Plamegate Noose Tightens at the White House: Remember the Memo

[G_j]

Plamegate Noose Tightens at the White House

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100505Y.shtml

Remember the Memo
By Michael Tomasky
The Prospect

Monday 03 October 2005

As the noose tightens at the White House, the State Department memo may be the key piece of Plame evidence.

Think it's fair to say that the combination Sunday of the Walter Pincus-Jim VandeHei piece in The Washington Post and George Stephanopoulos' bombshell on television's This Week felt like a tug on the noose around the White House's neck?

The Post article noted that Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor looking into the Valerie Plame investigation, could bring conspiracy indictments against Karl Rove and Scooter Libby - even if he fails to pin down evidence that they violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Stephanopoulos did them one better: He said to George Will on This Week that a source told him that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney "were actually involved in some of the discussions" about how the White House should deal with Joe Wilson and Plame, his wife.

OK, before we go any further, let's pinch ourselves: I still think it will be awfully difficult for Fitzgerald to bring indictments against high-level officials. Bureaucratic layering is such that high officials typically have five or six degrees of separation from controversial actions, so that they can say "my hands were clean" and some underling the media have never heard of can take the fall.

..more..

[H2O Man]

1. Hope to hear

more on the works of Fitzgerald and McNulty this month! Perhaps even this week .... I'm wondering if Larry Franklin has been in court today.

[damntexdem]

11. I thought Fitzgerald was going to report on Oct. 28.

Doesn't his appointment end at the end of the month?

[H2O Man]

12. It could.

Or he could get an extension. However, he does not need to wait until 10-28, should he have completed his work. Also, he could take another 6 months to wrap up his work, even though the investigation is complete.

I wouldn't be surprised by anything. Least of all by an early set of indictments.

[shraby]

2. An act like outing a CIA agent isn't done without

approval from above. Same as with Ollie North, someone in authority gave the orders. The only ones above Libby and Rove were Bush and Cheney.
Libby and Rove work with their boss's approval.

[underpants]

3. ARE there 5 or 6 layers between Cheney and orders in this White House?

John DiIulio would not think so.

[H2O Man]

5. I posted a thread

that discusses those layers (German Shepherds & the Berlin Wall), which are similar to those found in the Nixon White House.

[underpants]

7. I read that

Why would those mid-level pol appointees in the VP office be referred to as "senior administration officials"?

Great thread H20Man.

[G_j]

14. I just read that

amazing..thanks for the heads up

for those interested:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4979300

[tmooses]

4. "My hands were clean"=the same in the mafia and the Bush administration

n/t

[Atman]

6. Bush just has to give a speech and say...

"I am not a crook."

[enid602]

10. preznit

My personal favorite: "Your preznit is not a crook."

[Lerkfish]

8. more importantly, was this flight BEFORE the SOTU speech with the 16 words

if the discussion on the plane was that the memo was definitely false, and THEN Bush and others stated it was accurate, does that accomplish anything?

just askin.

[Ganja Ninja]

9. I find it hard to believe that Fitz would send Judy Miller to jail if ...

there wasn't a crime of some kind. I also find it hard to believe that Bush and Cheney could claim not to have known or been involved when their two top advisor's are charged. If that happens the impeachment should begin the next day.

[spooky3]

13. thanks, G_j