White House Won't Say When It Learned Of CIA Leak Probe

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.wtov9.com/news/4763410/detail.html

White House Won't Say When It Learned Of CIA Leak Probe

WASHINGTON -- The White House isn't responding to questions about when top officials were informed about an investigation into the revelation of a CIA operative's identity.

The first person notified by the Justice Department, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, said he told chief of staff Andy Card immediately, but waited 12 hours to tell anyone else in the executive mansion.

The investigation began on Sept. 29, 2003.

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," Gonzales, now U.S. attorney general, said he was notified of the probe at about 8 p.m. and got permission to wait until the following morning to direct the staff to preserve any materials related to the case.

The White House has not responded to questions about whether Card passed that information to top Bush aide Karl Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation.

<</SNIP>>

[shraby]

1. I'm wondering if Gonzales told Fitzgerald this

when the Grand Jury interviewed him. If he did, I would think pertinent papers have already been subpoenaed. If not, I'll bet Fitz will want to speak to Gonzales and Card again and he will also subpoena the records of phone calls and who checked in and out of the White House after 8 p.m. that night.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. OK, everyone who thinks Card kept it to himself, raise your hand.

"The White House has not responded to questions about whether Card passed that information to top Bush aide Karl Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation."

Can't WAIT for this week's McClellan press conferences.

PRESS: Scott, did Card pass that information to Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation?

McCLELLAN: I've already answered that question, and I won't comment on an ongoing investigation.

I'm so SICK OF THIS CRAP.

:grr:

[Vickers]

21. "advance notice to prepare for the investigation" = shredding

I mean, c'mon, I bet it sounded like a goddam threshing machine in there!

[WhiteTara]

22. good news is that Congress is going to hold

their own hearing on outing of agents. This will get a lot more air time when that starts! Then we can really watch Scotty sweat!

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N256066.htm

[mtnester]

3. 12 hours to preserve the evidence or...

to fire up the shredders

[central scrutinizer]

10. they all use the Fawn Hall signature line of shredders

long track record of reliability.

[Supersedeas]

18. walking out the back door with harddrives and cpus

[aquart]

4. Who gave him permission to wait till morning? Fitzgerald?

But, instead of waiting till morning, he told Andy Card immediately, so that....Andy could have a shredding party? What happened that night?

[DU9598]

5. Top story on the local cbs new website

www.theiowachannel.com

Is this being driven by the media at this point? I think they have smelled blood and are going in for the kill.

[Pithy Cherub]

6. Would love to know if Fitzgerald has a technology expert

on his team. But giving him 12 hours rather than immediate lockdown is very perplexing.

Could it be that fitzgerald was baiting him using Rove's playbook? :shrug:

[ray of light]

7. it wasn't Fitzgerald who gave him 12 hours. It was Ashcroft.

[onenote]

8. exactly right-- couldn't be Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald wasn't appointed special prosecutor until the end of December when Ashcroft recused himself. So it almost certainly was Ashcroft that told Gonzales.

onenote

[Pithy Cherub]

11. Thanks, that is a REALLY key point.

Ashcroft may be on a really wafer thin ice, if there are obstruction of justice charges pending. Recusing himself after the fact!

[aquart]

13. My BIL says it was Ashcroft. Was it?

[hang a left]

16. Fitz wasn't assigned to the case yet. Word is Asscroft is the one

who gave the notification to Gonzales. Ashcroft was still directing the investigation for about a month after that.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. My understanding is that Fitz wasn't on the case yet,

and wouldn't be for another 3 months. AT this point it was still Ashcroft's DOJ.

[leftchick]

17. He said the Justice department didn't he?

I thought that is what I heard. That would mean ashcroft told him he could wait?

[napi21]

9. I think Gonzales revealed this today because he knows Fitz already

has proof that it's true. Who knows how. Maybe someone's testimony, maybe an email, mabye a memo. Gonzales, or any attorney, knows better than to lie on National TV.

[aquart]

14. Pity George never Knew that.

[radfringe]

15. Bolton's connected

gee all sorts of critters come running out when you shake up the bushes...

I can't vouch for this site... but....


John Bolton, R.I.P.
John Bolton will never be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
http://raggedthots.blogspot.com/2005/07/john-bolton-rip...

---snip---

But then consider what has become known -- and what new questions have arisen -- in the last 48 hours: Richard Keil of Bloomberg News reports that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald maybe looking at testimony of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby that could be in conflict with testimony given by various journalists.

That suddenly brings into sharp focus the possibility that Rove and Libby may be facing serious legal trouble. On top of that, the Times story Friday discusses the State Department memo that clearly identified Valerie Plame (Wilson) as being undercover with the CIA -- and whether former press secretary Ari Fleischer had access to it.

Then, as Josh Marshall points out, as part of her confirmation hearings for a State Department public relations position, Karen Hughes was, by law, obligated to answer a questionnaire, that among other things, asked whether there were any legal proceedings to which she might be a be part of: She admitted that she had testified before Fitzgerald's grand jury. Marshall points out, Bolton answered "no" on the questionnaire -- though, it turns out he also testified before the grand jury on the contents of the Plame memo.

If Bolton intentionally misled the Senate in his questionnaire, he's toast. End of story. But, that's relevant to the big picture.

The key is revealed in Clemons' latest post: He asserts that Bolton was a major source for NYT's Judith Miller, currently incarcerated for refusing to surrender a source's name to the Fitzgerald grand jury. Now, one has to toss in a couple of caveats here: Steve, of course, has to depend on an anonymous source that somehow "knows" that Bolton was an anonymous source for many of Miller's stories.

----------

makes one wonder how far up the treason goes -- what did bush* know and when didn't he know it? :evilgrin:

[tblue37]

19. They won't talk

because if they directly deny that anyone else was told or that they had a shredding party, they could end up as targets of a perjury charge, as well as conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges.

All by itself the very fact that they won't come out and claim not to have passed the word or shredded any documents suggests that they did. They don't know exactly what certain evidence Fitzgerald has, and they are afraid of getting caught lying in a way that could really send them to prison.

[Supersedeas]

20. Loose lips sink ships

[AtomicKitten]

23. White House To Americans : We are Above the Law

Just wondering when America is going to realize this White House will remain complete unaccountable unless made to be so, and it won't be by the Republican Congress. They will continue the "no comment" do-nothing approach to politics, at least as far as Republicans are concerned. They will answer to no one and will continue to ignore the Democrats.