Head-smacking Headline Hidden in Plame Leak Judge's Opinion.

[Jane Austin]

All the blather about whether Rove uttered Valerie Plame Wilson's name and whether he had access to her name is just not the real story here.

A number of DUers have written that they think the scope of the Fitzgerald investigation is bigger than just the "outing" charge and this piece tells exactly how this is, indeed, the case.

This excerpt from Sydney Blumenthal's comprehensive piece in Salon today, points out what most commentators and reporters are missing.

The first paragraph is Blumenthal's, and the second paragraph here quotes US District Judge Hogan in his opinion that said why Miller and Cooper had to testify.

Especially note the last eight words of the quote from Judge Hogan.

Follow the link to the whole article, found in the Editorials forum of DU.

<snip>

The ex parte affidavit establishes that the government's focus has shifted as it has acquired additional information during the course of the investigation.


"Special Counsel now needs to pursue different avenues in order to complete its investigation." Judge Hogan concluded that "the subpoenas were not issued in an attempt to harass the reporters, but rather stem from legitimate needs due to an unanticipated shift in the grand jury's investigation."

<snip>


http://digbig.com/4dyrx

or

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=139418


(Edited to add the word "reporters" in last paragraph.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Unanticipated shift?

[AlCzervik]

18. i bet he's looking into misuse of classifed and or govenment property

and maybe perjury.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. I think they're looking at a lot more serious matters that have to do...

...with the compromise of an undercover agent and her entire global network that was tracking WMDs, and the meterials that can be used to make WMDs. Those are National Security issues, and they are VERY serious issues indeed.

The fact that the CIA publicly requested that the Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into this matter tells me a great deal.

The fact that Bush and Cheney retained lawyers when this first became public also tells me a great deal.

[Tommymac]

2. Good Catch!

:applause:

[Jane Austin]

3. Thank yew!

Husband emailed it to me last night saying it was really good, but I foolishly waited until I had time to savor it.

[longship]

4. Important news.

Recommended.

[Jane Austin]

8. Thanks.

Do you know if I can recommend my own post? :)

[blm]

5. Maybe WMD proliferation that extends back to BCCI??? Pakistan, AQ Khan,

Khasoggi, Bush, Kissinger, Bath, Bin Laden....

Did Valerie Plame find out their little secret operation was still in business?

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. If we knew about it around here

I would assume folks like her, with hopefully access to even better information, would know it too?

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. An unanticipated shift in the grand jury's investigation

I think I just felt the earth quake.

Remember how the Whitewater Investigation morphed into the Monica Lewinsky Investigation? The same thing is happening here, except for legitimate reasons this time.

[XemaSab]

7. Like the 1906 San Francisco quake

was an "unanticipated shift?"

Dear God let's hope so. I'd like to see the whole Admin collapse, then the ruins burn to the ground, and then the ashes get bulldozed into the sea.

[Jane Austin]

11. I suppose it is possible

that it just indicates a change in direction and not a broadening, but it reads like it's a broadening.

(Hope, Hope. Hope. )

[XemaSab]

13. Even a change in direction

could be (metaphorically) deadly, provided it's the right direction.

ie, straight to the top!!!!!!!!!!

it would be nice if the investigation impicated Bush, too!

[Jane Austin]

19. Be still my heart!

I'm trying not to get carried away, but I find that Judge's opnion the most hopeful thing I've read in a long time.

[BrotherBuzz]

26. The '06 earthquake was just a bump in the road compared to the....

ensuing fire that destroyed the city.

I'd like to see the whole Admin collapse,
then the ruins burn to the ground,
and then the ashes get bulldozed into the sea.
Hmmm, works for me!!!;)

[XemaSab]

28. so the rove indictment will be the quake

that sparks the arrest of the whole BFEE and cronies?

[BrotherBuzz]

34. Works for me...

:thumbsup:

[Fridays Child]

10. Just gave this the third vote to get it on the Greatest page.

This is very important. I think it's still possible that there may be charges coming down for some high level WH officials. But this other focus has been brought up at FR, where they believe that it will end in charges against Joe Wilson. Now, I understand why they're talking about this shifted focus. But I think they're tilting at windmills to believe that the Wilsons will be indicted.

If anything, I'm hoping that Fitzgerald is putting together the bigger case against this administration for going to war on false pretenses. The evidence for that, of course, boggles the mind in terms of its enormity and its intricate web of deceit.

[Fridays Child]

16. And wouldn't it be ironic if this administration, which refused to...

...treat the terrorism of 9-11 as a criminal matter, were taken down by the the judicial system? And, if you think about it, the judicial branch--the only branch of our government not completely controlled by the GOP--is our last best hope.

[lancdem]

21. They think Wilson will be charged?

Hahahahaha! Boy, are they in for a rude awakening!

[Fridays Child]

35. Compassionate Conservatives in Delusional Denial

[robertpaulsen]

12. HA! Could be the verification of last year's Plame Threads.

How sweet it is!

[Lex]

14. unanticipated shift = the forgery of uranium-yellowcake document?

Maybe the unanticipated shift is the grand jury's interest in this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake_Forgery

"The Yellowcake forgery refers to a set of false documents that were used in the justification of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The documents suggested that Iraq attempted to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. In the 2003 State of the Union address by President George W. Bush and in Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the United Nations Security Council, Bush and Powell cited the forgeries as "indisputable" evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.

The documents had long been suspected as frauds by United States intelligence, and had been investigated and discounted well before these 2003 presentations. Barbro Owen-Kirkpatrick, Ambassador to Niger, had investigated and "debunked" claims of yellowcake sales to Iraq.<1> In early 2002, Ambassador Joseph Wilson had been dispatched to Niger to investigate the claim of yellowcake sales, prompted by an intelligence report, based on the forgeries, which had been circulated from Vice President Dick Cheney's office. On February 22, 2002 Wilson reported to the CIA and the State Department that the information was "unequivocally wrong."

On March 7, 2003, only days before the invasion, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released results of his analysis of the documents. Reportedly, it took IAEA officials only a matter of hours to determine that these documents were fake. Using little more than a Google search, IAEA experts discovered indications of a crude forgery, such as the use of incorrect names of Niger officials. As a result, the IAEA reported to the U.N. Security Council that the documents were "in fact not authentic."

Soon thereafter, the documents became generally accepted by the press as falsified. In July 2003, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan stated, "he truth now, we know, is that a forgery was put together to get this country into a war with Iraq, that forgery found its way into our intelligence agencies, it found its way into the State of the Union, and the president of the United States should show more indignation and outrage that this was done." Buchanan added, "Somebody in our own government knew very well that was a forgery, and they advanced it on up the line." <2>"

[Fridays Child]

37. Interesting thought. Could it have been a product of the WHIG?

Or, perhaps, OSP?

[Lex]

39. That's what I'm wondering too.

Here's the pertient part from that link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake_Forgery

"Soon thereafter, the documents became generally accepted by the press as falsified.

In July 2003, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan stated, "he truth now, we know, is that a forgery was put together to get this country into a war with Iraq, that forgery found its way into our intelligence agencies, it found its way into the State of the Union, and the president of the United States should show more indignation and outrage that this was done." Buchanan added, "Somebody in our own government knew very well that was a forgery, and they advanced it on up the line." <2>

It is as yet unknown how Italian intelligence came by the documents and why they were not given directly to the U.S. In 2005, Vincent Cannistaro, the former head of counterterrorism operations at the CIA and the intelligence director at the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan, expressed the opinion that the documents had been produced in the United States and funneled through the Italians . . ."

[Fridays Child]

45. Re: funneling the forgeries through Italy...

Michael Ledeen's name has been raised in that connection, and he does have strong ties to that country's political scene.

[Jane Austin]

46. Michael Ledeen?

I'm drawing a blank on his connection to this.

[Jane Austin]

15. Thanks for getting this on the Recommended page.

I think this info is terribly important, as well as heartening, to everyone who is hoping for some justice.

[understandinglife]

17. Judge Tatel: "were the leak at issue .. less harmful to national security"

Mr Fitzgerald has convinced more than one judge of the severity of what he is pursuing. What Mr Fitzgerald has not done is grand-stand; but he is running perhaps the most significant GRAND JURY in American history.

Lawrence O'Donnell clearly "got it"; as does Sydney Blumenthal:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4041542

Great pickup; recommended!


By the way, it is not 'blather'; it was a major act of treason for anyone to have linked Ms Valerie Plame Wilson to CIA. No spin machine exists to make that fact disappear.

WATCH IT; SPREAD IT http://www.bushflash.com/right.html

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[Jane Austin]

23. I agree with you.

You said:

By the way, it is not 'blather'; it was a major act of treason for anyone to have linked Ms Valerie Plame Wilson to CIA. No spin machine exists to make that fact disappear.

And I say:

I completely agree that the charge is not blather. What I think is blather is the talking-heads-talking-points-pundit-crapola about Rove leaking her actual name.

[understandinglife]

27. I understand your perspective and agree with it! (nt)

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[jim3775]

20. I'm pretty sure the shift is about the disclosure of a ...

classified state department memo. Someone posted a link to a Kos diray on this subject.

[jim3775]

22. Kos diary link

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/13/141246/050

[understandinglife]

44. Here's a bit of speculation I posted in that thread:

At:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/13/141246/050#259

Indeed, the referenced document is a State Department document that was classified until leaked.

Agree with your analysis, particularly regarding the use of the qualifier "apparently."

For consideration, one might speculate:

- that by the time the meeting transpired that State and CIA were already at severe odds with each other over the enterprise of 'fixing the intelligence to ... .'

- that Bolton and Plame/Wilson had, by the time of the 2002 meeting, had significant differences of opinion on Iraqi and other WMD issues.

- that one way someone at State might perceive as a mechanism to discredit CIA was to build a case for not just nepotism, but bias, fully expecting that should Wilson actually go to Niger he would return with info that would support CIA against State.

- that they never thought any of the info would ever be leaked, because, in 2002 and up to the late spring of 2003, those eager for aggressive war on Iraq had drunk the 'welcome us with roses' kool-aid. They never expected the horror that attended 'bring-um on'; they never anticipated Ambassador Wilson would go public; they never anticipated that Rove would do what he did.


Peace.

http://www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[many a good man]

49. VALERIE's revenge?

Do we know that she testified? I would assume so. Now THAT would be an interesting deposition!

[Jane Austin]

24. And broadly speaking.

the dismantling of a whole clandestine info-gathering apparatus which was crucial to our security.

To me, that is just a shocking thing to do; but I guess to Rove and Bush, it wasn't as important as ruining Wilson.

Bastards.

[me b zola]

58. It seems the dismantling of the clandestine apperatus was quite intentiona

After novaks initial column outing Ms. Plame, he then wrote a second article that outed her front company. I think that *this* may well be the focus of the investigation. If so, then we are looking for several inditements of high ranking WH office/cabinet holders.

[K-W]

29. The fact that these people have done so many illegal things

that we could go on all day listing potential places an investigation could go is pretty funny, dark funny, but funny.

[Pathwalker]

30. Do we KNOW Bush DIDN'T want to destroy WMD knowledge?

How do we know THIS was not their true intention - to destroy all knowledge of the exact locations of the world's WMDs, since this WAS Valerie Plame's real job?

[Just Me]

54. If the facts show that to be true, that would be flat-out treason!!!

If they intentionally destroyed the network tracking WMDs, that would be a direct act against this nation's national security. THEY would be considered domestic enemies to America, herself.

Just imagining such a ruthless activity makes me dizzy considering the depth of repercussions and consequences. I mean, whoah!!!

[Jane Austin]

31. Good Golly and Geez Loueez!

I just looked up the phrase "unanticipated shift" in dogpile, and it's been hanging out there since Nov. 18, 2004!

I found it in an AP story about Judge Hogan refusing to quash Cooper's subpoena.

Here's the quote:

<snip>

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said he needed additional information due to an "unanticipated shift" in the grand jury's investigation.

<snip>

Why in the name of all that's Holy has this change in the original scope of the investigation not been noticed in the thousands of hours of media time spent on this subject?

Pulitzers all around for Blumenthal for finding it and using it.

[burythehatchet]

32. Mr Fitzgerald meet Ms. Edmonds, Sibel meet Patrick

ya'll have a lot to talk about.

[Jane Austin]

33. So, will Fitz call Edmonds to testify?

Or do you mean they'll have time to get to know each other in exile. :(

I hope you mean the first!

[burythehatchet]

40. I'm alluding to the fact that when Sibel's information is

compared to Fitzgerald's, the shite will truly hit the fan. I'm very optimistic that will happen.

[Jane Austin]

41. Thanks. I sure hope that's where it goes.

n/t

[loudsue]

52. From your keyboard to God's ears!!!

:kick::kick::kick:

[drm604]

36. I noted that last night.

Well, actually very early this morning. Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1927487&mesg_id=1927677

I was surprised that no one seemed interested.

[Jane Austin]

38. More likely, they were headed off to bed. :)

n/t

[drm604]

42. True,

but I was thinking about why it wasn't noticed this morning. But I guess that thread had fallen off the front page by then.

[Jane Austin]

43. Threads go off the front page really fast when

the front page is carrying three threads on the same subject, and things like "My favorite radio personality has link to <insert favorite website> about interview that's been talked about here all day. :(

[Jane Austin]

47. I hope everyone gets to see this.

So . . . kick!

[Sparkman]

48. John Dean, Nixon's special counsel, offers legal assesment of Rove...

John Dean, in the middle of Tricky Dick's melt down, and attourney watching the process from the inside of the last great Republican pres. to feel the heat sights the

"The Jonathan Randel Leak Prosecution Precedent"
This Randel was a DEA guy, convinced a Brit. (Lord Michael Ashcroft) was being overlooked by the DEA, on money laundering. So Randel "leaked the fact that Lord Ashcroft's name was in the DEA files". Lord Ashcroft's sued Randel and had the U.S. Attorney pursue Randel for the leak.

Long story short, On 1/9/2003, "Randel was sentenced to a year in a federal prison, followed by three years probation."
The parallels to Rove, according to John Dean, "If Rove's leak fails to fall under the statute that was used to prosecute Randel, I do not understand why." Randel was prosecuted under Title 18, U.S. Code, Sect. 641 (theft for conversion for one's own use, of government records & Info. for Non-governmental purposes.

John Dean thinks "No Apparent Violation Of The Identities Protection Act", a TREASON thingy, for the Rove situation. A fine point.

The Title 18, S.641 will just have to do.

Read the Dean at Find Law site:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20050715.html

Sorry, I can't get the URL to underline.

[Jane Austin]

50. Thanks for the link.

John Dean's analysis of Rove/ Plame has been some of the best.

[Zen]

51. This is getting quite interesting - I hope the punch line is half as good

I wouldn't mind if this story hung around for another year though :D

[Peace Patriot]

53. The coincidence of the dates of Novak's outing of Plame (7/14/03) and

the highly suspicious death of Brit WMD expert Dr. David Kelly, three days later (7/17/03) has struck me as interesting. And it is also interesting that a common figure in the two events is: Judith Miller.

Two weapons experts stopped cold. One by outing. One by death (and I'm about 99% convinced it wasn't suicide). And what all was going on that summer, politically and in Iraq? The hunt for WMDs in Iraq. A find of WMDs was badly needed by Bush/Blair.

Judith Miller was involved in the hunt for WMDs in Iraq (and of course had pumped the war on the front pages of the NYT with false WMD info).

Judith Miller appears to be mixed up in the Plame outing (doing jail time for protecting somebody--Cheney, Libby, Rove...and possibly laundered Plame's ID to other reporters).

And Judith Miller was close to David Kelly (he was a major source for her book, "Germs"), was the recipient of one of his last emails--the one in which he warned of "many dark actors playing games"--and failed to disclose either thing in her news article about Kelly's death on 7/21/03 in the NYT.

Is Miller just a patsy reporter, caught up in an exciting story, thrilled by war, and easily used by masterminds like Cheney? Or is she some kind of Mata Hari?

Joseph Wilson recently said she was "collateral damage" in the Bush's regime's war on dissent. But I don't know if he knows of her connections to David Kelly, or that she failed to disclose them in a news article during that period. That really colors things for me, and gives rise to dark suspicions. Why would she try to hide her connections to Kelly? (--a mortal sin in journalism; that is, in real journalism).

I certainly think that "Plamegate" has more to do with Cheney weapons dealing than with the desire to punish Wilson for whistleblowing. (--lots of ways to punish Wilson, why risk treason charges?). Disabling the Plame WMD covert network was very likely the main goal. And there may have been a specific reason in summer 2003--linking the two events (Plame and Kelly)--which I suspect was a covert plot to PLANT WMDs in Iraq. A plot that was foiled.

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. THIS IS ALL SPECULATION. But it sure feels right, and explains a lot of things--for instance, what Kelly might have known that got him killed; not what he said to the BBC--that they "sexed up" the docs--but what he might say NEXT; and what may have caused his change of heart about the "sexed up" intel, that summer, after the invasion (he supported the invasion). It's my read on his character that PLANTING WMDs in Iraq would have offended his sense of honor and his devotion to his profession (science), and would have caused him to regret his public silence about the "sexed up" intel before the war.

I can't help but remember the way Judith Miller went running around in Iraq with US troops looking for WMDs after the invasion. She criticized them for not looking hard enough, threatened them with her connections in the Pentagon, and became a great annoyance to the commanders in the field. True, she had a lot riding on a find of WMDs; but it's hard not to look at this behavior now and wonder why she seemed so sure they would be found.

I also suspect that, in her news article on Kelly's death, she may have invented a statement by him--placed in the article without quotes--in which he purportedly criticized US troops for their lack of diligence in looking for the WMDs. It just doesn't seem to fit with the whistleblowing scientist--and it seems so self-serving (to Miller).

And if this is so--if Kelly stumbled upon, or even foiled, a plot to plant WMDs in Iraq--it may be just one of the things that Cheney and Gang are covering up (a veritable padlocked dungeon of screaming demons). But it's a quite important one, politically. A find of WMDs in Iraq in summer '03 would have completely altered the political landscape in the US and the UK; uncovering a plot to fake such a find would most certainly put you in peril of your life; and disclosure of it now would more than likely bring down the junta.

Maybe. They always have Diebold and ES&S (and easily misdirected news monopolies) to fall back on.

[Jane Austin]

55. I suspect it's going to be harder to crack Judith Miller's connections

than any other part of this case.

I hope they can get at the truth without her.

[Generator]

57. Great post!

Whew. I remember the David Kelly thing so well..but I never knew he was connected to Miller!

I don't think the target was Wilson either. Hell, maybe even Rove believes that, but the puppetmaster behind Bush's brain is of course, evil darth vader himself, Cheney. (Libby who was told by Cheney-I have no doubt, that's what Wilson also suspected though he doesn't connect it to Cheney or does he?)
Cheney didn't personally send Wilson I guess..but funny I bet he wanted Wilson to go to Africa and then he could be used for the purpose of outing Plame. The CIA sent him and I bet Cheney said, why yes..fine choice! Because the point was to get Valerie Plame off the WMD beat. It's really the only thing that makes sense. This, we'll show you Wilson stuff..how does connecting Wilson to Plame show that Wilson was wrong? It makes no sense..unless Plame had something on this admin...and that is the truth so they of course won't actually accuse Plame but Wilson is the fall guy. I realize ruining her career is good payback against Wilson..but it's too much to risk without a bigger reason. (unless as many suspect it's their usual hubris and idiocy at work..I don't claim the answer)

About planting WMD..I always said if they were truly good at evil they would have done that! But hmmm...your timing is right on.... it was at that time that the weapons needed to be turning up..but still they didn't..so was it the justice department getting involved in the Plame outing the reason that put the cabosh on that? Too close for them to get caught..we'll never know..but interesting speculations.

[Jane Austin]

59. Are their any other Kelly connections to the Plame case

other than Judith Miller?

I'd love to hear if there are.

Thanks.

[grumpy old fart]

56. There are hints of big things to come in the Court rulings so far.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20050707/cm_huffpost/003769/nc:742

"Judge Tatel’s opinion has eight blank pages in the middle of it where he discusses the secret information the prosecutor has supplied only to the judges to convince them that the testimony he is demanding is worth sending reporters to jail to get. The gravity of the suspected crime is presumably very well developed in those redacted pages. Later, Tatel refers to “aving carefully scrutinized voluminous classified filings.”

<snip>

"All the judges who have seen the prosecutor’s secret evidence firmly believe he is pursuing a very serious crime, and they have done everything they can to help him get an indictment"