INR/AF1/africa

* emptywheel makes the case that the INR/AF1/africa story is a red herring:

"The important thing about the INR memo's presence on Air Force One, to someone like Scooter Libby, is it provides a plausible explanation for how someone learned of Plame's identity via a channel that doesn't include Libby. It has the added benefit of impungning likely witnesses against you, if those witnesses happened to be named Ari Fleischer and Colin Powell. In short, it provides you a story (Ari Fleischer with the INR memo--which he received from Colin Powell--aboard Air Force One) that completely exonerates you in the case. And makes any earlier discussions about Plame that transpired in the OVP blame-free. So long as no other evidence against you comes out."

my gut is the same - i've mentioned before that this story seemed dodgy - the idea that anyone (ari & powell) were "seen reading the report" never made any sense to me - cos unless the report has a shiny red cover with big text saying "this is the INR report" then i'm not sure how anyone would have known who was reading anything.