Free press & vibrant democracy of US in Valerie Plame affair

lets look at the main culprits in real life incident who did this hand in glove trick...

First, The sixteen words that send US to war ;“The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” spoken by President Bush in his state of the union address, 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDzPDOoTt5c

Second, "what i didn't see in Africa", written in New York Times by Joseph Wilson a former diplomat who was send to Niger by CIA to find out the validity of uranium transfer to Iraq. he found that no such transfer ever happened and reported it back to the agency. to his surprise, in the next state of union address president (with the sixteen words above)informed the nation that such a deal has happened

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/what-i-didn-t-find-in-africa.html

Third, one week after this column appeared, white house took great pains to expose Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame's true identity as a CIA agent to convince people that she had send Wilson to Niger to help his business

Fourth, even though the trail of this expose lead directly to the doorsteps of Vice President , only Libby was punished legally..and even his punishment was overturned by president bush using his discretionary executive powers!

1) Washington Post; in spite of having done everything to sell the war, still continues to back its story

2) Robert Novak ; the self styled 'prince of darkness of the right wing' who shamelessly exposed Valerie Palme in Washington Post to just tarnish the credibility of her husband, Joseph Wilson who exposed the conspiracy behind the fictitious WMD..

3) Judith Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly of the New York Times .A number of stories she wrote while working for the New York Times later turned out to be inaccurate or completely false. she would later refuse to disclose the names of US govt officals who leaked the Valerie Palme's identity to her..though she she and Novak had same sources, Miller refused to publish the news

4) Lewis "Scooter" Libby former advisor to Vice President, Karl Rove Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush & Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, The unholy trinity that leaked the state secret to Novak, Miller and Co to put Wilson's credibility in doubt