What's the DU verdict on this Fitzgerald guy?

[crissy71]

Is he a closet Rethug? Can anyone Ashcroft/Cheney/Rove appoints be truly independent? Or is our gov't children learning?

[GRClarkesq]

1. Some info

Mr. Fitzgerald, 43, was born in Brooklyn, the son of Irish immigrants. He graduated from Amherst College, then went on to Harvard Law School. He spent 13 years as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he established himself as a prosecutor of cases involving terrorism.

In the mid-1990's, he helped prosecute a case against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian cleric, and others accused in a conspiracy to bomb the World Trade Center and in a series of other plots involving the United Nations, the F.B.I. building in New York and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.

In 2001, he successfully tried four defendants in connection with the 1998 bombings of United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He helped lead a criminal investigation into Osama bin Laden and his terror network, Al Qaeda, which led to indictments against Mr. bin Laden, whose whereabouts are unknown.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/national/31PROB.html?ex=1073451600&en=17b70a9836669afa&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

NOTES: Currently prosecuting former Gov. Ryan in Ill. Also, he is not a "special prosecutor" like Ken Starr since that law expired without renewal. Some question whether a DOJ employee can be independent enough in this type of situation.

Appointed in 2001 to his current post by Bush.

[SoFlaJets]

2. Let's face it.........

this guy no matter who he is has been hamstrung by the Bush administartions'refusal to act with any kind of urgency on this treasonous matter.The right wings'talking point as expressed numerous times this morning on Washington Journal is;"she sits at a desk and isn't an important CIA agent anyway,as if that makes it OK.We all know Mr.Integrity himself(Bush)could and SHOULD save this country millions of(soon to be wasted)dollarsby doing one thing,and that is say I want to know who it is-(not that he doesn't already.This one comes right out of the Karl Rove playbook and he is just too important to the puppet now occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.Fitzgerald should bring Novak and/or any of the other six journalists that were called in and threaten them with jail under the Patriot act.How great would THAT be slain by their own sword.

[knight_of_the_star]

6. Doesn't matter

If they try to block it we can always organize a campaign to say that BushCo is aiding and abbetting treason. We can pull it off, not easily, but it IS doable.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. he is a bush* political appointee..it should have been an independent

prosecutor...nuff said

[revcarol]

5. I agree.

We need an independent counsel. Amazing, isn't it, how this appointment just "happens" to coincide with Congressional recess, when all those Democratic House and Senate members who were calling for an independent counsel are home in their districts.

[montanacowboy]

4. He works "at the pleasure"

of *. He is a political appointee, beholden to *. No matter how great his credentials, is he going to cut his own nose off? No Rethug has that much integrity. I would like to think so, but considering their track records, it's highly unlikely anything will come of it. And.....he HAS NOT called for a Grand Jury -----that's a tell I think.

[knight_of_the_star]

8. He just got appointed yesterday too

The only reason you would need a Grand Jury is for indictments or subpoenas. I hope this guy actually makes an effort at it though, although I think that it should have been someone picked by the Democrats in Congress.

[bowens43]

7. He's a presidential appointee who reports ultimately to

the justice department . He is in no way , shape or form 'independent'.

[knight_of_the_star]

9. True

But he *looks* independent to the media, and that's all that matters to the stupid sheeple.

[Skittles]

10. I think the verdict is out

Mr. Fitzergerald's resume doesn't seem to describe a man who would be willing to bend over for anyone.

[davsand]

11. I'm gonna sit back and watch before I judge him

He just brought in indictments on former IL Gov Ryan, and that is no small thing. I'll grant you, Ryan did piss in the GOP cereal bowl with his Death Penalty moratorium, but he was theirs, and this guy took him on when the Illinois GOP wouldn't.

The Special Prosecutor law expired and the GOP saw to it that it was not renewed. As a result, they really did hamstring justice in the US. This guy may be the best we get.

Laura

[KFC]

12. The Man is Outstanding and Nonpartisan

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/national/31PROB.html

CHICAGO, Dec. 30 — For some who had still wondered whether Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney here, would really be as aggressive as had been rumored when he arrived a few years ago from New York, the answer came this month.

Mr. Fitzgerald announced that he was prosecuting former Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, in a scandal that had been swirling around long before Mr. Fitzgerald got here and that many people thought would never touch the most powerful politicians in Illinois. But there Mr. Fitzgerald was, a week before Christmas, ticking off the details of a 91-page indictment against Mr. Ryan, seemingly from memory.

That, even Mr. Fitzgerald's former opponents in the courtroom say, is classic Fitzgerald: dogged, dispassionate and endlessly prepared.

"He doesn't let anything go," said George Santangelo, who represented John Gambino, identified by the authorities as a crime family captain, in a case prosecuted by Mr. Fitzgerald. "We duked it out for about three years, and it was quite a duking session. Let me put it to you this way: If John Ashcroft wanted any favors on this one, he went to the wrong guy. This guy is tough."

<snip>

David N. Kelley, a former colleague of Mr. Fitzgerald who was recently appointed interim United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Mr. Fitzgerald always seemed to view himself as "an independent prosecutor" of any case he approached — whatever the politics, whatever the players. When he registered to vote in New York in 1988, he chose "nonpartisan" as his party affiliation, state records show. Many former colleagues said they were unsure what Mr. Fitzgerald's political leanings were. " `The facts will lead us where they lead us' — I think he probably wrote that line," Mr. Kelley said.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

13. The best prosecutor in the country

From what I've read. And he is not a Republican - he's an independent.

[Junkdrawer]

14. For the moment, WHO Fitzgerald is seems less important than..

WHAT he is allowed to do and WHO he reports to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=971411

[demgrrrll]

16. I think he was part of a team who took down a few members of the

Gambino family. I would say he is perfect for the job considering he already has had previous experience with a well known crime family. We'll see what happens but I today I am feeling optimistic. Think I will go out and buy a little mint for mojitos.

[Beetwasher]

15. Fitz May Actually Be Uncompromised HOWEVER

the problem lies in the amount of time involved before he was appointed. A lot could have been disappeared during that time. Witnesses and suspects could have been expertly coached, had dirt dug up on them, or been outright threatened and intimidated into silence or towing the line. The was too much time to plug all the holes.

Fitz may be above reproach, but he may have nothing to find. One can only hope the CIA had the foresight to protect some of the hard evidence that would be necessary to build a case, or Fitz might be left w/ a case built on hearsay, IOW, the word of people in the admin, vs. the word of a handful of journalists and CIA agents.

Also, keep in mind the type of hardball the admin plays. Fitz may be uncompromised now, but who knows what lays in store for him from Bushco. should he really start turning the heat up on Rove and co.

[G_j]

17. if that's the case

I hope that he can find evidence of evidence tampering.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

18. If anyone can, Fitz can

Kenneth M. Karas, a co-chief of the terrorism unit in the United States attorney's office in Manhattan who worked with Mr. Fitzgerald for many years, put it this way: "His brain is like a mainframe computer."
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I sure as hell feel good about this

[demgrrrll]

19. I may need more mojitos. McGovern has written an essay for Buzzflash

that doesn't paint a rosy scenario. I think McGovern is the career CIA analyst that has been the most vocal in his criticisms of this mess. I don't know, this is a real wait and see isn't it.

[diamond14]

20. the CIA demands it be done...and it's TREASON....(link)

Wilsons' wife is named Valerie Plame, and she has worked for the CIA for years. Plame is not an analyst or a secretary. Plame is what the CIA calls a NOC, which stands for "non-official cover." A NOC designation means that Valerie Plame was working under such deep cover that she could not be associated with the American intelligence community in any way, shape or form. Plame worked out of a CIA front company called Brewster Jennings & Associates while she performed her service to America's defense. Her service? Valerie Plame ran a clandestine global network designed to track any person, group or nation that might try to deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

.....Agents within the Bush administration destroyed a network dedicated to what is roundly broadcast as this administration's main mission: Keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/123003A.shtml