The WHIGers are a freaking & Bush and Cheney can fly, here and ...

[understandinglife]

.... there, but they have NO WHERE TO HIDE.

As many of you know, I've tended to focus on the WHIGers, because not only are they a bunch of folk who deserve to be extensively scrutinized and probably prosecuted, their bosses included Dickie and Georgie boy.

On August 4, 2005, I shared with all of you Rove, Novak, the WHIGers and others got some really bad news today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4263356

That post detailed the fact that Paul McNulty, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced that Lawrence Anthony Franklin, age 58, of Kearneysville, WV; Steven J. Rosen, age 63, of Silver Spring, MD; and Keith Weissman, age 53, of Bethesda, MD, were indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in Alexandria with Conspiracy to Communicate National Defense Information to Persons Not Entitled to Receive It.

Counts 1 - 4, as filed against defendant Lawrence Allen Franklin, on May 26, 2005, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia include:

Conspiracy to communicate national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) & (g);

and,

Communication of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d).

Steven J Rosen and Keith Weissman are indicted as co-conspirators, neither of whom were US Government employees. Additionally, they did not possess security clearances and were not authorized to receive classified information from the defendant, Lawrence Anthony Franklin.

Franklin, as would be the case for Rove, all the other members of the WHIG (White House Iraq Group), and anyone accessing the Top Secret document on AF1 during Bush's Africa trip (July 6 - 13, 2003), either had signed SF-312 - Classified Information Non-Disclosure Agreement or would be in violation of the law by virtue of having unauthorized access to it and any of the information it contained.

Congressman Waxman has focused on SF-312 and rightly so. See this DU thread in which I attempted to pull various resources together on this aspect:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4130407

Ms Plame's identity was marked explicitly Top Secret and carried the additional caveat that it not be shared with other governments irrespective of their status as allies.

Novak, Miller, Cooper and any other person in receipt of the classified information from Rove or/and anyone else who signed an SF-312 are candidates for co-conspiracy status, just as Rosen and Weissman have now been indicted as co-conspirators in the Franklin case.

Murray Waas discussion with Ambassador Wilson today on Democracy Now is as explicit a linkage of Rove, WHIG, Miller, WMD and Plame as I've seen:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4261522&mesg_id=4261522

18 U.S.C. § 793 is also known as the "Espionage Act."

Based on the events in the events at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia today, I think the pucker-factor for Rove, Novak, and many others (i.e., all the WHIGers and likely Bolton) is likely to have tightened a notch or two. Would be interesting if someone were flashing (or whispering) the news to Novak during the CNN broadcast today that he might well find himself a co-conspirator under 18 U.S.C. § 793.

In any event, we no longer need to speculate whether those who have signed SF-312 are subject to indictment under 18 U.S.C. § 793 -- it happened today, August 4, 2005.

Subsequently, on August 11, 2005, I posted Rove, Novak, the WHIGers and others -- reality sucks, doesn't it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4319705

In which I noted that:

Tom Engelhardt publishes an analysis of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, you know the one that so many astute pundits and traitor-apologists have been claiming is almost impossible to prove intent.

Psst, hey Karl, hey Condi, yo Bob, ..... you might want to get your legal eagles to read what Elizabeth de la Vega, former federal prosecutor and Chief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, has to say about the application of the IIPA.

Plame in the Courtroom: Is the Intelligence Identities Protection Act really impossible to prove?

By Elizabeth de la Vega

August 11, 2005

Pundits right, left, and center have reached a rare unanimous verdict about one aspect of the grand jury investigation into the Valerie Plame leak: They've decided that no charges can be brought under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, because it imposes an impossibly high standard for proof of intent. Typically, writing for Slate on July 19th, Christopher Hitchens described the 1982 Act as a "silly law" that requires that "you knowingly wish to expose the cover of a CIA officer who you understand may be harmed as a result." Similarly, columnist Richard Cohen, in the July 14 Washington Post, said he thought Rove was a "political opportunist, not a traitor" and that he didn't think Rove "specifically intended to blow the cover of a CIA agent." Such examples could be multiplied many times over.

Shocking as it may seem, however, the pundits are wrong; and their casual summaries of the requirements of the 1982 statute betray a fundamental misunderstanding regarding proof of criminal intent.

Do you have to intend to harm a CIA agent or jeopardize national security in order to violate the Intelligence Identities Protection Act? The answer is no.

<clip>

Much more at the link:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=11747

And, that brings us to today. This evening, Josh Marshall posted the following:

And then further down there's this: "Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims."

First of all, it did play a big role. That's where the push back came from.

If this description is accurate, it must have many folks at the White House in cold sweats.

If Karl Rove goes down in this investigation it'll be a disaster for the president, both in terms of the damage occasioned by such a high-level White House indictment and, frankly, because he needs the guy like most of us need legs.

But this WHIG thing is a whole 'nother level of hurt.

Link:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_10_09.php#006732

To which, I simply respond -- back on August 4 and August 11, 2005, all of us here at DU were pondering just how very big that next "'nother level of hurt" was going to be.

In any event, Fitzgerald is a pro and we've known since Feb. 2005 from Judge Tatel's opinion that Fitzgerald had a major "National Security" case on the front burner.

So, now we will see just how many folk violated their SF312, violated Executive Order 12958, violated some or all of 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) & (g), perhaps violated the IIPA, and, on top of all of that, perjured, obstructed, conspired to obstruct, ....

My fellow DUers, I suspect that the list of crimes, and those accused of committing them, that the "Plame" Grand Jury will detail in their indictments are going to keep Federal prosecutors busy for a very long time.

Pay your taxes; that's the price for admission to the show of your lifetime.


Peace.

[texpatriot2004]

1. I have savored every morsel that you have shared on this.

:popcorn:

[understandinglife]

2. Thank you! We knew that if Fitzgerald and the GJ remained committed ...

... to the law that we would see a new horizon, we could save the Republic and perhaps build on these lessons as to much more robustly restrict those with tyranical and imperialistic goals to emerge in the future.


Peace.

[Wilms]

3. Stunning post, UL. Nominated.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. nominated too

[understandinglife]

7. Thank you. Appreciate the interest very much!

Peace.

[longship]

5. Champagne and Popcorn!!!!!

Got a magnum on ice.
The popper's hot, ready to go.
:toast: :popcorn:

on edit: Oh yes. Great compilation. Nominated.

[understandinglife]

11. Yes, we are now watching major history unfolding! Time to celebrate ...

... the robustness of those who truly care for America, for the rule of law and reason, and for humanity.

One such person is obviously Mr. Fitzgerald



Reuters Photo: U.S. Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald walks to his office in Washington October 11, 2005. REUTERS/Jason

And, another is Congressman John Conyers Jr., who, at 1055pm EDT on October 11, 2005 was blogging:

More on Rove-Gate

Now that it has been reported, I can add to my earlier entry that I, and four of my Democratic colleagues have written to Mr. Fitzgerald requesting a report on all decisions relating to Rove-Gate, including decisions to prosecute, convictions and any decisions not to prosecute after he concludes his inquiry. The New York Times has the story.

The judicial system and the Special Prosecutor must play their respective roles in this matter, free from politics. After that, the Congress must exercise its oversight responsibilities over the Justice Department's handling of this matter and its constitutional responsibilities. The public, too, is owed a full accounting of the Administration's conduct in this scandal.

Blogged by JC on 10.11.05 @ 10:55 PM ET
http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000271.htm

We have much to do, my fellow Americans, to be certain that the Republic never again is corrupted by the avarice, hubris and willful disregard for life that characterizes Bush and his gang of neoconster theocratic thugs.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

6. dKos link on the WSJ article describing Fitzgerald going after WHIG

http://dailykos.com/story/2005/10/11/23525/669

Lot of comments in that thread.

For those who don't access the WSJ, here are a few grafs:

Focus of CIA Leak Probe
Appears to Widen

By JOHN D. MCKINNON, JOE HAGAN and ANNE MARIE SQUEO

Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 12, 2005

<clip>

Until now, Mr. Fitzgerald appeared to be focusing on conversations between White House officials such as Mr. Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior political adviser, after Mr. Wilson wrote his op-ed. The defense by Republican operatives has been that White House officials didn't name Ms. Plame, and that any discussion of her was in response to reporters' questions about Mr. Wilson, the kind of casual banter that occurs between sources and reporters.

Mr. Rove, who has already testified three times before the grand jury and was identified by a Time magazine reporter as a source for his story on Mr. Wilson, is expected to go back to the grand jury, potentially as early as today, to clarify earlier answers.

Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion.

<clip>
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/10/11/2108/1714/242#242

Peace.

[me b zola]

8. Bush*inc is the mob on steroids

...And Fitz knows how to handle mobsters.


Another great post, UL, cheers! :toast:

[slaveplanet]

9. Always mind the controlling law

TREASONGATE: The Controlling Law - Big Trouble For The White House Staff.

The controlling law for Treasongate has been greatly ignored by the main stream media and the blogosphere. This article seeks to clarify the controlling law.
To determine the controlling law, all one needs to do is read the non-disclosure agreement Karl Rove and all of the members of the Bush administration with security clearance signed which included the following statement:

"I have been advised that any unauthorized disclosure of classified information by me may constitute a violation, or violations, of United States criminal laws, including the provisions of Sections 641, 793, 794, 798, 952 and 1924, Title 18, United States Code, the provisions of Section 783(b), Title 50, United States Code, and the provisions of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982."

Sanctions for a breach of the non-disclosure agreement are provided for by Executive Order, but those sanctions are ancillary to the United States Code provisions cited in the paragraph above which stand alone.
more-http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/2005/07/treasongate-controlling-law-big.html

[understandinglife]

12. That is a very good reference. I enjoy CS's posts very much. Thank you ...

.... for providing the link!!


Peace.

[lonestarnot]

10. Now this is the type of post I enjoy spending time with! Thanks and

keep up the good work! K & R

[DemInDistress]

13. i just nominated this thread

man,you are good.This was my first nomination......

[understandinglife]

53. Thank you; I am truly honored.

Peace.

[Athame]

14. Thanks, UL, this puts it all together

I can barely function waiting for the results of Fitzgerald's investigation. Can we even imagine what his team must be up against in keeping the info so tightly locked? They've got to break soon.

:kick: and :thumbsup:

[berni_mccoy]

15. Great Post! You've done some excellent research. So I'll ask you...?

What are the ramifications if Bush tries to pardon everyone involved?

Do you think there are enough republicans in Congress who would vote to Impeach if either or both Cheney and Bush are involved (and it looks like they are)?

I doubt Bush or Cheney would resign... it's not their type of thing to do.

I really need some hope that something other than indictments will result from all of this.

Thanks.

[understandinglife]

22. Don't know the answers to your questions, but I do know what each ...

... citizen who cares for the Republic must do. We must hold these people accountable and we must become unrelenting in doing just that.

I fully expect Mr Fitzgerald and the GJ will do their utmost to enforce the law. But, as it should be, we will determine the outcome.

In these defining moments, that which sustains hope is our willingness to act on the principles we proclaim allegiance. Either we defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic or we don't.

We're about to witness the outcome of each of our decision.


Peace.

[texpatriot2004]

27. These words of yours are profound, inspiring and wise.

"In these defining moments, that which sustains hope is our willingness to act on the principles we proclaim allegiance. Either we defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic or we don't.

We're about to witness the outcome of each of our decision."

Thank you for this.

[understandinglife]

35. You're welcome. Thank you!

Peace.

[Trajan]

16. This is an exquisite post ....

I am SO THANKFUL for DU and it's many articulate posters ....

You are a PRIZE ! ....

THANK YOU ! ...

[understandinglife]

17. firedoglake: "Why This Matters"

Look at the picture. Just look at it for a moment. Every star on that wall represents a CIA officer lost in the line of duty. Every single star. Below those stars is a book of names that records the officer and the loss.

Now:

Imagine that one day you wake up to the incessent ping of your beeper. It is still dark outside your window, and you slide out of bed, pad quietly down the hallway and try not to wake up the wife and kids, as you slip into your home office and place a call on a secure phone. You are told that your cover has been blown, that your family may be at risk. You have to make instant decisions for your own safety, that of your family, and of every asset you have in the field - and to do that, you have to prioritize which assets are more valuable and which you can afford to lose, if necessary. You have to decide then and there which of the people you cultivated, the ones you promised safety in exchange for information and cooperation, which of them may have to die because you may not have time to save them all.

Why has your cover been blown? Because you work as a CIA colleague of the wife of a man who dared to question the veracity of the President of the United States on a matter of national security, a matter of an exaggerated claim that was inserted in his State of the Union address to bolster his case for war in Iraq. And the President's cronies and hatchet men decided to out this man's wife for political payback, as a lesson to anyone else who would dare to question their decisions and as a means to staunch the bleeding from this initial salvo of criticism. Damn the consequences.

No consideration for all the lives interconnected in this network of agents and field assets, or the years it took to cultivate them. No thought of the impact that this betrayal by highly placed governmental officials would have down the line -- how hard it would make it to recruit human intelligence assets in the field at the very time that we need them most to gather information inside the terrorist networks that threaten us more and more each day.

No concern for the years of set up it took for Brewster-Jennings and Company, the cover company set up by the CIA that both you and this man's wife used, to get up and running. The fact that you and she worked along with a number of other highly trained CIA officers around the world -- trained in tracking down the weapons used by terrorists and thugs and the very people that threaten our nation's safety every single day wasn't important to them. Nor was the loss of the millions of taxpayer dollars it took to set this up and maintain it as viable cover in a number of countries worldwide.

<clip>

Please read every word of this very important post:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_firedoglake_archive.html#112908992734723006

Think about it and encourage as many others as you can to read it and think about it.

Thank you.


Peace.

[lyonn]

86. Thanks UL, you put into words what my scrambled mind

tries to sort out. This resume of what this all really means was and is very good. It's like this admin. has completely done away with real intelligence and put in their version of "the truth." Our troops, including Binka's boy Ben, are the ones that are paying the price for the arrogance and ignorance of this bunch. It doesn't seem real yet my gawd it is worse than any of us imagined.

[WiseButAngrySara]

18. I can't thank you enough for your excellent work and insight...Another

great post to be bookmarked and recommended.

A general question that I have pertains to the GJ. Does ALL of this hang on them? I have trouble understanding the legal issues...and I have advanced degrees with a great deal of education. Is this like a criminal trial with prosecutors and defense attorneys, and the final judgement rests solely with the jurors? (I have minimal legal education, in spite of having lawyers in my family.) Hope someone can explain this to me.

[understandinglife]

26. It is the grand jury that indicts. Here is a link to some reference ...

... information I posted at DU in August derived from an extensive essay authored by "CitizenSpook":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4319705&mesg_id=4321335

And, you may find information in this post entitled Murray Waas & Mark Kleiman: More bad news for Bush, Rove ... to be helpful:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4351278

I'm not a lawyer or Constitutional scholar, just a biologist who likes to dig for factlets and assemble them for the purpose of discourse.


Peace.

[WiseButAngrySara]

33. Thanks again, USL! Now I understand the deeper meaning of your

name...a biologist attempting to understand 'life'! I'm educated in Biochem and Medicine myself, but my education wrspt. politics pales in comparison to your awesome knowledge.

To indict is merely to CHARGE with a crime though. How is the charge proven, how are the punishments assessed, etc? I haven't read your links yet this a.m. ...hopefully they will be explanatory.

Peace back at ya!

[hootinholler]

48. Generally...

An investigation uncovers evidence and that is presented to a GJ. Once indicted, the indictee is arrested, a trial is convened and the facts of the matter are determined, and thus guilt is decided by a Jury or a Judge if the right to a Jury trial is waived. Once guilt is affirmed, the trial moves into a penalty phase to determine the sentence.

-Hoot

[Usrename]

19. It seems the WHIGs forgot we were already at war.

They seem ot have gone into panic mode with Wilson. Do you think this becomes a hanging offense in times of war?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. If you can prove treason yes

[suffragette]

21. Yet another thorough and enlightening post

Thank you for the way that you always pull items together and shed light on how and why they're important.

[ClayZ]

23. Thanks! Time to decorate the Indictment Tree...

to the tune of O Christmas Tree

Indictment day
Indictment day
the slime will be retreating!
Indictment tree
Indictment tree
when bu$hco knows unseating!

[jaysunb]

24. Great Post !

:toast:

[ninkasi]

25. Great post!

Thanks for all your work...nominated, and am sitting back to really savor the details. Those of you who can assemble all of these valuable links, and facts, are awesome.

[BamaBecky]

28. This is all so amazing.....

We have never, as a country, sunk so low........

The American people are in for SUCH a shock........

UL.....we are so lucky to have you at DU!

Bama

[Ikonoklast]

29. I wonder which one

will be the one that cracks first and spills the beans on the whole rotten mess? There is always one person in a conspiracy such as this who still has a conscience and knew that they were breaking the law.

[DemReadingDU]

30. Amazing, just wow!

Thanks for all your research, appreciate what you do for us.

Anxiously awaiting Fitzgerald's indictments.

[enough]

31. Great work all along, understandinglife!

Thanks.

[paineinthearse]

32. Their future home.......

Decor by Martha

[seemslikeadream]

39. Martha can help them Deck The Halls With Indictments

It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas
Everywhere you go.
Who's gonna do five-or-ten?
We're thinking once again
Of handcuffs and of orange jumpsuits aglow.
It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas
Indictments on every score
But the prettiest sight to see
Is the scowl on Darth Cheney
At the slammer's front door.

A warrant or writ, a subpoena that fits
Is the wish of Barney and Ben;
The thought of Turdblossom hung up like a possum
Is the hope of Janice and Jen;
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for court to start again.

It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas
Everywhere you go.
There's an defendant who doesn't want to tell;
One in the White House as well --
The felony kind that doesn't mind the law!
It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas
Soon the bells will start
And the thing that will make them ring
Is the indictment that we sing,
Right within our hearts!

crispini

[WiseButAngrySara]

34. Morning kick for this great thread!

:kick:

:kick::kick:

:kick::kick::kick:

:kick::kick::kick::kick:

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

[dbeach]

36. USC 794 is quite to the point

794 could include the max
LIFE in PRISON or the DEATH PENALTY

"§ 794. Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government

"(a) Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, note, instrument, appliance, or information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life, except that the sentence of death shall not be imposed unless the jury or, if there is no jury, the court, further finds that the offense resulted in the identification by a foreign power (as defined in section 101(a) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978) of an individual acting as an agent of the United States and consequently in the death of that individual, or directly concerned nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, early warning systems, or other means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack; war plans; communications intelligence or cryptographic information; or any other major weapons system or major element of defense strategy."
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_se...
"(b) Whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, collects, records, publishes, or communicates, or attempts to elicit any information with respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition, or disposition of any of the Armed Forces, ships, aircraft, or war materials of the United States, or with respect to the plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any naval or military operations, or with respect to any works or measures undertaken for or connected with, or intended for the fortification or defense of any place, or any other information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life."

[Beetwasher]

37. It's THE WHOLE ENCHILADA BABY!!!!!

Great work, bud! :thumbsup:

[Coexist]

38. kick!

[Cults4Bush]

40. Your best post ever my friend!

With that zinger at the very end you sent chills all over me.

I am in fervent hope that what you said pans out. The possibility of so many charges coming down the loop brings a sense of light at the end of the tunnel. I firmly believe that a soon as charges are brought we need to step up with Conyers and demand from even the most disgusting examples of bushists in congress that impeachment proceedinsg begin. We need to make it a movement on a par with Civil Rights.

We need to shame the rightwing congress into doing the publics bidding. The public will indeed want impeachment like it never has before. Especially if that Ipsos poll was correct.
So I'm thinking that we need to begin sniffing out every bad thing the bush lickers in congress have done and maybe some stuff that they may have only probably done and start our attacks. We need to weaken them just a bit before demanding capitulation on this issue.

I've never been in line with those that think its impossible to get the house to impeach, we just need the right kinds of reasons and there are only two reasons why they would... Shame and loss of power.

Loss of power is and can only be a threat levied within the confines of current local opinion (i.e. their specific district). Loss of power as a big stick threat demands that we find those rightwingers with very purple districts or polls that show a serious trend to the negative regarding bushco and/or Iraq. That will require real money and time and political respresentative attention.

Shame however is something that all of us at DU and other left leaning blogs can really slip our tentacles into. Whisper campaigns, LTTEs to local papers, local message boards and local media. Again and again we can point out every little thing they have done that times them into the reptiles occupying our White House as surely as they occupy Iraq. The only difference is that our weapons of choice are investigations and activism rather than IEDs and RPGs. Every piece of dirt and trash that we can dig up must be used against the treasonously corrupt enablers in congress. They will bend to the will of America or their legacy will be one of shame as low ranking fascists intent on destroying America in the name of their masters greed.

Thanks for the post UL... as always you are awesome.

[yodermon]

41. Why not 794?

Can someone tell me the difference b/t section 793 (max sentence: 10 years) and 794 (max sentence: Death)?

Is 794 for espionage during "time of war", and 793 for all others?

Help a non-legalese speaker.

793: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000793----000-.html
794: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000794----000-.html

[understandinglife]

42. What I have focused on is ...

... the aspect of 793 that deals with the transmittal of restricted information to any person not authorized to receive it '...with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States...', i.e., you don't have to be tramsitting it to a 'foreign government' to be in violation.

794 explicitly deals with the delivery of restricted information to a 'foreign government.'

I am not an expert, and, as noted in my OP, the citations come from folk with a variety of legal backgrounds.


Peace.

[dbeach]

44. suggest u read cs

nice lay interpretations


the death penalty is available..

WOW.

http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/2005/08/treasongate-total-media-black-out-of.html

[BrotherBuzz]

43. How was OSP and WHIG connected? Were they connected?

I've been aware of OSP (formed in 2001 and disbanded in sept 2003) for some time, but only recently started hearing of WHIG. WHIG was formed in August 2002, and it appears OSP and WHIG's objectives were the same. How did OSP fit in the structure, or the big picture?

[bleever]

45. IIRC, OSP was set up in the Pentagon under Rumsfeld's direction

to serve as an alternative to CIA's intelligence sourcing, and to independently cultivate intelligence sources, analysis, and "product" that would support the agenda of an Iraq invasion.

[hootinholler]

47. Here's what I have on OSP...

Maybe what * really means by a Feith based initiative ;)

4.2: OSP - Office of Special Plans
Indeed, the Bush team at the Pentagon hadn't even been formally
installed before Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of Defense, and
Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of Defense for policy, began putting
together what would become the vanguard for regime change in Iraq.
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html

4.2.1: Douglas Feith -
a former aide to Richard Perle at the Pentagon in the 1980s Heads OSP
4.2.1.1:
4.2.1.2: The unofficial, off-site recruitment office for Feith and
Rhode was the American Enterprise Institute

4.2.2: Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski (USAFR)
observed how the Pentagon's Iraq war-planning unit manufactured scare
stories about Iraq's weapons and ties to terrorists. "It wasn't
intelligence-it was propaganda," she says. "They'd take a little bit
of intelligence, cherry-pick it, make it sound much more exciting,
usually by taking it out of context, often by juxtaposition of two
pieces of information that don't belong together." It was by turning
such bogus intelligence into talking points for
U.S. officials-including ominous lines in speeches by President Bush
and Vice President Cheney, along with Secretary of State Colin
Powell's testimony at the U.N. Security Council last February-that the
administration pushed American public opinion into supporting an
unnecessary war.
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html

4.2.3: Harold Rhode - (4.5)
4.2.3.1: did he work for Perle? or did they both work for someone
else?

4.2.4: Michael Rubin
4.2.5: David Wurmser: (2.1.3)

4.2.5.1: Micheal Maloof -
4.2.5.1.1: Clearance revoked Dec 01 (over security leak to press
allegations). worked for Wurmser
4.2.6: Abram N. Shulsky - director when unit formed
4.2.7: Colonel Bruner -Chalabi's 'handler'
4.2.8: Larry Franklin - patsy? Maybe, turned State's Evidence re AIPAC.

4.5: Office of Net Assessment
Rhode, seen by many veteran staffers as an ideological gadfly, was
officially assigned to the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment, an
in-house Pentagon think tank headed by fellow neocon Andrew Marshall.
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html
4.5.1: Andrew Marshall
4.5.1.1: Harold Rhode
Rhode refused to be interviewed for this story, saying cryptically,
"Those who speak, pay."
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/iraq/1448.html

2.1.3: David Wurmser
David Wurmser replaced Eric Edelman as Principal Deputy Assistant to
the Vice President for National Security Affairs in the Office of Vice
President Dick Cheney in early September 2003

Note the networked nature of all the players. It is extensive.Not many are more that 1 degree away from anyone else.

Want a path to Miller? Brunner -> Chalabi -> Miller

Want a path to Cheney? Wurmser -> Libby -> Cheney and later a direct report.

If Fitz can link OSP into the Plame investigation, then AIPAC is nearly linked also.

-Hoot

[bleever]

68. Excellent. Thank you. WHIG, OSP, AIPAC, PNAC; all from the same soup.

Mm, mm, evil.

[hootinholler]

74. It all revolves around Miller:

She was pretty well plugged in.

8.1: Miller
8.1.1: WMD Articals:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1984429

Jun, 2004:
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:
During the winter of 2001 and throughout 2002, Miller produced a
series of stunning stories about Saddam Hussein’s ambition and
capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, based largely on
information provided by Chalabi and his allies almost all of which
have turned out to be stunningly inaccurate.

-also-

Her Iraq coverage didn’t just depend on Chalabi. It also relied
heavily on his patrons in the Pentagon. Some of these sources, like
Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, would occasionally talk to her on
the record. She relied especially heavily on the Office of Special
Plans, an intelligence unit established beneath Undersecretary of
Defense Douglas Feith. The office was charged with uncovering evidence
of Al Qaeda links to Saddam Hussein that the CIA might have missed. In
particular, Miller is said to have depended on a controversial neocon
in Feith’s office named Michael Maloof. At one point, in December
2001, Maloof’s security clearance was revoked. In April, Risen
reported in the Times, Several intelligence professionals say he
came under scrutiny because of suspicions that he had leaked
classified information in the past to the news media, a charge that
Mr. Maloof denies. While Miller might not have intended to march
in lockstep with these hawks, she was caught up in an almost
irresistible cycle. Because she kept printing the neocon party line,
the neocons kept coming to her with huge stories and great quotes,
constantly expanding her access.

8.1.1.1: On Dec. 3, 2002, Miller aired in the Times the allegations
of an "unnamed informant" who said that a deceased Russian scientist
("Madam Smallpox") might have given Iraq a virulent strain of
smallpox. Nine months later, Dafna Linzer of the Associated Press
authoritatively reported: "U.S. Weapons Hunters Find No Evidence Iraq
Had Smallpox" (Sept. 18).

8.1.1.2: April 21 "baseball cap" story - unidentified source wearing
cap discloses WMD processing locations - pegged bogon detector.

8.1.1.3: And, most memorably, she co-wrote a piece in which
administration officials suggested that Iraq had attempted to
import aluminum tubes for nuclear weapons. Vice-President Dick
Cheney trumpeted the story on Meet the Press, closing the
circle.
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:

8.1.1.4: One incident that still rankles happened last April, when
Miller co-bylined a story with Douglas Jehl on the WMD search
that included a quote from Amy Smithson, an analyst formerly at
the Henry L. Stimson Center. A day after it appeared, the Times
learned that the quote was deeply problematic. To begin with, it
had been supplied to Miller in an e-mail that began, Briefly
and on background a condition that Miller had flatly
broken by naming her source. Miller committed a further offense
by paraphrasing the quote and distorting Smithson’s
analysis. One person who viewed the e-mail says that it
attributed views to Smithson that she clearly didn’t hold. An
embarrassing correction ensued. And while the offense had been
entirely Miller’s, there was nothing in the correction
indicating Jehl’s innocence.
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:

8.1.2: (4.4.1.1) Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha (META)

8.1.2.1: "General Judith Miller" -- as Shafer has dubbed her -- was
accused by a half dozen officers of intimidating soldiers
searching for WMD. An Army officer told Kurtz: "Judith was always
issuing threats of either going to The New York Times or to the
Secretary of Defense." Another charged: "She ended up almost
hijacking the mission" of the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha
(META), which was charged with examining potential Iraqi weapon
sites after the war.
Her journalistic coup lay, rather, in talking her way into getting
clearance from the Pentagon and being allowed to embed with the
75th. As Drogin told Layton, "she was in a great position to get
the initial confirmation in the field" when WMD were found. But
they were not found, despite her best efforts to make readers
think that they were or were about to be.

8.1.2.2: Eugene Pomeroy, public-affairs officer for MET Alpha
According to Pomeroy, as well as an editor at the Times,
Miller had helped negotiate her own embedding agreement with the
Pentagon an agreement so sensitive that, according to one Times
editor, Rumsfeld himself signed off on it.
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:

8.1.3: Pals with Chalabi (7.1)
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:

8.1.4: Pals with King Hussein
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:
As a correspondent for The Progressive and National Public Radio, she
turned her academic interest into a professional one, traveling to the
region and cultivating a network of highly placed sources. Nina
Totenberg, a colleague from NPR, recalls a party in the mid-seventies
at which Jordan’s King Hussein caught a glimpse of Miller across the
room and howled, Juuuuddddy!

Kiiiinnnggg, she responded.

8.1.5: Pals with:
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html -:
Miller had ready access to many Mideast potentates. As she shuttled
between meetings with Hussein, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and
Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat in 1984, her
colleagues joked about the Miller Plan for peace.
and
From her first day at the Times, Miller’s life and work have been hard
to separate, which for a reporter is both a strength and a
weakness. She’s a passionate person she gets caught up in her
sources passionately, one of her Times colleagues told me. Friends
from her earliest days in Washington noted that she didn’t surround
herself with people her own age. She sought out the best and brightest
at the city’s highest levels, dating Larry Sterne, the Washington
Post’s foreign editor, and hanging out with the defense gurus Richard
Perle and Walter Slocum. These people were powerful. But they were
also interesting, and Judy liked talking to them. She is curious and
enthusiastic, says one friend from this period.

8.1.6: Jeffery Goldberg
Remember, everyone was obsessed with the White House sex story, says
New Yorker writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who was invited by the paper to
join Miller in an investigation unit to examine Al Qaeda. Goldberg
found her an impossibly difficult colleague. But he also realized her
value. She happened to be prescient about the rise of the global
jihad. And it was her unpleasant hyper-aggressiveness that enabled her
to help force a very important story the possibility of a marriage
between WMD proliferators and global jihadists closer to the top of
the agenda.

-Hoot

[bleever]

46. Yes, UL, we knew early on that once this ball of yarn started

unraveling, it could not stop before reaching into the very inner sanctums in which the war was cooked up.

Thank you for another fabulous, incredibly informative thread. Your ability to pull facts together is quite the "force multiplier"!

:thumbsup:

[understandinglife]

65. That ball of yarn is unraveling, indeed ... and the thread stretches ...

... for miles, already.

Thanks, my friend!


Peace.

[gulfcoastliberal]

49. Recommend. I hope all their nightmares come true.

Couldn't happen to a more slimy pit of vipers.

[Straight Shooter]

50. Fitzgerald should have you and H20 Man on his staff.

The perspective and insight which you two offer is, frankly, stunning. I am never disappointed by the degree of clarity with which the two of you offer information and, just as important, cogent interpretation of that information.

:patriot:

[wakemewhenitsover]

51. Now how about an election fraud whistle-blower?

[loudsue]

55. Ya know, I wouldn't be surprised if, once this all goes down, that

someone who was complicit in fixing the elections might come through with a great deal of remorse, and absolute proof, about what has been done with the elections. With as many shennanigans as the boosh cabal pulled to steal the elections, SURELY there's bound to be at least ONE of the operatives who suddenly has the epiphany that they were used, and gets really mad about it.

O8) That one is worth praying over!! O8)

:kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

52. Recommended, bookmarked and kicked - thanks yet again, UL! n/t

[hiley]

54. thanks UL

:yourock:

What a show, too!

[understandinglife]

56. Jane Hamsher: "Sphincters in DC must be all a-puckered today."

Judith Miller Had More Than One Source (Duh)

CNN is reporting that in Judy Miller's testimony today before Patrick Fitzgerald's Grand Jury she revealed she had more than one source.

How CNN would know I have no idea (if true it must be some sort of lawyer or FBI leak) but it means one of two things:

<clip>

More at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/-judith-miller-had-more-t_b_8747.html

Tense ... intensely tense ... for oh so many excepting, of course, the lawyers who are already hearing a mega-KA-CHING as the $$$$ flow to their bank accounts.......


Peace.

[understandinglife]

59. Arianna Huffington - "Judy Miller Meets the Grand Jury: Take Two"

What a difference 11 days -- and a suddenly discovered set of notes -- can make.

After her first grand jury appearance, Judy Miller preened for the cameras triumphantly and talked about going to jail for her principles.

<clip>

And I know you can’t tell a book -- or a $1.2 million book deal -- by its cover but, by all outward appearances, the hour Miller spent testifying this morning was not an easy one. On her way into the courthouse, decked out in a bright red blouse and oversized shades, Miller was all smiles, chatting easily with Bennett. Afterwards, she was decidedly less bubbly. Kind of like, oh, I don’t know, an Aspen tree clustered with other Aspens that have been hit by a hatchet and are starting to lose sap?

<clip>

One person, then another person, then another person? It sounds like Judy has taken more than one step down the road she wanted to steer clear of. Has the journey of a thousand reversals begun?

You will certainly want to read the full post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/judy-miller-meets-the-gra_b_8759.html

I'm sure many folk at the UN can't wait to see the aspen named Bolton do more than lose some sap ....


Peace.

[mod mom]

60. On Countdown last nite it was suggested that a NPR story regarding

Fitz and Miller might be the beginning of a smear campaign on Fitzgerald. Here is the NPR story:

-snip-
The legal fight over the CIA leak case isn't the only time Miller and Fitzgerald have been at odds.

In fall 2001, Miller and Times Washington correspondent Philip Shenon were reporting on Islamic charities suspected of funnelling money to al Qaeda.

At that time, Fitzgerald was leading the prosecution as the newly named U.S. attorney in Chicago. He and the Justice Department argued that Miller's calls while working the story tipped off a foundation to an impending raid -- a charge the Times rejects.

In June 2002, Miller wrote about an Egyptian-American pilot who had been a crucial informant against al-Qaeda in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. The pilot said the American government failed to live up to promises to compensate him and to protect him from severe reprisals in Egypt.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4953685

It appears that Miller has been pushing the Conster agenda for quite a while. It would serve her right if Fitz out smarted her and "all deals are off". It also indicates that Fitzgerald has been involved in other aspects of the Conster web. Let's hope he get the whole picture.

Can we expect another "terra" alert or should we be preparing for the real thing? This is going to get ugly. We've got some cornered rats.

[understandinglife]

67. "We've got some cornered rats." -- yes, indeed, a large pack of them ...

... and they are not going to go gently.

Thanks for the background info and the NPR link!


Peace.

[understandinglife]

82. Jane Hamsher: "rumor -- Fitzgerald met alone with Judge Hogan"

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_firedoglake_archive.html#112914911606549275

And, at the link, be sure to check the 96 comments on that one (as of 1940 PDT, October 12, 2005!)


Peace.

[understandinglife]

88. Jane Hamsher: "Judy lied and Fitzgerald nailed her."

Todays' WSJ also goes on to note that following Judy's September 30 testimony, her order of contempt was not lifted:

Her appearance Wednesday, which lasted about an hour and 15 minutes, won her a judge's order releasing her from the contempt-of-court citation that landed her in jail. The contempt order was still in place until her testimony was complete.

If Judy had gone in initially and told the GJ about the June meeting and said "oh you know, I just might have some notes," the contempt order most certainly would've stayed in place until she produced them. But she didn't do that. Her lawyers imply that her testimony was complete on the 30th, then she suddenly remembered her notes the following week, had Bob Bennett get Fitzgerald on the horn and say "St. Judith wants to step into the confessional again."

But if Fitzgerald thought Judy had told him everything on the 30th, why wasn't the contempt citation lifted then? He knew she was holding out.

From Bustado by Jane Hamsher on October 12, 2005

More at the link (and check the last two sentences!!):

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_firedoglake_archive.html#112917843588026889

I think Fitzgerald knows way, way more about Judy than most anyone - certainly way more than those of us who have not had the type of access a Federal prosecutor with extensive security clearances and two years of witnesses has had.


Peace.

[DemoTex]

57. "Whole 'nother level of hurt .."

I can certainly wrap my head around that! Excellent compendium and analysis, Understandinglife.

[robertpaulsen]

58. Recommended & bookmarked! Great work understandinglife!

Here's the link to the Wall Street Journal article:

Focus of CIA Leak Probe
Appears to Widen

By JOHN D. MCKINNON, JOE HAGAN and ANNE MARIE SQUEO
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 12, 2005; Page A3

snip

Mr. Rove, who has already testified three times before the grand jury and was identified by a Time magazine reporter as a source for his story on Mr. Wilson, is expected to go back to the grand jury, potentially as early as today, to clarify earlier answers.

Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims.

Given that the grand jury is set to expire on Oct. 28, it is possible charges in this case could come as early as next week. Former federal prosecutors say it is traditional not to wait for the last minute and run the risk of not having enough jurors to reach a quorum. There are 23 members of a grand jury, and 16 are needed for a quorum before any indictments could be voted on. This grand jury has traditionally met on Wednesdays and Fridays.

more...

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112907415441266084-VDsI1ez92Qlr0_XPP5IbwfiUKHI_20051111.html?mod=blogs

Wow! So one of these Wednesdays or Fridays, I think we might be watching a FROGMARCH!

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

And here's another gem I got from tompaine with links to emptywheel:

Beyond Miller: Rove And Cheney

snip

And over at The Next Hurrah, emptywheel keeps his (her? who is emptywheel exactly?) eye on the ball and reminds us that the big story behind Plamegate is the White House's manipulation of intelligence designed to trick the nation into war. Emptywheel argues that it was the outing of Ambassador Joe Wilson, not his wife, that might now be a matter of interest, especially with the speculation that Cheney could be Fitzgerald's true target in the investigation:

We've been thinking for over two years that the Plame Affair is about the outing of a CIA NOC, Valerie Plame Wilson. With Judy Miller's acknowledgement that she met with Libby in June 2003 to talk about Wilson, the most important details become how and when the White House learned of Joe Wilson's identity and what they did with it. The outing of Wilson, not Plame. If this thing will be traced back to Cheney, as rumors suggest, it will be through the way he outed Joe Wilson.



Kristof has at least one source who attests to people in Cheney's office and the NSC learning of Wilson's trip. And why wouldn't they have? Cheney specifically asked about Niger. After he asked a second time, WINPAC sent analysis indicating they were debriefing Wilson (named only as a source) that very same day. (SSCI 43) After Wilson was debriefed, DO alerted WINPAC analysts of the report, because they knew the "high priority of the issue." Clearly, there is a lot of evidence to suggest Cheney did know of Wilson's trip when it happened.

Which would mean Cheney's office either buried evidence they had been briefed on the trip in February 2002. Or they buried that evidence by the time they testified to the SSCI.

more...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051012/beyond_miller_rove_and_cheney.php

I can't tell you how satisfying this is to see. Let's hope this is what Fitz is really up to.

[understandinglife]

61. David Corn: "Rove disobeyed Bush's I-want-to-know command."

As I noted previously, it has been interesting to watch Karl Rove's defense evolve. After the news broke in September 2003 that the CIA had asked the Justice Department to investigate the leak in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column that outed former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie, as an undercover CIA officer, the White House declared that Rove and Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, were not involved in the leak--no ifs, ands or buts. Speaking of Rove, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "He wasn't involved. The president knows he wasn't involved." The White House was signaling--rightly or wrongly--that it had no worries about its uber-strategist. And a year later, a White House aide who had just left his job at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue told me that the consensus view within the Bush gang at that point was that Rove was too smart for special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and that there was no reason for Rove to explain--or admit--anything. (One prominent Washington defense attorney said--after I recently mentioned this conversation--"only a fool would think he or she could outsmart a prosecutor.")

<clip>
Perhaps the latest version of Rove's defense is--shall we say--not fully accurate. Perhaps Rove told Bush more. That would mean that Bush knew the White House line--Rove ain't involved--was false and took no steps to better inform the public.

There is no way to reconcile Bush's statements on the leak investigation and Rove's new-and-improved defense. Rove disobeyed Bush's I-want-to-know command. And Bush has let this slide and tossed aside his vow to take "action" against the Plame/CIA leakers. The wait for indictments continues, but Rove is already guilty of spreading--if not circulating--classified information, and he is guilty of either disobeying the president or drawing him into a White House conspiracy to mislead the public. His continued presence at the White House indicates that Bush does not take his own words seriously.

<clip>

From CIA Leak Scandal: Rove Defied Bush's Command? by David Corn on October 12, 2005

Much more to the point, Bush has been in violation of (at least) Executive Order 12958 every day that Rove has remained in the White House after his discussions with (at least) Cooper and Novak -- that's a lot of days for Bush to be in violation of an Executive Order, everyone.

Of course, for a guy who launches an illegal war of aggression and tortures people, and watches his fellow citzens drown in sewage, and .... we'd hardly expect him to care a about some trifle like an Executive Order or 18 U.S.C. § 793 or ....


Peace.

[bleever]

80. "Bush has been in violation of (at least) Executive Order 12958

every day that Rove has remained in the White House..." which is another unexplored thread in this vast tapestry of lies and treason.

A few months ago, when anyone suggested that the Plame matter went right to the very heart of the Iraq war, few paid attention.

Now, that is accepted as fact (and repeatedly stressed by Chris Matthews on Hardball!), and the horizon of culpability has changed.

I almost think we're just getting started here.


:thumbsup:

[understandinglife]

87. "I almost think we're just getting started here." Exactly. We are ...

... going to participate in an arduous and long process of indictments and prosecutions during which time we will need to begin restoring America.

When I first read Judge Tatel's opinion it was reminiscent of how I felt when, only a few days after I arrived in DC, I opened the front door, picked up the NYT for June 13, 1971, and saw the first installment of the "Pentagon Papers."

The current 'ball of yarn' has a ways to go before its fully unwound!


Peace.

[texpatriot2004]

89. I keep thinking about that aspect of this case. I know DU has

a counter on it's home page and the Brad Blog had one too, maybe it still does. You know, a counter for the number of days that the WH has allowed the leak issue to go on without doing anything.

Isn't it a duty to do something in this situation? Isn't * in violation of a duty or law here by not acting appropriately? Isn't it like every day is a new charge?

[bleever]

91. Exactly. It is illegal for the president to tolerate the presence of

a known national security risk in the WH. But that's what he continues to do, day after day.

[tex-wyo-dem]

62. Outstanding, UL!

It's posts like these that have me addicted to DU.

This is definitely kicked, recommended and bookmarked.

[meow mix]

63. Hugh!!!11

im feelin teh hughness!!1

woot woot

[understandinglife]

64. Think Progress provides solid background (as always) on the WHIGers

The “Broader Conspiracy”: What We Already Know About the White House Iraq Group

The WSJ reports that Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation has zeroed in on the White House Iraq Group (WHIG):

Mr. Fitzgerald’s pursuit now suggests he might be investigating not a narrow case on the leaking of the agent’s name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy…Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson’s claims.

It sounds plausible, especially considering how much we already know about the involvements of members of WHIG:

<clip>

Details at the link:

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/12/boader-conspiracy

I have so much respect for Think Progress; such a substantial resource and are they ever fast at dishing the debunking!! When you are trying to bring someone with little background to these crucial issues, you may find just steering them through a few relevant links in the Think Progress archives and timelines to be efficient.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

92. From ReddHedd: "WHIG vs. the CIA: My Money Is On the Company, Part I"

You see the term WHIG thrown all over the blogosphere these days, hear the pundits say the words "White House Iraq Group," and you wonder -- what the hell is that all about, anyway? Most of the readers of this blog have a passing familiarity with all things Traitorgate (if not an intricate knowledge that borders on the encyclopedic, at times), but up until the last couple of weeks, the White House Iraq Group (or WHIG) has remained an obscure little group whose mission statement was buried under the mounds and mounds of speculation and rumor that is rife around this case.

The truly obsessed among us have known bits and pieces about this group, and have speculated about how its tentacles reached into the intelligence community and perhaps shaped intelligence product coming back into the White House, as well as intimidated and silenced critics both inside and outside the Administration.

What has changed at this juncture is the fact that Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be turning his laser gaze to this group as a whole -- and not just to its members Karl Rove and Scooter Libby -- and trying to piece together the series of meetings and directives which may have lead to people at the highest levels of our government deciding to work in concert to get even with an Administration critic by revealing his wife to be a CIA agent, and exposing her family and her WMD network of agents and assets, as payback for him having the gall to open his mouth.

Much more at the link:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_firedoglake_archive.html#112917570419894799

Peace.

[understandinglife]

66. Steven Clemons provides a timely perspective ...

October 12, 2005

Chastened Proponents of the Iraq War Huddle Together: This Financial Times article is a must read (http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7e70a06a-3a72-11da-b0d3-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=2.html)

Those whose expectations have been "dashed" and who played such a pivotal role in directing America's armies to invade Iraq need to be held accountable for their recklessness. It's not enough to lament and say, after the fact, that things didn't go well. "It's too bad. We miscalculated."

Not enough -- particularly given the vile way that those who raised principled concerns and questions about the Iraq War were treated.

Those who feared the current outcome -- like TWN -- were depicted by some as unpatriotic, as not "believing" in American righteousness in this battle. Humility among those who led this crusade is welcome, but serious minds should deal with why it was practically impossible to have a fair and informed discussion that included those who favored and those who opposed Bush administration policy in the months leading up to the invasion.

Like Judith Miller, many of these enthusiasts who did not recognize that America might stumble badly in this encounter, are responsible for the outcome -- for America showing its limits -- and the diminished state of America's perceived position in the world.

More at the link:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001012.html

If only we had individuals like Steven C. Clemons doing about an hour of prime-time TV broadcasting every day!!!


Peace.

[Joe Chi Minh]

69. I loved the way retired Prosecutor, Vega, coolly concluded

her exposition of the law relating to the matter, with that hilariously elliptical put-down of the MSM's finest*, crediting jurors with being "firmly rooted in the reality-based community". Now, whatever could she have meant by that....!

*Those would-be pundits, peddling their old-wives' tales as if they, themselves, were the sovereign authority in all matters legal, however esoteric! I don't know whether we should stand in awe of their brazen chuzpah, or recoil in our, now admittedly customary disgust, at their shameless presumption.

[understandinglife]

71. Yes, and I think you may enjoy this little item from Marty Kaplan ...

<clip>
Much as the mainstream media pretend to be disinterested, or even skeptical, the narrative they’ve spun until now has been fawning. They love power, and they love to be loved by the powerful. But Valerie, Terri, Cindy, Katrina and Harriet have finally forced the chattering class to unstrap its kneepads and radically rewrite the story. No one knows how this will all end. But the possibility that the potentates and pundits they’ve slobbered over these past five years will turn out to be perp-walkers and propagandists has forced the media machine to wake up and smell Karl’s Kool-Aid. Their revisionism will be effortless; they’ll retroactively have seen this coming all along. Old conventional wisdom: Oval Office blowjobs means the century of the values voter. New conventional wisdom: Monica was a molehill. Throw the bums out.

<clip>

From Sweet Schadenfreude by Marty Kaplan on October 12, 2005

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/sweet-schadenfreude_b_8743.html

I'll never forget the August afternoon when I first read Federal Prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega's essay at Tom Dispatch.com. I read it, and read it, and read it again because it was such a fine exposition and because it provided some much needed hope for our America.


Peace.

[Joe Chi Minh]

72. Yes, understandinglife, it certainly was superbly crafted.

Thank you for taking the trouble to post it.

I think those legal eagles do tend to be somewhat methodical! They don't "deliver" expositions, so much as painstakingly "enunciate" them!

And what makes the irony all the more delicious is that, though most of the ones we would respect (i.e. honest) seem so pedantic in their approach to their tasks, they're often tear-aways at heart, in reality! One of the funniest men I've ever seen on the box is Richard Ben Veniste. Especially, during the Abu Ghraib enquiry/whitewash.

[understandinglife]

70. Mark Kleiman: "No one but Patrick Fitzgerald and God really knows ...

... what's going on in the Plame investigation,and neither of them has told me. So I'm guessing along with everybody else.

<clip>

I've been guessing for months that at the end of the day Fitzgerald will charge Rove and Libby with violating 18 U.S.C. 793(d) by revealing to someone not entitled to know it information relating to the national defense which they had reason to believe could be used to injure the United States: to wit, telling Novak, Cooper, and others that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, which information, once it was published, foreign intelligence agencies could have used to find her human "assets" in their WMD acquisition and trading programs. I also expect that Fitzgerald will charge other officials with conspiring with the primary defendants to do so. Those other people, including members of the White House Iraq group, could either be indicted for conspiracy (i.e., conspiracy to break that particular law) or named as unindicted co-conspirators, which would make their actions admissible evidence against those who were indicted as members of the conspiracy.

In my optimistic moments, I have allowed myself to imagine that Dick Cheney might be named as an unindicted co-conspirator. I have largely managed to repress the thought that Cheney might be indicted, or that George W. Bush might also be named as a co-conspirator. (No matter what the evidence shows, I strongly doubt that Fitzgerald would want to face the constitutional and politcal sh*t-storm that would be provoked if he indicted a sitting President.)

The Wall Street Journal article slightly reinforces those beliefs in that it shows that the WSJ reporters, and their sources, think the same thinkg I've been thinking. But there's no actual new news there, as far as I can see.

More at the link:

http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/valerie_plame_/2005/10/conspiracy_and_the_white_house_iraq_group.php

For me the importance of the WSJ report is that the corporatistas who read it, daily, got a dose of jolt-cola instead of Karl's kool-aide when they read it ....


Peace.

[hootinholler]

73. I don't think that Fitz gives a hoot about

indicting a sitting President. Just wouldn't be his style to hold back like that.

-Hoot

[understandinglife]

76. Of course I don't know Mr Fitzgerald beyond all that I've been able to ...

.... read, but the sense I get is that if you broke the law and he's got the evidence he's going to take you to trial irrespective of whether you're the President, the CEO of GE, or some punk kid slashing tires.

What many may not know is that Jaworski really had to struggle to convince the "Watergate Grand Jury" not to indict Nixon -- they were ready to do it. I think if the "Plame Grand Jury" is prepared to indict Bush (and/or Cheney) and Mr Fitzgerald thinks he has what he needs for a successful prosecution, Bush is going before a judge and jury, (unless he waves the option for a jury trial).

The scale of these crimes is unquestionably large as is clear from Judge Tatel's opinion that our National Security was compromised by the actions of those who intentionally connected the dots -- Plame, Brewster/Jennings, WMD, & CIA.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

83. Jason Leopold: "Cheney's role in outing of CIA agent under examination,

.... sources close to prosecutor say

October 12, 2005

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to determine whether Vice President Dick Cheney had a role in the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson, individuals close to Fitzgerald have confirmed. Plame’s husband was a vocal critic of prewar intelligence used by President George W. Bush to build support for the Iraq war.

The investigation into who leaked the officer's name to reporters has now turned toward a little known cabal of administration hawks known as the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which came together in August 2002 to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. WHIG operated out of the Vice President’s office and was chaired by Karl Rove, Bush's senior advisor.

<clip>

Wilson’s allegations threatened to chip away at the credibility of individuals such as Cheney, who, in dozens of speeches just a few months prior had said that Iraq was dangerously close to acquiring a nuclear weapon. It also threatened to ruin Miller’s credibility. It was then that Administration officials started to discredit Wilson.

Now Fitzgerald is trying to find out whether Cheney was involved.

More at the link:

http://rawstory.com/admin/dbscripts/printstory.php?story=1305

Would Cheney 'roll over' on Bush .... do fish swim .... would Rove setup Cheney .... do cows moooooo .......

Peace.

[understandinglife]

93. Mark Kleiman: "Evidence on the Mouse Trap Theory"

If you're keeping score at home, emerging details on Judith Miller's testimony today provide four points in favor of, and one point against, the Hamsher-emptywheel Mousetrap Theory (http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/valerie_plame_/2005/10/patrick_fitzgeralds_mousetrap.php)

Details and updates at the link:

http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/valerie_plame_/2005/10/evidence_on_the_mousetrap_theory.php

I've sent the following email to Mark:

Perhaps you will want to consider three aspects that are consistent with the "mouse trap" theory, Mark:

1. Judith Miller spent 75 min responding to every question with a 5th Amendment plea - he'd lift her contempt citation because she's headed to trial and he's more than willing to let her talk to reporters or whomever with the admonishment of really bad things to come if she makes any statements about anything he asked her that she used the 5th to shield herself from answering.

2. She did spend ~ 8 hours with him (and members of his staff), on Tuesday the 11th. If that produced a "script" of statements that he then went in front of the GJ, yesterday, and did the -- "You state, Ms Miller ....., true or false"; one could cover a bunch of territory in 75 min. It's not as if Fitzgerald and his team are just getting started in this investigation, so you can imagine they have some rather elaborate documentation that they could well have confronted Miller with on Tuesday (and, before -- i.e., we don't know if she has been spending time with Fitzgerald or/and his staff, at other times);

3. Someone(s) "rolled over" on Judith and he had her sit for 75 min, in front of the GJ, as he described to them exactly the sworn statement(s) he has obtained and basically asked Miller to confirm or deny. He'd have no reason to maintain her contempt citation at that point because she's going to be indicted for ..... (who knows how long the list could be).

Peace,

And, a related DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5018412


Peace.

[symbolman]

75. In my 2DVD set film "Rove's War" at Takebackthemedia.com

I've spent a year researching this.. the REAL crime and the commission of the war causus bellie occurred in Dec of 2001 (after who I believe to be Rove's "plumbers" broke into the Niger Embassy in Rome in 2000, about the time Bush was being sworn in), at that Dec 2001 meeting were Ledeen, ROVE'S Hit Man (who curiously enough was in cahoots with an Italian FORGER who'd left the SISMI for a rogue Intel org) as well as Cheney's people, and Franklin (now up for espionage charges) as well as the head of the Italian SISMA (CIA) -- Ledeen's Pal Feith was Cheney's go between with Chalabai as well..

THIS was THE crime, attach that to Bolton's rogue intel group in the State Dept (he visited Miller in Jail remember) and Libby handing her documents after Bolton's group leaked "Centrifuge tubes/Mushroom cloud smoking guns talk" and THESE meetings straight to the WHIG group, which BTW includes GONZALES, Hughes, etc besides the regulars like Fleischer, BUSH, CHENEY, ROVE, etc..

It all starts in Dec 2001 in Rome, after Rove's plumbers in Dec/Jan 2000.. that's the key.

I've got LOTS of goodies (no tin foil hat stuff here) in TWO DVDs worth of material, the complete Chronology at my site..

I'm gonna call my pal Malloy and start there on the radio circuit and let folks know where the traitors oozed us into the "war" from the start..

[understandinglife]

77. Yes. And, I'm grateful for all you have done. It is important for everyone

... to consider all of these facts.

I think they thought they could destroy Plame's group, discredit Wilson and that the CIA was so compromised that it would not pursue a request to the Justice department for an investigation.

When CIA went to Justice and Justice contacted Gonzales ... more stuff happened that should not have:

SCHUMER: QUESTIONS ALREADY ARISING WITH JUSTICE DEPT'S INVESTIGATION OF CIA LEAK

DOJ waited four days between opening the investigation on Friday and finally asking the White House to preserve all relevant evidence on Monday night

When DOJ officials did contact White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales Monday and asked him to direct White House staff to preserve evidence, Gonzales requested an additional overnight delay which was inexplicably granted

Schumer: The first step in any investigation is to ensure that all potentially relevant information is preserved; DOJ's actions raise questions as to its ability to be thorough and tough

Schumer: Special Counsel needed more than ever

US Senator Charles E. Schumer today charged that the Justice Department's behavior during the first week of its investigation of senior White House officials accused of leaking a covert CIA operative's identity has already raised serious questions about its ability to proceed in an unbiased fashion. Schumer said that revelations that the Justice Department waited four days to order the White House to preserve potentially relevant documents, and then granted it an additional overnight delay raises serious concerns, and underscores the need for a Special Counsel to lead the investigation.

Much more at the link:

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR02072.pf.html

Senator Schumer's October 1, 2003, letter to Ashcroft:

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/special_reports/justice%20dept%20biased%2010.01.03.pdf

And, of course, it took Justice two months to appoint Fitzgerald.

We can only imagine how much document shredding and email laundering transpired during the summer and fall of 2003 -- but, evidently, not enough!


Peace.

[understandinglife]

78. S. Blumenthal: "As dread descends on the White House"

Who will be indicted, and when?

As dread descends on the White House, all of Washington waits for the Valerie Plame endgame.

By Sidney Blumenthal

October 12, 2005

From the steakhouses of the lobbyists to the cloakrooms of the Senate, from book launch parties to news bureaus, the main subject in Washington is who will be indicted and when. As the inquiry of independent counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity approaches its deadline of Oct. 28, the cast of characters appears for final performances before the grand jury. Trailing clouds of mystery, they disappear into the windowless chamber and emerge illuminating nothing. Fitzgerald's airtight office, leaking to no reporter, only fuels the fires of rumor by its silence.

<clip>

Even as Bush's popularity has crumbled over the past nine months, leading figures of the press have sustained cheerleading for the political brilliance of Karl Rove, arguing that like a superhero he will rescue Bush. Indeed, a number of prominent journalists have received lucrative advances to write books extolling Rove's genius. Those panegyrics, however, may take unexpected twists in the late chapters. This week Rove is scheduled to testify before the grand jury for the fourth time.

Inside the West Wing the lowering atmosphere of dread is like that of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and Pendulum:" "Down -- steadily down it crept."

Link:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/10/12/plame_affair

Whoosh, and whoosh, and ..........

The novels, the movies, the ..... they'll be telling this tale hundreds of years from now ....


Peace.

[Independent_Liberal]

79. Kick!

[femrap]

81. Great post....I wait in such grand anticipation for the

best show on earth! Can't wait to see the sweat dripping off of George's pointed nose...oh it will be sweet. The Whigers....the sellers of death and destruction....are going to pay.

Thx.

[Melissa G]

84. thanks! one more k and n! n/t

[WillyT]

85. Kicked, Nominated, Thank You, And WOOOO HOOOOOOOO !!!!

:party::bounce::rofl::evilgrin::rofl::bounce::party:

Tee, hee...

[grasswire]

90. Paul McNulty is a FIXER!

His rocket docket is specifically designed to serve as a FIXIT shop.

McNulty's past is interesting. He was deeply involved in the Florida recount. He prepped and counseled John Ashcroft through his confirmation process. He's a FIXER.

[understandinglife]

94. Yes. He's had a variety of interesting tasks ...

.... one wonders whether Franklin, AIPAC and others feel "repaired" or not, just now.

I suppose if Franklin someday is Jeb Bush's chief-of-staff, or cell-mate, we'll know for sure. :evilgrin:


Peace.

[texpatriot2004]

95. Who is McNulty? nm

[understandinglife]

96. Paul McNulty, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia

He's the one who prosecuted Franklin and colleagues (see the OP), and here is his "official" bio:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae/biography.html


Peace.

[texpatriot2004]

97. So who is he in this case? Earlier posts here on this thread say

he's a fixer and was involved in the Selection 2000. What's up? Is he working on Treasongate too?

[robertpaulsen]

98. Kicked. What a wealth of great info!

:kick: