Plame was outed in a column by notorious Republican asset Robert Novak in retaliation for Wilson's public stance against the Bush Cheney Regime, which tried to forge evidence that Iraq was involved in importing "yellowcake" from Niger, a reason used for illegally invading Iraq in 2003.

"There are also growing suspicions that Rove coordinated the exposure of Plame and her network through an entity called the White House Iraq Group - an entity created to manage the propaganda for the war," reports Madsen.

"Its members included Rove, Cheney's assistant Mary Matalin, White House communications assistants Karen Hughes and James Wilkinson, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Legislative liaison Nicholas Calio, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, her deputy Stephen Hadley, and Cheney Chief of Staff I Lewis "Scooter" Libby."

This "White House Iraq Group" may have authorized the "leak" to Novak as a way to "punish" Wilson for his vocal opposiiton to the Bush Cheney White House.

Speculation in the Beltway continues regarding whether President Bush and Vice President Cheney knew about and/ or authorized the leak to Novak as a way to retaliate against Wilson.

Madsen writes that "Bush retained Jim Sharp, a criminal defense attorney, as his counsel in the Plame matter. Cheney retained Terrence O'Donnell of the Williams and Connolly law firm as his counsel."