Valerie Plame

I just watched Charlie Rose interview Valerie Plame. This woman is either a calculating liar or someone who is so enmeshed in the narrative she's developed that she doesn't even know she's lying anymore. Her mention of her twins and their reading about the war later in life was telling. She said she thought about them asking "if you knew the truth, why didn't you do anything," and that she and Wilson want to have a good answer. So they've got their story straight and are trying to make us all believe it.

She also repeated the "imminent danger" myth -- that the president said Iraq was posed an "imminent danger" via WMDs. I think she's stuck on this because that would be the one piece the CIA might have something to do with -- but it's not the only or even the most important piece in the buildup to the war. Neither President Bush, nor Colin Powell at the UN, ever said, as I recall, that Iraq posed an immediate danger to the US homeland. The point was that Saddam acted is if he might have WMDs by violating UN resolutions and defying the UN inspectors.

All along the buildup to the war was discussed as part of a global effort to eradicate terrorism. Admittedly, the Bush administration assumed the whole thing would be far, far easier than it has turned out. But that doesn't mean anyone knowingly lied going in.