So there's a big story going down that I've been avoiding talking about. Yeah, it's the whole issue over the supposed White House leak that named a CIA operative, who just happened to be the wife of a former ambassador who came out against the Bush Administration's claims about Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger.

I've been avoiding ranting about the issue because I knew that right away I was going to assume that something dirty is going down, and that I'm going to read nothing but a bunch of bullshit and lies that are going to piss me off. Well, after reading a post on the issue over at |now candy|, I realized that the bullshit is well past critical mass and it's time to get back into form.

Like I said, I'm just prone to think that when shit happens, the Bush Administration (BA) is up to no good. I can't help it. I naturally have a difficult time trusting people, and the BA has given me nothing but reasons to continue with that policy. This matter is no different.

But how the fuck could someone not be suspicious about what's going on here? I mean, c'mon. Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger to investigate what was later proved to be a false claim, one which Bush used in his State of the Union. This guy helped prove that the claim was bullshit. Well, from what I recall, he went to Niger to meet with someone who claimed to be able to support the uranium claims, but as it turned out, the contact was a rather untrustworthy character (I could be wrong, however). Also, there was the whole deal over the forged documents which "showed" that Iraq purchased or tried to purchase uranium. Long story short, the Iraq/Niger uranium connection was bogus. In addition to being a part of demonstrating all this, Wilson came out vocally in saying that Bush's claims were false.

Magically, it's this guy's wife who is exposed as a CIA operative. Who else would have the motivation to do something like that besides the BA? Furthermore, who would have the connections to even know that she worked for the CIA?

More magic, and people in the media claim that their source of information on Wilson's wife came from within the BA. Of course, the media could be lying, but it sounds like a decent number of people are making this claim. I guess it all comes down to who you believe.

Still, the fact of the matter is, a serious infraction has occurred, in which the wife of a vocal critic of Bush's Iraq policy has been exposed to be working for the CIA. Again, I ask, who would be motivated to do commit such an egregious offense? I know it's a pretty simplistic route to take, but it does make a lot of sense: if the BA was the source of the leak, they were clearly sending out a message to anyone who might fuck with them.

Who the hell was the source of the leak, anyway? Lots of fingers are being pointed at Karl Rove. Again, no proof, just speculation. Valid speculation nonetheless, because everyone knows that Karl Rove has his hands in everything. When I talk about Bush, his policies, or what he's up to, I'm really just using "Bush" as shorthand for a group of people, which prominently includes Rove. It is easily conceivable that Rove and other high-ranking White House officials either orchestrated this whole affair, or at least had some involvement in or knowledge of it.

Naturally, the investigation into this will go nowhere. Bush "welcomes" the probe, because it's being run by the Justice Department at this point, and he knows that Justice will never serve up justice if any of Bush's people are at fault. I'm real sure Asscroft is going to work hard to investigate, accuse, indict, and convict if indeed anyone at the White House is responsible for this whole affair. When the Justice Department tells the White House and the CIA to start preserving documents, that's just the signal for "start destroying evidence now."

The only way to get to the bottom of things would be for an independent investigation to take place, one not under the auspices of Asscroft's Justice Department. My guess is that it either won't happen, or the independent probe will be as effective as the September 11th Commission that really got to the bottom of things. We'll see how things go.