AJ Strata emails:
[Patrick] Fitzgerald’s investigation appears to have learned two things: (1) somebody outside the WH and under SC protection leaked Plame’s name to the press, and (2) there is a mound of evidence there was no effort to attack the Wilsons by outing Plame.
So why is this man still around distracting the nation?
AJ draws on the latest filing by team Libby, which appears to single out Marc Grossman, a college friend of Wilson’s, as the administration snitch and Wilson’s mouth piece:
Marc Grossman will also be a key government witness. … Previously we have argued that Mr. Grossman may have a motive to misrepresent facts. … It is also possible that Mr. Grossman is biased against Mr. Libby. A recent online column speculates the Mr. Grossman testified before the grand jury that the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s name was an “act of revengeâ€Â. The same piece hypothesizes that Mr. Grossman may have been the official who told the Washington Post that “two top White House offcials†called “at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson’s wifeâ€Â, and that they did so “purely and simple for revengeâ€Â.
Personally, I’m not following along as closely as I should be—and I’ve been derelict in my reading of Tom Maguire’s recent posts on the subject—but then, I have trouble with the indictment of a man for charges stemming from an alleged lie (some insist it is but a failure of memory) that is meant to cover for the failure of a prolonged investigation to find evidence of the original accusations: that Ms Plame was “outed” by the White House to punish Joe Wilson for, uh, lying about what he told reporters (a fact that would soon be exposed, and one that falls under the category of inevitable discovery, as far as I’m concerned). Call it an avoidance response brought about by despair.
But just because I’m out of the loop doesn’t mean AJ has given up trying to piece the story together. Citing this bit from a WaPo story
[…] one former government official said he testified that Rove talked with White House colleagues about the political importance of defending the prewar intelligence and countering Plame’s husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. It was Wilson who accused Bush of twisting intelligence about Iraq’s efforts to obtain nuclear material from Africa. The official refused to be named out of fear of angering Fitzgerald and the White House
—and noting that its sounds to him like a Grossman comment, AJ connects some dots and draws a few conclusions::
Accurate reporting would note that Fitzgerald learned who actually was the first known leaker of Plame’s identity and it was not in the White House. He figured this out in the initial weeks. What he did then was hide the leaker and then go on a witch hunt for Libby and Rove. If I was Fitzgerald, I would be looking for a way to salvage my career. The guy is too young to take on all this damage because he bought into Wilson’s lies. And I doubt he is too happy with Wilson’s buddy Grossman.
Fitzgerald’s case is crumbling. Instead of finding an effort to attack the Wilsons he has reams of evidence outlining the plan to challenge Wilson’s facts without any mention of Plame. More is coming from Rove
Moreover, he has testified, if he really wanted to damage Wilson in the summer of 2003, he would have sought out the many other reporters he knew better and trusted more than Cooper.
Even reporters admit most conversations with the government failed or avoided Plame.
One former aide, who would discuss internal White House discussion only on the condition of anonymity, said Rove was intimately involved in the prewar intelligence fight and discussed various components of the plan at senior staff meetings and one-on-one strategy conversations.
The aide said Rove’s message was that “if there are no WMDs and some blame us, it will not be a pleasant election year.†The aide said Rove talked a lot about Wilson that week, but mostly about the fact he was a Democrat and needed to be rebutted.
Is “rebutting” the same as leaking-so-as-to-damage?
No.
Is it possible Rove didn’t know the difference? Certainly.
But the point still remains that there has been no suggestion by Fitzgerald that mention of Plame’s name constituted her “outing,” which was the original basis for this manufactured circus.
This is the Martha Stewart prosecution all over again. Only this time, the victim probably can’t fashion elegant Christmas tree ornaments out of pine cones, a nail file, vanilla extract, and a large swatch of fine linen (or, in a pinch, Egyptian cotton).
Or construct her second husband out of a tissue box and a few twigs.
I think in general people should be able to lie to the cops and prosecutors. Specially if they feel they have done nothing wrong
Obligatory ignore acthole comment.
Please don’t feed the acthole.
This is an acthole free zone. If you have accidently stepped in it, please take your shoes off before entering.
This message is a public service announcement.
I would not want to see any of you being under the scope of the law for aiding and abetting.
Taken at face value, then, you also believe that Clinton should not have been impeached.
Taken at snarky contrarian value, you were therefore in favor of Clinton’s impeachment.
Somehow, in classic nuanced lefty fashion, both are somehow true. Or not true, depending upon who’s asking. Or something.
TW: “Trouble,” as in “I bet I’m in trouble with RLS for this post…
Impeachment is more about politics than following the law. On that basis i enjoyed the impeachment fight. It did do wonders for Clinton’s approval rating.
In other words, the Clinton impeachment was illegal mob rule.
Fitzgerald knew who revealed Plame’s identity to Novak (in addition to Rove) BEFORE he knew that Libby lied (if he did). Yet that person’s identity (widely speculated to be Richard Armitage) is being shielded with the concurrence of the presiding judge! One can only conclude (tho Fitz refuses to admit it) that revealing Plame’s identity was not a crime after all.
Go figure.
What was illegal about it? It looked like they went quite according to procedure.
check out my new blog!
nice. a hrefs don\’t work here.
[uh – they do if you know how to use them. Which essentially means clicking the link button in the comment form; but you’re right: they don’t work when you “link” them to no text]
They work just fine. You just have to know how to use them.
See, for example, this.
By the way, no one’s interested in a blog about your johnson.
TW: Body. Holy cats.
Geez, ed., nice way to ruin a perfectly zippy (in my own head, anyway) response.
TW: Why can’t we all just be friends? Oh, right, because I have standards. Nevermind.
I definitely think we’ll find that, unlike the $40 million + Star Inquiry, there will actually be conviction in the Fitzgerald investigation. Regardless the outcome, the damage done to the CIA’s Iranian Nuclear Counter-proliferation program is immeasurable.
See, his blog was called “Shorter Jeff Goldstein.” Oh, nevermind. I’ve got real work I have to do anyway.
In other words, impeachment isn’t more about politics than following the law.
I’m talking about the impeachee, rather the impeacher.
yeah, except you deleted my url. plus, your fancy buttons don’t work since I have to use a proxy cause you ipbanned me, ahole.
Admit McCarthy was right and maybe he will let you back.
I don’t understand why anyone would feel themselves and their commentary so overarchingly important that they can’t just walk away from a blog when asked. Or, when banned, just talk ugly about those folks behind their backs. No, instead, mcarthy wrong blah blah yadda yadda feels compelled to continue to be a dick.
Some pretty serious pathology working there.
TW: You got thrown off the “island”, asshole. Stay thrown.
Some people would take that as a hint.
And I’ve earned my readership. So I’m not here to pimp for your cyberstalking site.
Get a fucking life, man. Seriously. Or at least pick up a hobby that doesn’t involve getting smacked around all the time.
Because people pay good money for that shit, and I’m tired of doing it to you for free.
Tell you what: hit the tip jar for $25 and I’ll unban you and you can advertise your URL on my site.
I get between 7000-9000 visits daily (more, if you use my server stats).
Let’s see how a lefty handles this economic / advertising dilemma…
Please tell me this is parody. Please.
That’s one of the funnier things I’ve read today, thanks for posting it.
t/w” Fricken Half-wit…
He may be right, you know, you can’t really measure the nonexistent.
Here is a quiz for you, Fred, what do these people all have in common?
Jim Guy Tucker
Webb Hubbell
Jim McDougal
John Latham
Johnny Chung
Charlie Trie
Eugene Fitzhugh
John Huang
William Jefferson Clinton
“INTELLIGENCE SOURCES SAY VALERIE WILSON WAS PART OF AN OPERATION THREE YEARS AGO TRACKING THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS MATERIAL INTO IRAN. AND THE SOURCES ALLEGE THAT WHEN MRS. WILSON’S COVER WAS BLOWN, THE ADMINISTRATION’S ABILITY TO TRACK IRAN’S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS WAS DAMAGED AS WELL.”
nonexistent?
They are irrelevent to this thread?
Yeah, I’m convinced…
Fred, your quote has already been smacked down thoroughly…I guess you didn’t get the word from moonbat HQ.
Actually, they are, but you brought it up. They are some of the 20+ convictions resulting from the Ken Starr investigation.
Noah,
Thanks for calling me a moonbat, it lets me know you have no real answer to the information. No one has “smacked down” anything, they’ve just thrown a hissy..
And so what the fuck were you actually trying to say, actard, you mewling little waste of carbon atoms? Spell it out, jackass. Give it to us big and bold; don’t hold back. Blow the lid off the place. Take a swing, reach for the stars, cause this, sir, is your hour.
You backed you sorry little puckerhole into yet another episode of mendacious verbal masterbation; lay one on us, sister. Go ahead and explain yourself. Bring the pain, Einstein. Unload.
Dude, maybe you haven’t been paying attention, or don’t know how to Google, but you can find unattributed “intelligence sources” who will tell you about anything these days.
B moe, I’ve looked, prehaps you could back up your claim with evidence?
Fred, neither you nor I am in any position to verify the accuracy of your quote. Yet you present it as the unvarnished truth. Your glee marks you unmistakably as a moonbat.
Even leftist Dana Priest finds it implausible that an analyst in the CPD could be indispensible to tracking Iranian nuclear threats.
I never said she was indispensible, I said we’d never now how much damage was done because of her outing.
P.S. B Moe, I’m asking for links because of, not parallel to, the Star investigation…still googling.
Clearly, if you intend to pre-emptively and illegally invade a country, it is better to make up the intelligence you need to justify your war like bus/Cheney/Rumsfeld did, rather then get correct intelligence that shows there are no WMD’s or nuclear bombs. That way you can blame the “failure” on the CIA and get yourself into a giant food fight into which you’ll be required to put a corrupt and criminal General to try and stop the food fighting. Things have gotten way out of hand and nobody can put humpty dumpty back together again. bush needs to retire to his perch lake immediately. Peace
How fucking stupid are you?
Fred might want to look here to see how the “rawstory” crap is being laughed at by just about everyone not named Atrios or Greenwald.
That I think that when impeachments happen, the event is more about politics than law enforcement.
The retarded telephone also say, when rain happens, it’s more about the atmosphere than about water.
But when shit happens, it is always about actus.
During Mr Starr’s tenure,
convictions were obtained from the following individuals:
Robert Palmer
Web Hubbell
Christopher Wade
Neal Ainley
Stephen Smith
Larry Kuca
Jim Guy Tucker
James McDougal
Susan McDougal
William Marks Sr
John Haley
Thus, it would appear that the individuals whose convictions were
obtained by a prosecutor other than Mr Starr were:
David Hale
Eugene Fitzhugh
Charles Matthews
John Latham
—
So the answer to your original question, “what do these people all have in common,” is still,”They are irrelevent to this thread…”
And the answer to my second question: “How fucking stupid are you?” is you’re dumber than a sack of hair.
$40,112,000 and 4 years to go. Thanks for showing, once again, how shrill and angry th Right is getting now that you realize the ship is going down.
See, it wasn’t rocket science.
Fitzgerald hasn’t spent any money because there is nothing to investigate. Starr spent an assload because the corruption was rampant, the investigation got so big he literally lost control of it.
This is mind-boggling, someone actually denser than actus. Sorry to waste your space JG, this is pointless.
They also work under different statutes, different levels of independence.
I’ve known two intel weenies above the level of battalion S-2 in my life (that I know about, anyway).
One was Army, assigned to Nato Brussels. He was busy selling coupies of the Majestic documents (the bogus “evidence” of MJ-12, the secret committee Harry Truman signed into existence to do bidness with the gray aliens). The other was a CIA desk analyst who tried to convince people he’d been a field agent to add authenticity to his own UFO’s are really real we’re just not telling you speech.
So when I hear the words, “intelligence sources” I reach for my revolver and a beer…
if you intend to pre-emptively and illegally invade a country, it is better to make up the intelligence you need to justify your war like bus/Cheney/Rumsfeld did
And they were able to create a prior paper trail of that made-up intelligence by using the WayBack Machine (stolen from the peaceloving Mr. Peabody, the cads!) and planted with such deftness as to fool Clinton and Congress into passing the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 and force all manner of false quotes attributed to both Clintons, Gore, Albright, Kerry …
JINKIES! How diabolical!
Actard opines:
About the Adolescent President’s earned impeachment, actard then presented:
and then finished with,
Well WTF, clown? Is English your second langu– oh, NOW I get it…
So, in general, impeachments of POTUS’s—growing as they are on trees, especially in the last 15 years, the length of time the object that purports to be your brain’s been at least tacitly engaged—are carried out for political reasons, except, say, the Clinton affair, which was an earnest application of sacrosanct federal law? By Republicans?
Sayist you, resident leftist.
Reach up behind your third ear and flip back the switch marked ‘reason defeat’. It’s next to the bullshit meter.
Is this so hard to get? Impeachments start and happen because of politics. That and the way the clinton impeachment was done was according to proper procedure.
Whats so hard to get about this?
If the CIA had an operation to track nuclear materials in Iran, the NY Times would have told us about it. QED, there was none.
Fifty posts and none segue into hookers? Must be a slow night.
McGehee
Actus can’t really help himself. After all, he IS a lawstudent.
I don’t know how many years he’s been a law student, but hey…the rhetorical equivalent of being able to chew on one’s own ass, shamelessly and with a smile, is a talent many in the legal profession admire.
Translation: There’s neither distinction of, nor difference between, any cause and effect under God’s sun whatsoever when I deem to willfully mangle meaning, get caught out, and pathologically make an absolute mendacious ass out of myself all over again.
I’d pay very good money to observe your first case.
<Scratches head> I know Darleen, but doesn’t even rudimentary use of the language fit in there somewhere? Assuming one’s not a flagrant liar, I mean.
Noticed actout was trolling over at Patterico’s for a while several days back. Same MO. Does seem to pee the neighborhood.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please do not engage actus, unless you are packing heat and are in full MOPP gear. It is not even funny anymore; the kid is a moron.
Well, he’d better learn to help himself, because I ain’t helpin’ him do that.
Yecch.
I don’t understand whats the big deal. Lots of things happen due to politics: say, impeachment, or legislation. There is also a proper procedure to having an impeachment or passing legislation. I don’t see whats such a big deal about this. In other words: the impeachment of clinton was not illegal mob rule. Just like passing legislation is not illegal mob rule.
What it is, is, atmospheric science. Which any non-retarded telephone pole knows is about water in the atmosphere.
Fool.
6Gun, McGeehee, and others —
You need to stop this. Ask yourself, “why hasn’t Jeff banned actus?” The fellow’s infuriating. What does Jeff see that you don’t?
I don’t pretend to read Jeff’s mind, but to my perception actus is a valuable member of the community, largely because he’s civil. We get a peek into Kos, Atrios, et. al. without the profanity, feces-flinging, 1337 speak, and general illiteracy. Intelligence, as it were.
What you might do instead of railing is try to work out what sort of Universe actus lives in, like Isaac Newton deriving the inverse-square law from the movements of the planets. I’ll grant you it’s hard—I’m still wrestling with Copernicus in that respect myself, so to speak—and Newton had the advantage of dealing with something that is at least consistent. He also never had to stop to repress his gag reflex (or fail to, which occupies even more time.) But there are valuable insights to be gained.
Not that actus is right in any respect. It’s just that the ways in which he’s wrong are more interesting than they may seem at first glance.
Regards,
Ric
TW: the kid is a major moron.
I gotta wonder about this AI……..it’s getting downright supernatural. Maybe we can get it to mindmeld with The Retarded Telephone Pole™ for some long overdue repairs.
Ric
Like that idea. But if you come up with the universe, please plot the location. It seems to be at the end of an ever-shifting wormhole.
Which, you know, may explain the reason that they think Colbert was speaking the truth to power when, you know, he really wasn’t, like, funny or telling much truth to power at all, comparatively speaking.
Impeachment is more about politics than following the law. On that basis i enjoyed the impeachment fight. It did do wonders for Clinton’s approval rating.
Too bad Pelosi didn’t get this memo.
oh. and it will be wonderful what happens if there is a democrat with subpoena power
<i>oh. and it will be wonderful what happens if there is a democrat with subpoena power<i>
It’s a winning platform, really.
[shaking head] The might of the Telephone Pole Army of None…
FYI, you don’t get disbarred for political reasons.
Stop struggling and just drown already.
But before you do, reconcile your comments in this thread. Either you’re a baiting little liar or an acutely obtuse writer.
Go for it; your rules, your funeral.
Ric,
I do believe that you have persuaded me. I shall look on with much less malice in my heart. Thanks for that.
What?! I hope I shan’t see any headlines like “Beer Found Executed Gangland Style”.
Whats unreconciled? things are done for political reasons, while still according to procedure. Impeachment isn’t done so much as when there is law breaking, and more about politics.
Actard pulls his pants down all over again:
Ric, I do believe that you have persuaded me also. I shall look on the actbot as a mere pathology.
Speaking only for myself, my sorties in this thread have simply been turning Actoid’s tactics back on him. I thought maybe I could make his head asplode.
But now that I reconsider, such a result requires that the head have contents.
And if his does, I don’t think I want to be responsible for the cleanup afterward.
Probably wasting my time but…
Fred? If you could untwist your leftie panties about the Starr (two ‘r’s, dimwit) Investigation and the apparently exorbitant cost, try to wrap your feeble synapses around this: if there are, say, 150 million eligible voters in the US, the Starr Investigation cost each about 27 cents.
Hrm. First I have to recognize any tactic to what you say.
Write many legal pleadings lately, actard? In English, I mean? How’s that going?
tw: Plain English. Not one of act-the-fool’s strengths, it’s ‘spensive “education” notwithstanding…
Ric, I beg to differ re:actus.
Actus does actually state anything. There is no insight there, just a tactic: bait, retreat, bait, retreat.
There isn’t vision there. There isn’t an insight there. Actus just hasn’t pissed Jeff off like some of them; that’s why he’s still around.
Actus is just the dumpy loser that comes around and everyone else finds something to do. Jeff is just nice enough to not kick him the hell out. It’s not worth getting mad at the pathetic guy.
If you’re looking for anything valuable in actus, it is that at the end of his life, this Smeagle will trip and fall into Mount Doom. Until then, he is worthless.
Precisely.
“Actus is just the dumpy loser that comes around and everyone else finds something to do. Jeff is just nice enough to not kick him the hell out. It’s not worth getting mad at the pathetic guy.”
Kinda’ reminds me of my Bassett humpimg my Aunt Helen’s leg at the family reunion – persistant, amusing, but little of note in the out”come”.
I kinda like actus. But then again I’m sitting here greatly enjoying my hemmoriods, so, that that for what its worth.
And I roomed with 5 different law school students while I was in dental school, and I’ll never ever be impressed with lawyers.
(Not that I’m that impressed with dentists)