Hey, whatever happened to the Plame investigation?

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

"The leaking of classified information is a very serious matter," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan, adding that Bush was "pleased to do his part" to aid the probe.

"No one wants to get to the bottom of this matter more than the president of the United States, and he has said on more than one occasion that if anyone -- inside or outside the government -- has information that can help the investigators get to the bottom of this, they should provide that information to the officials in charge."

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. About as important as catching Osama.

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Save this nation one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[FlemingsGhost]

2. Scott Peterson, Jacko, Kobe, Randy Moss, etc., etc., etc.

Get with the programming, would ya ...

[imenja]

3. good question

They managed to subpoena a lot of reporters and hold two in contempt (though unfortunately not Novak). I think we all now Rove was behind it. That's only one of the crimes for which that man should be doing jail time.

[DieboldMustDie]

4. Bush said he'd "take care of" the leaker...

by which he probably meant promote 'em. :evilgrin:

By the way, how's the investigation into the 2001 anthrax murders going? :shrug:

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Conyers talks about it in his thankyou letter to supporters

This letter from Rep Conyers, well worth reading in its entirety and forwarding to those not plugged into the internet, is posted as one of the Jan 10 entries in Will Pitt's blog here:
http://truthout.org/fyi
The title of the entry with the Conyers letter is "A Thank-You Note from Rep. Conyers." It spends more time talking about the coming year's events and concerns than it does on just simple thanks, though they are there too and clearly heartfelt. Excerpt:

(snip)
Second, there are other matters involving wrongdoing by Administration officials that I will continue to pursue. Among other things, I will continue to seek answers about the role of senior Bush Administration officials in outing an undercover Central Intelligence Agency operative. I will also continue to examine the sources of the fraudulent case for the Iraq war, which intersects with the outing of this operative.
(snip)

It hasn't been forgotten. And we internet communities will help keep it from being forgotten.

[Skink]

6. Novak turned himself in...

Crossfire got cancelled and he didn't wan't to live out the rest of his life in relative obscurity.

[mcscajun]

7. Oh...it hasn't gone away...

Early next year, a U. S. Court of Appeals is expected to rule whether or not Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times should be jailed for refusing to reveal their sources in a federal criminal case.

That's getting "to the bottom of this matter", isn't it? Especially when Miller hasn't written a single article on the case...and there's not one HINT of anyone doing ANYTHING to or about Novak???

And knowing that the only thing that may come out of this is a huge nail in the coffin that BushCo is building for the First Amendment...makes me stark-staring CRAZY!

:grr:

Repeating: Crazy.

[yodermon]

8. Kick because I miss the Plame threads. And..

a link to an abhorrent WP op-ed on the matter.. is the spin starting up again?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2305-2005Jan11.html

Why have so many people rushed to assume that a crime was committed when someone "in the administration" gave columnist Robert D. Novak the name of CIA "operative" Valerie Plame? Novak published her name while suggesting that nepotism might have lurked behind the CIA assignment of her husband, Joseph Wilson, to a job for which he was credentially challenged: The agency sent him to Niger to determine whether Iraq was interested in acquiring uranium from that country, although he was an expert neither on nuclear weapons nor on Niger.

Journalists are being threatened with jail for not testifying who gave them information about Plame -- even journalists who did not write about Plame but only talked with sources about her. Ironically, the special prosecutor has pursued this case with characteristic zeal after major publications editorialized that a full investigation and prosecution of the government source was necessary. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution even claimed that the allegations came "perilously close to treason."

It's time for a timeout on a misguided and mechanical investigation in which there is serious doubt that a crime was even committed. Federal courts have stated that a reporter should not be subpoenaed when the testimony sought is remote from criminal conduct or when there is no compelling "government interest," i.e., no crime. As two people who drafted and negotiated the scope of the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, we can tell you: The Novak column and the surrounding facts do not support evidence of criminal conduct.

When the act was passed, Congress had no intention of prosecuting a reporter who wanted to expose wrongdoing and, in the process, once or twice published the name of a covert agent. Novak is safe from indictment. But Congress also did not intend for government employees to be vulnerable to prosecution for an unintentional or careless spilling of the beans about an undercover identity. A dauntingly high standard was therefore required for the prosecutor to charge the leaker.
..more..

[yodermon]

9. prime-time kick

:kick:

[sleipnir]

10. Another disappointment, in a string of disappointments.

Nothing ever will come out, until about 30 years from now, but by then who the fuck will care?