Events Leading Up to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

The steady rush of entries about the Plame Niger controversy—available here—has slowed to a trickle for the time being. The work hasn’t been abandoned; rather, I’ve intensified my offline research efforts to ensure that the information presented in the project is accurate and complete. Not an easy job, as much of the information as presented in a variety of sources is woefully incomplete and contradictory, so there is a lot of time being spent sorting through material and trying to reconcile claims.

We usually don’t use blog material, but Marcy Wheeler’s terrific work for the blogs Firedoglake and the now-defunct Next Hurrah is critically important to accurately portraying the events as they occurred. I am working to secure a copy of Wheeler’s book Anatomy of Deceit, which is based in part on her blog work.

I should also note two other sources: reporter Murray Waas’s excellent work for the National Journal and other outlets, and the timeline set up on DKosopedia. We can’t use the DK timeline as a source in and of itself, but it’s a tremendous resource that I’m mining for source links and other info. There are other timelines that I haven’t gotten to yet. When I get into other resources as good as the DK timeline, I’ll acknowledge them in a new post.

As always, if you’re interested in helping flesh out this project with your own research, you can jump in merely by clicking this link.—blackmax