraqi pipelines are hit by repeated sabotage and other resistance acts. U.S. imports of Iraqi oil, which dropped to only three million barrels in May, collapse to 24,000 barrels in June. Following this drop, in July Bush will produce his macho challenge, “Bring ‘em on!”
June 11-14, 2003:

June 11 or June 12, 2003 – Marc Grossman has a “30-second discussion” about Mrs. Wilson with Libby, according to Grossman’s testimony. He apparently shares the information that Mrs. Wilson works in CIA with Libby. (Libby trial testimony)

June 12, 2003 – Libby is also informed by Vice President Cheney, in a phone call, that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the Counter-Proliferation Division (CPD) in CIA. Libby’s handwritten notes from the conversation include “VP re ‘Uranium in Iraq,’ Kristof NYT article; “CP/ -- his wife works in that division”; “Debriefing took place here & was meeting in region”; “OVP and Defense and State – expressed strong interest in issue.”
[GX104T.1; GX104.1]

 
“OVP, Defense and State” would be Cheney, Rumsfeld and Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage, each of whom has an interest in the story of a purported Iraq-Niger uranium deal from the perspective of justifying the Iraq war.

June 12, 2003 – The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) sends a memorandum to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, responding to questions from Wolfowitz about Iraqi nukes:

“while the Intelligence Committee agrees that documents the IAEA reviewed were likely ‘fake,’ other unconfirmed reporting suggested that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium and yellowcake from African nations after 1998.”

Same day -- David Addington, Cheney’s government lawyer, receives a copy of the document from Libby/staff in Libby’s office, including Libby’s notes from the conversation with Cheney mentioning that Wilson’s wife worked in CP division.

Same day – An article by Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus appears in the Post and refers to Wilson’s Niger trip but not to Wilson by name. Wilson later testifies to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he is a source for the article, titled “CIA Did Not Share Doubt on Iraq Data; Bush Used Report of Uranium Bid.”
http://wid.ap.org/documents/libbytrial/jan24/DX705.pdf

Same day -- Rear Admiral Larry L. Poe, USNR, the Defense Department Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence, deploys to Baghdad to be the first interim Inspector General for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

June 13, 2003 – New York Times author Nicholas Kristof responds to Rice’s claim and maintains his position, still not naming Wilson, in a Times article titled “White House in Denial.” A San Francisco Bay Examiner newspaper article reports that CIA says Bush ignored warnings re forged Niger documents. US News & World Report magazine runs an article about the second report (Oct 2002) on Iraq WMD, stating that there was “no reliable information” that Iraq was stockpiling chemical weapons. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/press/intell.htm

June 13, 2003 – Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage has an hour-long meeting with reporter Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. Armitage tells Bob Woodward, on tape, with expletives, very macho, that Mrs. Wilson works for CIA. (Woodward says in his Nov. 16 statement in the Washington Post that  he had “an interview” with an unnamed government official “in mid-June 2003 during which the person told me Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst.”) Armitage’s implication seems to be that Mrs. Wilson caused Joe Wilson to be sent on the trip to Niger.

June 14, 2003 – At a conference in D.C., retired CIA officer Ray McGovern meets Joe Wilson and asks him when he plans to go public about the Niger story. Wilson tells him in about two weeks.
http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=7697

June 14, 2003 – CIA daily briefer Craig Schmall briefs Lewis “Scooter” Libby at Libby’s home. A question is noted on Wilson (“ex-amb”) regarding the Niger trip; briefing notes mention Wilson and Valerie Wilson by name.  (Libby trial testimony)
http://wid.ap.org/documents/libbytrial/jan24/GX70201.pdf