Dunno what the prob is Dog cos it works here fine. Heres the text anyway, from The Times newspaper:-
Bush fights 'dirty tricks' claims over Iraq war
From Roland Watson and Tim Reid in Washington
PRESIDENT BUSH was dragged into a potentially explosive row yesterday about the exposure of a covert CIA operative as the White House fought claims that it had used dirty tricks to discredit its Iraq war critics.
Mr Bush said that whoever was responsible for the leak would be fired as a suddenly febrile Washington became seized with the case and its high-stakes implications, which echoes the David Kelly affair in Britain. Similar to the Kelly drama, the Washington version involves the private briefing of a journalist by unnamed sources, exaggerated claims of Iraq’s weapons programmes and the ending of the career of a senior public servant.
Karl Rove, Mr Bush’s top political aide and strategic guru, had to deny yesterday that he was behind the unmasking of Valerie Plame, a clandestine CIA case officer and analyst of weapons of mass destruction.
Ms Plame’s name and role were made public more than two months ago by Robert Novak, the veteran conservative columnist, in The Washington Post. At the time her husband, Joe Wilson, was one of Mr Bush’s most effective critics on Iraq.
Mr Wilson, the former US Ambassador to Gabon and a State Department veteran, had been sent to West Africa to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from Niger, claims which he reported were unfounded. He sparked controversy when he questioned why Mr Bush had nevertheless referred to the allegations in his State of the Union address.
The naming of Ms Plame by Mr Novak in July caused barely a ripple, even though in effect it ended her undercover career. It also allowed foreign intelligence services to seek her former contacts, potentially putting agents at risk.
But Washington went into overdrive at the weekend after two developments. First, the CIA asked the Justice Department to intervene and decide if the FBI should launch a full inquiry. It also emerged that the “outing” of Ms Plame had been part of a drive by Bush officials to discredit Mr Wilson. Six other journalists were also contacted by two White House officials and told of Ms Plame’s job.
One administration official told The Washington Post that the motive was “simply for revenge” for the trouble that Mr Wilson had caused the White House. The US Justice Department is deciding whether the FBI should launch a full-scale investigation into the identity of “two senior administration officials” who named her.
Democrats said that any inquiry of the White House conducted under the auspices of John Ashcroft, the Attorney-General, would be riddled with conflicts of interest. They demanded that a special prosecutor be put on the case.
The White House came under separate pressure over its use of prewar intelligence after Pentagon officials conceded yesterday that most of the information provided by Iraqi exiles was useless. Several defectors, whose claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction formed a significant part of Washington’s case for war, invented or exaggerated their knowledge of Saddam’s weapons programmes, according to defence officials.
Some of the most prominent defectors, who were paid up to $1 million of taxpayers’ money for their information, were introduced to US intelligence by Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Mr Chalabi, who now sits on the Iraqi Governing Council, had powerful support before the war from Dick Cheney, the Vice- President, and the Pentagon’s civilian leadership.
The Pentagon’s assessment of his organisation’s prewar claims raises questions about the Administration’s wisdom in relying so heavily on the advice of an exile with a vested interest in seeing Saddam overthrown. An internal investigation into the quality and reliability of the exiles’ claims, conducted by the Defence Intelligence Agency, concluded that some information was useful, but efforts to pursue leads arising as a result had, for the most part, led nowhere. Much of the information provided about the Iraqi Government also proved to be wrong, defence officials said.
The Pentagon report, leaked yesterday to The New York Times, comes the day after a dire assessment of pre-war intelligence by the House Intelligence Committee. After a four-month investigation, the bipartisan panel concluded that the intelligence was outdated and unreliable, even though it cost millions of dollars to gather it.
the cia and presidential officials are a bunch of corrupt no good idjits 