CounterVortex

The pending indictments in the Plame affair are providing interesting fodder for those intent on analyzing internal splits within the ruling elites. OK, all you domestic Kremlinologists out there—who is really runnning the show at the White House? Has Dubya fallen out with Poppy, as this interview with longtime Poppy buddy Brent Scowcroft might indicate? Has Dick really betrayed Poppy’s crowd of old-fashioned multilateralists and sold out to the brave new neocons? Sound off…

CIA Leak Linked to Dispute Over Iraq Policy
As Grand Jury Term Nears End, Officials’ Critique of Administration Gains Attention

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Page A03

The alleged leaking of a CIA operative’s name had its roots in a clash over Iraq policy between White House insiders and their rivals in the permanent bureaucracy of Washington, especially in the State Department and the CIA.

As the investigation into the leak reaches its expected climax this week with the expiration of the grand jury’s term, the internal disputes have been further amplified by a recent string of speeches and interviews criticizing the administration’s handling of Iraq, including by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and State Department diplomats, and other officials involved in the early efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Scowcroft, a close friend of former president George H.W. Bush, revealed in interviews with the New Yorker a deep disdain for the administration’s foreign policy, according to an article published this week. He said he had once considered Vice President Cheney “a good friend,” but “Dick Cheney I don’t know anymore.”

See our last post on the Plame affair.