Huge Bolton scoop courtesy of Arianna

[Halliburton]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/plamegate-the-john-bolto_b_7648.html

Looks like Bolton is in more trouble than we realized.

[eek]

1. interesting. he visited judith miller in jail

according to NPR a couple of days ago.

[Bumblebee]

5. to give her permission to reveal the source?

That's grand but I want Rove in there too!!!

[MADem]

14. Hell no--he would never do that. More like this:

To tell her if she opened her mouth she'd be memorialized in a Mass at Saint Patricks, probably. Keep yer lip zipped, Judi!!!

He is in this up to the eyeballs. That recess appointment came out of the blue. Sure, they knew it might be a tough road to confirmation, but damn, that story about Bolton frequenting PLATO's RETREAT and being abusive to his wife and staff never took hold.

If the corporate media does not cover it, the Congress does not ask. So WHY a recess appointment?

Perhaps because there's OTHER SHIT BREWING? Say, don't ambassadors have a certain degree of immunity?

Talk about getting the guy gone, and handing him a forty foot pole to fend off the dogs nipping at his heels....

[txindy]

16. LOL He only has immunity in other countries if he commits crimes there

Not if he commits crimes here! Although I'd bet there are countries that would challenge his immunity. Just a guess. ;)

[MADem]

28. Well, he will just have to stay within the international zone of NYC

Hope the couch in your UN office is comfy, John Boy! Don't fergit the lawn mower to keep that 'stache in good order!

[txindy]

30. Oh, there might be one or two (hundred) UN folks willing to move him

And chuck him where the feds can have at him. Oh, my, yes, I think so.

[MADem]

31. Heh, heh

I saw, on an international channel, interviews with some of the UN diplomats. With great courtesy, grace, and skill, they all opined that they would "teach" the moustached one how the deal worked in their body.

I never saw any other group of individuals say "Fuck him, and the horse he rode in on" with greater panache, floridity, and grand diplomacy. It was quite, albeit quietly, hysterical to behold!!!

[Bumblebee]

21. I should have put "permission" in quotation marks

but it is quite possible that they discussed what she can and cannot say, to split the difference and for her to get a release. It is also quite possible that she asked him to come to discuss that-- although I am surprised all these things were not done through her lawyer. We will just have to wait and see. My other question is more important though: would that mean Rove is off the hook?

[MADem]

27. Who knows? Alternative theory follows

The following is all speculation:

Fitz is gonna EXTEND THE GRAND JURY. Judy is counting on getting out in OCT when they disband, but they are a-gonna keep working, another six months at least--no Thanksgiving, no Xmas, no Chanukah, no NYC parties with pals, no nada. Sources say (they never name them, the assholes) that she has had about enough of watching TELEMUNDO (most of her roommates are Hispanic) and getting lousy papers a day late, and wants to cave...could be old Captain Kangaroo went in there to give her a SERIOUS course correction...

As for Rove, why would it have to be an either-or proposition? Why would it not be that Rove sent her to Bolton to get the dirt????

[ewagner]

45. Absolutely correct

He was there to give a "friendly reminder" to stay the course....

[lyonn]

46. Hands on kind of guy -

Maybe that is why he personally visited her instead of his atty.

[jim3775]

2. Thanks for posting this

I'm trying to read everything new about this case and sometimes things like this slip through the cracks for me.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Will the media cover this?

Very interesting. I have a journalism degree, but consider Judy Miller contemptible for her cheerleading for this insane war. Arianna is right: She is covering up for this Administration, not for some noble First Amendment cause. And flame away; she bears great responsibility for her uncritical "reporting."

[Halliburton]

4. this is really huge

This started at Bolton who then passed on the information to hacks like Rove and Libby.

[Applan]

6. Gotta love Arianna

She nails it here:

"So when Joe Wilson started making a stink about faulty intel, you can bet that those whose raison d'etre had been spreading faulty intel would move mountains to discredit him. This is a key point because, in the end, Plamegate isn't about the outing of Valerie Plame or the sliming of Joe Wilson. It's about Iraq and the White House's attempt to slam the door on questions about the corrupted intelligence that was used to lead us into a disastrous war. Intel that Fleitz and Bolton played a key role in shaping."

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. WOW!!! This is HUGE but not unexpected - it all fits!!! Here's an excerpt

but you really MUST read the whole thing;

(snip)

According to two sources, Bolton's former chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, was at least one of the sources of the classified information about Valerie Plame that flowed through the Bush administration and eventually made its way into Bob Novak's now infamous column.

(snip)

He is a career CIA agent who Bolton handpicked to join him at Foggy Bottom, having gotten to know him during the administration of the first President Bush. While working as Bolton's top aide, Fleitz also continued his work in the CIA's WINPAC division, the group responsible for some of the worst prewar intelligence on Iraq (for instance, they were, among other things, big fans of Curveball and had "high confidence" in the presence of WMD in Iraq).

(snip)

Over the years, Fleitz earned a reputation as Bolton's chief enforcer, a swashbuckler willing to go the extra mile to make the intel fit the desired policy -- even if it meant knocking a few heads. And his dual role (serving what he called his "two bosses") put him in the position to pick up -- and deliver to Bolton -- all kinds of information… including, perhaps, the spousal standing of a certain CIA analyst named Valerie. Even though Plame was in operations and Fleitz was in WINPAC, he obviously was in a position to know.

(snip)

So what does this all mean to the ongoing Plamegate investigation? Well, another source close to Bolton recently described his management style to me as "Very hands on. Nothing goes by him. His staff does what he wants. He's not the kind of guy to have his staffers freelancing." So, if Fleitz was a key source of the Plame info and Bolton is not the kind of guy to have his staffers freelancing… does this mean Bolton was being less than forthcoming when he told people, in the words of my source, that "the first time he ever heard Valerie Plame's name was when he read it in the newspaper"? Or was he merely sharing talking points with Tim Russert?

(snip)

RECOMMENDED!!! I hope a lot of people read this thread. THE PIECES ARE COMING TOGETHER!!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. This needs FOUR MORE VOTES to reach the Greatest Page n/t

[Gloria]

9. kick!!!! and nominated

[rateyes]

10. kick and nominated! eom

[liveoaktx]

11. Related info o Fleitz

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000599.html
But let me give friends and colleagues in the media one important lesson in how the government works. Fred Fleitz, an interesting and provocative CIA official who was loaned to Bolton, was not operating in his own right.

Fleitz was not renegade himself. He was following instructions of Bolton, operating on behalf of Bolton, in a manner consistent with the expectations -- and apparently the behavior paradigm -- of John Bolton.

The fact that Fred Fleitz sent emails only matters if Fleitz was operating in a way that Bolton says was irresponsible or at odds with his instructions or intent. Otherwise, Fleitz was an agent for Bolton.

The article by Reuters makes this semi-clear near the end of the piece:

In the e-mail exchange, made available to Reuters by Bolton's opponents, Fleitz said he was writing "on behalf of" Bolton and expressed his boss' "displeasure" with a memo the State Department's intelligence bureau wrote in rebuttal to an August 2002 CIA analysis of China's recently announced export control list.

[Scout1071]

12. However, John Bolton has been called before the grand jury

according to the http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B13FB39580C718EDDAE0894DD404482> among others: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_07_17.php

I tried to leave a comment for at Arianna's post, but keep getting errors.

Edited to note that the above info on him testifying doesn't make it any less interesting and noteworthy that he has visited Judy in jail. Not in the least.

[txindy]

15. Lied to the Grand Jury, did he? We can hope.

Let him compound his crimes by lying about them under oath. It wouldn't be a surprise.

[Scout1071]

17. He lied to Congress when he didn't reveal he had testified and

was part of an ongoing investigation. And those bastards still confirmed him.

[Vinnie From Indy]

19. I don't think he was confirmed as there was no vote.

He was appointed by the Smirky the Lesser as a "recess" appointment.

[Scout1071]

22. Excellent. Thanks for jogging my allergy affected memory.

I believe that is correct.

[txindy]

24. Oh, my, you've got one of those, too? My sympathies.

I know exactly how you feel.

:hug:

[Scout1071]

25. Oooohhh. That sad, coughing smiley is perfect.

And thanks for the hug.

:hug:

[Sydnie]

26. And I have maintained that the papers that they refused to release

to the Senators on that committee are central to this whole mess. I think so even more now.

[Verve]

13. Nominated! n/t

[UTUSN]

18. Just Like Shrub to Spit in Everybody's Eye

by promoting, rewarding, protecting his stooges: Whenever they get caught he promotes them--ROVE to czar of billions of $$, BOLTON to the position.

[understandinglife]

20. Not a surprise for some, but to have this being broadcast now ...

.... is, in_deed, a big deal.

I assure you all the WHIGers, Condi and Rove among them, plus Cheney and Bush, now have reason to sweat bullets.

I'll be interested to see how quickly Powell and Tenet "roll-over" -- they now have no reason to hesitate gushing before that Grand Jury.

What a pack of treasonous war criminals.


Peace.

[glitch]

44. They're all buying ranches in Paraguay now. I speculate ;) nt

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. Such a perfect fit! Here is SEYMOUR HERSH on BOLTON in 2003 "Stovepipe"

article in the New Yorker which stirred up such a storm. I recommend the entire article. Bolton, of course, was one of the primary hawks driving the Iraq invasion. He is at the center of all of this.

I strongly believe that it's not primarily about silencing or punishing Wilson, but about destroying the legitimate CIA WMD intelligence gathering by Plame and her cover company. We must not forget that she was not the only one burned - that entire program was shut down. That made it much easier for Bolton and the other neocons to stovepipe and publicize only cherry-picked, manipulated "information." Without "competition" from the REAL agents who were gathering information, the way was far more open to manufacturing only the "evidence" that supported the neocons' goals.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact

THE STOVEPIPE

How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2003-10-27
Posted 2003-10-20

(snip)

A few months after George Bush took office, Greg Thielmann, an expert on disarmament with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, or INR, was assigned to be the daily intelligence liaison to John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, who is a prominent conservative. Thielmann understood that his posting had been mandated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought that every important State Department bureau should be assigned a daily intelligence officer. “Bolton was the guy with whom I had to do business,” Thielmann said. “We were going to provide him with all the information he was entitled to see. That’s what being a professional intelligence officer is all about.”

But, Thielmann told me, “Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear.” Thielmann soon found himself shut out of Bolton’s early-morning staff meetings. “I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ‘The Under-Secretary doesn’t need you to attend this meeting anymore.’” When Thielmann protested that he was there to provide intelligence input, the aide said, “The Under-Secretary wants to keep this in the family.”

Eventually, Thielmann said, Bolton demanded that he and his staff have direct electronic access to sensitive intelligence, such as foreign-agent reports and electronic intercepts. In previous Administrations, such data had been made available to under-secretaries only after it was analyzed, usually in the specially secured offices of INR. The whole point of the intelligence system in place, according to Thielmann, was “to prevent raw intelligence from getting to people who would be misled.” Bolton, however, wanted his aides to receive and assign intelligence analyses and assessments using the raw data. In essence, the under-secretary would be running his own intelligence operation, without any guidance or support. “He surrounded himself with a hand-chosen group of loyalists, and found a way to get C.I.A. information directly,” Thielmann said.

In a subsequent interview, Bolton acknowledged that he had changed the procedures for handling intelligence, in an effort to extend the scope of the classified materials available to his office. “I found that there was lots of stuff that I wasn’t getting and that the INR analysts weren’t including,” he told me. “I didn’t want it filtered. I wanted to see everything—to be fully informed. If that puts someone’s nose out of joint, sorry about that.” Bolton told me that he wanted to reach out to the intelligence community but that Thielmann had “invited himself” to his daily staff meetings. “This was my meeting with the four assistant secretaries who report to me, in preparation for the Secretary’s 8:30 a.m. staff meeting,” Bolton said. “This was within my family of bureaus. There was no place for INR or anyone else—the Human Resources Bureau or the Office of Foreign Buildings.”

(snip)

Last time I checked, this web page had a link to an "extra" Q & A session with Hersh, also very valuable and not included in the printed New Yorker article.

[crispini]

29. Well, well, well.

Beginning to look like Ambassador Obnoxious is in this up to his eyeballs. Couldn't have happened to a bigger jackass.

Roll over, Judy, and cough it up.

[marions ghost]

32. connecting the dots

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[Toucano]

33. I've been saying this for months.

I know - without any possible explanation - that Bolton is involved in the Plame scandal.

He's a shit. He had access.

Why do I even bother?

America wants this plate of shit Bush is feeding it.

It's almost clinical.

[Senator]

34. Arianna's just missing it

Part of this story needs to be made more explicit.

Arianna is trying, but just missing.

While this is about the cover-up of "lying us into war," the real bottom line is much simpler.

They said (falsely) that we could have mushroom clouds coming in 45 minutes. (Read it again.)

Now, who really terrorized the American People? What are you more frightened of -- 20 guys with boxcutters or mushroom clouds over our cities with no warning?

This is the underlying reality. And the real crime of treason.

------
www.january6th.org

[nashville_brook]

35. dagum! i just LOVE her!

this article really has me thinking about the potential for the "new" blogosphere if and when indictments get handed down. with such sharp eyes (and ears) and so many links (hyperlinks and otherwise) they are going to have one hell of a time spinning their way out of this.

she really lays this OUT.

[lala_rawraw]

36. Check wilson interview

This was already stated

[DemsUnited]

37. Fleitz (career CIA) & Boss Bolton probably knew that Plame was undercover

which brings the Intelligence Identities and Protection Act back into play. Hell, there's so much stuff Fitzgerald can throw at the entire sorry cast of characters and he probably will -- apparently his style to indict on numerous charges.

[Me.]

38. I Hope This Is Not A Case

of a lower level flunkie being made the sacrificial victim for the higher ups. Though the real nexus of the matter is who revealed the matter to the press, who then made it public.

[senseandsensibility]

39. kick

Please read this!

[passy]

40. Something about Libya

I remember reading something about how Bolton was on some WMD group working on Libya and then got kicked out, he requested that he still be sent the uncensored intelligence he used to receive. Could it be possible that Valerie Plame was working on Libya at that time?

Here is an excerpt from an article about Bolton spying."Today Steve Clemons gets another shoe to drop when he reports that Bolton in fact requested at least one NSA intercept on Libya, in an effort to spy on a fellow State Department appointee, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns. But at the time Bolton made the special request from the NSA for this intercept, he had already been removed from working on Libyan WMD issues at the direct request of the British. I am not sure but I would think that requesting an NSA intercept on a country that isn?t in your ?need-to-know? portfolio of responsibilities would have to be approved by your superiors at State (Richard Armitage and Colin Powell), the NSA itself, and even possibly the White House. That the national security information would be used to spy upon coworkers for your own political purposes would of course be something that these layers of review would question themselves, when they would ask why you need this information when you are no longer working on the Libya WMD issue for the Administration. I mean, why would Armitage and Powell approve Bolton?s fishing expedition on Libya after he had been removed from the assignment?"

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004569.php

If anyone has other links to the lybia story I would appreciate them.

[izzybeans]

41. so the jackass responsible for embarrassing us in front of the UN

General Assembly is now the ambassador to the UN. Fits the Modus Operandi doesn't it?

[terip64]

42. kick

[progressoid]

43. Hold on people....this is not so much a scoop as a lot of supposition.

I think I'll wait for the Fitzgerald report instead.

[Name removed]

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