I think Ashcroft had to recuse himself because the investiagation HAS gotten somewhere... and Ashcroft probably knows him well enough to have to step aside.
Federal law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said.
According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law-enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned, nor did Hannah and Libby return calls.
The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah "that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time" as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law-enforcement official said.
Two government officials have told the FBI that conservative columnist Robert Novak was asked specifically not to publish the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame in his now-famous July 14 newspaper column. The two officials told investigators they warned Novak that by naming Plame he might potentially jeopardize her ability to engage in covert work, stymie ongoing intelligence operations, and jeopardize sensitive overseas sources.
These new accounts, provided by a current and former administration official close to the situation, directly contradict public statements made by Novak. He has downplayed his own knowledge about the potential harm to Plame and ongoing intelligence operations by making that disclosure. He has also claimed in various public statements that intelligence officials falsely led him to believe that Plame was only an analyst, and the only potential consequences of her exposure as a CIA officer would be that she might be inconvenienced in her foreign travels.
The two administration officials questioned by the FBI characterized Novak's statements as untrue and misleading, according to a government official and an attorney official familiar with the FBI interviews.
One of the sources also asserted that the credibility of the administration officials who spoke to the FBI is enhanced by the fact that the officials made their statement to the federal law enforcement authorities. If the officials were found to be lying to the FBI, they could be potentially prosecuted for making false statements to federal investigators the sources pointed out.
Novak declined to be interviewed for this article.
Today is the deadline for the House Republican caucus to sign off on continued efforts to cover up what happened to Valerie Plame.
On January 21st, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced what's called a 'resolution of inquiry' (H-Res 499) requesting that the Justice Department, the State Department and the Department of Defense turn over to the Congress all relevant information or documents relating to how and why covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked to the public.
Basically, this legislative tactic forced the House majority to go on record as to whether they were willing to allow any investigation of the Plame matter. It gave the Intelligence, Judiciary, Armed Services and International Relations Committees fourteen legislative days to decide whether to authorize the request for records from the three executive branch departments or refuse to do so.
WASHINGTON -- The federal grand jury probing the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer's name was published in a column in July, according to documents obtained by Newsday.
Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President George W. Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. (CONT)
Sounds like it's getting closer and closer to Rove.
Big headache for the Bush administration at least. How many probes are simultaneously going on?
9/11
WMD
Wilsongate
Stolen Memos
Sheesh.
Add to that the people who have left very senior positions (all the way up to cabinet) in the admin and all said essentially the same thing: that it is disorganized, poorly run, irrationally focused on Iraq and not seriously discussing policy.
And people wonder why the bush admin is so questioned. This doesn't even address other serious issues like the patriot act and negligence in afghanistan.
Add to that the people who have left very senior positions (all the way up to cabinet) in the admin and all said essentially the same thing: that it is disorganized, poorly run, irrationally focused on Iraq and not seriously discussing policy.
And people wonder why the bush admin is so questioned. This doesn't even address other serious issues like the patriot act and negligence in afghanistan.
Perhaps we should add up the number of probes that went on during the Clinton years and compare the two.
We have so much to talk about with the current one.
Have anything to say about THIS topic SDW?
Ya know... the grand jury... asking for the phone records of Air Force one... and the white house tap dancing around the possibility of staffers invoking their 5th amendment rights when Bush has said they'll "help in every way".
Perhaps we should add up the number of probes that went on during the Clinton years and compare the two.
Oh, and which people do you refer to?
lets see...
travelgate...nothing came of it, nobody harmed
whitewater...before presidency
flowers woman / jones woman...before presidency
starr investigation---during presidency...what was spent?? 25 million?? about a blow job and whether a married man will lie about getting one...i could have answered that for a starbucks coffee and saved the government a lot of tax dollars...
now bush:
9/11...lots of people harmed...commission will study how it can be prevented in the future...not busheys fault, but using it for political commercialism seems, at best, crass...but what would you expect for a northeastern born, ivy league educated war dodging pseudo-cowboy...the W must stand for weak of character....
WMD...none found, outright lies told (iraq involved with 9-11, "we are 100% sure iraq has WMD and here are the photos to prove it and the locations where we will find them" speech to UN, "iraq could strike the us in 45 minutes", iraq bought yellowcake" etc)...many have died on both side for these lies
Wilsongate...outing a undercover CIA agent because you don't like her husband (for outing adminstration lies...ie yellowcake lie), is a treasonable offense...doesn't treason = the death penalty?? it used to...i would personally hate to see rove get a lethal injection...but mostly because i dislike the death penalty, not because i think the world would have any loss if rovie-boy past on to the next plane of existence...
Stolen Memos--watergate got one dirty president removed from office...this is a biggie, not for bushie, but for the repubs...hard to take the "high road" when you are a thief...
and that doesn't mention "no-loss" currently vs leaving early and without doing your time in the guard so you can go to harvard business school during wartime...
so, for the scoreboard...Clinton---a number of minor things that the repugnates spent lots of tax payers money to explore...and the 25 million dollar lesson that we learned is that married men will lie about BJs...
Bush...a series of lies about intellignece, outing of CIA agents you don't like, repugs stealing from democrats while on your shift...insensitivity to the families of murdered people of 9-11 to, admitted by your staff, change the political topic from jobs to security....
so...for the scoreboard... semen stained blue dress for clinton...blood stained uniforms of over 500 dead in iraq (not counting the many many more suicides that are not counted as "war deaths"), possibly blood stained clothing of some of our undercover agents in the CIA (we will never know how many people were affected by this outing of a government agent...i do know that if a demo had outed an agent, the repugs would be absolutely livid and calling for heads everyday) for bushie boy....yeah, i can see way the repugs think bushie has soooo much character....
makes you kinda miss those clinton years of job growth, deficit cutting, good relations throughout the world, days...ahhh, the good old days when we were concerned whether the president might bugger an intern instead of being concerned about which country the president might lie about next to start a war
starr investigation---during presidency...what was spent?? 25 million?? about a blow job and whether a married man will lie about getting one...i could have answered that for a starbucks coffee and saved the government a lot of tax dollars...
now bush:
9/11...lots of people harmed...commission will study how it can be prevented in the future...not busheys fault, but using it for political commercialism seems, at best, crass...but what would you expect for a northeastern born, ivy league educated war dodging pseudo-cowboy...the W must stand for weak of character....
WMD...none found, outright lies told (iraq involved with 9-11, "we are 100% sure iraq has WMD and here are the photos to prove it and the locations where we will find them" speech to UN, "iraq could strike the us in 45 minutes", iraq bought yellowcake" etc)...many have died on both side for these lies
Wilsongate...outing a undercover CIA agent because you don't like her husband (for outing adminstration lies...ie yellowcake lie), is a treasonable offense...doesn't treason = the death penalty?? it used to...i would personally hate to see rove get a lethal injection...but mostly because i dislike the death penalty, not because i think the world would have any loss if rovie-boy past on to the next plane of existence...
Stolen Memos--watergate got one dirty president removed from office...this is a biggie, not for bushie, but for the repubs...hard to take the "high road" when you are a thief...
and that doesn't mention "no-loss" currently vs leaving early and without doing your time in the guard so you can go to harvard business school during wartime...
so, for the scoreboard...Clinton---a number of minor things that the repugnates spent lots of tax payers money to explore...and the 25 million dollar lesson that we learned is that married men will lie about BJs...
Bush...a series of lies about intellignece, outing of CIA agents you don't like, repugs stealing from democrats while on your shift...insensitivity to the families of murdered people of 9-11 to, admitted by your staff, change the political topic from jobs to security....
so...for the scoreboard... semen stained blue dress for clinton...blood stained uniforms of over 500 dead in iraq (not counting the many many more suicides that are not counted as "war deaths"), possibly blood stained clothing of some of our undercover agents in the CIA (we will never know how many people were affected by this outing of a government agent...i do know that if a demo had outed an agent, the repugs would be absolutely livid and calling for heads everyday) for bushie boy....yeah, i can see way the repugs think bushie has soooo much character....
makes you kinda miss those clinton years of job growth, deficit cutting, good relations throughout the world, days...ahhh, the good old days when we were concerned whether the president might bugger an intern instead of being concerned about which country the president might lie about next to start a war
g
I wish I could use this whole post as my new sig . . .
starr investigation---during presidency...what was spent?? 25 million?? about a blow job and whether a married man will lie about getting one...i could have answered that for a starbucks coffee and saved the government a lot of tax dollars...
now bush:
9/11...lots of people harmed...commission will study how it can be prevented in the future...not busheys fault, but using it for political commercialism seems, at best, crass...but what would you expect for a northeastern born, ivy league educated war dodging pseudo-cowboy...the W must stand for weak of character....
WMD...none found, outright lies told (iraq involved with 9-11, "we are 100% sure iraq has WMD and here are the photos to prove it and the locations where we will find them" speech to UN, "iraq could strike the us in 45 minutes", iraq bought yellowcake" etc)...many have died on both side for these lies
Wilsongate...outing a undercover CIA agent because you don't like her husband (for outing adminstration lies...ie yellowcake lie), is a treasonable offense...doesn't treason = the death penalty?? it used to...i would personally hate to see rove get a lethal injection...but mostly because i dislike the death penalty, not because i think the world would have any loss if rovie-boy past on to the next plane of existence...
Stolen Memos--watergate got one dirty president removed from office...this is a biggie, not for bushie, but for the repubs...hard to take the "high road" when you are a thief...
and that doesn't mention "no-loss" currently vs leaving early and without doing your time in the guard so you can go to harvard business school during wartime...
so, for the scoreboard...Clinton---a number of minor things that the repugnates spent lots of tax payers money to explore...and the 25 million dollar lesson that we learned is that married men will lie about BJs...
Bush...a series of lies about intellignece, outing of CIA agents you don't like, repugs stealing from democrats while on your shift...insensitivity to the families of murdered people of 9-11 to, admitted by your staff, change the political topic from jobs to security....
so...for the scoreboard... semen stained blue dress for clinton...blood stained uniforms of over 500 dead in iraq (not counting the many many more suicides that are not counted as "war deaths"), possibly blood stained clothing of some of our undercover agents in the CIA (we will never know how many people were affected by this outing of a government agent...i do know that if a demo had outed an agent, the repugs would be absolutely livid and calling for heads everyday) for bushie boy....yeah, i can see way the repugs think bushie has soooo much character....
makes you kinda miss those clinton years of job growth, deficit cutting, good relations throughout the world, days...ahhh, the good old days when we were concerned whether the president might bugger an intern instead of being concerned about which country the president might lie about next to start a war
g
I'll have to say also good job at putting the issues into focus!
Comments
And surpise surprise surprise...
they worked for Cheney.
http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/...e-598606.shtml
Cheney's Staff Focus of Probe
Posted Feb. 5, 2004
By Richard Sale
Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Federal law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said.
According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law-enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned, nor did Hannah and Libby return calls.
The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah "that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time" as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law-enforcement official said.
Originally posted by pfflam
"libby"?
as opposed to Liddy?!
Novak's a LIAR. what a surprise. he just thought noone would rat on him.
http://www.prospect.org/print-friend...s-m-02-12.html
Two government officials have told the FBI that conservative columnist Robert Novak was asked specifically not to publish the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame in his now-famous July 14 newspaper column. The two officials told investigators they warned Novak that by naming Plame he might potentially jeopardize her ability to engage in covert work, stymie ongoing intelligence operations, and jeopardize sensitive overseas sources.
These new accounts, provided by a current and former administration official close to the situation, directly contradict public statements made by Novak. He has downplayed his own knowledge about the potential harm to Plame and ongoing intelligence operations by making that disclosure. He has also claimed in various public statements that intelligence officials falsely led him to believe that Plame was only an analyst, and the only potential consequences of her exposure as a CIA officer would be that she might be inconvenienced in her foreign travels.
The two administration officials questioned by the FBI characterized Novak's statements as untrue and misleading, according to a government official and an attorney official familiar with the FBI interviews.
One of the sources also asserted that the credibility of the administration officials who spoke to the FBI is enhanced by the fact that the officials made their statement to the federal law enforcement authorities. If the officials were found to be lying to the FBI, they could be potentially prosecuted for making false statements to federal investigators the sources pointed out.
Novak declined to be interviewed for this article.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/arc...22.html#002605
Today is the deadline for the House Republican caucus to sign off on continued efforts to cover up what happened to Valerie Plame.
On January 21st, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced what's called a 'resolution of inquiry' (H-Res 499) requesting that the Justice Department, the State Department and the Department of Defense turn over to the Congress all relevant information or documents relating to how and why covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked to the public.
Basically, this legislative tactic forced the House majority to go on record as to whether they were willing to allow any investigation of the Plame matter. It gave the Intelligence, Judiciary, Armed Services and International Relations Committees fourteen legislative days to decide whether to authorize the request for records from the three executive branch departments or refuse to do so.
cont.
The Grand Jury has asked for the Air Force One phone logs for the week before Novak's outing of Valerie Plame.
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nation...home-headlines
Air Force One phone records subpoenaed
Grand jury to review call logs from Bush?s jet
in probe of how a CIA agent?s cover was blown
BY TOM BRUNE
STAFF WRITER
March 5, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The federal grand jury probing the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer's name was published in a column in July, according to documents obtained by Newsday.
Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President George W. Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. (CONT)
Sounds like it's getting closer and closer to Rove.
Big headache for the Bush administration at least. How many probes are simultaneously going on?
9/11
WMD
Wilsongate
Stolen Memos
Sheesh.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
That's pretty extensive...
Big headache for the Bush administration at least. How many probes are simultaneously going on?
9/11
WMD
Wilsongate
Stolen Memos
Sheesh.
Add to that the people who have left very senior positions (all the way up to cabinet) in the admin and all said essentially the same thing: that it is disorganized, poorly run, irrationally focused on Iraq and not seriously discussing policy.
And people wonder why the bush admin is so questioned. This doesn't even address other serious issues like the patriot act and negligence in afghanistan.
Originally posted by giant
Add to that the people who have left very senior positions (all the way up to cabinet) in the admin and all said essentially the same thing: that it is disorganized, poorly run, irrationally focused on Iraq and not seriously discussing policy.
And people wonder why the bush admin is so questioned. This doesn't even address other serious issues like the patriot act and negligence in afghanistan.
Perhaps we should add up the number of probes that went on during the Clinton years and compare the two.
Oh, and which people do you refer to?
We have so much to talk about with the current one.
Have anything to say about THIS topic SDW?
Ya know... the grand jury... asking for the phone records of Air Force one... and the white house tap dancing around the possibility of staffers invoking their 5th amendment rights when Bush has said they'll "help in every way".
Originally posted by SDW2001
Perhaps we should add up the number of probes that went on during the Clinton years and compare the two.
Oh, and which people do you refer to?
lets see...
travelgate...nothing came of it, nobody harmed
whitewater...before presidency
flowers woman / jones woman...before presidency
starr investigation---during presidency...what was spent?? 25 million?? about a blow job and whether a married man will lie about getting one...i could have answered that for a starbucks coffee and saved the government a lot of tax dollars...
now bush:
9/11...lots of people harmed...commission will study how it can be prevented in the future...not busheys fault, but using it for political commercialism seems, at best, crass...but what would you expect for a northeastern born, ivy league educated war dodging pseudo-cowboy...the W must stand for weak of character....
WMD...none found, outright lies told (iraq involved with 9-11, "we are 100% sure iraq has WMD and here are the photos to prove it and the locations where we will find them" speech to UN, "iraq could strike the us in 45 minutes", iraq bought yellowcake" etc)...many have died on both side for these lies
Wilsongate...outing a undercover CIA agent because you don't like her husband (for outing adminstration lies...ie yellowcake lie), is a treasonable offense...doesn't treason = the death penalty?? it used to...i would personally hate to see rove get a lethal injection...but mostly because i dislike the death penalty, not because i think the world would have any loss if rovie-boy past on to the next plane of existence...
Stolen Memos--watergate got one dirty president removed from office...this is a biggie, not for bushie, but for the repubs...hard to take the "high road" when you are a thief...
and that doesn't mention "no-loss" currently vs leaving early and without doing your time in the guard so you can go to harvard business school during wartime...
so, for the scoreboard...Clinton---a number of minor things that the repugnates spent lots of tax payers money to explore...and the 25 million dollar lesson that we learned is that married men will lie about BJs...
Bush...a series of lies about intellignece, outing of CIA agents you don't like, repugs stealing from democrats while on your shift...insensitivity to the families of murdered people of 9-11 to, admitted by your staff, change the political topic from jobs to security....
so...for the scoreboard... semen stained blue dress for clinton...blood stained uniforms of over 500 dead in iraq (not counting the many many more suicides that are not counted as "war deaths"), possibly blood stained clothing of some of our undercover agents in the CIA (we will never know how many people were affected by this outing of a government agent...i do know that if a demo had outed an agent, the repugs would be absolutely livid and calling for heads everyday) for bushie boy....yeah, i can see way the repugs think bushie has soooo much character....
makes you kinda miss those clinton years of job growth, deficit cutting, good relations throughout the world, days...ahhh, the good old days when we were concerned whether the president might bugger an intern instead of being concerned about which country the president might lie about next to start a war
g
Originally posted by SDW2001
Perhaps we should add up the number of probes that went on during the Clinton years and compare the two.
Oh, and which people do you refer to?
SDW, you gotta be kidding me!
This has been your first post in the thread- your first post on this topic- and you ignore it completely. What do you have to say about it?
Here's the list of specific reporters that the Grand Jury is looking at.
It kinda lets you know who the administrations friends are.
Originally posted by thegelding
lets see...
travelgate...nothing came of it, nobody harmed
whitewater...before presidency
flowers woman / jones woman...before presidency
starr investigation---during presidency...what was spent?? 25 million?? about a blow job and whether a married man will lie about getting one...i could have answered that for a starbucks coffee and saved the government a lot of tax dollars...
now bush:
9/11...lots of people harmed...commission will study how it can be prevented in the future...not busheys fault, but using it for political commercialism seems, at best, crass...but what would you expect for a northeastern born, ivy league educated war dodging pseudo-cowboy...the W must stand for weak of character....
WMD...none found, outright lies told (iraq involved with 9-11, "we are 100% sure iraq has WMD and here are the photos to prove it and the locations where we will find them" speech to UN, "iraq could strike the us in 45 minutes", iraq bought yellowcake" etc)...many have died on both side for these lies
Wilsongate...outing a undercover CIA agent because you don't like her husband (for outing adminstration lies...ie yellowcake lie), is a treasonable offense...doesn't treason = the death penalty?? it used to...i would personally hate to see rove get a lethal injection...but mostly because i dislike the death penalty, not because i think the world would have any loss if rovie-boy past on to the next plane of existence...
Stolen Memos--watergate got one dirty president removed from office...this is a biggie, not for bushie, but for the repubs...hard to take the "high road" when you are a thief...
and that doesn't mention "no-loss" currently vs leaving early and without doing your time in the guard so you can go to harvard business school during wartime...
so, for the scoreboard...Clinton---a number of minor things that the repugnates spent lots of tax payers money to explore...and the 25 million dollar lesson that we learned is that married men will lie about BJs...
Bush...a series of lies about intellignece, outing of CIA agents you don't like, repugs stealing from democrats while on your shift...insensitivity to the families of murdered people of 9-11 to, admitted by your staff, change the political topic from jobs to security....
so...for the scoreboard... semen stained blue dress for clinton...blood stained uniforms of over 500 dead in iraq (not counting the many many more suicides that are not counted as "war deaths"), possibly blood stained clothing of some of our undercover agents in the CIA (we will never know how many people were affected by this outing of a government agent...i do know that if a demo had outed an agent, the repugs would be absolutely livid and calling for heads everyday) for bushie boy....yeah, i can see way the repugs think bushie has soooo much character....
makes you kinda miss those clinton years of job growth, deficit cutting, good relations throughout the world, days...ahhh, the good old days when we were concerned whether the president might bugger an intern instead of being concerned about which country the president might lie about next to start a war
g
I wish I could use this whole post as my new sig . . .
Originally posted by thegelding
lets see...
travelgate...nothing came of it, nobody harmed
whitewater...before presidency
flowers woman / jones woman...before presidency
starr investigation---during presidency...what was spent?? 25 million?? about a blow job and whether a married man will lie about getting one...i could have answered that for a starbucks coffee and saved the government a lot of tax dollars...
now bush:
9/11...lots of people harmed...commission will study how it can be prevented in the future...not busheys fault, but using it for political commercialism seems, at best, crass...but what would you expect for a northeastern born, ivy league educated war dodging pseudo-cowboy...the W must stand for weak of character....
WMD...none found, outright lies told (iraq involved with 9-11, "we are 100% sure iraq has WMD and here are the photos to prove it and the locations where we will find them" speech to UN, "iraq could strike the us in 45 minutes", iraq bought yellowcake" etc)...many have died on both side for these lies
Wilsongate...outing a undercover CIA agent because you don't like her husband (for outing adminstration lies...ie yellowcake lie), is a treasonable offense...doesn't treason = the death penalty?? it used to...i would personally hate to see rove get a lethal injection...but mostly because i dislike the death penalty, not because i think the world would have any loss if rovie-boy past on to the next plane of existence...
Stolen Memos--watergate got one dirty president removed from office...this is a biggie, not for bushie, but for the repubs...hard to take the "high road" when you are a thief...
and that doesn't mention "no-loss" currently vs leaving early and without doing your time in the guard so you can go to harvard business school during wartime...
so, for the scoreboard...Clinton---a number of minor things that the repugnates spent lots of tax payers money to explore...and the 25 million dollar lesson that we learned is that married men will lie about BJs...
Bush...a series of lies about intellignece, outing of CIA agents you don't like, repugs stealing from democrats while on your shift...insensitivity to the families of murdered people of 9-11 to, admitted by your staff, change the political topic from jobs to security....
so...for the scoreboard... semen stained blue dress for clinton...blood stained uniforms of over 500 dead in iraq (not counting the many many more suicides that are not counted as "war deaths"), possibly blood stained clothing of some of our undercover agents in the CIA (we will never know how many people were affected by this outing of a government agent...i do know that if a demo had outed an agent, the repugs would be absolutely livid and calling for heads everyday) for bushie boy....yeah, i can see way the repugs think bushie has soooo much character....
makes you kinda miss those clinton years of job growth, deficit cutting, good relations throughout the world, days...ahhh, the good old days when we were concerned whether the president might bugger an intern instead of being concerned about which country the president might lie about next to start a war
g
I'll have to say also good job at putting the issues into focus!