The Bloodhound is sniffing at the desk of Dick Cheney....

[kentuck]

More and more, it looks like the whole conspiratorial idea may lead to one man - Dick Cheney. We know that Cheney has a penchant for control and secrecy. Remember the secret energy files just befoe 9/11? The trail is getting warmer the closer they get to the office of the Vice-President.

Karl Rove was working with Lewis Libby, Cheney's Chief of Staff. They both were working with Stephen Hadley to make sure George Tenet was on the right page. Hadley was the liaison from the State Dept to the VP to the CIA. But, not only that, there was a special group set up within the VP's office called the "WHIG", whose job it was to do what? We know that Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Karl Rove, and one or two more WH aides were on that group. But, with Matalin on it, it appears it originated from the office of Dick Cheney. The bloodhound is looking up at a picture of Herr Cheney and is starting to howl...

[pf99]

1. Agree

I think when (if) we can ever get to the "bottom" of this. We will find "the Big Dick's" "fingerprints" all over this thing

[madaboutharry]

2. Thom Hartmann thinks the dogs are

going to start howling in the Oval Office itself. Oh, the beauty of it.

[mwb970]

3. Cheney is the key to it all.

It is becoming evident now (to those who missed it before) that this one vile man is at the heart of everything that has gone so crazily wrong with America since this dreadful regime clawed its way to power.

For me, nothing (I mean NOTHING) could be sweeter than to watch Cheney go down. In flames. Straight to Hell, where he came from.

Pass the popcorn.

[Bullwinkle925]

4. Oh Sweet Mysteries of Life -

Here ya go ...

:popcorn:

[Talismom]

5. I just hope it's not too late to save a semblence of democracy.

What with the vote being screwed with and the SC having a guy added who will be all to happy to sign away our civil liberties, it's hard for me to be very hopeful. I'm afraid it's all getting to me...:(

[Burried News]

6. Brings to mind Lon Chaney as the Wolfman

Duck Down Dick - they'll never find you - of course I've been known to be wrong before and would be happy to be wrong again.

P_sst hide under here.:hurts:

[wli]

7. where is Michael Ledeen in all this?

Has he been called to testify? Is he a "person of interest" or "subject of investigation"?

[kentuck]

8. Isn't he mostly an Israeli/Middle East expert ?

Only if there was an Israeli card to play..

[wli]

11. AEI/PNAC guy, advisor to Karl Rove, has unsavory dealings

... and he is suspected by some (not the GJ that I know of) of having committed the Niger document forgery or otherwise ordered it. He also has lots of ties to Ghorbanifar (e.g. Ghorbanifar was his source for various things).

Also, the AEI is connected intimiately to the "neoconservative" movement as a whole, and there's a lot of not particularly covert fascist rhetoric coming out of there. e.g. Ledeen wrote a book called "Universal Fascism" and talks about being Machiavellian, saying that leaders must "enter into evil," and so on.

[suegeo]

13. Where is Donny Rumsfeld in all of this?

He controls the majority of spending on intelligence in this sad sorry Nation.

The CIA gets 15% of the intell budget, little insane Donny controls 85%. (I read that in Bamford's book "Pretext to War") Plus the stupidest man alive (Feith) was running crappy intel out of the DoD, if I'm not mistaken.

Plus, Rumsfeld is a nincompoop, and I'd hate for him to emerge for all this unnecessary death and destruction unscathed.

PS: Good catch, spell checker, on "nincompoop"

[skip fox]

9. My guess is VP's office found the Plame-Wilson-Niger connection

independently of the State Department memo since his office would have felt somewhat responsible for having requested the trip to Niger.

But then the information goes STRAIGHT TO ROVE. Why would anyone else handle it when the world master of such filth is in attendance??

I believe he orchestrated the KNOWING and DELIBERATE leak of a covert CIA official, one whose identity the agency was actively concealing.

Each new piece of evidence suggests that a number of administrative officials will face multiple indictments in the leak of Plame's identity. Rove will receive probably more than one.

1. The inanity and hysteria of the RNC's (and others') spinning has been noted by reporters across the nation as indicative a party which "off its game." Expecting a terrible outcome, they were stalling for time, hoping the Supreme Court Nominee would bump the story off the front pages. (For a day it did . . . until Walter Pincus's story yesterday about classifications on the State Department memo sent to Air Force One.) Al Franken told us yesterday (7/21) that after some difficulty he was able to demonstrate to the RNC staff that the story on their web-site which states Wilson claimed the Vice President sent him to Niger was simply false, a lie (showing the context for Wilson's quote yet again). What was the RNC's reaction? "We're standing by it." Simple as that. My point it, when they are willing to be so consciously and blatantly dissembling in public (which can be used against them), that they are very distressed about the future.

2. We know there were at least 6 initial reporters contacted (including Novak, Miller, Cooper, and Pincus) and that 3 of those contacted called at least one secondary source the confirm the story (Cooper implies he had more than single confirming source named as Scooter Libby). We know that Cooper's initial source (Rove) specifically released him, but that Miller's would not do so for her. Since we already know Novak's initial source is Libby, there would be no reason him not to release Miller if he were her source (unless the crime was more obvious). Therefore we know that there were two (Libby and Rove) initial sources and probably at least another. Already we are deeply into the terrain of collaboration. But when we realize that to have 3 confirming sources available, since the "conspiracy" (it becomes the unavoidable word) could not insure who the reporters would call to confirm their stories, they had to have several primed (ready and willing to confirm) (Of course a confirming source for one reporter could be a primary course for another.)
Impossible to accomplish these 9 (or 9+) calls by at least 2, probably 3 or more initial caller, with others ready to confirm, without coordination. It wouldn't be rocket science for the Rove's Machiavellian machine he calls a mind, and it would be Rove of all people in the group of officials (probably largely composed of the White House Iraq Group) would direct (mastermind) the entire, making sure no two officials attempted to act as an initial source for a single reporter (that would appear too eager), that the story be believable (pitched nonchalantly, briefly), that the story is given in slightly different forms, and that the confirming sources were in place and with the story somewhat different in non-substantive matters (so it doesn't sound like story leaked by rote.) Therefore it was deliberately leaked.

3. We know Rove has had multiple visits by the FBI and to the grand jury. The implication is as loud as it gets.


4. The State Department memo, said to be at least one origin of the information concerning the Plame-Wilson-Niger connection and reputedly of high interest to the grand jury, was reported by Wlater Pincus yesterday to me clearly marked "S" for "Secret." Today's reports in fact indicate it was marked "TS," "Top Secret." Therefore the official who disseminated the identity from this source was highly aware that the CIA was actively trying to conceal Plame's identity. Therefore it was knowingly leaked.

Therefore, RNC's spin, the numbers of callers, the deliberate and repetitive acts, Rove's visits with FBI and grand jury, and the knowing intent behind the leak = Rove will go down in Plames. Likely he is guilty of leaking (with knowledge), leading a conspiracy to leak, and perjury.

There's no way out of this for Rove. The best he can hope for is the softest landing t5hat does the least damage for other officials and the Republican Party. (On a hot summer afternoon?)

[Imagevision]

10. Inconceivable that Cheney knew nothing, not a chance!

[silvershadow]

12. speaking of the secret energy policy hearings

don't you suppose the reason they were secret was it all had to do with Iraq? It was probably the "Let's invade Iraq and steal their oil" policy meeting.

[Mr Rabble]

15. Of course it was!

What else could possible be so secret that absolutely no information from the meetings has been made public?

Nothing. Thats what.

History will not be kind to these creeps.

[donkeyotay]

18. All this secrecy crap is really pissing me off

Government of, by and for the people is increasingly changed to one that claims we have no right to know. It was OUR energy policy they discussed, yet it's secret. Now this privatized government has taken us to war - a war we pay for in blood, treasure and international standing - but it's origins are too secret to share with us.

These neo-f**ks believe in ruling the masses, believe in ruling by deception, and that is incompatible with democracy. You either believe in the people's right to representative governance, or you don't. It's like pregnancy; you can't be a little bit pregnant, and you can't be sort of democratic.

The only thing this president swore to do was uphold the Constitution, and given what his administration has done, I'd say they don't even believe in it let alone uphold it.

[warrens]

14. Remember, top dollar paid for tix to THIS

[rrrevolution]

16. Any Public Quotes from Cheney/Libby/Condi/Ari/Powell/ Hughes?

Can someone help me out. Have any of these characters made public quotes on the Plame leak? Or their participation in the Fitz Investigation?

Hmmmm .... silence was the Watergate approach. Hope it works just as well for them!

[DrFunkenstein]

17. A Good Reference To The WHIG Group

From Source Watch (a good go-to resource):

http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=White_House_Iraq_Group

Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus, in the August 10, 2003 Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39500-2003Aug9?language=printer), seem to have broken the story of the White House Iraq Group, with credit to Josh Marshall for keeping the story alive (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002642.html):

The escalation of nuclear rhetoric a year ago, including the introduction of the term "mushroom cloud" into the debate, coincided with the formation of a White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, a task force assigned to "educate the public" about the threat from Hussein, as a participant put it.

Systematic coordination began in August, when Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card, Jr. formed the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, to set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with Baghdad. A senior official who participated in its work called it "an internal working group, like many formed for priority issues, to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities."

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

"In September 2002, the White House was beginning a major press offensive designed to prove that Iraq had a robust nuclear weapons program. That campaign was meant to culminate in the president's Oct. 7 speech in Cincinnati."

---------------------------

Plamegate: Beyond Karl Rove

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Plamegate:_Beyond_Karl_Rove

---------------------------

[yebrent]

19. Any chance that Tenet is singing like a canary?

Maybe he is more loyal to the CIA than people give him credit for. Tenet could be the key witness in this whole scandal. Especially if Rove or anyone from Cheney's office followed up with him and asked more details about the Wilsons.

[tridim]

20. "He's a bad man"

"Mr. Cheney is a bad man"

I expect Lynne Cheney will not use that phrase any time soon.