According to news reports, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is considering bringing criminal conspiracy charges against a group of senior Bush Administration officials involved in the Plame case – once again bringing the White House Iraq Group to the forefront of the investigation. This group, which was formed in August of 2002, was developed in order to sell the Iraq war to Congress and the American people. Members included Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James Wilkinson, Nicholas Calio, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. However, in addition to actively promoting the President's agenda, the group also worked to discredit anyone who openly disagreed with the President's plan, including Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. To date, at least six of the eight members of WHIG have been called to testify in front of the grand jury. It is becoming increasingly clear that members of the White House Iraq Group are intimately involved in the Plame leak scandal.

august, 2002

card creates white house iraq group (whig)

Card Formed White House Iraq Group To Formulate Strategy To Sell Iraq War to American People. "Systematic coordination began in August, when Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. formed the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, to set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with Baghdad. A senior official who participated in its work called it "an internal working group, like many formed for priority issues, to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities." The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff." [Washington Post, 8/10/03]

Hughes Was On RNC Payroll At The Same Time She Was On WHIG.Less than a month after leaving Washington and the White House, Karen Hughes was already back at President Bush's side. "Bush wants Hughes, who's on the RNC payroll these days, to visit Washington at least twice a month to do some consulting work. Hughes was busy during her two days in DC, attending a dinner Monday with Vice President Cheney and his top aide, Mary Matalin, as well as a breakfast Tuesday with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice." [CBS News.com, 8/7/02]

Card Described Intricate Marketing Strategy to Sell The Iraq War. In September of 2002 White House Chief of Staff, Andy Card admitted the start of a "meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein" saying, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." [New York Times, 9/7/02]

august through october, 2002

whig pushes new, sharper iraq rhetoric

WHIG Pushed Iraq Nuclear Threat In Papers and Planned Speeches. Under a special "strategic communications" group associated with WHIG, White House staff planned speeches and wrote papers which emphasized Iraq's supposed nuclear threat. According to the Washington Post, "The escalation of nuclear rhetoric a year ago, including the introduction of the term ‘mushroom cloud' into the debate, coincided with the formation of a White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, a task force assigned to ‘educate the public' about the threat from Hussein, as a participant put it." [Washington Post, 8/10/03]

Cheney Trumpeted Iraq Nuclear Threat In August of 2002. "Cheney raised the alarm about Iraq's nuclear menace three times in August. He was far ahead of the president's public line. … On Aug. 7, Cheney volunteered in a question-and-answer session at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, speaking of Hussein, that ‘left to his own devices, it's the judgment of many of us that in the not-too-distant future, he will acquire nuclear weapons.' On Aug. 26, he described Hussein as a ‘sworn enemy of our country' who constituted a ‘mortal threat' to the United States. He foresaw a time in which Hussein could ‘subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail.' ‘We now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons,' he said. ‘Among other sources, we've gotten this from firsthand testimony from defectors, including Saddam's own son-in-law.'" [Washington Post, 8/10/03]

Bush Cited Iraq's Nuclear Threat On At Least Three Separate Occasions. In the fall of 2002, while making the case for war, Bush began to highlight Iraq's supposed Iraq threat. On September 7, 2002 he cited a non-existent IAEA report that Iraq was "six months away from developing a nuclear weapon." On September 12, 2002, in front of the United Nations Bush said, "Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon." Finally, on October 7, 2002, Bush warned, "America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." [Bush Remarks, 9/12/02; Bush Remarks, 9/7/02; Washington Post, 8/10/03; Bush Remarks, 10/7/02 ]

Rice Warned of Smoking Gun as Mushroom Cloud. "‘The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.' national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said." [AP, 9/8/02]

OCTOBER 7, 2002

CONFLICT OVER NIGER REFERENCES IN STATE OF THE UNION

White House Dropped Niger Uranium Reference From Bush's Address To The Nation, After Tenet's Concern's. In October 2002, CIA Director George Tenet personally and repeatedly warned Stephen Hadley, a deputy of Condoleezza Rice, as well as other White House officials that references to Niger be dropped from Bush's October 7 speech to the nation. The Niger allegation was omitted from that speech. [Washington Post, 7/25/01; New York Times, 7/16/03; 7/13/03]

NOVEMBER, 2002

WHIG MEMBER JIM WILKINSON LEAVES THE WHITE HOUSE

Wilkinson Left Bush Administration to Work at CentCom, Then Republican National Convention. Jim Wilkinson left in November 2002 to become a spokesman and communications strategist for the United States Central Command. He left Central Command in August 2003 to serve as spokesman for the Republican National Convention. [White House Bulletin, 8/19/03; St. Petersburg Times, 8/19/03]

december 31, 2002

WHIG MEMBER mary matalin LEAVES THE WHITE HOUSE

Matalin Left White House in December of 2002. "Communications strategist Mary Matalin, the top public relations aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and the wife of Democratic campaign strategist James Carville, has resigned effective Dec. 31, the White House said Friday." [United Press International, 12/13/02]

january 28, 2003

line on niger returns to the state of the union

Bush Claimed That Iraq Was Seeking Uranium From Africa. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." [Bush, State of The Union, 1/28/03]

february 5, 2003

whig provides powell with script for united nations

Whig Provided Powell With "Script" For Speech to United Nations on Iraq's WMD Threat. The final step was to get Powell to make the case to the United Nations. This was handled by the White House Iraq Group, which, Bamford says, provided Powell with a script for his speech, using information developed by Feith's group. Much of it was unsourced material fed to newspapers by the OSP. Realizing this, Powell's team turned to the now-discredited National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. But some of Feith's handiwork ended up in Powell's mouth anyway. [UPI, 7/19/04]

february 5, 2003

whig MEMBERS reunite to defend the iraq war

Whig Members Reunite To Back Up Their Faulty Intelligence. During the summer of 2003, Hughes and Mary Matalin joined Dan Bartlett in formulating a strategy to pushback on general questions about the White House's credibility over its handling of the Iraq war. "The plan: Release all relevant information. Try to shift attention back to Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism. Diminish the significance of that single piece of iffy intelligence by making the case that Saddam was a threat for many other reasons. Put Republican lawmakers and other Bush allies on TV to defend him. Most important: Question the motives of Democrats who supported the war but now are criticizing the president." [New York Times, 10/21/02; USA Today, 7/24/03,]

JULY 6, 2003

WILSON SPEAKS OUT

Wilson Questions The Reasons For War. Wilson told how he was dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate the claim that Iraq had sought large quantities of uranium from the African nation of Niger. Wilson told "Meet the Press" that he and others had "effectively debunked" the claim -- only to see it show up nearly a year later in the president's State of the Union speech. [Los Angeles Times, 8/25/05]

JULY 7, 2003

WHIG RAMPS UP AGAIN

WHIG "Determined to Fight". When the disclosure of Wilson's CIA mission to Niger put the White House on the defensive, one administration official said it reminded a tight-knit group of Bush neoconservatives of their longtime battles with the agency and underlined their determination to fight. Many of those officials also were members of the White House Iraq Group, established to coordinate and promote administration policy. It included the most influential players who would represent two elements of the current scandal: a hardball approach to political critics and long-standing disdain for CIA views on intelligence matters. [Los Angeles Times, 8/25/05]

       Rove Takes the Lead. "There were grounds to challenge the former diplomat on the substance of his uranium findings…But it appears Rove was more focused on Wilson's background, politics and claims he ostensibly had made that his mission was initiated at the request of the vice president. Rove mentioned to reporters that Wilson's wife had suggested or arranged the trip. The idea apparently was to undermine its import by suggesting that the mission was really "a boondoggle set up by his wife," as an administration official described the trip to a reporter…This approach depended largely on a falsehood: that Wilson had claimed Cheney sent him to Niger. Wilson never made such a claim… In one White House conversation, investigators have learned, Rove was asked why he was focused so intently on discrediting the former diplomat. ‘He's a Democrat,' Rove said, citing Wilson's campaign contributions." [Los Angeles Times, 8/25/05]

THROUGHOUT 2004

whig documents, members subpoenaed in leak investigation

WHIG Documents Subpoenaed In Leak Investigation. "Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein." [The Times Union (Albany, NY), 5/5/04]

Scooter Libby and Karl Rove Testified in Front of Grand Jury. Presidential adviser Karl Rove has agreed to give last-minute testimony to a grand jury in the ongoing investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity. It is unclear why Rove has been asked to make another trip — his fourth — to the grand jury investigating who leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Mr. Fitzgerald is also re-examining grand jury testimony by Mr. Libby but it is unknown whether he has been asked to appear again before the grand jury. [New York Times, 10/7/05; Los Angeles Times, 10/7/05]

Mary Matalin Testified in Front of Grand Jury. Matalin appeared before the grand jury January 23, 2004 the day after the subpoenas were issued. [Newsday, 3/5/04]

Condoleeza Rice Questioned By Special Prosecutor. "Among those who are known to have been interviewed by the FBI or testified before the grand jury [include] Bush White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice." [Washington Post 11/26/04]

Andy Card, Stephen Hadley Questioned in Leak Case. White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card…[and] Deputy National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley…are believed to have been questioned in the leak case; papers and e-mails about the group were subpoenaed. [Los Angeles Times, 8/25/05]

Karen Hughes Questioned in Leak Case. Karen Hughes told the Senate Foreign Relations committee that she had been "questioned" by Fitzgerald about the Plame leak. [Los Angeles Times, 7/23/05]

Jim Wilkinson Questioned in Leak Case. Fitzgerald has questioned…ex-White House aide Jim Wilkinson about the vice president's knowledge of the anti-Wilson campaign and his dealings on it with Libby, his chief of staff, the people said. [Bloomberg, 10/17/05]