Just in from TPM : Roves Talking Point

[ourbluenation]

Rove's Talking Point
By Paul Kiel - March 19, 2007, 4:58 PM

The House and Senate judiciary committees want to hear from Karl Rove, and it looks like there's going to be a fight before they do. But Rove has already spoken twice on the U.S. attorney firings, and on both occasions, he auditioned a talking point that provides an excellent case for firing Carol Lam -- the only problem with it being that it's not true.

On March 8th, Rove said that Lam had been fired because " refused to file immigration cases… at the direction of the Attorney General, she was asked to file, and she said I don’t want to make that a priority in my office."

One week later, he said that Lam had made a "principled decision... that she would not commit resources to prosecute immigration offenses. She made a decision that that was not going to be a priority of her office. The United States Department of Justice asked her to make it so, she did not."

Now, no one else, either from the Justice Department or the White House, has made a similar assertion. And that's because, as Lam testified repeatedly under oath before Congress, she was never asked (let alone "directed") to change her office's handling of immigration cases.

But that's not all. As recounted numerous times on this blog, the Justice Department wrote a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) vouching for Lam's handling of immigration cases just three months before she was fired. The letter stated that Lam had committed "fully half of its Assistant U.S. Attorneys to prosecute criminal immigration cases," and noted that the number of alien smuggling cases filed in her office had been "rising sharply." Three months later, she was fired.

In other words, Rove's assertion is not only a lie, but a damned lie.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002804.php

[ourbluenation]

1. and here it goes deeper....

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002804.php

...But here's the question: where did this talking point come from? Rove, of course, has denied having much involvement at all with the whole process, a claim that grows weaker as more documents are released. We now know that Rove was involved in the early brainstorming, and Sampson bowed to Rove's political wisdom in orchestrating the firings ("if Karl thinks there would be political will to do it, then so do I"). We also know that Rove's deputy worked closely with Sampson to get Rove's former deputy Timothy Griffin installed as the U.S. attorney in Arkansas. So was it Sampson who provided Rove with this talking point?

Or maybe it was the other way around. As Josh notes today, the only email released by the Justice Department that broaches the topic of Lam's handling of immigration issues reads very much like "an effort to find a rationale for firing Lam and inquiring to see whether a paper trail or record exists to back that rationale." Sampson wrote: "Has ODAG ever called Carol Lam and woodshedded her re immigration enforcement? Has anyone?"

No one ever did. But if someone had, and she had refused to make it a priority, it would have been an excellent reason to fire her.

[mod mom]

3. Can we indict this schmuck already: civil rihts abuses (disenfranchising Af Ams),

election fraud in OH; exposing a CIA operative and the damage to national security that it entailed; and now this. Frog March the bastard!

[fooj]

2. Liar. Liar.

[MissMarple]

4. Out...out...damned facts!

How dare anyone bring them into the light of day. :rofl:

[Bucky]

5. Is it just me, or do you wish TPM hadn't published this, but only emailed it to the committee?

*Sigh* I guess transparency in public affairs is better, but I sure would enjoy watching Rove squirm under an exposed perjury rather than waiting to see what his back up story is.

[Fridays Child]

6. The White House is stuck on "lie."

They lie when just shutting up is the better option. They lie when they know that we are on high alert for their lies. Long after any reasonable person knows he's going to get caught, these people just keep on lying.

Pathological.

[The Doctor.]

10. "Pathological" is my assesment as well...

although the pathos is not always based on the instinct to CYA.

Their M/O, like that of spoiled children whose parents always believe their little shits over the guidance counselors, teachers, neighbors, and peers that accuse them, has become imbedded in their behavior.

So much so that the only difference they see between lies and truth is in what can be used to hurt them. Their lies are as good as reality as far as they are concerned.

And they will fall by them.

[Lautremont]

7. Rove is a damn dirty ape.

[EVDebs]

8. Wackenhut/Cabazon Indian gaming tribe not too far from San Diego

Maybe what got Danny Casolaro and Gary Webb offed ties into the corruption Lam was investigating.

"Coincidentally, Danny Casolaro, an independently wealthy individual turned free lance, investigative journalist, was working on a book to be titled "The Octopus". His investigations lead him to the Wackenhut-Cabazon operation during Riconosciuto's involvement there. Gary Webb was another freelance investigative journalist, albeit not independently wealthy, who touched on the Wackenhut-Cabazon operations as revealed in his 1998 book "Dark Alliance.""

Who is Mike Riconosciuto?
http://www.david-sadler.org/archiveFP/FP20031022.htm

What the hell is going on here ? The public has never heard ANY of this.

[Gabi Hayes]

9. SPY MAgazine's John Connolly wrote about the Wackenhut/Indian gambling

connection, vis a vis Casolaro, in the early 90s. I have the issue somewhere, and I'll never forget it.

Connolly is the writer, btw, who had a book coming out about the Elves a few years ago. An assistant stole parts of it, released it to some wingers, and the entire project was quashed. I'd love to know whatever happened to that.

It was a topic of great interest at Salon Table Talk at the time.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. this is the article....I'm pretty sure Riconosciuto is in it, too. I'll check

http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/WACKEN.HUT.html

from the last two paragraphs:

Numerous publications reporting on Casolaro's death corroborated that one of his sources included Michael Riconosciuto, a "44yearold former hightech scientist who had connections with Wackenhut Corporation ..." What brought Casolaro to Riconosciuto was an affidavit signed by Riconosciuto claiming that when he worked on the WackenhutCabazon project, he was given a copy of the Inslaw software by Earl Brian for modification. Riconosciuto also swore that Peter Videnieks, a Justice Department official associated with the Inslaw contract, had visited the WackenhutCabazon project with Earl Brian.

Earl Brian was a businessman and Edwin Meese crony who served in Governor Ronald Reagan's cabinet in California.The $6 million in software stolen from William and Nancy Hamilton, coowners of Inslaw Company, was allegedly sold by the Justice Department through Earl Brian to raise offthebooks money for covert government operations.

[EVDebs]

13. 'offthebooks' means extra-Constitutional, since all spending is to originate

in the House.

[Gabi Hayes]

17. off the books, as in Iran Contra

this is all about Octopus, lord knows where that goes. Inslaw is a huge part of that entire fiasco, and Ed Meese, among other big names is in that one up to his eyeballs.

[EVDebs]

12. Maybe that LA Dem congresswoman will get to ask questions about any connections

but this will all end up 'in camera' and the public will never know what happened. It doesn't have to happen that way, however. There is a God and if he/she/it believes in justice, Danny and Gary will be smiling now.

[grasswire]

20. ah yes

John and I corresponded several times about his book, which was to be named "Insane Clown Posse" and which detailed the murkier aspects of the Coulter-Fund-Drudge-Lucianne crowd. Personally, I believe they may have got something on him and the price was just too dear for him to go forward. In any event, they killed his book in just a few days with their manufactured hysteria about it.

[EVDebs]

15. Hmmm. Lam in SanDiego and the other in Arkansas

Both places connected to the Casolaro Wackenhut/Cabazon funny-funding of black ops...What a coininkydink.

[VP505]

14. On it's

face it's hard to believe Rove's story, all one need do is look at how resistant the WH (Bu$hCo) has been to take the necessary steps to protect the ports and borders and enforce immigration law in general to realize that immigration is not a priority for this admin.

[EVDebs]

16. It's "CYA" just look into the posts I've put up above. Follow the dots.

[Gabi Hayes]

18. here's another Connolly/SPY/Casolaro story; a few months after the first

http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/danny_casolaro.htm

it's been so long since I've read these. time for a refresher....

[donkeyotay]

19. Here's another possibility, Karl

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2006

AFO Leader Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix Captured
DEA, U.S. Coast Guard Apprehend Cartel Leader off Coast of Southern California

“For over a decade, the Arellano-Felix family dominated the Mexican drug trade and flooded our nation with hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana, and massive quantities of methamphetamine and heroin,” said Administrator Tandy.

Javier Arellano-Felix, the last stronghold at the top of that cartel, is a violent drug kingpin wanted in the United States for numerous drug trafficking, conspiracy, and money laundering charges. He is considered threatening enough to our nation to warrant a $5 million US State Department reward for his capture. His arrest topples a dynasty built on violence and drugs and puts a chokehold on the destruction this brutal organization has caused in both the United States and Mexico,” said Tandy.

http://www.dea.gov/pubs/pressrel/pr082406.html