!!!FITZ WILL SEEK NEW NEW NEW WHITE HOUSE INDICTMENTS--JASON LEOPOLD!!!

[kpete]

Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Tuesday 28 March 2006

It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.

These sources work or worked at the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council. Some of these sources are attorneys close to the case. They requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the details of the investigation.

In lengthy interviews over the weekend and on Monday, they said that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has started to prepare the paperwork to present to the grand jury seeking an indictment against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

Although the situation remains fluid, it's possible, these sources said, that Fitzgerald may seek to indict both Rove and Hadley, charging them with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy related to their roles in the leak of Plame Wilson's identity and their effort to cover up their involvement following a Justice Department investigation.

The sources said late Monday that it may take more than a month before Fitzgerald presents the paperwork outlining the government's case against one or both of the officials and asks the grand jury to return an indictment, because he is currently juggling quite a few high-profile criminal cases and will need to carve out time to write up the indictment and prepare the evidence.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032806Z.shtml

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Bring 'em on." - The American people

who hunger and thirst after justice.

Let the Great, Historic & Liberating BushCo Perp Walks commence.

[harpo]

151. haven't we heard this song and dance before?

I ain't countin these chickens until they are hatched on Fitz's web site :)

[Nickster]

2. Oh please oh please oh please!!!!!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

84. ah, just like the dog near the dryer, with signs saying "cat Fud", right?

[foo_bar]

185. for the Far Side impaired:

[katty]

94. Bring it on!!!

[kitty1]

156. The House of Card (Cards) is falling!

[back2basics909]

3. Oh happy days....

.. some days are bad, some are good.. this is a good day :) Thanks for posting.

[dogday]

4. And Card resigns....

Should I be reading anything into this?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. Yes. If for no other reason...

He sees the shit-storm on the horizon and has a bellyfull.

He's also gonna need a lot of free time for the depositions and testimony. I am sure that crossed his mind.

[Sydnie]

11. I think we all should be reading many things into this development

the "OOPS, he signed the wrong bill" might have been the last straw for poor ole Andy, seeing how Waxman called him on that boo boo too.

[WiseButAngrySara]

56. Sorry for my ignorance here, but could you explain this Ooops...as I've

heard it mentioned several times now, and haven't the foggiest idea of what you and others are referring to.

[eomer]

71. Here's the story:

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-03-21T174730Z_01_N21326718_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-CONGRESS-LAWSUIT.XML

[NJCher]

190. this is so vile

Thanks for the link, eomer.

I knew about this story but reading it one more time had me seething.

How dare they? How DARE they pull these crooked moves. It is sacrilege.




Cher

[Peggy Day]

12. like maybe Card was involved? nt

[AndyA]

14. Exactly what I was thinking

When the Bush Adminstration is involved, there's ALWAYS more to it than meets the eye!

Bush and his cronies are going DOWN in 2006! :thumbsup:

[Roland99]

16. Let's not jump to any conclusions just yet

But let's stay hopeful. :)

[Generator]

135. Jesus Christ and mother Mary!

Jump to conclusions? I can barely stay in my seat. :bounce:

[dogday]

18. Move over Libby and make way for your friends

bwa-hahahahahahahah :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[leveymg]

38. Has anyone noticed, there's no MSM coverage of this and Larisa's story?

It's all Card's resignation, and the GOP spin about "refocusing" and "new energy" at the White House.

Yes, of course, the two stories are related, but one would never know by reading the WaPo and NYT. Has anyone seen anything at all in the MSM about this? A columnist in The Times of London http://timesonline.typepad.com/mick_smith/2006/03/is_karl_rove_st.html had a mention of yesterday's RawStory article, http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Roves_cooperation_seen_to_advance_inquiry_0327.html but that's all I've seen.

For those who missed it, here yesterday's string about Larisa's story. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=764454&mesg_id=764454

[BuyingThyme]

64. The networks apparently won't pick up a Jason Leopold story.

[stop the bleeding]

88. effing librul media n/t

[EVDebs]

89. An administration in shambles cannot spin their way out of the widening

gyre.

The Second Coming, by W B Yeats
http://www.well.com/www/eob/poetry/The_Second_Coming.html

[lfairban]

191. Currently see 6 web references

The most main stream one is The Baltimore Chronicle.

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/032806Leopold.shtml&filter=0">Jason Leopold story

Rove/Hadley search

[Hissyspit]

60. A Fitzmas Card? n/t

[mzmolly]

68. Yes, yes you should.

:evilgrin:

[fooj]

82. You betcha!

Think about those "missing" e-mails.............

:evilgrin:

Peace.

[robertpaulsen]

93. Damn right! Card formed WHIG in 2002.

August 2002
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. forms the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, which aims to “educate the public” about the alleged threat from Iraq. A senior official involved with the group later describes it as “an internal working group, like many formed for priority issues, to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities.” Members of the group include Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James R. Wilkinson, Nicholas E. Calio, and policy advisers led by Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, and I. Lewis Libby. They meet weekly in the White House Situation Room. A “strategic communications” task force under the WHIG is charged with planning speeches and writing white papers. According to an intelligence source interviewed by the New York Daily News in October 2005, the group, on “a number of occasions,” will attempt “to push the envelope on things,”—“The would say, ‘We just don't have the intelligence to substantiate that.’” An important part of the WHIG strategy is to feed their messages to friendly reporters such as New York Times reporter Judith Miller. James Bamford, in his book A Pretext for War, writes: “First OSP supplies false or exaggerated intelligence; then members of the WHIG leak it to friendly reporters, complete with prepackaged vivid imagery; finally, when the story breaks, senior officials point to it as proof and parrot the unnamed quotes they or their colleagues previously supplied.”
People and organizations involved: Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James R. Wilkinson, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Andrew Card, White House Iraq Group, Stephen Hadley, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Mel Sembler

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-2739

[seemslikeadream]

100. Mel Sembler!

Part 1
http://radioinsidescoop.com/mt-posts-archive/000504.html
November 10, 2005
This Bush Crony Has Blood on His Hands!

THE INSIDE SCOOP on George W. Bush's Former Ambassador to Italy, Melvin Sembler, who ran a teen drug rehab center where thousands of American teens were physically and mentally abused in horrific, degrading ways.
___

part 2
http://radioinsidescoop.com/mt-posts-archive/000506.html

November 13, 2005
The Bush Crony Who Tortured American Teens, Part II

Why is a man who should be serving life in prison for torture appointed by President George W. Bush as Ambassador to Italy?

On Thursday, THE INSIDE SCOOP was the first radio show to report on STRAIGHT, Inc., the teen-age rehab center more akin to a torture/concentration camp run by Melvin and Betty Sembler. Melvin Sembler was for many years until a few months ago, George W. Bush's U.S. Ambassador to Italy.

The Bush Crony Who Tortured American Teens Pt. 2 of "Ambassador de Sade"

John Gorenfeld has an article out giving voice to the thousands of people who were run through Bush friend, Republican moneyman and compassionate conservative, Melvin Sembler's torture pit. Sembler was our ambassador to Italy till last August.

Here's the link to Gorenfeld's article which is a must read for any serious students of "compassionate conservatism." The Florida Bushes serve on the boards of these groups. Makes one wonder why Jebb didn't send his drug addicted kids to one of these torture dens.

http://alternet.org/story/27725 /
Ambassador de Sade
Bush rewarded one of his loyalists with the ambassadorship to Italy -- despite his past as the founder of an cult-like teen rehab clinic.

The article comes complete with discussion. Gorenfeld was on Mark Levine's "Inside Scoop" last Thursday. The phone was ringing off the wall with horrifying reports from victims of the abuse, so Mark is bringing John back this afternoon and adding an addittional guest. (show today Sunday Nov 13. at 5pm est.)

Find the archive Part 1 and listen live this afternoon to part 2 here. I am sure many of you have heard a bit a about this story, but these people deserve a real airing of what happened to them and I am glad to see Gorenfeld and Levine giving them a chance.

http://www.radioinsidescoop.com /

Please do what you can pass this story of the underbelly of compassionate conservatism around. As my cousin Yancy says, these folks will bring back stoning kids when they think they can get away with it.

The General has a post up asking why Cheney doesn't take better advantage of Sembler's talents.
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2005_11_13_patriotboy_archive.html#113186638454783857


(December 06, 2005 -- 03:45 PM EST // link)

Eh, small world, small conspiracy.

This news has been out for a few weeks and I just hadn't noticed. But the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund is being headed up by none other than Mel Sembler, the Cheney-fan and the big-ticket GOP fundraiser from Florida who was the US Ambassador to Italy when all the secret meetings took place and when the forged uranium papers showed up at the US Embassy in October 2002.

Since I've reported on this story for almost two years and am still writing a series on it, I need to say explicitly that I've never seen any evidence tying Sembler to any bad acts related to the forgeries. So the 'conspiracy' crack is mainly a jest. But there's a lot that's still really murky about what was happening at the US Embassy in Rome after 9/11 with the forgeries and other matters. That was on Sembler's watch. And Libby's bad acts stem from the whole forgeries bamboozlement. (Whacking Wilson was part of the larger White House effort to keep the forgeries scam covered up -- a cover up that's still underway.)

So Sembler just seems like a pretty big part of this story to be collecting money for the one person under indictment for their role in it.
-- Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007185.php

[stop the bleeding]

110. Love your research seemslikeadream - Sembler....

keep it coming.

[seemslikeadream]

130. THE BLUE CHAIR

THE BLUE CHAIR
http://fornits.com/anonanon/video/Wami1.rm
http://fornits.com/anonanon/video/Wami2.rm

http://www.kidsofelpaso.com/pages/626869/index.htm


$11,545,000 for abuse
Medvin & Elberg get past statute of limitations
Insurers & licensers of newage* health care programs beware!story
*newage, one word rendition of New Age. It rhymes with sewage


Reverend Doctor Miller Newton has maintained his residence in Maidera Beach, Florida since leaving Straight. He once ran unsuccessfully for mayor. Now calling himself Father Cassian, he is being reported on by an organization that monitors abusive priests.

Newton settles with Lulu Corter for $6.5 million just before case was to go to jury dateline Newark, New Jersey July 8, 2003. This story will break your heart. After Dr. Newton fled Florida for abusing kids at Straight (though he has maintained his Maidera Beach residence all these years, even running unsuccessfully for mayor) he opened up his own second-generation Straight in New Jersey called KIDS of Bergen County. In 1989 after CBS' Meredith Vieira and West 57th Street did a story exposing the abuse at KIDS, and after Newark Judge Edith Klinger published a study recommending suspending KIDS license until certain problems had been fixed, Newton fled to neighboring Hudson County and changed the name to KIDS of North Jersey. In 1993 Secaucus Judge Emil DelBaglivo convicted three KIDS counselors for assaulting a client and recommended that someone look at Newton. In 1996 Newton settled with the federal government for $45,000 in return for not being prosecuted for 254 counts of insurance fraud. In 1999 another KIDS counselor was convicted for assault. Also in 1999 Dr. Newton settled with former client Rebecca Erlich for $4.5 million.

But nothing was ever done. In fact for 10 years Republican Governor Christie Whitman ignored Judge Klinger, Judge DelBaglivo, the newspaper and television reports. For 10 years Len Fisher, Governor Whitman's Commissioner of Health and Human Services, granted Dr. Newton a special certificate to operate.

Throughout all this time there sat a client in KIDS named Lulu Corter. Nobody remembers anymore what she went in for. But it was not drug addiction. Eventually Newton convinced her she had a sexual addiction. He forbade her to touch herself down there. They watched her toileting to make sure she did not touch herself. She was allowed but three wipes afterwards and was painfully restrained if she used four. They use to sing a song to Lulu. As best she can remember it went:

Lulu is here to stay
because she's in a blue chair
for seven years now
and she will rot more and more
till she makes a bigger change.

Lulu Corter went to Dr. Newton for help in 1984. She finally escaped 13 years later; totally destroyed. She had been on First Phase for almost five years. Lulu Corter's trial
more
http://thestraights.com/articles/newton-settles.htm



The Rebecca Erlich Story: the first printed book about theStraights
.
In 1999 Straight's former national clinical director Dr. Miller Newton and his team of psychiatrists settled with a former client named Rebecca Ehrlich for $4.5 million for the abuses she sustained at the Straight-legacy program Kids of North Jersey. Now Rebecca's mother Harryet has teamed with Rebecca's consulting psychiatrist Dr. Lewis Opler to publish Rebecca's medical nightmare. The book is Resurrection and Redemption: Overcoming Mental Illness and Regaining Dignity. The book is a well written account of the tragedy of a misdiagnosed little girl being treated in a quack medical facility.

[stop the bleeding]

136. a little side note

my best friend's dad Richard G. Batchelor worked on this Straight program in the 1980's, my buddy will mention it from time to time that Dicky Batchelor worked on Reagan's Drug task force. Small world huh?!?!?.

I just talked to my buddy, and he said yes that his dad did work on the Board of Directors for Straight.

BTW I live in Tampa FL.


Not that this means anything but thought you should know how close I get to the fire from time to time.

[robertpaulsen]

113. Yeah, the same neo-con thug in charge of the Libby Defense Fund!

GOP Big Wigs Donating To Libby Defense Fund...

Washington Post | Carol D. Leonnig | Posted February 22, 2006 10:54 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Halliburton

A Who's Who of Republican heavy hitters and Bush administration supporters are lending their names to help raise $5 million for the defense of Vice President Cheney's former top aide in his criminal trial.

Led by Florida real estate magnate and former ambassador Mel Sembler, the group seeking to help I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby avoid jail time includes 26 notable names, many of whom could also be described as "Friends of George and Dick."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/02/22/gop-big-wigs-donating-to-_n_16199.html


Thanks for the links seemslikeadream! Of course, seeing that Sembler was US Ambassador to Italy, I was wondering if there was some link between him and Michael Ledeen. Look what Jeff Wells has on this:

I'm sure you know who Sembler is, and the mind control atrocity called Straight Inc. he and wife Betty perpetrated on American youth in Florida for nearly two decades. Straight bent itself out of shape in the early '90s and became the "Drug Free America Foundation" only after, finally, exposure and public outcry at its virtual "psychic murder" of kids in its alleged care for addiction recovery. Though it no longer directly treats addicts it still influences US drug policy, and survivors who haven't killed themselves or lost their minds are still living with the trauma of their "treatment," including repeated rape with objects such as curling irons. Arthur Trebach, author of The Great Drug War, said in a recent interview that he "got a call two days ago from a man in Texas who sent his son to Straight, Inc. ten years ago":

The father told me it was an awful mistake, that they imposed sexual activities on the young man, that they peed on him. According to the father, his son still refuses to talk about his experience at Straight, Inc. Dad said his brother, a drug counselor, had recommended the place as the best in the country.

...

There are political connections here. Straight, Inc. was endorsed by George Herbert Walker Bush, who visited the place with Nancy Reagan and Mel and Betty Sembler and Joe Zappala, who are, as best as we can determine, the founders of Straight, Inc. Both Sembler and Zappala were heavy contributors to the elder Bush's campaign, and both were rewarded with ambassadorships. I saw Ambassador Sembler give a speech in Australia in which he proudly said he founded Straight, Inc. and held it up as a model. More recently, Mel Sembler was the co-chair of finance for the Republican National Committee for the 2000 election.... And Jeb Bush last fall declared a "Betty Sembler Day" in Florida, commending her for her work with drug abuse control, especially with Straight, Inc. Betty claims she has the ear of the president.

Sembler, of course, enjoyed a second ambassadorship at the pleasure of another President Bush. He was sent to Rome, though he can't speak Italian. This White House has a penchant for making excruciatingly inappropriate appointments, doling out ambassadorships to party and family bagmen whose only qualifications are the size of their bags. Sembler's reward with the Italian Job looked to be more of the same. But let's remember the parapolitical bonds between the American and Italian far right and their institutions of control. Witness, for example, Michael Ledeen's history with SISMI and P2 (of which Silvio Berlusconi was a member), and the coincident Italian connection to the Niger forgeries. (By the way, Cooperative Research has a couple of interesting entries in it's Iraq timeline pertaining to visits Ledeen paid to Sembler in Rome the year before the invasion.)

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/12/sembler-for-defense_08.html

Those interesting entries on the Ledeen-Sembler visits:

Mel Sembler actively participated in the following events:


December 12, 2001
The newly-installed US ambassador to Italy, Mel Sembler, learns during the course of a private dinner with Iran-Contra figure Michael Ledeen and Italian defense minister Antonio Martino about a secret backchannel meeting that took place three days before (see December 2001) involving US defense officials, former Iran-Contra figures, and Iranian government officials. After the dinner, Sembler immediately contacts the CIA station chief in Rome to find out if he knows about the meeting. But the station chief says he does not know anything either. “Soon both Sembler and the Rome station chief were sending anxious queries back to the State Department and CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., respectively, raising alarms on both sides of the Potomac” since all US government contact with foreign government intelligence agencies is supposed to be overseen by the CIA.
People and organizations involved: Michael Ledeen, Mel Sembler, Antonio Martino

July 2002
Michael Ledeen contacts Mel Sembler, the US ambassador to Italy, and informs him that he will be traveling to Rome again (see December 2001) to continue “his work” with the Iranians. Sembler passes this on to Washington, and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley sends word to Ledeen reminding him that he is not to deal with the Iranians.
People and organizations involved: Mel Sembler, Michael Ledeen, Stephen Hadley

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-3763

[robertpaulsen]

172. Another link to the Mel Sembler-Michael Ledeen meeting.

The Italian Job

The first meeting occurred in Rome in December, 2001. It included Franklin, Rhode, and another American, the neoconservative writer and operative Michael Ledeen, who organized the meeting. (According to UPI, Ledeen was then working for Feith as a consultant.) Also in attendance was Ghorbanifar and a number of other Iranians. One of the Iranians, according to two sources familiar with the meeting, was a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services. The Washington Monthly has also learned from U.S. government sources that Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI, attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino, who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington.

Alarm bells about the December 2001 meeting began going off in U.S. government channels only days after it occurred. On December 12th 2001, at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, America's newly-installed Ambassador, Mel Sembler, sat down for a private dinner with Ledeen, an old friend of his from Republican Party politics, and Martino, the Italian defense minister. The conversation quickly turned to the meeting. The problem was that this was the first that Ambassador Sembler had heard about it.

According to U.S. government sources, Sembler immediately set about trying to determine what he could about the meeting and how it had happened. Since U.S. government contact with foreign government intelligence agencies is supposed to be overseen by the CIA, Sembler first spoke to the CIA station chief in Rome to find out what if anything he knew about the meeting with the Iranians. But that only raised more questions because the station chief had been left in the dark as well. Soon both Sembler and the Rome station chief were sending anxious queries back to the State Department and CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, respectively, raising alarms on both sides of the Potomac.

more...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html

Does anyone else here buy Sembler's supposed ignorance? Didn't think so!

[malaise]

131. They are all going down

:popcorn: :popcorn: The end is nigh!

[upi402]

182. Key WH players can meet weekly for Iraq propaganda, but not for terra

:banghead:

[yellowcanine]

194. If the WHIG conspired to out Plame that means Condi is also implicated

and Hughes, Matalin and Card. I am not sure Bush could survive a blow like that. Lets just hope this all comes out well before November so that Democrats can run on impeach/censure Bush platforms. Be still my heart!

[robertpaulsen]

196. CondiLIESa is up to her neck in the Plame scandal.

The Source beyond Rove:
Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal
By Roger Morris
Commondreams.com

Thursday 28 July 2005

We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." It was September 2002, and then-National Security Advisor, now-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was fastening on CNN perhaps the most memorable and frightening single link in the Bush regime's chain of lies propagandizing the war on Iraq. Behind her carefully planted one-liner with its grim imagery was the whole larger hoax about Saddam Hussein possessing or about to acquire weapons of mass destruction, a deception as blatant and inflammatory as claims of the Iraqi dictator's ties to Al Qaeda.

Rice's demagogic scare tactic was also very much part of the tangled history of alleged Iraqi purchases of uranium from Niger, the fabrication leading to ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson's now famous exposé of the fraud, the administration's immediate retaliatory "outing" of Wilson's wife Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, and now the revelation that the President's supreme political strategist Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby were involved in that potentially criminal leak - altogether the most serious political crisis Bush has faced. In fact, though her pivotal role has been missed entirely - or deliberately ignored - in both the media feeding frenzy and the rising political clamor, now-Secretary of State Rice was also deeply embroiled in the Niger uranium-Plame scandal, arguably as much as or more so than either Rove or Libby.

For those who know the invariably central role of the NSC Advisor in sensitive political subjects in foreign policy and in White House leaks to the media as well as tending of policy, especially in George W. Bush's rigidly disciplined, relentlessly political regime, Rice by both commission and omission was integral in perpetrating the original fraud of Niger, and then inevitably in the vengeful betrayal of Plame's identity. None of that spilling of secrets for crass political retribution could have gone on without her knowledge and approval, and thus complicity. Little of it could have happened without her participation, if not as a leaker herself, at least with her direction and with her scripting.

snip

The evidence of Rice's complicity is increasingly damning as it gathers over a six-year twisting chronology of the Nigerien uranium-Wilson-Plame affair, particularly when set beside what we also know very well about the inside operations of the NSC and Rice's unique closeness to Bush, her tight grip on her staff, and the power and reach that went with it all. What follows isn't simple. These machinations in government never are, especially in foreign policy. But follow the bouncing ball of Rice's deceptions, folly, fraud and culpability. Slowly, relentlessly, despite the evidence, the hoax of the Iraq-Niger uranium emerges as a central thread in the fabricated justification for war, and thus in the President's, Rice's, and the regime's inseparable credibility. The discrediting of Wilson, in which the outing his CIA wife is irresistible, becomes as imperative for Rice as for Rove and Libby, Bush and Cheney. And when that moment comes, she has the unique authority, and is in a position, to do the deed. Motive, means, opportunity - in the classic terms of prosecution, Rice had them all.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/12975


And remember Hadley's involvement. Apparently Hadley doesn't blow his nose without Rice telling him to:

Hadley, the War, and the Sell

Hadley was part of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), an ensemble put together by White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, to sell propaganda on Iraq’s threat to US national security in the form of a “mushroom cloud.” Armitage, like his then boss Secretary of State Colin Powell, was an outsider in this administration and as such was not part of WHIG.

Hadley was intimately implicated in the trips taken by one-time foreign policy advisor to Karl Rove, Michael Ledeen, Pentagon Iran expert Harold Rhode, and DIA analyst Larry Franklin. Franklin has since pleaded guilty in an espionage case involving an Israeli lobby.

In a recent interview with RAW STORY, Michael Ledeen confirmed that Hadley had approved the trip (and subsequent trips by Rhode and Franklin). While Hadley at first denied approving the trips and later claimed not to have known what their purpose was, Ledeen points out that Hadley would have had to authorize the trips and do so with approval from his higher ups:

“Obviously Hadley did not unilaterally do anything. The Pentagon paid for the expenses of the two DOD officials, and the American ambassador in Rome was fully briefed both before and after the meetings,” said Ledeen.

more...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Libbys_new_filing_0319.html

[Dem2theMax]

107. But of course.

He wants to 'spend more time with his family.' :evilgrin:

[rateyes]

126. Wants to spend more time with his family...

before they frog-march him off to jail! (I hope.)

[mzteris]

157. My thinking, too...... n/t

[myrna minx]

5. Yipee!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: This is a good day!

[H2O Man]

6. Actually it is

not a snail's pace. Fitzgerald has a history of prosecuting organized crime (yes, I know the administration is nothing but o.c.), and those cases can be this long and drawn out. We are a culture that demands instant gratification, though reality moves at its own pace.

[LisaLynne]

30. Well said.

The BushCo Crime Family is relying on our short attention spans. It's how they've gotten away with so much already. In the real world, you can't bust up an organization this big in a three-minute raid. It takes time, attention to detail, and patience. I think Fitz knows this and that's why I remain hopeful about this playing out to the detriment of this evil administration.

[Arkansas Granny]

58. Thanks. Sometimes we need a little reminder. Hopefully, the time

he is spending on this case will mean that when it does come down, it will be watertight.

:thumbsup:

[H2O Man]

67. I remember years ago,

there was a story in a national newspaper about a detective who had solved crimes that many thought could never be solved. A number of people in the business who were quoted in the article, called him "the best cop in the country." I remember one was quoted as saying, "I'd never want that guy after me." I've always remembered that line, because I was thinking, "Right. He sure made it hard to get away with things growing up."

That article told about crimes that people were anxious for my uncle to "solve" quickly. Sometimes he did. Other times, it took him years. I think Mr. Fitzgerald is much the same in his approach.

[StaggerLee]

74. Wow Waterman

Intriguing. Sounds like a super analyzer not unlike yourself. Was the whole family like that as well?

:popcorn:

[Donailin]

139. well?? c'mon. .

who's your uncle??

:hi:

[Selteri]

169. LOL Reminds me about my Uncle

Though My uncle was in the Army and local Police, I will never forget when he broke his wrist at a CIA training something he was doing, his story was that he broke his wrist playing volleyball. Somehow with all the stuff he won't talk about I doubt that it was Volleyball any more than I believe him when he says, "I don't know what you are talking about, let's change the subject." when I bring up anything involved with some of the things he did with the US.

[annabanana]

72. I think the hollering yips are because this crowd

has caused so much pain and done such damage to the body politic that it seems like we're sitting and waiting to jump off a lit stove.

Whose quote is it about the wheels of justice grinding slow, but exceeding fine?

[Patsy Stone]

76. Not in any hurry

Let the man take his time and get 'em all. I don't need the microwave cooking version; happy to go for the slow cooking Crock Pot.

Fitz: :loveya:

[robertpaulsen]

95. Actually, I'm surprised it's going this fast.

:hi:

After Libby's indictment and the convening of a new grand jury, I wasn't expecting more indictments until at least 2007. That's still my expectation, but I hope Leopold is right.

[fishwax]

127. completely true

most important is that he does the job right, and these things definitely take time. That said, I can't wait :bounce:

[babylonsister]

7. I'll happily wait another month to get this scum; go, Fitz! nt

[dweller]

21. i'll happily wait 6-7 months

and have the grand news 'top of the news' before NOV 06 !

dp

[HereSince1628]

8. Hmmmmmmm, Maybe Rove [i] did [/i] turn on Card.

Rove seems to respond well to stories of Fitz' prodding him with indictment threats.

[The Wielding Truth]

187. Rove must not be allowed near any government official. He must be

ban from any political connection.He must not continue to have any influence or power.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. To all those I told to settle the fuck down after the first round...

Told ya so!!

[lonestarnot]

13. Me thinks it's over for the bushitler and dishonorable dick! woooooodamn

who!

[stop the bleeding]

15. OK - now my head is really spinning - how in the world am I suppose

to concentrate today?

Although the situation remains fluid, it's possible, these sources said, that Fitzgerald may seek to indict both Rove and Hadley, charging them with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy related to their roles in the leak of Plame Wilson's identity and their effort to cover up their involvement following a Justice Department investigation.

[kpete]

17. Stay focused...

I count on you...

[stop the bleeding]

more from the article

The story Rove and his attorney, Robert Luskin, provided to Fitzgerald in order to explain why Rove did not disclose the existence of the email is "less than satisfactory and entirely unconvincing to the special counsel," one of the attorneys close to the case said.

~snip~

But Fitzgerald's investigation has turned up additional evidence over the past few months that convinced him that Luskin's eleventh-hour revelation about the chain of events that led to the discovery of the email is not credible. Fitzgerald believes that Rove changed his story once it became clear that Cooper would be compelled to testify about the source - Rove - who revealed Plame Wilson's CIA status to him, sources close to the case said.



Additional evidence??? - 250 emails from Dick's office... hhmmmmmmm


I count on you as well, and I am sure that I am not the only one here at DU.

[kpete]

26. I am the happy cut and paste

You and others show the light...

[WiseButAngrySara]

62. Oh, Thank you, thank you for your "happy cuts and pastes" kpete! ..n/t

[npincus]

19. Fitzy- please watch your back!!!!

[sendero]

20. All I want is...

.... JUSTICE!

[Canuckistanian]

22. This waiting is maddeneing - but it pays off!

Hadley or Rove, right? I'd put my money on Rove. He's ready to sing about Cheney - and Fitz is just guaranteeing that the song is convincing.

[babylonsister]

28. Why not both? And add Cheney to the list! nt

[Canuckistanian]

40. Patience, grasshopper...

Let's take this one step at a time. More chance for success. And less chance of having the GOP operatives dissmiss this as "conspiracy theory".

[eppur_se_muova]

140. After the first conviction, it ceases to be a "theory".

It DID take a long time to get that first indictment. It WILL take time to get a couple more, and it WILL take time to get that first conviction. But once you start pulling bricks out of the wall, the wall crumbles pretty quickly. However maddeningly slow it seems (I'm going bonkers, too) just keep in mind it will accelerate pretty quickly as more and more facts come out.

[Sperk]

23. Is it wise to give Rove and co. a months "heads up" on this?

can't someone help Fitz with his work load so he can get done faster?
I don't like the idea of Rove knowing about his indictment for a full month.
:scared: :hide:

[rox63]

39. He would have to let Rove & Hadley know about it ahead of time anyway

This is likely why Rove has been cooperating, and giving Fitz the goods on the Cheney 'missing' emails.

[exlrrp]

24. Good News, but.........

But will it wll come out while there's still time for something to be gained by it??
Harken back to last fall when the blogosphere almost came unglued waiting for Fitz to unseal the indictment. Speculation then was that Everybody from Cheney on down was going to be indicted and THEN...AND THEN.....AND THEN.... and then all we got was a 2d level figure, Scooter Libby, indicted for a low level crime that was committed half way through the investigation. Nothing at all about the original issue, the Plame Outing. I don't think there will be a lot more here.
And now even that has been pushed off untill after the elections so its not going to do much good for us either (best guess: Libby, if convicted, will be pardoned as a last day Bush thing after stretching out his appeals) And that's about the worst Rove will face, if indicted.
Bush has alrady had more staffers indicted than Clinton, making his administration more corrupt. Thats something you never hear on the MSM

[Pithy Cherub]

75. Fitz explained for those listening that he was obstructed.

That had to be dealt with first to ensure the case is built on a legal foundation not opinions from the public at large. i find your reasoning in need of some serious repair.

Libby is not a second tier player. Libby was the man behind the throne with all of the access, tools and modus operandi. Libby among others (WHIG)is what stands between Cheney and a date with a Grand Jury indictment either as a conspirator or unindicted co-conspirator.

Premier legal talent understands you build the case tightly with surrounding witnesses at multiple levels in the chain to convict the principals later. Fitz is absolutely seasoned at this type of indictment process and displays the brilliance of strategy so that it is less for public consumption but crystal clear to every last player and their hired legal guns. Rove & Hadley are big guns that will be forced to choose between protecting their principles tarnished honor or their own long sentences in jail for serious felonies and hanging their families out to dry.

It is intellectually lazy to assume that the *Plame Outing* should be the first and only charge. That it happened is obvious. The dexterity, tenacity and multi-sourced hard evidence needed to indict AND convict is being displayed by the special prosecutor. A prosecutor who swings for the fences right away is not the one to win cases at this level.

Inference is not evidence. Besides more indictments on additional charges can always be brought as more evidence appears. Bush is not in a politically strong position to pardon anyone connected with this until the last day served in this term. The neo-cons are being hamstrung one by one and that effectively is choking the bush administration's ability to pursue the PNAC agenda. Libby was key.

[Botany]

Fitzmas Time?

:popcorn:

So Andy Card quit today? :party:

[Botany]

25. Grin and Bear it

[seabeyond]

27. and card????? lol lol where does he fit in. ya for the family

wants time off for the family. since karen hughes took time off for the family, yet the dirt didnt come out, she came back, i ask, what didnt come out on her, bah hahahaha

these aSSHOLES, all of them

[Fovea]

45. time off for the family

Proving you don;t even have to be a mammal to need family leave.

[the other one]

29. K+R

[HereSince1628]

31. I need the glasses that let you read between the lines...

Ok, here is what it seems to boil down to for me ...

Leopold reports there is an email from Rove to Hadley, the new grand jury is aware of it.

Some of the sources for Leopold's story (remember some of them are attorneys) seem to think that the email content is sufficient to allow Fitzgerald to bring an indictment for either perjury/obstruction of justice, or perhaps charges of conspiracy.

So it seems the interpretation is that either Rove or Hadley is gonna get indicted.

That is the succulent part of the story. Now, is there some nuanced tidbit that I am missing?

Whose lawyers would know about this email? Well, someone who also somehow got a copy. And what lawyers would be willing to speculate on the potential damage of a piece of evidence? Well the lawyers of someone wanting to shift a threat of indictment away from their client.

Me wonders who was a WHIG insider who became disenchanted?

[stop the bleeding]

34. Interesting - especially on the heals of Card's resignation

he was also WHIG......

[HereSince1628]

41. Yes, how about that?

Maybe it's nothing, but maybe it's something.

[Pachamama]

63. Whoa! Andy Card resigned? I must have been asleep! How could I have

missed that bit of news?

:bounce:

Definitely a sign of the scheisse about to hit the fan..... :wow:

[Me.]

69. Not Only Was He WHIG

but it is my understanding he was the one who brought the group together, formed it, in the first place.

[stop the bleeding]

70. My understanding as well, also it is my understanding that he

would have been a superior of sorts to Rove and Libby...


:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:


the timing is all too suspect especially in the wake of Larisa's reporting yesterday on Rover's "cooperation"

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:


timing is everything.

[Me.]

79. Certainly Rove

I'm not so sure about Libby. Libby,who held 3 key positions at the WH, was a very important man in the WH and I don't know if anyone aside from res and veep was his superior. Card was/is influential, and dangerous, and he like Libby often managed to stay under the radar, but I don't think Libby would be answerable to him.

[stop the bleeding]

80. Even in the context of the WHIG??

Either way this is not a good day for * & company

[Me.]

98. Whiggle Room

Another question aside from who was whose “superior”, is who trusted who and I think in the months to go we’ll find that even though “they were all in on it”, to a greater or lesser degree, they had”issues”where trust was/is concerned. Interesting thoughts from Needlenose and others.

“. . a task force created by Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. in August 2002 and charged with "marketing" the war in Iraq to the public.The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Its regular participants were Rove, Libby, Hadley, then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, adviser Karen Hughes, Matalin, and White House director of legislative affairs Nicholas Calio.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902431_pf.html

But, there were other meetings between key players that not all were invited to:

“As Joseph Wilson wrote in his book
"either the vice president himself or, more likely, his chief of staff, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, chaired a meeting at which a decision was made to do a 'workup' on me." cont…

“Wilson cites Wurmser and Hannah in his book as well, noting in passing that this is how the neoconservatives prefer to operate (as "a government cult with cells in most of the national security system"). Such an insular network -- a private "Iraq group" of their own -- would be the easiest way for Cheney and Libby to pursue their not-entirely-rational campaign of resentment not only against Wilson but against the entire intelligence establishment led by the CIA, as documented in numerous articles over the past week.

In fact, this same cabal had already proved its usefulness to Cheney before the Iraq war by serving as a conduit (or stovepipe, to use Seymour Hersh's now-famous description) for bogus claims about Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaeda, courtesy of Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. Last week, Christopher Dickey of Newsweek hinted that Chalabi may even have been the source through which Valerie Plame Wilson was identified ("Ahmad keeps close tabs on his enemies, and I know first-hand that he counted many people at the CIA on that list").

Regardless of how Libby learned about Plame, though, it's easy to see him realizing that he could launder the leak through Miller simply by making the stovepipe flow in the opposite direction. Since the INC and the Cheney/Bolton cabal were also key sources for Judith Miller's embarrassingly false New York Times articles about Iraq and WMD, all he had to do was make sure they knew the dirt (if they didn't find it originally), then drop a hint to Judy -- "I've heard Joe Wilson's wife was involved in his trip to Niger, but I don't know why" -- and trust her to "discover" the information through her usual contacts just as surely as if he'd given her a treasure map with a big "X" drawn on it.”

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/2176

“From there, I think Steve Clemons followed the right path with his analysis a couple of days ago:

“The question is how did Libby then churn up more info on Wilson without other parts of the "untrusted" bureaucracy spitting in his face or reporting his sins?

My hunch is that he went to trusted spear-carriers for Vice President Cheney -- the office and staff of Under Secretary of State John Bolton. Fred Fleitz, Bolton's chief of staff, maintained his CIA WINPAC portfolio and access as an active duty CIA staff member while he operated as Bolton's "acting" chief of staff. . . .

We also know that David Wurmser and John Hannah, who have both apparently cooperated after threats of legal action (i.e., time behind bars) with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald worked both for John Bolton's operation and the Vice President's office.

I recently consulted with a number of senior State Department officials about the level of interaction between Vice President Cheney's office and John Bolton's office -- and was informed that there was "intense" exchange between them, constant. One said that Bolton and his team were operatives of Vice President Cheney inside the State Department establishment . . .”

Edited to add Steve Clemonslink at Washington Note which did not show up: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001026.html

[stop the bleeding]

103. Nicely done, a click within a click

One said that Bolton and his team were operatives of Vice President Cheney inside the State Department establishment . . .”



Cheney's secrecy in operating with select groups while keeping others out had it's merits back when he/they were pulling these tactics, now it seems that some of these "clicks" are going to serve with merit in regards to Fitz's investigation.

Live and die by the sword.

[Me.]

119. The Problem For Cheney

is that it was "groups" within "groups and as H20 often points out, the more people that are in on a secret greatly enhances the probability that it won't be a secret long.

[H2O Man]

87. Yes.

Card was both Rove and Libby's superior. At least on paper.

[spuddonna]

132. Do you think Rove will try to cut a deal?

I read yesterday that Rove was 'singing' - do you think he is giving up Hadley, Cheney and Card to try to 'insulate' himself and Bush from his senior level admin members that are being indicted?

[H2O Man]

150. I do not know

exactly who he has pointed blame at. I know for sure that since late November/early December of '05, his attorney was attempting to come to an agreement. It created a strange situation. Mr. Fitzgerald is acquainted with Mr. Luskin. The attempt to convince Mr. Fitzgerald that Rove had forgotten about talking to Cooper was a betrayal of the trust between them, in my opinion. Of course, V. Novak was deposed, and in a strange turn of events, Mr. Luskin became a witness.

I do not think that Rove is able to make a deal that points to a person lower on the scale of authority and/or criminality. I could be wrong.

[wtbymark]

43. Chimpy's lawyer? n/t

[helderheid]

32. WOOOOOOT! Champagne is chillin'!!

[Norquist Nemesis]

33. I'm putting chips on the bar for Hadley

especially if, as reported, Rove's been singing his own version of Othello.

[leeroysphitz]

35. I'm getting sick of this never ending Fitz roller coaster ride...

Up and down, up and down. I want the ride to END, NOW, with real indictments.

[HereSince1628]

42. Nah, it's those terrible drops that force the guilty to sing!

Bring on the Loop-dee-loops!

[Fovea]

46. You're getting sick...

Imagine you are Dick Cheney.
Dubya aint smart enough to worry yet.

[LuckyLib]

138. Absolutely right. Dub will have to be quietly introduced to the fact

that his administration is going down in flames. Best to do it while he's on the treadmill.

[Catherine Vincent]

55. I don't want the ride to end.

I love riding the Fitz train. :evilgrin:

[PegDAC]

173. When it finally does come down,

it's gonna be well worth the wait!

:toast: :toast: :toast: :party: :party:

[dubyaD40web]

36. WoooHooooo!

Fitzmas is back! Tis the season for treason!

[in_cog_ni_to]

37. Hadley and KKKROVE????? PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!

make it KKKRove and Hadley....throw in Card for good measure! If we could get KKKRove OUT OF THE ELECTION PROCESS our chances of winning in '06 and '08 go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up!:bounce:

[Catherine Vincent]

44. I'm counting on you Fitz!

Take your sweet time. I can wait. :-)

[Virginian]

51. It just has to happen before the November elections.

Anyone see Toby on West Wing negotiating with the prosecutor not to indict any others in the Bartlett administration before the election?

[progressoid]

47. Mmmmm...deeelicious!!

[Mad_Dem_X]

48. W00t!

Good news! :woohoo:

[napi21]

49. This is good t hear, but...do you think the sudden resignation of

Andy Card just might have something to do with this too?

I don't usually like to play this kind of guessing games, but in the past, there has always been a link between "trouble" and resignations! Powell, Mueller, Brenner, all have come under pretty severe scrutinity since their departure!

I don't think ANYTHING happens in this Admin without a reason, and those reasons are always to protect the Admin!

[DoYouEverWonder]

54. Yes,

Andy Card was a member of the WHIG Group and was on the trip to Africa. He's up to his ears in it along with the rest of them.

[fooj]

83. Don't forget the little tag-team game he played with Gonzales!

How many hours before they "secured" docs? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Peace.

[catmandu57]

50. When does the current grand jury expire?

Remember last Fitzmas, the grand jury's term was ending. Fitz had more, but, needed to do something then to keep the ball rolling, so we got scooter.
That has cleared some of the obstruction, maybe new indictments will cut away more of the tumor, so we can get at the root of this.
I'm thinking, though, that we may have to wait until the gj's term to expire before we get bigger fish.

[dubyaD40web]

66. He has a new GJ

Actually, they were already there and he "borrowed" them. He has another 18 months if he needs them.

[i miss america]

52. Oh how I love the smell of

feces making contact with whirly blades



GO FITZ!!!!!!!!!

[Independent_Liberal]

53. K&R!

And Andy Card resigned today. I don't know about you guys, but I think I see something called "shake-up" in action.

:)

[crispini]

57. I'm so excited I just got a little nauseous.

Eeep!

[sinkingfeeling]

59. Oh please hurry! We need the world to see what scum surrounds Chimp!

[ClayZ]

61. Ah, it is nice to wake up to such a GREAT thread! K/R

Round 'em up, lock 'em up and sell the keys on eBay.

:toast:

[foreverdem]

65. SWEET!

Mow 'em down Fitz! Can't wait for the next Fitz press conference! :woohoo:

[Supersedeas]

73. Wasn't Hadley the WH designated spokesperson on the Sunday spin shows

[Joey Liberal]

77. There is a God!!!!!!!!!!! n.t

[On the Road]

78. The Conpsiracy Charge is Very Important

There's a big difference between perjury (which is bad enough) and conspiracy to blow an agent's cover. Even if the facts are clear, the conspiracy charge has to be made to stick for the administration to get nailed.

[npincus]

81. I wonder how this ties in with Rove's "cooperation"?

Why assist Fitzgerald if he is gong to be indicted anyway?

Next: What if... CHENEY is in Fitzy's crosshairs?

[ananda]

90. If it's not Cheney..

.. then there's no such thing as justice.

[0007]

85. Music to my ears. Ah yes, the freepers will be going nuts over this one.

[CanonRay]

86. O Please, O Please, O Please Make it Karl!!!!

[troubleinwinter]

91. Today I am reminded of a song from the good (bad) old days....

We're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
The way we've been treated is really obscene
To think that a bug worth hardly a shrug
Could end up by getting us tossed in the jug
We all got the gate for no reason or rhyme
You'd think we'd committed some horrible crime
Our minds may be dirty but our hands are clean
We're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean

We're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Our job was to see that the White House stayed green
We might have had flaws like bending the laws
But God only knows it was for a good cause
There's no power shortage where we were concerned
And what little profit resulted we earned
Four lovelier fellows you never have seen
Than Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean

We're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Our past has been fat but the future looks lean
With backs to the wall we're taking the fall
But damnit we only robbed Pete to pay Paul
Just when we were getting to be well-to-do
The Watergate turned into our Waterloo
And now everybody is out to demean
Poor Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean

Yes we're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
We're perfectly willing to spill every bean
We've nothing to hide with God on our side
He knows we were only along for the ride
And so it won't come as a terrible blow
There's one little thing that we think you should know
Whatever we say isn't quite what we mean
We're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean

Oh yes we're Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Things won't be the same when we're gone from the scene
But people will still recall with a thrill
Our sell-out performance on Capitol Hill

It just isn't fair to take all of the blame
When all we were doing was playing the game
Now all of Washington's caught in-between
Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean

[kpete]

92. More Interesting Stuff

Details about the latest stage of the investigation began to take shape a few weeks ago when the lead FBI investigator on the leak case, John C. Eckenrode, retired from the agency and indicated to several colleagues that the investigation is about to wrap up with indictments handed up by the grand jury against Rove or Hadley or both officials, the sources said. The Philadelphia-based Eckenrode is finished with his work on the case; however, he is expected to testify as a witness for the prosecution next year against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff who was indicted in October on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators regarding his role in the leak.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/28/124540/684

[katty]

96. and Andy Card resigns, effective today,my,my

[Minnesota_Lib]

144. LOL...That is the 1st thing I thought....10-1 Card is indited

[Catherine Vincent]

101. Eckenrode indicated to several colleagues about indictments coming?

I don't believe that. He wouldn't reveal something like that knowing Fitzgerald frowns on leaks and wouldn't like it.

[stop the bleeding]

106. believe it cat_girl25 - from Leopold's article

Details about the latest stage of the investigation began to take shape a few weeks ago when the lead FBI investigator on the leak case, John C. Eckenrode, retired from the agency and indicated to several colleagues that the investigation is about to wrap up with indictments handed up by the grand jury against Rove or Hadley or both officials, the sources said.

The Philadelphia-based Eckenrode is finished with his work on the case; however, he is expected to testify as a witness for the prosecution next year against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff who was indicted in October on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators regarding his role in the leak.


Leopold has been way ahead of most people on this subject, I would trust him on this until we see something different.

Peace out and Meeeeoooooowwww!!!

[Catherine Vincent]

112. Oh, I believe that may happen but I don't believe Eckenrode would

be the one to leak that bit of info. But I could be wrong, maybe Fitz doesn't run a tight a ship as he hope. I take it Eckenrode is one of Leopold's sources?

[kpete]

115. prrrrrrrrrrr.......

[slybacon9]

97. its beginning to look a lot like fitzmas! lalalalalaaaaaa

well, someone had to say it.

[debbierlus]

99. Slow & steady wins the race. GET EM' FITZ!

As aggravating as this slow procees is to withstand...

I would rather have Fitzgerald dot the I's & cross the T's.

He is a force. And, this thorough investigation and preparation period will pay off. I think this man can actully bring down this Teflon adminstration.

GO FITZ!

[SharonRB]

102. Just in time for Fitzover, Fitzach and Fitzster (take your pick)

Bring....it....on, Fitz!

[Catherine Vincent]

114. What about Fitzteenth?

The truth will set us free! :-)

[SharonRB]

124. I don't get it.

[Catherine Vincent]

129. Juneteenth...Fitzteenth

You have to be a Texan to know about Juneteenth. http://www.juneteenth.com/

:-)

[PegDAC]

175. Not necessarily...

we had Juneteenth festivities in Arizona, too!

But I would like to add Fitz-o de Mayo!

:party:

[Catherine Vincent]

180. Hey....I like the sound of that! Fitz-o de Mayo!

LOL! :hi:

[SharonRB]

178. I guess so. I never heard of it.

[chrisau214]

155. It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Fitzmas

In the month of May?



Chris

[harpo]

104. I'll believe it when he announces an indictment...too many times we have

heard this...and then let down...i won't get my hopes up.

[DanCa]

105. Wow I thought it was over

Good for Fitz he waited for everyone to let their gaurd down and than move in. A classic boxer vs puncher strategy.

[Missy Vixen]

108. An official response from the PFEB

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I love the smell of indictments in the morning. They smell like...victory.



Julie
president for life of the PFEB

[Catherine Vincent]

116. Do you smell what the Fitz is cooking?

:hi:

[Missy Vixen]

162. Whatever it is, it's cooking nice and slow

By the time that pot of water comes to a rolling boil, they'll be all done, and they won't even know it.

Bon appetit!

Julie
president for life of the PFEB

[Bleacher Creature]

109. How does this square with the report about Rove cooperating?

Seriously, why would he be cooperating if he's about to get indicted? I really don't get it, so anyone who could enlighten me -- that would be great.

[Babel_17]

159. Here's my guess

I think Rove isn't fully trusted by Fitz and Rove wants to get every ounce of value that he can from what he has to offer. And I think Rove wants to make sure he only gives the bare minimum needed in order to extract concessions.

Quite possibly Rove doesn't have enough to offer in order to gain complete immunity. So he and Fitz are dancing a little dance about the terms of what Rove can get and what Rove actually knows.

Rove would have to have unique info otherwise he'd be risking that what he had to offer could come from other sources or be rendered moot by other, really damning, evidence becoming available to Fitz.

A lot of us were perplexed at how it looked like Rove would be indicted with Libby but then his lawyer met with Fitz and we were left with only questions.

Rove could be living somewhat in denial and Fitz has decided not to jar him back to reality. Rove might think that as long as he isn't currently indicted everything will somehow magically go away eventually. So Rove made himself useful to Fitz and Fitz lets Rove live in his dreamworld till it suits Fitz to change that.

Just guessing. :)

[bleever]

188. I concur.

Welcome to DU (belatedly).


Good guessing.

:)

[stop the bleeding]

193. Interesting analysis

Thank you

[DUHandle]

111. The Indictment of Turd Blossom will restore my faith

That that the federal government is not 100% corrupt.

[MrBlueSky]

117. The happy day will come soon, people!!!

Personally, tho... I wonder which one of these nasty balloons blowing up in the Bushies' faces will also become the final nail in the neo con coffin.

Wanna start taking bets??? I have a feeling it's all gonna implode soon! ;)

[mvd]

118. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

Let's hope this is true - indictments will even have to get mention in OUR media.

[UrbScotty]

120. K&R (#70) (nt)

[alcibiades_mystery]

121. I have standing bets with several DUers that ROVE WILL NOT BE INDICTED

Any additional takers?

[CJCRANE]

123. Well, they mention the State Dept

which makes me think one of Colin Powell's (former) staff will take the fall, which would be just perfect for the neocons.

[rateyes]

125. Only if he cuts a damned deal....

his fingerprints are all over this. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Libby, Rove, Hadley, Matalin...they all are guilty of espionage US Code 18, Sec. 791, 792 and 793.

Traitorous pricks.

[MrBlueSky]

128. Hey... what about this....

There are some blogs like this one saying that Rove is turning on VP Cheney.

I can't speak for the rest of you all... but I would find it acceptable to let Karl go in exchange for Cheney.

[rateyes]

195. Me too....

But, Karl has to resign, IMO.

[rateyes]

122. Wooooohooooooo....

Fitzmas in April!! My heart is all a-flitter. Hope Rove and Libby turn states evidence on their bosses! 2006 is looking better and better all the time.

I still say somebody needs to be charged with Espionage...and that somebody is Cheney....and, that other somebody is Bush.

[dwp6577]

133. 2 more is great, but...

can we please find a way to indict shotgun-Cheney, count-how-many-times-I-say-ummm-ummm-Rice and who-knew-Rummy.
This trio of evil freaks is very scary, and chimpy would be pretty funny without his puppet-masters to hold his strings and scoop out his poopy-daipies!

Please let this news be true

[cascadiance]

142. Yup, I want this pic to be more than our halloween costumes!

[Catherine Vincent]

143. Very creative costumes!

:thumbsup:

[opihimoimoi]

134. DOUBLE WOOOOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[LuckyLib]

137. May we soon find the two reptiles "twisting in the wind" to use an

old Watergate phrase. YES!!!:thumbsup:

[memory]

141. OOOOH! I feel like SINGING!!!

lucky for you guys, you can't hear me!:bounce:

[madrchsod]

145. if there is a god in heaven......

we can only hope that this is the final blow to the empire...

[Hubert Flottz]

146. Happy Fitzster!

The Fitzster Bunny Is Right On Time!

[savemefromdumbya]

152. Feastzer!

[The Wizard]

147. Family tradition

I hear the room service is terrible at the Gray Bar Hotel and License Plate Factory. But it doesn't really matter; Bushigula will pardon everyone, even if they're not indicted. It's a family tradition in memory of the recently deceased Cap Weinberger.x(

[robertpaulsen]

148. C'MON! Three more votes to make this a 5 Star Thread!!!

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:
:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:
:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

[stop the bleeding]

170. Ditto

:kick:

[Vinca]

149. Hmmm - that 'splains the absence of Rove's puss on the tube lately. nt

[upi402]

183. Saw him monitoring Chimp as Hellen kicked the monkeyshit outa him

Rove was taking notes and looking like Puffy McMoonface's sugardaddy.

[savemefromdumbya]

153. Rove

Rove next, one would suspect Card?

[rpannier]

154. Card and ?????

Oh, God. Make it Rove or Darth. please.

[liberal N proud]

158. This is going to get exciting, isn't it?

Yippee
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[davidwparker]

160. Merry Fitzmas. "the most hap, happiest time, of the year"

[XemaSab]

161. I dunno if my liver can handle another Fitzmas

That bottle of Champagne really left some memories behind....

[Ufomammut]

163. Good news, however...

Until there is greater mainstream awareness regarding gov complicity in the "justifying" crimes of 9/11, the course of domestic and foreign policy isn't going to be swayed.

[democrank]

164. Please...please...let this be true.

I`ve had my fill of these criminals.

[Peace Patriot]

165. To those who want new Fitzgerald indictments to influence the 2006

elections: The only way that were will be significant gains for Democrats and for democracy in the 2006 elections is if there is sufficiently large voter turnout to overcome the 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites, fascists and warmongers, provided by the two rightwing Bushite corporations, Diebold and ES&S, who now 'tabulate' all our votes using 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code in the new electronic voting systems, with virtually no audit/recount controls; or, if sufficient numbers of jurisdictions where Congressional elections are being held this year rid themselves of 'trade secret' programming and other riggable features and restore election transparency prior to the election (not a very likely prospect).

About 70% of the American people now disapprove of the Bush junta, but this means as little as 58% of the American people opposing Bush's pre-emptive war on Iraq back in Feb. 03, BEFORE the invasion, or the 63% of Americans opposed to torture "under any circumstances" (May '04), or any of the other staggering levels of disagreement between the American people and this junta. The junta just arrogantly ignores massive levels of disapproval and disagreement because they are NOT beholden to the American people. They are beholden to the rightwing operatives who control the vote tabulation. And let me tell you who they are:

Diebold: Until recently, the CEO was a Bush/Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser, who promised in writing to "deliver" Ohio's electoral votes to Bush/Cheney in 2004. In addition, they had convicted computer fraud felons writing their "trade secret" vote tabulation software.

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave a million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things. Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship--they are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich. Together, these two companies 'tabulated' 80% of the nation's votes in 2004--a third of it with no paper trail at all (let alone a real ballot), and all of it with "trade secret" programming code--code so secret that not even our secretarties of state are permitted to review it.

Sequoia: The third big player in the election theft market--now employs former Calif Republican Sec of State Bill Jones, and his chief aide Alfie Charles, to peddle their machines. As public officials, Jones and Charles were the ones who authorized purchase of Sequoia and other non-transparent election theft machinery in California. This "revolving door" employment is utterly unethical and corrupt.

These are the people who are 'counting' our votes behind a veil of secrecy.

Fitzgerald could uncover White House-directed murders (I mean besides the tens of thousands of innocent people slaughtered in Iraq, and basements stuffed with billions of dollars (again, not the billions missing in Iraq, but billions missing in America), and it wouldn't make any difference. NOTHING has made any difference. 20 million new voters in 2004, with the Dems having a 60/40 blowout success in new voter registration, didn't make any difference. Lies, deceit, illegal war and torture--and wholesale looting of the federal government, and fleecing of the American people--didn't make any difference. The election SYSTEM is fraudulent, and was SET UP that way by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, with a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle (the so-called "Help America Vote Act"), a bill that contained no controls on partisan vendors, no paper trail requirement, no controls on secret programming, no controls on lavish lobbying and "revolving door" employment, no controls on secret industry 'testing' of the machines, a precipitous time-line with which to force states to purchase insecure, hackable, crapass voting systems from Bushite corporations, and underfunded regulation by a Bush-appointed commission.

If they had WANTED transparent elections, that is easy enough to do. It's a no-brainer. They set it up to BE non-transparent, because the Bush junta could not have won a transparent election. And they set it up to corrupt and compromise election officials and legislators across the country on a bipartisan basis, so that it is now extremely difficult to undo.

We have the most non-transparent election ever created, outside of Stalinist Russia. How can anyone expect that the 2006 elections will be a REAL reflection of the will of the majority of Americans, in these circumstances--except maybe for a few rare instances where big voter turnout may beat the odds?

We should NOT be depending on one prosecutor and one legal case to turn things around, and restore democracy in this country. It DOESN'T MATTER how many or who he indicts, with fascists in control of the tabulation of our votes. They'll get rid of Cheney and put Rice or McCain or Jeb Bush or Lieberman or Biden in his place. They'll Diebold a War Democrat as "our" candidate in '08, and put him/her in the White House, to squelch further investigation, to get a military Draft, to invade Iran, to start blaming "the liberals" for Bush's financial and foreign policy disasters, and--with a few sops to the liberal wing (say, women's rights)--to throw suspicions off their voting machines. I suspect that Hillary has already made a deal to this effect.

Nothing is going to change until we restore TRANSPARENT elections. Indictments may help to foster a MOOD of revolt--and get people to wondering how these criminals retained power in 2004. I'm not saying I don't welcome indictments. The more evidence people have of the criminality of this regime, the more likely they are to begin understanding what happened in 2004, and what's going to happen in 2006. (Karl Rove, for all his indict-ability, is even now writing the press releases and "talking points" about how the 'immigration issue' 'turned things around for the Republicans' in 2006--as with the 'gay marriage' talking point in 2004, created in the confidence that Diebold and ES&S would make it come true.)

End of rant. Go, Fitz!

(Really--I want to see these perps walk, too! Justice is good for the soul, even if it cannot, in and of itself, create a democratic country.)

[Peace Patriot]

168. Some resources for American Revolution II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org--just announced--is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html

-----

Resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

The Voter Confidence Resolution
Dave Berman, author, “We Do Not Consent”
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

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

Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

-----------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[robertpaulsen]

197. A post well worth bookmarking!

Thanks Peace Patriot!

[Peace Patriot]

198. Thanks, robertpaulsen! We do have to keep focused on how to get our

country back. With regard to the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, we should merely note that they have black-holed the Bushite-controlled secret code vote tabulation, and move on. They are useless and complicit. They FALSIFIED their exit polls (Kerry won) on election night 2004, to make them 'fit' Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won)--the worst journalistic crime I have ever witnessed. We should concentrate on word-of-mouth and internet communication. (Someone upthread noted that the "MSM" has given "0" coverage to the secret code. I suggest we stop calling them "MSM"--i.e., "mainstream media." They in no way reflect the "mainstream" in this country. They are a part of the junta.)

That said, I want to repeat that I DO hope for more indictments, that I'm in the "tortoise" camp as to evaluating the work of Patrick Fitzgerald (he's the tortoise who will win the race, because of his slow, careful, brilliant, prosecutorial work), and that he is in fact a sort of "savior"--he's saving our legal system and our government from utter disgrace and ruination.

But he is just one man--albeit a very courageous and tenacious one--seeking the perpetrators of one crime, in the most massively criminal government this country--or maybe any country--has ever seen. Such prosecutions CAN open the floodgates, and open people's eyes, and give hope to the honest. But we need to keep in mind that the work of restoring democracy is OUR work, the work of the people, and it's liable to be a long slog, indeed--for instance, with regard to election reform, a long term, grass roots effort in every state/local jurisdiction in the country. The Democratic Party isn't going to save us. Many party leaders are thickly involved in both electronic voting and war profiteering corruption. The silence of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies on Bushite-controlled vote tabulation has been exactly matched by the silence of the Democratic Party leadership--a big zero. WHAT can they be thinking? (--a combo of corruption and fear, I believe).

And, even now, this fascist junta is maneuvering to utilize whatever additional indictments Fitzgerald produces, even Bush/Cheney as "unindicted co-conspirators", to create a "spin" story that will gel with, a) Bushite victories in the '06 Congressional elections, manufactured by their buds at Diebold and ES&S; and b) if necessary, a War/Corporate 'Democrat' as the "peoples' choice" in '08 (probably Hillary), who will consolidate enormous fascist financial and regulatory gains, continue the war in the Middle East (likely with a military Draft), squelch any serious investigation of the Bushites, and begin to take the blame for Bush's financial and foreign policy disasters, preparatory to Diebolding the real Hitler into power in '12 (after the center/left has fractured and the country is on its knees, a la Germany 1932).

Bush/Cheney may look like a wrecking crew--and I've often commented upon this myself, that they appear to be just thieves and looters, and have none of the brilliant skills of Hitler and his Nazi Gang in creating a huge, lethal military/industrial machine and a goosestepping, sieg heiling population, out of a broken, demoralized, financially ruined country (Germany circa 1930s). They are, instead, BREAKING a country--destroying a prosperous country, looting it blind, and smashing all of its existing 'common good" government programs (like FEMA and the EPA). But this doesn't mean that the puppetmasters behind Bush/Cheney are not hard at work to steal every last brick from the monuments of the Roman Empire.

They have to subtly manipulate the newsstream to explain Diebold/ES&S outcomes, in these circumstances. The current 'immigration' story is a good example of that. But I think they will go much further, and, whatever Fitzgerald does, spin any indictments to create a story, say, of the Republicans "cleaning house." Meanwhile, the REAL story--say, Hillary's deal with the fascists--will go completely unnoticed. (I am much inclined to believe that Hillary for four years--doing their bidding in some respects, but also taking the blame for the financial and foreign policy disasters that Bush & Co. have set up--is what is going to happen, one reason being that, by '08, suspicion of the election system will have grown widespread, and they will try to smother that up with a Hillary "victory." See-a 'Democrat' can "win.") (Our job will be to convince Hillary to support TRANSPARENT elections--or, barring that, to keep plugging away at the state/local level.)

Anyway, much as I welcome prosecutions of these criminals, I think we have to be wary in our expectation of what such prosecutions may produce. The people who have taken over our country are not going to give up just because some of their major puppets have gotten their strings in a tangle. THEY are thinking long term. So should we!

[JudyM]

174. Why don't wealthy dems offer massive whistleblower rewards for tips

that'll bring down the vandals? Hard to believe that there aren't Diebold workers in the know who would give serious thought to turning over for a few hundred thousand dollars.

[fearnobush]

181. Great Rant. May the Main Stream Media be forced to report these truths.

M$M story's on electronic secret code no one is allowed to look at: Big fat

0!

[ComerPerro]

166. Yeah, cause so much came out of the investigations so far

Oh, wait, what's that? Nothings changed? Still?

Hmm...

[Loge23]

167. Leaking now?

This entire investigation has proved to be leak proof.
Why should anyone believe that this situation has changed?
This story is pure speculation - hopeful, but speculation just the same.
I strongly advise that we should not read anything into this so-called development.

[kpete]

171. Jason Leopold on KRXA at 5:00 p.m. pst

Jason Leopold

FITZ
straight shooter, Elliot Ness, Genuine, hardworking

juggling many cases right now

Going after what he believes to be a crime

2nd Grand Jury because a crime happened


La la Raw Raw

Lots of respect
knows her and worked with her
She works her fingers to the bone
I absolutely trust her

Luskin

Misinformer?
Liar?


Rove & Hadley

What I was told
the only deal for Rove will NOT be blanket immunity

Rove & Hadley face same charges

Rove cooperating may help him to not face obstruction

Still faces perjury

lower jail time


Early On

Had info on obstruction

quickly turned from crime to obstruction, perjury and cover-up


On his article today

This is where Larissa's piece comes in

Citations in e-mails not disclosed when first questions

FACT IS THEY DID NOT DISCLOSE & LIED ABOUT IT

[MelissaB]

176. Thank you!

Much appreciated. :hi:

[Beetwasher]

177. I Think I Have to Read This Numerous Times and Digest It Slowly

Very slowly.

[Warren Stupidity]

179. Ah - it seems that the Fitzmas Bunny will be arriving!

Hooray for the Fitzmas Bunny!

[stillrockin]

184. Hippity, hoppity,

Fitzter's on its way!

:woohoo:

[Lena inRI]

186. Sic 'em, Fitz. . .sic both of them. . .

and have NO MERCY!
:smoke:

[PatrioticLeftie]

189. Make us smile, Fitz

For the future of humanity, make us smile!

[galatea]

192. I'll believe it

when I see it.