Bolton Suspected of Being the Primary Leaker in the Plame Investivation

[skip fox]

1.) We know (one edit; story up in air at present) Bolton gave testimony to Fitzgerald's grand jury.

2.) We know Bolton was one of the officials neo-cons forced upon the State Department in May 2001. The became the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International

3.) We know that a secret State Department memo given to Powell by Armitage just before his trip to Africa in 2003 contained the information (marked secret) to the effect that Wilson's wife (Plame) was instrumental in his visit to Niger.

4.) We know that a number of "high ranking administration officials" knew this information within a day and leaked it (winthin 2) to the press to discredit Wilson and his criticism of the administration with respect to Saddam's desires for WMDs.

Connect the dots. IF THE INFORMATION CAME FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO (as was speculated upon last week because of grand jury testimony in the Plame case THEN IS IS MORE THAN SIMPLY LIKELY THAT BOLTON WAS THE CONDUIT OF THE INFORMATION AND, THEREFORE, THE PRIMARY LEAKER!

Even if Bolton was not on the 2003 trip to Africa, ti was like that in the capacity of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security he would have been given the same momo by Armitage.


Now President Bush is considering appointing Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N. through a mid-term appointment.

If the press begins seriously putting this together and speculating upon it, Bush will either pull back or brazenly apoint him at significant political damage.

[whistle]

1. Bingo....democrats should now demand a special session of

...congress to remove Bolton's nomination before summer recess.

[Booster]

15. I just wish the democrats would do ANYTHING. You would think

they would have learned something during the investigation of Clinton, especially Hillary. IMO, the Dems are just as much of a spectator as the rest of us, although I read more ideas here at DU than I hear coming out of the Dems in Wash.

[wtbymark]

2. I've always had a deep feeling that Bolton was heavily involved

[liberal N proud]

3. If bu$h appoints him in recess, does that make him immune from

prosecution?

I think this was asked here once before, but I never saw an answer.

[skip fox]

4. No. Not a bit. But he could pardon him. Then, however, it would

be suicide to apoint him.

In fact, it the press begins asking these questions and speculating, the it is likely the potential for political damage would be so great the W. might not appoint him.

[madrchsod]

5. no..he`s not above the law.

[Liberal_Andy]

6. On # 1) I believe he testified...

before a State Dept investigation of the Plame affair, but not the GJ. Either way, he lied about it.

[skip fox]

11. Either way he was potentially involved.

:toast:

[wishlist]

7. State Dept says that Bolton has NOT been interviewed in Plame case

Administration has admitted that Bolton was interviewed about case involving use of faulty intelligence about Iraq back in 2003, but State Dept spokesman Noel Clay has issued official statement that Bolton was not interviewed and did not testify on the Plame leak case.

"The Iraq-Niger connection also is at the heart of a separate federal investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into who disclosed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, who is married to former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.

``Mr. Bolton was not interviewed as part of the Fitzgerald investigation,'' Clay said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aV3YoU_OlqKw&refer=us

[ashling]

8. re: #1

The guy is definitely sleaze ... definitely bad for America, but
The State Dept. has admitted that he gave testimony to its inspector general. Do we know for sure that he gave testimony to the GJ? If so, please give the link.

[Bumblebee]

9. We know pretty much for sure he did NOT -- even MSNBC is now

retracting the initial story since their "unimpeachable" source thinks it may be inaccurate. It was on Hardball yesterday in Shuster's update (he was the one who originally reported it).

[wishlist]

10. NBC reporter Schuster made the claim about Plame but State Dept denies

Here is the claim that Bolton testified in Plame GJ case:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:dzQTBBJdTm8J:www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000797.html+MSNBC+Bolton+Grand+Jury&hl=en&client=firefox-a

However, as link in my previous post shows, State Dept has recently stated that Bolton was NOT interviewed in the Fitzgerald's leak case.

I believe MSNBC has backtracked and now doubts their source for David Schuster's report that Bolton did testify in the Plame case.

[Supersedeas]

17. but will investigating authorities want to humiliate the sitting US

ambassador to the UN -- if they can't indict.

[skip fox]

12. If he wasn't interviewed the case is not as strong,but

if he was interviewed by State on the issue, someone else has probably made this supposition.

Is Fitzgerald setting him up?

[meg]

13. You may be missing a few dots

Dot 1: We don't know if the Air Force 1 memo is the source of the leak. The first memo was published June 10th. Also, the AF1 memo was sent to the White House first for transmission to AF1.
Dot 2: We don't know how many potential leakers saw the AF1 memo.
This potential leaker list includes Condi Rice who had her own 'Top Secret' briefing book for use on the Sunday morning talk shows. There have been conflicting reports from various lawyers on the case as to Ari Fleischer's seeing the memo.

I don't see how 'It is more than simply likely that Bolton was the conduit ...' I see that it is possible.

[skip fox]

14. Riight, and now testimony in front of grand jury is denied by State.

But I wonder HOW he could NOT have been interviewed given the State Department memo, he was part of State, he had been politically inserted by demands of WH.

Wouldn't at least the FBI have interviewed him? Is he being set up?

I don't know.

(When I wrote the original, I was going by MSNBC information on his testimony.)

[meg]

16. could be a setup

I can see Rove casting about for a fall guy. I think they are trying lots of diversionary tactics right now. For instance, all this Miller bashing follows the original Luskin story line on how a reporter leaked the info.

Is Bolton a bad guy? Yes, in my opinion. Could he have and would he have done the leaking? Yes, in my opinion. Same for Miller. But, my money is on someone higher up in the Bush administration.

[skip fox]

18. That makes sense, but not for the reason that Fitzgerald did not

drag him in front of the grand jury. He's a perfect candidate for the origninal leaker, even. He was the neo-cons' plant in State Depertment. His title was Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (both of which would qualify him to have WMD material, including that on Niger). The informantion on Plame, as we heard last week, focused for a time on the 2003 State Department memo with the Plame-Wilson-Niger information given by Armitage to Powell on his Africa trip. That information was in the hands of administration officials within two days.

Now there are MANY ways they could have gotten the material, but doesn't it seem wildly out of characer for prosecutor Fitzgerald NOT TO CALL Bolton in front of the grand jury? OR AT LEAST TO HAVE HIM INTERVIEWED BY FBI?

Something seems "passing strange," as they say.

[meg]

19. I wouldn't be at all surprised

if he was interviewed by the FBI and called in front of the Grand Jury. In his position for Arms Control and International Security he was likely to know about Plame's work if not know Plame, herself. However, that doesn't make Bolton the leaker for sure when there are soooo many Bush administration people with means, motive, opportunity and a total lack of ethics.

[skip fox]

20. Yes, I agree. But why ae we told he did not testify to grand jury?

Cheney might be the source (his office would have felt guilty for requesting a Niger follow-up which lead CIA to send Wilson so he felt responsibility and dug up the material on Plame).

But the question remains. And if Fitzgerald did drag him before the grand jury, why lie? won't it be exposed when Fitzgerald is finished?