Plame Investigation: Could it go beyond the CIA Leak?

There are many news websites covering the topic of the investigation about who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA undercover agent. And many speculate what the outcome will be: Who will be indicted, and who will get off...

Let's get to the meat of this investigation here. This all stems from some intel gurus that heard (there is no solid evidence that I know of, except just talk) that Niger had been negotiating a deal to give Iraq uranium, possibly in the form of yellow cake, which Iraq has no facilities to refine (go figure). The smoking gun here would be to find either the agreement between Niger and Iraq, receipt of shipment document, and then uranium in Iraq.

Anyway, the main reason Bush & Co stated why we needed to go to war in Iraq is directly linked to this report that Iraq is building a nuclear arsenal, with uranium from Niger. (You know, there is now uranium in Iraq, its just in the deadly spent form, a gift of war from the United States.)

The CIA cover leak of Valerie Plame happened when Robert Novak published an article about why Joe Wilson was chosen to investigate the claims of the uranium deal with Iraq and Niger. Thus, the investigation is centered around who leaked the CIA cover and under what premise.

But as I listened to a discuss on MSNBC's Hardball, one commentator mentioned that this is pretty much like an independent investigation and just about anything could surface that surrounds the case.

Remember the whole Clinton scandal? Well, that was all from an independent investigation trying to at first uncover Whitewater (as I recall). Ken Starr had to get Clinton to lie about his private affair to get him indicted, and successfully impeached by the House but the Senate did not find sufficient claims to fire him.

Patrick Fitzgerald may be uncovering more than just the leak of an undercover CIA agent. Other things that may come up would be the reason for going to war in Iraq (Did Bush & Co lie, fabricate, and twist intel reports to give a reason for war?), Vice President Cheney's intense involvement with the CIA, who's responsible for the forged and falsified intel reports regarding the Iraq-Niger deal, and cronyism/nepotism in the CIA (especially regarding Joe Wilson's undercover wife suggesting that Wilson would be the right candidate to investigate the uranium deal in Niger). By the way, Valerie Plame did not decide who would investigate the Niger-Iraq uranium deal.

As a side-note, many who were offended by Joe Wilson's published remarks about his investigative findings that found no deal between Iraq and Niger for uranium yellow cake say that Wilson did not have the credentials to do such an investigation. Check out Joe Wilson's credentials, and then tell me he wasn't right for the job. You can't. Thus, the latter part of the possible outcomes is slim to none.

We'll have to see what Pat Fitzgerald will reveal by October 28th. Either it will shock us or it will subdue us even more.