A Gannon Hypothesis

[justiceischeap]

Someone posted another thread entitled Gannon on the Plame investigation.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1606349

After going to FR and reading a few of the posts, I've come to a conclusion.

My conclusion is this:

What if Gannon was placed in the Press Corps to establish his "credibility" as a reporter, therefore not having to reveal confidential sources, so the Plame stuff could be leaked through him?

It seems that is what he is, in fact, eluding to in his posts. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it though.

Here are some snippets of the conversation over there:

Mr.Gannon is not being truthful when he says he does not know why he is being subpoenaed. When he interviewed Wilson last October he made reference to "an internal government memo" purporting to be the minutes of a meeting at which Plame played a key role in getting her husband the Niger assignment.
...
Since the Niger Uranium documents have been judged forgeries, Gannon is suggesting that he was made privy to counterfeit official/government documents which is a crime, and a separate crime at that and logically he would be hauled in front of a grand jury probing the Plame affair.
7 posted on 03/09/2004 7:12:26 AM PST by JohnGalt

Gannon replies:

All this commotion, but the central question has yet to be answered: At the time that Robert Novak's column was published, was Valerie Plame a "covert operative"?

The CIA has refused to comment on this very important point.

If she was not, then no crime has been committed and all communications between the administration and reporters is just gossip.

9 posted on 03/09/2004 7:43:33 AM PST by Jeff Gannon

JohnGalt:

To: Jeff Gannon
What was the document you referred to in the interview with Wilson?
13 posted on 03/09/2004 7:54:55 AM PST by JohnGalt

Finally Gannon:

To: JohnGalt
I disagree with your characterization of the document itself, but that aside, I maintain that I am under no obligation whatsoever to reveal my sources. That is a fundamental element of maintaining a free press.
16 posted on 03/09/2004 8:01:36 AM PST by Jeff Gannon

[MADem]

1. I've been postulating that theory from the moment

...this story broke. He's the egress from the WH, not the source, just a conduit. And there are several degrees of separation between JimmyJeff and the actual source. I think if you tug Gannon, you get McClellan. Now, tugging McClellan, who do you get then??? That's the question!

It wouldn't surprise me if McClellan resigns if he gets backed into a corner and charged by Fitzgerald, et. al., and Chimpy swiftly pardons him so he doesn't have to rat out the rest of the pack. Then Scotty goes to work for some high powered GOP contributor, while his new bride quietly files for divorce.

[Chipper Chat]

7. Poor Scottie.

He is on a very small desert island with a 30-foot wave tsunami coming. He wont survive this. Can you say "scapegannon?"

[Dookus]

2. the problem with the hypothesis

is that being a reporter doesn't really give him any special protection.

[justiceischeap]

4. Not necessarily so

There were many that thought Miller would be protected but a judge just recently overturned that notion.

[Dookus]

6. well I have argued

that Miller SHOULD be protected, but legal precedent, widely accessible to anybody in the White House, disagrees with me.

I don't think they could've reasonably expected that he would be protected.

Besides, Novak has said that his information came from a government official, not another reporter.

[justiceischeap]

8. Who's to say Novak is telling the truth

I mean, my conclusion could be completely off-base (which I'm sure it is) but according to Gannon's posts at FR, the documents may not be what everyone thought they were either...

I think there is more of a connection to Plame than people are ready to admit. It's great the MSM is talking about this, but me thinks they're barking up the wrong tree.

[BR_Parkway]

3. You could have a point - that was one thought I had about him

putting himself so far into the limelight - the other being maybe he'd been squeezed a little already with the subpeona and was trying to show ShrubCo that he was ready to be very open if things didn't get handled the right way. He seems to have an arrogant enough streak to think he could take on the BFEE and survive. That right there shows you he's no good at researching enough facts to be a journalist.

[lutherj]

5. It still begs the question, who leaked it to Gannon? Since it was leaked

through Novak and given to several other reporters, how could Gannon provide cover? Actually (to answer my own question) I suppose if Gannon were to fabricate some bogus trumped up source for the leak that leads to a dead end somehow, then the white house could claim the case resolved and shut down the investigation.

Anyone suspect that Gannon has some kind of intelligence operative background? That might explain why he can't be traced before 2002, and why he got easy clearance into the white house press room.

[Eloriel]

9. Widen your focus just a bit -- he was there as an all around

shill and errand boy:

GANNON / ROVE / RATHER connection
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1603949#
Mangate A link between Hannity/Gannon/Rather Memo story
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1588477
Link: http://mediamatters.org/items/200502100001

Gannon -- Connecting the Dots
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3131271