135th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. With official Washington back in town after the August hiatus, official investigations into the lead-up to the war gain a little headway, although slowly.

September, 2005:

Sept. 9, 2005 – Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, requests that the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the Defense department investigate whether the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy [generically called ‘office of special plans’ but not the official OSP] conducted “unauthorized, unlawful or inappropriate intelligence activities.”

Sept. 19, 2005 – Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller speaks with Lewis Libby on the phone from jail. After a 10-minute jailhouse conference call with attorneys listening in, it is agreed that Miller will testify before the grand jury in the CIA leak investigation.

Sept. 22, 2005 – Sen. Levin requests the Office of the Inspector General in Defense to review activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, to determine whether they were inappropriate or improper and to make recommendations. The OIG will later report that alternative assessments of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, provided to senior decision makers, were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community and were inappropriate in not clarifying their differences or in reporting their assessments as IC product.

Sept. 27, 2005 – Judith Miller informs Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, through her attorney, that she will testify. Her attorney asks that questions be restricted to Miller’s conversations with Libby.

Sept. 28, 2005 – President Bush hosts Generals Abizaid and Casey at the White House, issues a statement from the Rose Garden:

“THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I just had a good meeting with Generals Abizaid and Casey. We discussed the war on terror in which this country is engaged. General Abizaid talked about the global scope of this war. He talked about the nature of an enemy we face, an enemy which is ruthless and brutal, an enemy which has got strategic goals and tactics necessary to achieve those goals.

We also talked about the fact that we're determined to defeat the enemy. We discussed our strategy for victory in Iraq, as well. After all, Iraq is a key battlefront in this war on terror.I asked the Generals to go up to Capitol Hill to brief members of the House and Senate on our strategy for victory, on our operations in Iraq. They updated me on what recently took place in Baghdad, in which Iraqi and coalition forces tracked down and killed Abu Azzam, the second most wanted al Qaeda leader in Iraq. This guy is a brutal killer. He was one of Zarqawi's top lieutenants. He was reported to be the top operational commander of al Qaeda in Baghdad. He is one of the terrorists responsible for the recent upsurge in attacks in the Iraqi capital, which is part of their campaign to stop a referendum on the Iraqi constitution, and is part of their efforts to break the will of the American people and the will of our coalition.

Our strategy is clear in Iraq. We are hunting down high value targets like Azzam and Zarqawi. We're coordinating aggressive counterterrorism operations in the areas where the terrorists are concentrated. We're constantly adapting our tactics to the changing tactics of the terrorists. We're training more Iraqi forces to assume increasing responsibility for their country's security.

As ever, Bush insists on Iraq as another front or another battle in the ‘war on terror,’ with some underlying argument that since guerrilla tactics occur all over the world, any place or country in the world can become another such battlefield.

Here as elsewhere, however, this universality does not extend to include mention of Osama bin Laden.

Sept. 29, 2005 – Judith Miller is released from jail.

Sept. 30, 2005 – Judith Miller tells the grand jury that her source for the item on Valerie Plame Wilson was Lewis “Scooter” Libby.