McClellen: Bush Outed CIA Agent Valerie Plame

As I said at the time there is a name for this - treason.

Impeach Bush. Impeach Cheney.

Lyin' SOBs in High Office

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Sibel Edmonds Update

The most important update is that American media still refuses to cover the story of claims of nuclear treason by American officials by a FBI translator who is violating her gag order.

Edmonds claims that Marc Grossman—ambassador to Turkey from 1994-97 and undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2001-05—was a person of interest to the FBI and had his phone tapped by the Bureau in 2001 and 2002. In the third-highest position at State, Grossman wielded considerable power personally and within the Washington bureaucracy. He had access to classified information of the highest sensitivity from the CIA, NSA, and Pentagon, in addition to his own State Department. On one occasion, Grossman was reportedly recorded making arrangements to pick up a cash bribe of $15,000 from an ATC contact. The FBI also intercepted related phone conversations between the Turkish Embassy and the Pakistani Embassy that revealed sensitive U.S. government information was being sold to the highest bidder. Grossman, who emphatically denies Edmonds’s charges, is currently vice chairman of the Cohen Group, founded by Clinton defense secretary William Cohen, where he reportedly earns a seven-figure salary, much of it coming from representing Turkey.

After 9/11, Grossman reportedly intervened with the FBI to halt the interrogation of four Turkish and Pakistani operatives. According to Edmonds, Grossman was called by a Turkish contact who told him that the men had to be released before they told what they knew. Grossman said that he would take care of it and, per Edmonds, the men were released and allowed to leave the country.

Edmonds states that FBI phone taps from late 2001 reveal that Grossman tipped off his Turkish contact regarding the CIA weapons proliferation cover unit Brewster Jennings, which was being used by Valerie Plame, and that the Turk then informed the Pakistani intelligence service representative in Washington. It is to be assumed that the information was then passed on to the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network.

Edmonds also claims that Grossman was instrumental in seeding Turkish and Israeli Ph.D. students into major American research labs by godfathering visas and enabling security clearances. She says that she reviewed transcripts in which the moles in the U.S. military and academic community involved in nuclear technology reportedly carried out several “transactions” involving the sale of nuclear material or information relating to nuclear programs every month, with Pakistan being a primary buyer. In the summer of 2000, the FBI recorded a meeting between a Turkish official and two Saudi businessmen in Detroit in which nuclear information stolen from an Air Force base in Alabama was offered: “We have a package and we’re going to sell it for $250,000,” the wiretap allegedly recorded. “The network appeared to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States,” Edmonds told the Times.

She further reports that beginning in 1999, the FBI was investigating senior Pentagon officials who were assisting agents of foreign governments, including Turkey and Israel. Edmonds has not publicly named names at the Pentagon, but a website linked to her appears to be a non-incriminating instrument for identifying suspects without doing so directly. Its “rogues gallery” includes photos of Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. Perle was chief of the Pentagon’s prestigious Defense Policy Board when Edmonds was working at the FBI, and Feith was undersecretary of defense for policy. If either were being investigated, it would be a matter of record, as would any reasons for dropping the investigation. “If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials,” Edmonds told the Times....

A low-level contractor might seem poorly positioned to expose major breaches of national security, but the FBI translators’ pool, riddled with corruption and nepotism, was key to keeping these secrets from surfacing. Edmonds’s claims that the section was infiltrated by translators who should never have received security clearances and who were deliberately failing to translate incriminating material are supported by the Justice Department inspector general investigation and by an FBI internal investigation, which concluded that she had been fired after making “valid complaints.”

More at the Huffington Post:

To stop Sibel from telling her story, then Attorney General John Ashcroft subjected her to a state secrets privilege gag order after her appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes in October 2002 that not only forbade her providing details of her employment with FBI but also made the ban retroactive so that anything relating to her case would be considered a state secret. Edmonds had been discouraged by her experience with CBS as her most important points wound up on the cutting room floor. Then came the gag order, which she has observed while working assiduously to get bits and pieces of her story out in various ways. In October 2007 she decided to tell all without regard for the consequences, stating that she would provide details of her allegations to any American media outlet that would let her collaborate in the final edit so that her message would not be lost. There were no takers. Last month, The Sunday Times of London decided to pick up her story and has now produced a long feature article called "For Sale: the West's Deadliest Nuclear Secrets" plus two follow-ups. The story was picked up and replayed all over the world, but not by the mainstream media in the United States....

Article III of the Constitution of the United States defines treason as giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States. This has been interpreted by US courts to include the selling or betrayal of defense secrets to foreign powers. Sibel Edmonds is talking about treason at the highest levels of the United State government and it is clear that a cover up is going on orchestrated by the Bush Administration that is being aided and assisted by an acquiescent media. It is time that Sibel's voice be heard.

Links from BradBlog.

Tags: Sibel Edmonds, FBI, treason, nuclear secrets, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, SCLM

Plame Again

The mass media has finally realized that Valerie Plame was an undercover operative working to keep Iran from getting nukes. But 60 Minutes scrubbed the Iran portion from their Plame interview broadcast! After advertising it.

Doesn't leaking Plame's covert identity make Cheney, Novak and company traitors? They did help Iran. Of course, the biggest help for Iran has been the invasion of Iraq.

Will the mass media now speak about her career when she was a spy with diplomatic immunity, supposedly less dangerous, when she was captured and tortured for two days? Assuming the CIA can't keep it muzzled for long. Did the CIA or the White House scrub the Iran portion of her 60 Minutes interview?

I have had many posts about being outraged at the scam the conservatives were pulling on the Valerie Plame case. The modus operandi is always the same, if you have someone embarrassing the President smear them or their family with mud, much like the smears on the families that use the SCHIP program.

Regarding modus operandi, isn't the attack on Iran campaign a little old by now? Seeing it is the exact campaign they ran before attacking Iraq? This campaign has not been as successful with only 29% of the American public supporting an attack on Iran - even though a large majority of voters believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons and is supporting attacks on our soldiers.

Valerie Plame - The edited inside story at the WP.

An online discussion with Valerie Plame about her new book and the 60 Minutes interview today here.

Tags: Valerie Plame, fair game, Iran, Bush, Cheney, Novak, treason, nukes, attack, CBS, CIA

Destroying the man who knew too much

The UK Guardian has an interesting article on the former CIA weapons analyst who tried to stop Pakistan's nuclear program. His life was destroyed by the neo-cons to shut him up. The big question is - did this decision reach to Cheney and Rumsfeld? Neocons are not about stopping WMDs, they are about power. Look at Valerie Plame.

Tags: neocons, proliferation, nukes, Pakistan, CIA, WMDs, GOP

I'm still not surprised

White House Burns secret al-Qaeda source for political purposes. Where have I heard that before, besides Valerie Plame and other cases....

The White House obtained a video from Osama bin Laden before al-Qaeda officially released it from an intelligence source and was instructed not to release it to not blow the source. Within 30 minutes it was being passed all around Washington and leaked to Fox News.

Who here is surprised at all?

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.

Tags: White House, secrets, betrayals, al Qaeda

"The Reign of Witches Is Coming to an End"

Scott Horton at Harper's Magazine draws the parallel between Adams and Bush, the Federalists and the GOP. Adams and the Federalists greatly expanded the power of government, which they narrowly controlled, and eroded civil liberties. They over-reached and soon the Federalists as a party were no more. One of the parallels is the hysteria and fear-mongering promoted by the party and their right wing media machine.

Scott Horton also calls attention to Keith Olbermann's "A Bill of Indictment" and its parallel to our Declaration of Independence. Scott's article on Bush's War Against the Rule of Law is available to subscribers.

We the People, that is what this nation really stand for and that is what the Greedy Oil Party are really opposed to. They say they want to safeguard the vote - by denying it to the old, the poor and the handicapped. They say that lying to a Grand Jury is the worst type of crime, but now it is one not worthy of a jail sentence if it is committed by a loyal friend. They say they want to reduce taxes, and do cut taxes for the rich but raise them for the poor and middle-class. They say they want less government, and then greatly expand governmental powers and budget. They claim to be the morality party, and become the party of choice for child predators. They claim to be the patriot party, yet celebrate treason. If you have supported Bush and the Republican Party and their talk radio supporters you should be ashamed on this day of all days.

More on getting to the bottom of the Plame outing. Libby commutation outrage is widespread.

In a SurveyUSA poll taken immediately after the commutation was announced, 60 percent of those surveyed said they disagreed with the decision, including 35 percent of conservatives. And, in an earlier Time magazine/SRBI poll, 72 percent said they would disapprove of a pardon. So unless "the left" has recently had an incredible growth spurt, a lot of people on the so-called "right" are feeling outraged too.

Commentary on Olberman's call for the resignation of Bush and Cheney. I accuse.

Kevin Baker: Stabbed in the Back - the history and future of a right-wing myth.

How to celebrate the 4th - C-SPAN2 is scheduled to carry the conservative Media Research Center's March 29 2007 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2006 -- the showcase of the MRC's 20th Anniversary Gala -- which was followed by Rush Limbaugh accepting the MRC's first annual William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence.

Yeah, that draft-dodging, illegal drug addict, fact-challenged radio clown who patronizes underage foreign prostitutes with the help of huge bottles of Viagra was honored by the crowd without honor. Did you note the William F. Buckley Award? A man known for fighting desegration and civil rights in the South as uppity negros have no place in civilized society. "The central question... is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes.... National Review believes that the South's premises are correct..."

I Stand For Liberty.

Ian Welsh at The Agonist:

On July 4th, on your birthday, this is my wish for America and for Americans - that you remember that the right thing to do morally is almost always the right thing to do pragmatically. There is no choice between "freedom and safety"; there is no choice between prosperity and massive inequality; there is no choice between generosity and fiscal prudence and there is no such thing as "managed free speech".

Be the America the world loved. Be the America you can be proudest of - the one that does not torture, that treats all men as equal and with unalienable rights. Be the America that rebuilt Europe and that lends a helping hand to countries like Afghanistan. Be the America that would never invade a country that had not attacked you first. Be the America that is about lifting all boats and not just a few.

Be that America, and we will all be Americans.

Do you have what it takes to become a U.S. citizen today? Questions from the citizenship test.

Legacy - Al Gore and the Media Alpha Girls

Dana Milbank - All mimsy were the borogoves

The White House is through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole in trying to make sense on pardons and the Libby and Plame case.

First Administration Traitor to Go To Jail

You will see and hear a lot of treason enablers begging Bush to pardon Libby. Firedog has some of the lies they will use.

Tags: Plame, Libby, justice, courts

Valeries Plame was covert when outed

In 2004, President Bush promised to fire anyone in his Administration that was involved in the leak. Karl Rove was one of the two sources columnist Robert Novak used when he revealed Plame's identity. Bush has yet to follow through and fire Rove. Cheney and Novak have also yet to be charged with treason for outing a covert CIA agent who had taken numerous covert trips abroad on missions in the five years preceeding her outing. Her latest missions were believed to be preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons grade material.

Right wing media and blog sites have never apologized for supporting her outers and that continues to this day. They would have to admit they were repeatedly and consistently wrong on yet another issue and have supported traitors. Several guests, primarily Fred Rustmann and Reuel Marc Gerecht and Victoria Toensing but also others, on Fox News had also repeatedly told false stories about her status when they were in no position to know. Cokie Roberts on more mainstream shows also repeated that she was not covert but later backtracked.

Get the real story, avoid Fox News and other right wing propaganda outfits without doing independent fact checking. Studies have shown that Fox News viewers are the most ignorant and misinformed on basic top news stories.

Tags: Valerie Plame, Fox News, misinformation, disinformation, traitors, Novak, Cheney

Dan Froomkin - E-Mail Saga Gets Fishier

The saga of the missing White House e-mails took a turn from the deeply suspicious to the deeply, darkly suspicious yesterday as Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman disclosed the bizarre response by the Republican National Committee to early indications that consequential White House e-mails -- particularly to and from Karl Rove -- were being deleted.

From 2001 to 2004, the RNC's highly unusual "document retention" policy was to intentionally destroy all e-mails that were more than 30 days old. In the summer of 2004, due to "unspecified legal inquiries," the RNC changed its policy by allowing -- but not mandating -- the indefinite retention of e-mails sent and received by White House staffers on their RNC accounts. That was just around the time special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation of White House involvement in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was kicking into high gear.

Then, in 2005, when RNC officials discovered that all of Rove's RNC e-mails were still getting deleted, presumably by Rove himself, they blocked his ability -- and his ability alone -- to do that. Other White House staffers could still delete at will, just not Rove.

All this stands in dramatic contrast to explicit White House rules mandating that all official White House electronic communications take place exclusively through official White House e-mail accounts, which are supposed to automatically archive everything forever.

Rove, the Bush administration's ultimate political fixer, reportedly used his RNC e-mail for the vast majority of his electronic communication in violation of those rules.

A collection of quotes: "I now have an RNC blackberry which you can use to e-mail me at any time. No security issues like my WH email." --Susan Ralston, assistant to Karl Rove.

"It is better not to put this stuff in writing in their e-mail system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc." --Jack Abramoff associate.

"Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system." --Jack Abramoff

Another communication from Susan Ralston to Jack Abramoff also states: "I know [now] have an RNC laptop at the office for political use. I can access my AOL email when necessary so if you need to send me something that I need to read, you can send to my AOL email and then call or page me to check it.” Can AOL be asked by Congress or a special investigator to turn over emails and explain their retention policies? Should the new supercomputers and terrabyte storage at the NSA monitoring email traffic be searched? Will the NSA snooping claim Rove as a victim?

Firedoglake has more including the White House Counsel's response to requests for more information: Cheney You.

Not email purge related but attorney purge related:

Wisconsin Attorney targeted for firing until he prosecuted a Democrat at election time.

Sen. Domenici asked Bush to fire New Mexico attorney.

Tags: politics, DoJ, Justice, emails, purgegate, Gonzales

Novak Fabricates ‘Confusion’ Over Wilson’s CIA Status

Is it the fact that Novak is a prominent elder GOP spokesperson that has prevented his trial for treason?

Tags: Robert Novak, traitor, Valerie Plame

Political craven opportunists and other DC critters

James Moore writes about Texas political media consultants Matthew Dowd and Mark McKinnon both being more craven than Karl Rove. Dowd confessing he has now, finally, lost faith in Bush doesn't cut it.

Why do the GOP presidential candidates hate America? Romney and Guilani not sure if they support the Constitution.

McCain strolls in Baghdad market wearing body armor and surrounded by 100 soldiers and five helicopter gunships. Ah, the freedom. Violence was up 30% in Iraq last month, mortar shells hit the Green Zone and six Americans were killed the day he strolled in free Baghdad. Even Henry Kissinger now says Iraq victory not possible.

Another GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee: “If Republicans in this election vote in such a way as to say a candidate’s personal life and personal conduct in office doesn’t matter, then a lot of Christian evangelical leaders owe Bill Clinton a public apology.”

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, met “very recently” with the Senate Republican caucus to discuss their political strategy on Iraq legislation. Shouldn't that have been a bipartisan meeting? Isn't this mixing of the military in politics disallowed?

[Andrea] Mitchell said that “moderate Republican” senators had told her that they didn’t believe the escalation would work but voted for it anyway. “They really are not in favor of the surge. They don’t believe it’s going to work. But they basically said the president has until August, until Labor Day. After that, if it doesn’t work, they’re running.”

I talked with Congressman Gene Green over the weekend. He is very concerned about Iran but says he is hopeful there is some talking going on now. He pointed out that we always were willing to talk to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He says the US should only attack if there is an indication that Iran is a threat to us or our soldiers, not a pre-emptive strike. He believes Bush has the authority to attack Iran if Bush feels it is a threat but Congress controls the purse strings for the military. I take that as he will not move immediately to impeach Bush but will seek to restrict military actions by funding resolutions.

Victoria Toensing Doesn't Know Dick About Valerie Plame. In the world of intelligence it is the truth that sets us free, and the truth that keeps us safe. Toensing wouldn't know the truth if it bit her in the posterior.

Monica "Buzz Saw" Goodling is just part of an invasion of recently trained religious zealots into positions of power in government.

White House aides using GOP email accounts to circumvent email archives and future subpoenas.

James Carville, Hillary supporter and independent CNN political analyst.

As Homer Simpson might say, "If you're going to point out every incompetent and corrupt hack I hire, I'm just going to have to stop hiring incompetent and corrupt hacks - Duh."

Fish and Wildlife Service deputy assistant secretary Julie MacDonald sends internal non-public documents to her son or to her virtual gaming friend's father email account to get second opinions. OK, does she play Warcraft or Second Life? Is she getting advice from an underage dwarf warrior or a virtual sex slave?

MacDonald also frequently shared information, PDF, with lobbyists and the California Farm Bureau Federation that was involved in lawsuits against the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Democratic House Speaker Pelosi attacked on Fox News for visiting Syria while the GOP congressmen also going there are ignored.

How the DLC and New Democrats were used by corporations to weaken the Democratic Party. Booman:

the problem is, aside from the fact that they haven't brought us electoral success in recent elections, this pro-business, pro-interventionist wing of the party has capitulated entirely in the era of George W. Bush. They are nearly as responsible for our present catastrophe at the neo-conservatives that took their project off its rails.

Michelle Malkin calls for all narcs and snitches to anonymously stand-up. JG: I am Michelle's hood.

One-third of US attorney jobs went to trusted Bush insiders.

Billmon: A brief history of Time.

Just seven days after Pat Tillman’s death, a top general warned there were strong indications that the cause was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth — that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades. The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with leveling with Tillman’s family.

'US ready to strike Iran on Good Friday': Drudge Report link. Hah, quit stealing my posts, you're days late. How about this one: “Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah prepare for war”? Israel says the three are expecting a US and Israeli attack this summer and it also expects a war. Nimitz sails for Persian Gulf, tension ratcheting higher.

Gay GOP Ex-Porn Star Cpl. Matt Sanchez Accused of Conning Iraq Donors.

Tags: Iran, war, attack, Bush, Gene Green, GOP, DC, corruption

Viacom Sues YouTube - Daily Show

link from Boing Boing.

Colbert Report on the USAToday gay agenda.

Colbert says Impeach Bush now or Democrats are a bunch of wimps.

Stephen Colbert challenges the Democrats to impeach Bush now. He's just been taunting you all these years with the outing of Valerie Plame, WMD lies, Katrina tragedy, wiretapping, attorney firings, etc. etc. etc...

The Decline of Headline News and other news

Glen Beck, the conservative bozo added to CNN's Headline News and Good Morning America, said: "You know Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has confessed to 9-11 and trying to kill President Carter. Why would you try to kill President Carter? He's on your side, for the love of Pete."

Since when is accusing a former President of being on the side of terrorists acceptable on the SCLM? Does that mean we will get reports on how Bush and Cheney aid terrorists on the mass media?

If the So-Called-Liberal Media would get away from their cocktail party GOP friends and read the blogs for awhile they will see the dirty hippies have been right - following their lead will break a lot of stories for some enterprising reporters. The people driving policy in the Bush administration have a history of not being right about anything. Some reporters should just read Hullabaloo.

There are only a very very small group of people with college degrees who worship Bush. Finding them must be a full-time job. Here they found a group of these Bush worshippers to impart more wisdom to him. Isn't that a contradiction in terms, Bush worshippers and wisdom?

We have long known that Bush Is Churchill (along with all the chest-besting neoconservatives who cheer on wars), but now we learn (from Bush) that he has become convinced that he is stronger than Churchill because Bush "has God" and Churchill didn't

. Greenwald on the Department of Justice:

If the President proclaims the right to break a law, and the DOJ refuses to say it will obey that law when asked directly, and it is then revealed that that very law has been broken -- repeatedly and in quite dangerous ways -- aren't those facts rather vital to understanding what happened here?

1) Lying to Congress is a crime, even if you're not under oath. 2) Alberto Gonzales lies repeatedly to Congress. 3) QED ???

Even the conservatives suggest Gonzales should go and are mad at the White House for letting a mountain be made out of a molehill. Way to support the rule of law Captain Kirklite.

Media Matters on the Washington Post's, and other media's, hypocrisy.

AP as GOP propaganda arm; Plame sheds little light. Meanwhile, the really deranged are claiming Wilson outed his own wife. David Corn was right all along.

Joe Conason: Should people be wise to the GOP blame Clinton dodge by now?

Richard Morrison: Introducing the Man Who Will Beat John Cornyn, not me. Rick Noriega has an impressive resume and a lot of friends.

Sunday Morning political talk has been tilted toward the GOP and conservatives for years. This Week may have noticed November's power shift, not the others.

The dusted off Straight Talk Express is already out of steam and going off the rails. McCain's twelve second pause while trying to recall his latest position is a derailment. He couldn't think of his position and couldn't find a way to support the conservative position on condoms without sounding like an idiot so dead air.

LATimes gets it right: Blogs can top the presses. TPM and his Muckrakers owns the attorney firings story by good old fashioned journalism. The press is still playing catch up because their sources, the GOP leadership, is wrong on the issues. FireDogLake owned the Libby trial. They are what reporters used to be.

I include this Newsweek Poll because figures on TV, including many reporters, keep getting it wrong:

Q5. In general, do you favor or oppose President Bush’s decision earlier this year to increase the level of U.S. troops in Iraq?

Favor: 32%
Oppose: 64%
Don't Know: 4%

Q6. Do you favor or oppose Congressional legislation that would require the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008?

Favor: 59%
Oppose: 34%
Don't Know: 7%

For four years support for this fiasco has been declining and now opposition to our occupation is similar to American opposition to staying in Vietnam.

Top Bush Official Reveals White House Never Investigated Plame Leak vs Bush: “If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is.“

Iraq, economic colony of Iran - NYT.

Cheney was responsible for the US intelligence used on Iraq and waged a campaign to destroy the CIA. Radical leftists? No a fully documented report on PBS - Frontline "The Dark Side." This report was last summer, how far has this knowledge spread?

There is now a climate change in DC. Cold days in Hell for Bush and the GOP.

Republicans are fretting, and Democrats are fantasizing, about what the debacle foretells for the next year and half.

"We've only had subpoena power for the last six weeks and every tree that we've barked up so far has had a cat in it," said a senior Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. "Imagine where we'll be after six months."

Gonzales, who a week earlier had brushed off the brouhaha over the prosecutors as "an overblown personnel matter," was making the rounds of network and cable news shows in an effort to save his job.

Sen. John Sununu became the first GOP senator to call on Gonzales to resign Wednesday afternoon.

Latest Scare the Yokels Campaign

Homeland Security WARNS! of terrorists driving school buses but admits "the government has no credible information to suggest terrorists are "involved in buying school buses or seeking licenses to drive them.... no indication of any immediate threat to the country."

Andrew: Will Rumsfeld forever escape the ghosts of Abu Ghraib? Will Yoo? Is Cheney impeachable?

The lemming experience.

Tags: liberal news, SCLM, Plame, hypocrisy, GOP, Gonzales, Bush, Noriega, FEAR, misc.

Scooter Verdict Further Damages White House

At 30% approval in the polls and sinking with a brace of scandals about to hit the headlines, this verdict adds to the impression of the Bush-Cheney ship of state going under.

GOP talking point one has been Libby was such a good man and public servent and never lies. This reminds overly much of the way weeping aides stood up for Nixon when he left the White House. Libby lied repeatedly knowing it was a federal crime. His defense of forgetting was not credible given how many times he had been told of Wilson's wife and his making up a story of where he learned her name.

GOP talking point two - there is no underlying crime. This is false on two levels. Primarily, the crime is the lie. Libby lied. Second - Plame was a covert agent no matter how much uninformed partisans scream that she wasn't. The CIA and the Justice Department stipulated to that. It is difficult to prove case so no one was charged. Viewers of Fox News and GOP media outlets have been subjected to a repeated con game from uninformed sources that say she was not covert because they know that outing her like the administration did amounts to treason. Valerie Plame was working to stop regimes, including Iran, from acquiring nuclear materials for bombs. Fitzgerald even explained to reporters that the CIA labeled her covert but obstruction by Libby prevented him for being charged with that crime.

Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer. In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified. Not only was it classified, but it was not widely known outside the intelligence community. Valerie Wilson's friends, neighbors, college classmates had no idea she had another life. The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well- known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security...

QUESTION: Mr. Fitzgerald, the Republicans previewed some talking points in anticipation of your indictment and they said that if you didn't indict on the underlying crimes and you indicted on things exactly like you did indict -- false statements, perjury, obstruction -- these were, quote/unquote, technicalities, and that it really was over reaching and excessive...

FITZGERALD: I'll be blunt.

That talking point won't fly. If you're doing a national security investigation, if you're trying to find out who compromised the identity of a CIA officer and you go before a grand jury and if the charges are proven -- because remember there's a presumption of innocence -- but if it is proven that the chief of staff to the vice president went before a federal grand jury and lied under oath repeatedly and fabricated a story about how he learned this information, how he passed it on, and we prove obstruction of justice, perjury and false statements to the FBI, that is a very, very serious matter.

And I'd say this: I think people might not understand this. We, as prosecutors and FBI agents, have to deal with false statements, obstruction of justice and perjury all the time. The Department of Justice charges those statutes all the time...

A juror speaks:

At some point, the jury began to feel like they were deliberating on charges for the wrong man.

"What are we doing with this guy? Where's Rove? Where are these other bad guys," he said. "It seemed like Libby was the fall guy."

He added, "Some jurors commented 'this sucks' for Libby."

According to Collins, the jury believed that the former White House aide was "tasked by Vice President Dick Cheney to talk to reporters" about Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson.

How important was this case - testimony from the trial:

Craig Schmall, Libby's CIA briefer at the time, testified that Libby had discussed Valerie Wilson with him. Schmall also testified that after the leak occurred, while he was briefing both Cheney and Libby, they asked him what he thought about the leak scandal. Noting that some commentators had dismissed the leak as "no big deal," Schmall explained that he considered it a "grave danger." He explained to Libby and Cheney that foreign intelligence services could now investigate everyone who had come into contact with Valerie Wilson when she had served overseas. "Those people," he said, "innocent or otherwise, could be harassed...tortured or killed

Tags: Libby, GOP, talking points

The WP tries to influence Libby Trial

PR pieces smear Wilson and Plame.

WP's David Ignatius gets it right on blame Plame game

A coordinated effort to discredit Wilson was launched and a failed cover-up started to conceal Cheney's pressure on the CIA to twist intelligence.

Libby Trial: Judy Miller's Memory Mess

David Corn, also blogging here, is the goto guy for the Libby trial and the Valerie Plame story.

ADDED - Handwritten note at trial indicates Bush knew about wide-ranging effort to damage Wilson, contrary to White House denials.

Firedoglake has the best live blogging. Better informed than almost live updates from cable news.

Updating the Valerie Plame Story

Valerie Plame's CIA Group was responsible for keeping Iran from getting nuclear material. Cheney directed she be outed to show the CIA and diplomats what happened to anyone whose family crossed the White House. The security of the United States took second place to partisan politics and vindictiveness.

ADDED - I have very limited PC access at the moment and, of course, I find I had left some glaring typos.

Tags: Valerie Plame, traitors, treason