The Prosecutor Zeroes In (Washington Post)

[hang a left]

The Prosecutor Zeroes In

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2005; 3:21 PM

Could the CIA leak investigation turn into an accountability moment for the Bush administration and the way it handled intelligence before and after taking the country to war?

Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus write in The Washington Post: "As the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name hurtles to an apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office, according to lawyers familiar with the case and government officials. The prosecutor has assembled evidence that suggests Cheney's long-standing tensions with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame. . . .



"In the course of the investigation, Fitzgerald has been exposed to the intense, behind-the-scenes fight between Cheney's office and the CIA over prewar intelligence and the vice president's central role in compiling and then defending the intelligence used to justify the war. . . .

"Before the war, he traveled to CIA headquarters for briefings, an unusual move that some critics interpreted as an effort to pressure intelligence officials into supporting his view of the evidence. After the war, when critics started questioning whether the White House relied on faulty information to justify war, Cheney and Libby were central to the effort to defend the intelligence and discredit the naysayers in Congress and elsewhere."

snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/10/18/BL2005101800738.html

[willing dwarf]

1. Let's hope we get a real accountablity moment from the Press too.

I used to work in the newspaper biz. In Philadelphia anyway, it was an institution revered by the people in it. The higher up the editoral ladder you went, the greater the willingness to help promising young reporters, and the greater the sense of moral authority. Now 20 years later, who holds authority at the papers? The business men. It's shameful how the institution has been ransacked!

[Supersedeas]

3. Absolutely...this story is as much about Corporate Media Cheerleading for

War as it is Admin lies and manipulation about the War.

[leftchick]

2. very interesting...

<snip>

All these news stories suggesting that Fitzgerald is drawing a bead on Cheney's office raise an interesting -- if almost entirely academic -- question: Can a vice president be indicted?

There are no signs that Fitzgerald is aiming directly at Cheney himself. And as far as we know, the vice president has not been called before the grand jury -- though he did have at least one very mysterious meeting with prosecutors early last summer. (See this June 5 New York Times story.)

Anyway, however ridiculous the question may or may not be, the answer would appear to be: Yes. Technically and legally, a sitting vice president can be indicted. In fact, there's a precedent.

:popcorn: