Very good timeline on how the CIA Leak case began by MSNBC

[Catherine Vincent]

But there's one redacted player not mentioned. Karl Rove. I wonder why?

Backstory: How the CIA leak case began
Milestones leading up to Libby's indictment
Updated: 5:26 p.m. CT Jan 12, 2007

WASHINGTON - The saga of the CIA/Leak probe has been largely shrouded for almost three years. Since I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's indictment in October of 2005, disclosures in court filings allege no wrongdoing by Vice President Dick Cheney. But, they place the vice president closer than has been known before to events at the heart of the case.

Libby's possible motive is only one of many unknowns which may be disclosed in the upcoming trial. But witnessing Libby, one of the most powerful figures in the White House testifying in his own defense, and Cheney, the most powerful vice president in recent history, defending his one-time chief of staff, will make this trial an historic event.

The following are some of the milestones leading up to Libby's indictment.

Niger/Yellowcake
On Feb. 12, 2002, Cheney received an expanded version of an unconfirmed Italian intelligence report which was shared with British intelligence, and then passed on to Washington. It said Iraq's then-ambassador to the Vatican had led a mission to Niger in 1999 and sealed a deal for the purchase of 500 tons of yellowcake uranium in July 2000. Cheney's office asked for more information. The CIA chose a former ambassador to Africa to undertake the mission.

Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was sent by the CIA to the West African nation of Niger to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking yellowcake uranium for a weapons program.

Immediately upon his return, in early March 2002, Wilson briefed the CIA and State Department and reported that the documents in the Italian report were bogus. It is unclear if that information was passed on to the White House or if the administration chose to ignore the report discrediting sales of yellowcake uranium to Iraq and undercutting an element of the administration's belief that Iraq was readying weapons of mass destruction which could threaten the U.S.



more.....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16599094/