Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

ferozk:

There`s plenty of blood in the water and the media sharks are all over it. Today`s Meet the Press with Tim Russert had ZERO white house officials. I`m sure he tried to get the chief of staff Andy Card or Dan Bartlet or some other apologist but my feeling is they are crapping bricks and not very inclined to meeting the press right now. The spin cycle will beging next week. It`s too early to hunker down till thanksgiving/christmas.

About Dubya`s politics: The first thing a troubled president would do is run to his base. The bible thumpers in Dubya`s ``base`` don`t care about the CIA leak or the 2K dead soldiers more than their # 1 issue: abortion. My sense is that Dubya will appoint someone who`ll make them really really happy...another scalia or thomas..or worse..

The most interesting aspect of yesterday`s indictment is that Rove hasn`t been cleared. This can only get interesting over the next few months.

No one, of course, can say just how all this will play out - whether Libby will be convicted, whether there will be other indictments, or whether we`ll see the thing expand to include the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I, for one, hope that the entire Iraq issue becomes central.

Following is an excerpt from an article in The Asia Times. The URL will take you to the full article.

Middle East Oct 28, 2005

Where chaos is king By Mark LeVine

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GJ28Ak02.html

``Even with the blowback from the chaos Bush has unleashed now creeping towards Karl Rove`s office in the White House and beginning to encircle Vice President Dick Cheney, we need to consider what other means this administration might have used to achieve three of its most important goals in Iraq:

Its first goal has long been to retain a (much reduced) military presence in that country for the foreseeable future. The administration is on record as saying that it will leave if asked to do so; but the continuing chaos and conflict, largely sparked by the continued presence of US troops, ensure that the desperately weak government in Baghdad`s Green Zone, which is unlikely to survive without American protection, won`t make such a request.

Its second goal is to ensure a predominant role for US companies in the development, production and sale of the country`s vast reservoirs of oil. Indeed, the few documents made public from the Cheney Energy Task Force revealed that concern over losing Iraq to European oil companies, combined with China`s insatiable thirst for petroleum and fears that it would increasingly encroach on America`s sphere of economic dominance, were important reasons for the war.

If the world really has entered an era of zero-sum competition over its remaining oil supplies, Iraq is a prize worth shedding a lot of blood to secure - and chaos, whatever the ensuing pain, a strategy potentially worth pursuing.

The administration`s final goal has been to continue the wholesale, disastrous privatization of Iraq`s economy - something that, as the World Bank warned, was unlikely to be accepted by the people of any Middle Eastern country who possessed the wherewithal to resist.

It is obviously harder for people to resist when their lives have been thrown into chaos. In fact, most of the Middle East has avoided succumbing to American pressures to adopt the kind of large-scale, structural-adjustment reforms that have spread increased poverty and inequality across the global south. As key members of the Bush administration saw the matter, Iraq could do for neo-liberalism in the Middle East what Chile did for it in Latin America.

The vast majority of Iraqis are, of course, opposed to each of these goals. Yet the constitution on which they just voted - being essentially an American-brokered document - carefully avoided addressing any of these concerns. It is hard to imagine that such an end would have been possible in a more peaceful environment where Iraqis had the public space and time to debate these important issues, particularly when polling shows that upwards of 80% of them are opposed to the presence of US troops and to the policies they are enforcing.

Perhaps Juan Cole has best summarized how and why chaos has become a defining dynamic in Iraq: ``Iraq was,`` he said recently, ``like a treasure in a strongbox ... The obvious thing to do was to take a crowbar and strike off the strongbox lock.`` ``

Re: # 88

Arjun, Scooter is gone; but not convicted. Rove`s indictment is still detabateable and the press in Washington (and the United States) refuses to smell the blood and follow up the trail, to where it is leading. Democrats are still confused and still sounding and pretending to be the better halves of the Republicans.

I have been out of the mainstream of the Republican politics for nearly six years now, but my instincts tell me that if the Bush ship of state is doomed, it will be doomed, when the right wing of the party scuttles it itself. The Miers nomination and the rabid conservative attack on Bush`s choice, might be the harbringer of this eventuality. There is an open revolt in the GOP and even so, I am certain if the democrats can gain any political traction out of the GOP`s miseries.

You are placed in a better vantage point than I to judge the mood on the street, being in the United States, but my impression is that there is a general sense of disillusionment of both the political parties in the popular perception. Since 2004 elections, the democrats have not done anything to seperate themselves from the GOP`s policies. Rove`s indictment might mean his resignation, but the damage will limit itself to only that possibility.

In any case, the mid-term elections are only a year away and it will be interesting to see if the Democrats can wrest the Congress from the Republicans. Bush is already a lame duck president, mostly due to his administration`s fumbling of the response to Katrina and Wilma. Again, I am not in the United States so I really do not know what the ``feel`` is, but from what I am reading, the American public response is still lethargic to the crisis.

Ciao

Scooter`s gone...Next stop: Rove..

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In anticipation of the increasing possibility of indictment(s), Republicans are planning the following strategies to control the aftermath, accordng to Yahoo!News. Nobody knows what is coming but planning for the worst is not a bad idea. Another setback for the President is Harriet`s withdrawl from nomination from the Supreme Court.

• Any indicted White House officials would immediately step down, and Bush would quickly name their successors. If Rove is indicted, more than one person might take over his many responsibilities.

• The president and other White House officials would limit their public comments on the case. Outside interest groups and allies would do most of the talking.

• Whenever possible, Bush and other administration officials would try to change the subject. Among the issues the president plans to put atop his new agenda are spending restraint, tax changes and immigration. In addition, Bush`s foreign policy advisors have discussed launching a more visible presidential effort to prod Israel and the Palestinians toward peace, one official said.

• The White House would try to insulate Bush from the scandal allegations. Officials would argue that the president has not been accused of any direct involvement in the leaking of information in the CIA case or subsequent efforts to minimize the political damage. Although it is not yet clear who would coordinate the defense, several advisors said they expected Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman would be heavily involved. One official said former Cheney aide Mary Matalin was another likely participant. Neither Mehlman nor Matalin could be reached for comment.

Mohammad Gill

Antiwar.com blog

Lotsa interesting information.

Also from today`s Reuters...

Leak grand jury meets prosecutor
Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:04 AM ET

By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative`s identity met on Wednesday with special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald amid signs the prosecutor was preparing to seek criminal charges.

Fitzgerald, who have interviewed many senior White House figures as he seeks the source of the leak, declined comment as they began the grand jury session at about 9 a.m.

Any charges that are brought by the grand jury could be sealed, preventing a public announcement by the court or the prosecutor until possibly on Thursday or Friday, when the grand jury is scheduled to expire.

The secret grand jury session followed a last-minute flurry of interviews by investigators with CIA operative Valerie Plame`s neighbors and a former colleague of top White House adviser Karl Rove.

Plame`s identity was leaked after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq.

White House officials were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the leak case since any indicted officials were expected to resign immediately. If indictments are brought, Bush was likely to make a public statement to try to reassure Americans that he is committed to honesty and integrity in government.

The White House has refused to answer questions about Vice President Dick Cheney`s role in the case.

According to a New York Times report, Cheney`s chief of staff, Lewis Libby, learned about Plame in a conversation with Cheney on June 12, 2003, weeks before her identity became public in a newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.

Libby`s notes indicate Cheney got his information about Plame from then-CIA Director George Tenet, according to the Times. The White House would neither confirm nor deny the account.

On Wednesday, both Rove and Libby were at the White House senior staff meeting in the morning as usual, a senior official said.

Fitzgerald`s investigation has centered on Libby and Rove, President George W. Bush`s top political adviser. Other aides may also be charged, lawyers said.

Lawyers involved in the case said it could be difficult for Fitzgerald to charge administration officials with knowingly revealing Plame`s identity.

They said Fitzgerald appeared more likely to seek charges for easier-to-prove crimes such as making false statements, obstruction of justice and disclosing classified information.

But there were 11th-hour signs that Fitzgerald could still bring charges for the leak itself.

FBI agents on Monday night questioned some of Plame`s neighbors about whether they knew about her CIA work before her identity was leaked to the press. The interviews could help Fitzgerald show that Plame`s status had been a closely-guarded secret.


© Reuters 2005. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

More of today`s news....please go to the URL for the entire report. mirmir

Preparing for a Bumpy Ride
By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real
Posted on October 26, 2005, Printed on October 26, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/27266/
If Bette Davis were still with us, she`d have a piece of advice for the American public: ``Better buckle up. It`s going to be a bumpy ride.``

Yes, all hell is about to break loose. As I said in an early column, I`ve been here before and I can tell you, it ain`t gonna be pretty. The process that is about to begin is a bit like the whole body politic getting a colonic. I remember how it left the nation weak and disoriented for a decade or more. I am, of course, speaking of Watergate -- different cast of characters, same crimes.

In the Watergate era we still had people in Congress, from both parties, with the integrity and backbone to pursue the matter on their own. But those folks have been replaced by the political equivalent of street gang members who make their judgments based on whether the other guy is wearing red or blue.

The following extract about the status of the CIA probe is from today`s ``The New York Times.``

Mohammad Gill

---

October 26, 2005
Leak Counsel Is Said to Press on Rove`s Role
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
and ANNE E. KORNBLUT
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - With the clock running out on his investigation, the special counsel in the leak case continued to seek information on Tuesday about Karl Rove`s discussions with reporters in the days before a C.I.A. officer`s identity was made public, lawyers and others involved in the investigation said.

Three days before the grand jury in the case expires and with the White House in a state of high anxiety, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appeared still to be trying to determine whether Mr. Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in July 2003, they said.

Mr. Fitzgerald, who is the United States attorney in Chicago, spent the day in Washington and summoned his team, including his chief F.B.I. investigator, Jack Eckenrode, for what appeared to be a final round of discussions about how to proceed.

Lawyers involved in the case have said Mr. Rove, President Bush`s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney`s chief of staff, face the possibility of indictment on perjury or other charges related to covering up their actions.

The flurry of last minute activity had White House officials anticipating an announcement as soon as Wednesday about whether the prosecutor would seek indictments. Indictments of Mr. Libby or Mr. Rove or both would leave Mr. Bush a political crisis with the potential to reshape the remainder of his second term. It is not clear whether anyone else might be charged in the case, which centers on what role administration officials played in the disclosure of a covert C.I.A. officer`s identity, first in Mr. Novak`s column on July 14, 2003.

Mr. Fitzgerald`s spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.

The investigation was set off by questions about whether administration officials had leaked the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, in response to criticism by her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Mr. Wilson, a former diplomat, said in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, that the White House had ``twisted`` the intelligence it used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Wilson traveled to Africa on a mission sponsored by the C.I.A. in 2002 to look into reports that Iraq had acquired nuclear material in Niger.

In a sign that the prosecutor is continuing to build a case that Ms. Wilson`s covert status was ended when she was named in Mr. Novak`s column, F.B.I. agents questioned neighbors of the Wilsons in northwest Washington in the last few days, seeking to determine whether it was commonly known that she was a C.I.A. officer, a person involved in the case said. Ms. Wilson was identified in Mr. Novak`s column by her maiden name, Valerie Plame.

White House officials did not respond to questions about a report on Tuesday in The New York Times that Mr. Libby had first learned of the C.I.A. officer from Mr. Cheney several weeks before Mr. Novak`s column. On a day when the mood at the White House was described by one friend of the president as grim, Mr. Bush used his public appearances on Tuesday to show himself as focused on the nation`s business, most notably Iraq, and undeterred by what he has characterized as ``background noise.``

Twenty-two months after beginning his investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald has assembled testimony from dozens of witnesses, secured the cooperation of journalists in helping to piece together what happened and delved deep into the workings of an administration that has always sought to keep its internal deliberations and its political tactics out of public view.

While not commenting on the report about Mr. Libby`s conversation with Mr. Cheney, the White House took issue with suggestions that Mr. Cheney had not been truthful several months later in a television interview when he said he did not know Mr. Wilson and did not know who had sent him on his mission.

Asked whether Mr. Cheney always told the truth to the American people, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, answered, ``Yes.``

At issue were remarks by Mr. Cheney in an appearance on NBC`s ``Meet the Press`` on Sept. 14, 2003. In response to a question about Mr. Wilson, Mr. Cheney said: ``I don`t know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when I came back.``

Mr. Cheney later added, ``I don`t know Joe Wilson,`` and said he had ``no idea who hired him.``

The Times report said Mr. Libby had taken notes of a conversation he had with Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, after Mr. Cheney had spoken to George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, about newspaper articles quoting an anonymous former diplomat taking issue with the administration`s use of intelligence about Iraq`s effort to acquire nuclear material in Niger.

The notes do not show that Mr. Cheney had learned the name of Mr. Wilson`s wife or her covert status, lawyers involved in the case said. But they do show that Mr. Cheney knew and told Mr. Libby that Mr. Wilson`s wife was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency and may have helped arrange her husband`s trip, they said.

Republicans sympathetic to Mr. Cheney said there was no inconsistency between what the vice president is reported to have told Mr. Libby and what Mr. Cheney said on ``Meet the Press.`` They said there was nothing in the reported conversation to suggest that the vice president knew Mr. Wilson or knew who had sent him to Africa..............

warmongering beeyatches get what`s coming for them...

From GoP apologist and very gay Matt Drudge

``We have double sourced that the vice president`s chief of staff has been indicted,`` a reporter for ABCNEWS claimed to White House communications director Nicolle Wallace this afternoon... MORE...

ABCNEWS TELLS WHITE HOUSE OF `INDICTMENT`

michael mann is ideal (imo) given he made Insider, to film this thing.

Apropos of Arjun`s post #77, hereunder is a brief biographical description of Michael Ledeen. He is for regime change in the whole of Arab (Muslim) Middle East. Next in line seem to be Syria and Iran. The propaganda machinery against Syria is already in the top gear.

Mohammad Gill

---

Michael Ledeen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Michael Ledeen (born August 1, 1941) is an expert on U.S. foreign policy and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His political ideas, informed by his background in history and philosophy, have influenced or inspired the Bush administration. Ledeen is a contributing editor to the National Review and the Jewish World Review, and a resident scholar (Freedom Scholar) at the American Enterprise Institute. Ledeen was a founding member of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and he continues to serve on the JINSA Board of Advisors. Leeden is also considered by many to be a U.S. neoconservative.

Ledeen holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, where he specialized in the comparative history of German and Italian fascism. One of Ledeen`s principal mentors was the German-born historian George Mosse. Another major influence on Ledeen was the Italian historian Renzo De Felice. Ledeen`s political ideas are said to have influenced or inspired the Bush administration.

Ledeen was a major figure in the biggest foreign policy scandal of the Ronald Reagan administration. As a secret agent of National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, Ledeen vouched for Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, and along with Oliver North, met with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and officers of Mossad and the CIA to arrange the illegal weapons-for-hostages deal with Iran that would become known as the Iran-Contra scandal.1

He was also a vocal proponent of the theory that the Bulgarian Secret Service was behind the plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The theory was later rejected by the Italian Courts. In early 2005 it was suggested that new evidence, in the form of East German Stasi documents, show that it was the Bulgarians in concert with the KGB and Stasi who were behind the plot. The former head of the Stasi, Marcus Wolf, and the Berlin office overseeing the Stasi archive, claim that the documents in question were sent to Italy in 1995 and do not implicate anyone in the attack on the Pope. [1]

Regarding regime change in the Middle East, in 2002 Ledeen criticized the views of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, writing:

He fears that if we attack Iraq ``I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a caldron and destroy the War on Terror.`` One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists. That`s our mission in the war against terror.2

Ledeen`s phrase, ``faster, please`` has become a signature meme in Ledeen`s writings and is often referenced by neoconservative writers advocating a more forceful and broader war on terror.

In September 2002, Ledeen`s book, The War Against the Terror Masters (ISBN: 031230644X) was published.

Earlier in his career, Ledeen authored Universal Fascism: The Theory and Practice of the Fascist International, 1928-1936, published in 1972 and now out of print. The book critiqued European fascism, particularly Italian fascism; Ledeen attempted to differentiate between the an ideal, revolutionary ``fascist movement,`` which he views in a positive light, and the failed, under-reaching ``fascist regime.``

In 2005, Vincent Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism operations at the CIA and the intelligence director at the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan, when asked by Ian Masters if Ledeen was the source of the forged memo that claimed that Iraq had sought to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger replied ``you`d be very close.``[2]

In an interview on July 26, 2005, Cannistraro`s business partner and columnist for the American Conservative magazine, former CIA counter terrorism officer Philip Giraldi, confirmed to Scott Horton that the forgeries were produced by ``a couple of former CIA officers who are familiar with that part of the world who are associated with a certain well-known neoconservative who has close connections with Italy.`` When Horton guessed whether that was Ledeen, Giraldi confirmed it and added that the ex-CIA officers, ``also had some equity interests, shall we say, with the operation. A lot of these people are in consulting positions, and they get various, shall we say, emoluments in overseas accounts, and that kind of thing.``[3]

Ledeen is also a member of Benador Associates [4] a combination ``public relations agency``, speaker`s bureau and blog with a long roster of neo-conservative clients.

[edit]
References
[5] FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERS Volume I: ``Investigations and Prosecution``, Lawrence E. Walsh, Independent Counsel, 4 August 4 1993, Washington, D.C.
[6] Michael Ledeen, ``Scowcroft Strikes Out,`` National Review, 6 August 2002.
[7] John Laughland, ``Flirting with Fascism,`` The American Conservative, 30 June 2003.
[edit]

#76 by ferozk on October 25, 2005 7:15am PT

I`ll boil down the latest working theory on the left-leaning blogospheres and antiwar.com(which is antiwar, not leftleaning): Valeria Plame was somehow involved in exposing Michael Ledeen and Co. as the producers of the fake Niger-Yellowcake documents and her outing actually targeted her and not her husband(if both were the targets, she was the primary target).

Re: # 67

Arjun, thanks for the links. The article, was really interesting and informative. I will periodically visit that site, as it seems to be a good resource of information.

I still stand by my earlier statements and add that the lawyers will sculpt lucanas in the law and wriggle their clients out, as is the norm of political trials in the United States. The players in this drama are more subtle and sophisticated than most of us credit them and besides, there is alway another story waiting in the shadows to push this story away from the limelight. Another bomb blast in Iraq and a new progress report card on the economy released at the right time, with the wrong message can play wonders with the public` attention span and its lack thereof.

All, I fear and foresee is nothing more than some horse trading taking place Texas style at a ranch in Wyoming! :)

Ciao