Sam Jaspers

Sometimes a book or an article comes along that is so good and so comprehensive and so...well...perfect...that there is no way for a blogger to whittle it down and pull out the salient points and provide commentary. Murray Waas has just published his magnum opus on the Plame Affair. It's long, but everyone should read it and his other work as well. Waas reveals the basic outlines of a much broader conspiracy. A conspiracy within which Valerie Plame played a relatively minor part.

And it all goes back to the those dreaded aluminum tubes. Let's get in our time machines and go back in time to September of 2002. The decision to invade in Iraq was probably made in April of 2002, but it was in August that the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) was formed. And they formulated the public relations strategy that would set the nation on a course for preemptive war.

"From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August."

Tags: Murray Waas Valerie Plame Condoleezza Rice Dick Cheney George Tenet David Addington Scooter Libby

In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium...