Cheney Again

So it appears Dick Cheney is siding with Obama on Awlaki, but at the same time he's asking for an apology for the way Obama trashed the Bush administration on their pursuit of the terrorists. Talking about 'heads exploding', what's Obama going to do, disavow Cheney?

Speaking of Cheney's memoirs, I'm about 3/4ths of the way through and haven't really seen as many rolling heads as advertised, although he does seem to have an opinion on just about everyone, not always flattering. One thing of interest is his description of the Plame affair.

If we can believe his version--that he asked his briefer to get more info about a report of Iraqi interest in Niger uranium but never received a follow-up briefing, then wondered what the hell was going on when Wilson's allegations began coming out over a year later--it brings up a couple of interesting points. One, the CIA analysts who saw Wilson's report claimed it actually strengthened the case against Saddam due to a 1999 trip made by a delegation of Iraqis (to a country whose largest export is yellowcake uranium).

And as Cheney says, the 1999 trip was actually the basis of the intelligence that went into Bush's "16 words" in the 2003 State of the Union speech that the administration later backpeddled and apologized about. Cheney describes Condi Rice as 'tearful' as she later admitted he was correct in his advice not to apologize (what a gentleman--we'll see what Condi says in her book). But as he points out, the UK's Butler Report said the Niger intelligence was "well-founded" and in the end the apology was what started the whole "Bush lied, people died" meme the Democrats tried to ride back to power.

The sticking point seems to be whether Cheney was updated on his request or not. If not then who or whom in the CIA decided not to brief Cheney on what Wilson didn't (and did) find in Africa? Did they intentionally withhold the 1999 information in hopes Bush wouldn't use it to invade Iraq, but later after the apology (and no WMD stockpiles in Iraq) use it against the administration by concocting the whole Joe Wilson thing with the help of certain administration and media figures? Were we actually watching a bloodless coup in motion run by ideologues, or were they patriots? We still don't know for sure. But certain people do know.