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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:21 PM
Original message
What Fitzgerald may be thinking as he contemplates Plame leak indictments
Edited on Tue Aug-23-05 06:39 PM by FormerRepublican
A little known recent action Patrick Fitzgerald took was the indictment of F. David Radler and Mark S. Kipnis, both associated with Hollinger International, for fraud. The most titilating tidbit within this indictment is the following:

"Radler, through his attorney, has authorized the government to disclose that he is cooperating with the investigation and expects to enter a guilty plea at a later date."

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2005/pr0818_01.pdf#search='fitzgerald%20hollinger'

The reason why this should be of interest to those watching the Plame leak investigation is that Richard Perle of PNAC fame is also involved with Hollinger. Perle is of interest in the Plame case because of his key role in pushing Iraq as a target.

"Perle is currently a resident fellow at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. His cited research interests include defense, national security and the Middle East.

Perle's many business interests have been a source of controversy during and after his tenure in government. Among other engagements, he is co-chairman and director of Hollinger, Inc., a partner of Trireme, a non-executive director of Autonomy and a director of the Jerusalem Post (which is owned by Hollinger).

In July 2001 George W. Bush appointed Perle chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, which advises the Department of Defense. On March 9, 2003, Seymour Hersh published an article in The New Yorker titled Lunch with the Chairman, accusing Perle of a conflict of interest, claiming Perle stood to profit financially by influencing government policy. Hersh's article alleged that Perle had business dealings with Saudi investors and linked him to the intelligence-related computer firm Trireme Partners LLP, which stood to profit from the war in Iraq."

and

"Perle is said to be the person behind the US policy on Iraq (see also: U.S. plan to invade Iraq). He believed that Saddam Hussein's control of the government was weak, and that an invasion of Iraq would remove Saddam from power within weeks."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Perle

It shoud be noted that Perle is associated with the neoconservative movement, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Perle also has strong connections to Douglas Feith, who recently played a role at Defense in the run up to Iraq and is a neoconservative, associated with the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the PNAC. In fact, the ties between Perle and Feith can be summed up by their own past association:

"Feith first entered government as a Middle East specialist on the National Security Council (NSC) under Ronald Reagan in 1981, but was abruptly fired after only one year. Perle, who was then serving in the Pentagon as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, however, hired him as his deputy, a post he retained until leaving in 1986 to found Feith & Zell. Three years later, Feith was retained as a lobbyist by the Turkish government and, in that capacity, worked with Perle to build military ties between Turkey and Israel.

In 1996 he participated in a study group chaired by Perle that produced a report called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" <4> for incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the report Feith, along with Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser, called for building a strategic alliance with Turkey, Jordan and a new government in Iraq that would transform the balance of power in the Middle East in such a way that Israel could decisively resist pressure to trade "land for peace" with the Palestinians or Syria."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith

You might recall that Feith was the boss of Larry Franklin, who has recently been indicted for passing US secrets to two people at AIPAC, who then passed the information to Israel. Franklin is also accused of passing classified information to Chalabi (although he has not been indicted for this). Chalabi, as you might recall, has been accused of being an Iranian spy who passed the classified intel to Iran that the United States had broken Iranian code and was able to decode and listen to Iranian communications. More on Chalabi in a bit.

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/08/doj080405.html

It's rather interesting that Feith has a strong association with Turkey when Sibel Edmonds is currently gagged from disclosing conversations she overheard about government crime, corruption and bribery she discovered while translating tapped conversations for the FBI involving various Turkish organizations in the United States. Sibel Edmonds herself is Turkish, as are the Dickersons, who she has publically stated were involved in various threats and intimidation to keep her quiet. Mr. Dickerson is currently a member of the military, and would be subject to Defense Department where both Perle and Feith served.

http://antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=2917
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=104108

An additional link between Perle and Feith is their support for Ahmad Chalabi.

"Two years later, he and Perle signed an open letter to President Bill Clinton calling for the United States to work with Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) to oust Saddam Hussein."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith

The link to Chalabi is particularly interesting since Judith Miller, who is currently sitting in jail for refusing to disclose her sources, is also a close associate of Chalabi and spread much ink in the New York Times on Chalabi's reported WMD in Iraq.

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/

Chalabi is an interesting nexus for neoconservatives in Washington. Despite misgivings from both the CIA and the State Department, he has been associated with and given glowing recommendations by all the players in the run up to Iraq - Bush, Cheney, Perle, Feith, Rumsfeld, Wurmser, and Wolfowitz.

http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/21/dreyfuss-r.html

Another nexus is the 'Progress for the New American Century' organization:

"Present and former members include several prominent members of the Republican Party and Bush Administration, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, Richard Perle, Richard Armitage, Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby, William J. Bennett, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Ellen Bork, the wife of Robert Bork. A large number of its ideas and its members are associated with the neoconservative movement. PNAC has seven full-time staff members, in addition to its board of directors."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

An imporant link to the PNAC is John Bolton, who has been appointed to the UN, but whom most know as a key player in the run up to Iraq. Bolton, Perle and Feith signed the January 26, 1998 PNAC letter to President Clinton urging him to remove Saddam Hussein. Bolton is also interesting because he was one of the players involved in spinning the facts to fit the policy in the run up to Iraq:

"Bolton appears to have tried to spin intelligence to support his views and political objectives on a number of occasions. Greg Thielmann, of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), was assigned as the daily intelligence liaison to Bolton. Thielmann stated to Seymour Hersh that, "Bolton seemed troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear ... I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, 'The Undersecretary doesn't need you to attend this meeting anymore.'" According to current and former coworkers, Bolton withheld information that ran counter to his goals from Secretary of State Colin Powell on multiple occasions, and from Powell's successor Condoleezza Rice on at least one occasion. <28>"

In addition, Congressman Waxman believes Bolton is linked to the Niger claims in the President's contested State of the Union Address:

"Bolton is alleged by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman to have played a role in encouraging the inclusion of claims that Iraq attempted to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address<33>(pdf). These claims were based on documents later found to be forged <34>. Waxman's allegations are difficult to confirm as they are based on documents that have not been cleared for public release<35>(pdf)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton

Since the specialty of Mr. Bolton at the State Department was WMD, it might be speculated that he would have had access to Ms. Plame's status as an undercover operative at CIA, and he may have been concerned about how her work might undermine their effort to make Iraq the evil cause celebre in persuading the American public to support invasion.

We can also see the clear links between John Bolton and Judith Miller in their past associations:

"Writing in today's Times ("Senior U.S. Official To Level Weapons Charges Against Syria"), Miller gives Bolton and his leaked testimony a very friendly hearing. You'd never know from reading Miller that in July the intelligence agencies censored Bolton from testifying on the same subject to the same subcommittee because, according to Jehl's anonymous sources, his speech did not jibe with the CIA's less menacing findings about Syria's unconventional weapons capacity. A memo exceeding 35 pages spelled out CIA objections, Jehl wrote."

http://slate.msn.com/id/2088435

Cheney's connections to John Bolton are also of interest:

"The early signs are that Cheney is consolidating his grip over much of administration policymaking in the second term. While his neocon collaborators seem to be diminishing, their hawkish fellow-travelers--like Condoleezza Rice, John Negroponte, and Stephen Hadley--are being promoted. In one case, it seems that Cheney himself may have intervened to make sure that one of his guys didn’t get passed over. When Rice became secretary of state, she failed to immediately give John Bolton--Colin Powell’s undersecretary of state--a new portfolio, signaling that the hardline, anti-UN ideologue had fallen out of favor.

But then Secretary of State Rice, out of the blue, nominated Bolton to be ambassador to the UN. Commented one writer: “M any were shocked, not only because Bolton ’s beliefs are antithetical to the very position for which he was tapped, but because the move appeared so inconsistent with the hopeful direction in which the second Bush term began. Beltway watchers have speculated that Vice President Cheney engineered this dramatic U-turn. After all, the administration still owes Bolton a political debt for his role in halting the Florida recount in the 2000 elections. Cheney, who consistently voted to cut funding for the United Nations while a member of the House, perhaps saw Bolton as an ally in opposing the new multilateralism of Bush’s second term.” (12)"

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/cheney_r/cheney_r.php
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0405/222938.html

Cheney is an interesting player in this, as well. He's also associated with the nexus of PNAC, Chalabi, the American Enterprise Institute and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs - the same organizations associated with our other players. Cheney, like Bolton, was also one of those guilty of not wanting to hear intelligence that didn't fit his policy. To solve this little inconvenience, Cheney deliberately eliminated intermediary intelligence agencies who might have filtered out Iraq data that was either unreliable, or 'dead wrong.'

"The memo, obtained by NEWSWEEK, suggests that the INC last year was directly feeding intelligence reports about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and purported ties to terrorism to one of Cheney’s top foreign- policy aides. Cheney staffers later pushed INC info—including defectors’ claims about WMD and terror ties—to bolster the case that Saddam’s government posed a direct threat to America. But the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have strongly questioned the reliability of defectors supplied by the INC.

For months, Cheney’s office has denied that the veep bypassed U.S. intelligence agencies to get intel reports from the INC. But a June 2002 memo written by INC lobbyist Entifadh Qunbar to a U.S. Senate committee lists John Hannah, a senior national-security aide on Cheney’s staff, as one of two “U.S. governmental recipients” for reports generated by an intelligence program being run by the INC and which was then being funded by the State Department. Under the program, “defectors, reports and raw intelligence are cultivated and analyzed”; the info was then reported to, among others, “appropriate governmental, non-governmental and international agencies.” The memo not only describes Cheney aide Hannah as a “principal point of contact” for the program, it even provides his direct White House telephone number. The only other U.S. official named as directly receiving the INC intel is William Luti, a former military adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who, after working on Cheney’s staff early in the Bush administration, shifted to the Pentagon, where he oversaw a secretive Iraq war-planning unit called the Office of Special Plans."

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3660169

Cheney is also the boss of one of the key players in the Plame scandal - Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Some might say that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby acted on their own in the smear of Joe Wilson, but examining the extensive linkages and previously stated political ideology supporting the invasion of Iraq shared by all our players, I find that explanation to be extremely unlikely. It's also clear that their long stated goals would have been thwarted had Joe Wilson succeeded in persuading the public that Iraq was not seeking WMD.

Considering Fitzpatrick's recent indictment of Hollinger - the first strike across the bow of the Iraq war conspiracy - I'd say Fitzpatrick has more than he has yet disclosed about what's been going on in the Bush-Cheney White House. Perhaps the Holliger indictment is but the first of many for these players in Iraq deception.

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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:24 PM
Response to Original message
1. Sounds good FormerRepublican
have ya read my links yet?


:hi:
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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:29 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. I have. Very nice.
We'd have to write a book to cover all the dirt these guys dish out. I've never seen anything quite so corrupt. It certainly makes sense why they chose a prosecutor experienced with going after the mob and RICO crimes. 'Bush crime family' is not a mis-nomer.
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OneGrassRoot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 07:40 AM
Response to Reply #3
11. It would be great........
if you guys could write a "Bush Administration Corruption for Dummies" or something.....hell, there would need to be several "Dummies" books to sort out the history and influence of this neo-con mess. I'd still love to have such a book(s) though....lovely stocking stuffers....:)
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speedoo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:28 PM
Response to Original message
2. Very interesting.
It's also intersting that Perle has disappeared from public discourse.

Is he just embarassed to see how wrong he was, or is he laying low for another reason?
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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:31 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Personally,
Edited on Tue Aug-23-05 06:31 PM by FormerRepublican
I think the eerie quiet is because they know Fitz is on to them and they're scared spitless. IMO, these guys committed treason. They have plenty of reason to lay low (just like Gotti).
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speedoo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:37 PM
Original message
I agree.
Perle would normally be still speaking out. Talking about "getting rid of a brutal dictator, and now we are fighting terrorists there" and such.

Instead, he's probably talking with his lawyers, trying to escape indictment and such.
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al bupp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 09:08 AM
Response to Original message
14. Laying low also suits his disposition, I think
He's always seemed like a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, who's more comfortable pulling strings than being in front of the camera. I have no real evidence for this, it's just my intuition. Not to say, though that he doesn't also have compelling legal reasons for keeping his mouth shut in public.

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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 10:31 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. I kind of fear that the only ones who will be indicted are the ones who
have left the regime, and 'disappeared': Perle, Ashcroft, Powell, Tenet. No sign of it. Just a fear.

It's no skin off Cheney's nose if anybody else goes down--any of the above, or even Libby? Rove? Bolton? Rumsfeld? It looks like he may even have set Libby and Rove up--although personally I think all the treason risks they took were haste and panic, and not very well planned (--see below). He's probably got himself well-insulated--and now he has Diebold and ES&S with which to manufacture his future power and safety. (I don't think that little dirty scheme--electronic voting--was all Rove's doing, or even necessarily his baby at all. He may have just written the "Bush mandate" copy for it.)
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al bupp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:33 AM
Response to Reply #16
21. Yes, while it'd great if Fitzgerald indicted Cheney...
... I'm not holding my breath. He's a big and powerful fish these days, for all the reasons you cite. and as you say, it's much more likely that one or more a few rungs below him will the ones (if any) to take the fall for outing Plame.

I think what takes down Cheney will be overall political problems that are too large and broadly-based to be covered-up or masked w/ dodgy electronic vote tabulations.
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indepat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 06:37 PM
Response to Original message
5. Nominated and kicked. Just maybe the fit is going to hit the Shan
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Supersedeas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 08:29 AM
Response to Reply #5
12. Seconded, Miller is wrapped up deep with these and other
international 'defense' interests.
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wli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 09:47 PM
Response to Original message
6. finally some good news n/t
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welshTerrier2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 10:00 PM
Response to Original message
7. looks like Hastert could be in the pipeline for bribes from the Turks
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hang a left Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
8. Your thread has been highly recommended!
I hope we don't have to wait too much longer.
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Al-CIAda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-23-05 10:57 PM
Response to Original message
9. .
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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 07:32 AM
Response to Original message
10. Nominated!
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yodermon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 08:29 AM
Response to Original message
13. FANTASTIC summary.
Thanks FormerRepublican. We need a documentary to be made about this, something more digestible for the hoi polloi. Because whenever I try to explain it to my CMC-consuming friends.. well, their eyes glaze over.

One quibble: In your final paragraph you refer to Fitzgerald as "Fitzpatrick". ;) you're not the first (("Is it Patrick Fitzgerald or Gerald Fitzpatrick?" :) ;) )
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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 10:42 AM
Response to Reply #13
17. Doh!
I do that all the time. I always have to stop and think - well, is it Fitzgerald or Fitzpatrick? So I usually end up just calling him Fitz.

Doh!

At least I got it right once at the top of the post.
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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 10:15 AM
Response to Original message
15. Recommended! Thank you for this very informative post!
Here are some thoughts re: what Bolton might have been concerned about with Plame.

You wrote: "Since the specialty of Mr. Bolton at the State Department was WMD, it might be speculated that he would have had access to Ms. Plame's status as an undercover operative at CIA, and he may have been concerned about how her work might undermine their effort to make Iraq the evil cause celebre in persuading the American public to support invasion."

I think Bolton and other Bushites might have had more on their minds than Plame undermining "their effort to make Iraq the evil cause celebre."

My theory begins with this time-line:

May 22, 2003: David Kelly, Brits' chief WMD expert, starts whistleblowing anonymously to the BBC, after the invasion, about the Brits' "sexed up" Iraq intel docs.

July 7, 2003: After Kelly is identified and interrogated, Blair is informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things"--"COULD say." Not HAD said. (Hutton report.) My spec: Bush calls Blair and warns him of the "uncomfortable things" that Kelly "could say" which have to do with a Bush Cartel plot to PLANT WMDs in Iraq, and how it might have been foiled, and by whom.

July 14, 2003: Plame outed (by Novak).

July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances; his office and computers searched.

July 22, 2003: Second Plame outing (also by Novak) of the entire CIA WMD monitoring apparatus, Brewster Jennings, disabling all projects and putting all covert agents at extreme risk.


They feared that Plame would find out what Kelly knew; or thought she already knew, and maybe suspected her and BJ of foiling their nasty little scheme. When they got this warning about Kelly (7/7)--which followed by one day the publication of Wilson's article (7/6) (note: there is evidence that the Wilson article was expected)*--they panicked and pulled out all the stops to get her outed immediately--involving at least SIX reporters (6 journalist witnesses to treason!), and putting numerous top Bushites at high risk of treason charges (by many actions, including circulating the Plame memo on AF-1). Panic. Rush. Foolish risks. Extreme necessity. That's what it feels like to me. 7/14: They out (and disable) Plame (and put her life at risk as well). 7/17: They have Kelly killed--he knows too much (after outing him to the press, the Blairites sent Kelly home apparently without surveillance or protection). 7/18-20: Kelly's office and computers searched; they find evidence of links to BJ (knowledge of their plot, or involvement in foiling their plot). 7/22: They out BJ (putting many more lives at risk, and increasing their risk of treason charges--with no increase in the "punishment" of Wilson, if that was even part of their motive, and not entirely a B.S. cover story).

This scenario holds up from many different angles. One important one is the link to Judith Miller, who enters the Kelly story at certain points: Kelly was friend/collaborator on her book "Germs." They corresponded regularly by email. One of his last emails was to Judith Miller--the most telling one, in which he warns of the "many dark actors playing games," just before he died (7/17). She wrote a news article on his death (7/21/03) for the NYT, and failed to mention the "dark actors" email (certainly a newsworthy item; it was later released by his family), nor ANY of her connections to Kelly. Someone had apparently outed Kelly to his bosses in late June. (The BBC had refused to disclose his identity.) That started the chain of events that led to his death. While this was all happening--Kelly's whistleblowing, his identification to his bosses, interrogation by Brit intel, outing to the press, and death--his good friend Judith was at the exact same time involved in the skulduggery of the Plame outing.

The "dark actors" email seems to indicate that he still trusted her. It would be a bitter irony, indeed, if he had trustingly sent this concern--and warning--to her, when she herself was one of the "dark actors." Given her probable deep involvement in the Plame outing, her highly questionable associations (Ahmad Chalabi!), her tight connections within neocon and Pentagon circles, and her lies and propaganda about the war, I strongly suspect that this bitter irony may be true--that she had some role in his demise.

Miller was one of three people who most stood to gain by a "find" of WMDs in Iraq (the other two are Bush and Blair). And she had a critical stake in the success of the Iraq war (some people call it "Judith's war"). She was also one of the people who most stood to be HARMED by NO "find" of WMDs in Iraq--and by any questioning of the justifications for the war. When Kelly turned whistleblower, he thus became a serious threat to her interests, and, if he knew about a WMD-planting plot, or helped foil it, while she was running around Iraq "hunting" for those WMDs and expecting them to be planted for her to "find" them, she would have had much reason for bitter anger at Kelly and at anyone else involved (Plame? BJ?).

They had it all set up. They had primed the public for a "find" of WMDs in Iraq (which they all knew weren't there). They gave Miller a special "embed" contract, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, to accompany the US troops looking for the weapons. She actively participated, actually leading the troops here and there, and complaining they weren't looking hard enough--and becoming a great annoyance to the commanders in the field. And she later put in David Kelly's mouth--in her article on his death--a criticism about the US troops not looking hard enough for the WMDs (which doesn't fit his state of mind at the time--that of whistleblower). Are we to believe that the Bushites were just sitting around, HOPING that Miller might find some of these phantom weapons? Not likely.

Just to mention one other contributing item (to this scenario): There were reports in the Iranian and Pakistani press, in March 2003, of a covert US weapons shipment at Basra suspected of being an effort to plant WMDs in Iraq, and of a "bungled" covert US weapons transport onto Iraqi soil that met with "friendly fire" (the first from an Iraqi Governing Council member, the second from a Pentagon debriefer who turned whistleblower). We tend not to trust Iranian and Pakistani news sources, but then I have no reason to trust the NYT any more, either.

This story, the Kelly story, and the possible Plame implications, most certainly cry out for further investigation. No one has asked why they had to involve SIX reporters, and so many top Bushites. It does look like panic. The question is, about what?** Also, the coincidence of the Plame and Kelly dates is just too much to ignore. Same kind of threat. Same issue (WMDs). One ends up dead, the other outed--within four days of each other.

-------

*Note: I read an interview of Wilson in which he stated that he called Condi Rice, to get the regime to disavow the Niger claim, and she told him (through intermediaris) that she was not interested in his information, but, if he was so concerned about the matter, why didn't he publish it? (Sure sounds like she was baiting him--and that his article was expected.)

**Note: I do think they had a long term plan to "get" the CIA and Wilson, involving the Niger forgeries--probably related to Cheney arms dealing. I think this plan intersected with the Kelly story on July 7, and that the Kelly disclosure (what Blair was told that Kelly knew) was UNEXPECTED.
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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 10:50 AM
Response to Reply #15
18. Another thought I had...
...was that if Cheney was involved with the Khan network as some have suggested, then he might have incentive to silence both Valerie Plame and David Kelly. Getting too close to what was going on in WMD may have led to exposure of Cheney's involvement.
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cpamomfromtexas Donating Member (453 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 09:42 PM
Response to Reply #18
29. Did Mary Matalin witness a crime?
Is that why she left Cheney's office suddenly "to spend more time with her family?"

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loudsue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #15
19. DU has the BEST investigative journalists anywhere in the country
:applause: I'd say our guys are the envy of every repressed journalist, who is currently being paid to tow the party line, or lose their jobs! :woohoo:

:kick::kick::kick:
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bleever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 12:12 PM
Response to Reply #15
23. Thank you for continuing to bring this up. It's intriguing, and goes a
long ways to answering the big questions that no one else has really asked about the ultimate motivation behind the Plame leak.

:thumbsup:

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Usrename Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-25-05 06:40 AM
Response to Reply #15
38. Brilliant!!! I've been loosing it
wondering how these professional dirty-tricksters could have forgotten to plant the WMDs. Thank you, thank you, thank you..
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Usrename Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-25-05 06:54 AM
Response to Reply #15
40. This is the beginning of the end...
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understandinglife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:27 AM
Response to Original message
20. Well done. Thank you. Bookmarked.
Peace.
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:44 AM
Response to Original message
22. FormerRepublican, Very impressive.
Let's hope you're right. This is wonderful source material, btw.

I've believed for some time that there was a civil war brewing in the power elite with one side seeking the "resignatoin" of BushCo and the other vainly holding onto their poaching rights on the world economy. If this is so, then Fitzgerald is there because he's thorough and this is the only logical path for a thorough, relentless, take no prisoners prosecutor.

These people need to go away and Hollinger is the potential beginning.

When I saw this a few days ago, I also saw it as a message...talk about firing me (as they did the US Attorney in Guam who pursued things too vigorously), well, here you go.

Great drama and great portent for our safety and future.
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femrap Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 01:41 PM
Response to Original message
24. Great work.....
I'd buy the book!
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robertpaulsen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 07:13 PM
Response to Original message
25. Great refresher for me. I can't believe I never read that last link!
Great find! I don't remember reading it before. I know several of us working on the Plame Threads were hungry for more dirt on John Hannah. He's been rumored to be one of the leakers and his huge role in the OSP makes his motive more clear.

Here's what jumped out at me from your link:

But a June 2002 memo written by INC lobbyist Entifadh Qunbar to a U.S. Senate committee lists John Hannah, a senior national-security aide on Cheney’s staff, as one of two “U.S. governmental recipients” for reports generated by an intelligence program being run by the INC and which was then being funded by the State Department. Under the program, “defectors, reports and raw intelligence are cultivated and analyzed”; the info was then reported to, among others, “appropriate governmental, non-governmental and international agencies.” The memo not only describes Cheney aide Hannah as a “principal point of contact” for the program, it even provides his direct White House telephone number.

It was very important for Hannah to sustain the lies that lead to war. But Wilson blew one big lie out of the water.
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Rebellious Republican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 07:27 PM
Response to Original message
26. Wow, very good research FR, nice post and well thought out. N/T
:toast:
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Emit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
27. Kick and thanks for the work you've put into this! n/t
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PurityOfEssence Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 09:35 PM
Response to Original message
28. A Trireme is, of course, a warship that's powered by slaves
Conservatives can be characterized by a few traits: violent hatred of any other beliefs, extreme selfishness and the belief that other humans are inferior and deserve subjugation.

A Trireme was a warship with three decks of slaves--galley slaves, the most abject of all convicts--who were whipped into attacking their opponents. Why would one laud this machine? Well, if one enjoyed the dominance of others and the ability to crush opponents, this would be quite a source of joy.

Perle is one of the puppetmasters of this crap, and his ugliness oozes from every pore.
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Nothing Without Hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 09:43 PM
Response to Original message
30. Some very promising pieces in this puzzle! For a long time I've
Edited on Wed Aug-24-05 09:44 PM by Nothing Without Hope
believed that smearing of Wilson was only a side-show to the real agenda of undermining the Middle East WMD intelligence work of Brewster-Jennings, the front company through which Plame and other agents worked. They had things to hide (like the people they were giving secrets and weapons to) and lies to plant ( about Saddam's WMDs and now Iran's nukes).

These same names, plus Bolton (who visted Judith Miller in jail - I'm betting to remind her of the consequences of talking) keep coming up.

If we look behind the 9/11 attack planning, I'm betting some of the same names will come up. The Larry Franklin/AIPAC spy scandal, the Plame leak, it's all tied together with the dirtiest secrets of this criminal cabal. No wonder they've worked so hard to keep them from sight.
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Nothing Without Hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 09:55 PM
Response to Original message
31. Three more threads to stir into the pot of leads - the truth is BIG
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4353754
Thread title: "The Stakes Are Too High To Stop Fighting Now" (Sibel Edmonds Interview)
calipendence GD Mon Aug-15-05 02:24 AM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4421833
Thread title: Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds
G_j GD Mon Aug-22-05 09:33 AM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4390395
Thread title: Plame twofer - The Waterman Paper and American Judas
robertpaulsen GD Thu Aug-18-05 04:33 PM

Put the contents of these three threads with the opening post of this one, and the extent of the conspiracy begins to emerge. Let's hope the criminals can't silence every truthteller.

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eridani Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 10:17 PM
Response to Original message
32. Is this actually linked to the Plame case?
Is this Fitzgerald's only case right now, or is he multitasking?
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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:01 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. He's multi-tasking.
However, Perle is involved with Hollinger, and Perle is involved in the run up to Iraq. So, while it's speculation, the two cases could very well be related.

Fitzgerald is known to like to go after the guys at the edges first, then work his way toward the top. It's what he did when he went after Gov. Ryan in Illinois. So, an indictment against Hollinger makes sense as his first move in the Plame case.
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Emit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-25-05 12:35 AM
Response to Reply #33
36. Here's a detailed article re: Perle's involvement w/ Hollinger
February 19, 2004

New inquiry examines Hollinger bonus plan
From Abigail Rayner in New York


RICHARD PERLE, the former US Assistant Defence Secretary and Hollinger International board member, is under investigation for allegedly failing to disclose bonuses worth about $3 million (£1.6 million) which he received for running an investment scheme, The Times has learnt.

Mr Perle, a vocal supporter of President Bush, was awarded the money as a reward for investing Hollinger shareholder funds in a series of separate businesses. Mr Perle also held a stake in some of those businesses. While the scheme put Hollinger International shareholders’ money at risk, it was never disclosed to them.

Richard Breedon, who heads a Hollinger committee that is already investigating other undisclosed payments to group executives, is said to be now looking at circumstances surrounding Mr Perle’s apparent undisclosed bonus. Mr Perle was one of five Hollinger International directors who participated in the bonus scheme.

However, while Lord Black of Crossharbour, the publisher’s founder; David Radler, deputy chairman and chief executive of Hollinger International; Dan Colson, chief operating officer of Hollinger International; and Peter Atkinson, Hollinger vice-president, all divulged their awards to shareholders, it appears that Mr Perle has so far failed to do so...

Cont'd:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2020-5-1006783-8307,00.html



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FormerRepublican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-25-05 12:59 AM
Response to Reply #36
37. Thanks much for the link on Perle.
I hadn't seen that one.
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AtomicKitten Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:03 PM
Response to Original message
34. From what I've read about him,
he's thinking, "Just how wide can I cast this net?"

God I hope he nails these bastards BIG TIME.
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gulfcoastliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-24-05 11:12 PM
Response to Original message
35. The length of this investigation is outrageous
I don't think any major players in GOP admin will be indicted. They really are above the law now. Hope I'm proved wrong, though.
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DoYouEverWonder Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-25-05 06:54 AM
Response to Reply #35
39. The Plame investigation has only been going on for two years
This is a very complex and tangled web that Fitzgerald is pulling apart. There is nothing outrageous about the length of time this is taking. How many years did Starr investigate the Clintons over nothing?
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gulfcoastliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-26-05 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #39
42. I understand your point
But I'm still fuming that "only 2 years" may mean "delay, dealy, delay" to make it go away. I have doubts anything will come of this. Unlike "whitewater", real crimes were committed. But will anyone ever be indicted or held accountable?

On another note, it warms my heart that Judy Miller rots in jail until she squawks or the investigation ends. Almost makes me hope it lasts another year or 2. But he must wrap this up before shrubs 2nd term ends. God, 3 1/2 more years of him. Seems like 30.
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Usrename Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-25-05 09:35 AM
Response to Original message
41. Could this be another smoking gun?
In 'The Stakes Are Too High for Us to Stop Fighting Now' An interview with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds by Christopher Deliso

“SE: Well, not from my case, but there is quite a lot of public information about such things. A good example was the piece in the L.A. Times –

CD: The black-market nuclear parts one?

SE: Yes, by Josh Meyer. From last year. That article gives a very good example of how such a scheme works.

CD: But that report came out of an official government investigation taking apart the smuggling ring, right?

SE: Yes it did, but that doesn't mean the business was ended.

CD: No?

SE: I think one of the guys involved, Asher Karni, got a short sentence. But the other guy, the big guy, Zeki Bilmen? He got off completely – nothing.”

http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=6934


Then from “Case reveals nuts and bolts of nuclear network” By Josh Meyer Los Angeles Times May 24 2004 ROCKVILLE, Md.

“The components, called triggered spark gaps, are sophisticated electrical switches that have nonmilitary uses, including breaking up kidney stones. But because they emit intense and rapid-fire electrical charges, they are also ideal as nuclear detonators, prompting the U.S. government to restrict their export.

In court documents filed in Karni's case in Washington, authorities say Humayun Khan, in Islamabad, placed an order with Karni for 200 of the switches last summer, at $447 apiece, and that Khan has links to Pakistan's military and a militant Islamic political group."

"Karni then contacted Zeki Bilmen, head of Giza Technologies of Secaucus, N.J. On Aug. 6, Giza ordered 200 of the switches from PerkinElmer for $89,400, submitting certificates saying they would be used in a Soweto, South Africa, hospital.

Authorities contacted PerkinElmer officials, who told them a typical hospital order was for five or six switches. In response, the U.S. agents asked them to discreetly disable the first batch of 66 switches and send them on.”

http://quicksitebuilder.cnet.com/supfacts/id474.html

1. This attempted transaction occured "last summer" which makes it the summer of 2003 when Peace Patriot's timeline shows that they were in panic mode (post 15 of this thread).

2. Why would anyone procure 200 of these things unless they are going to frame someone? Any 'legitimate' illicit transaction doesn't make sense. A foreign power with nuclear ambitions wouldn't need delivery of 200 units all at once. Even if it was a single purchase, delivery could be spread over several years (or decades) for a really ambitious WMD program. Terrorists buying 200 units? Only if they want to get busted.
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