I just read an article on Buzz Flash as to how Patrick Fitzgerald was selected. It then went on to NOT explain how he was selected and didn’t even mention the name of the person who selected him, James Comey. James Comey was appointed by John Ashcroft and Comey now works for Lockheed Martin a bastion of Cheney influence and Lockheed Martin is at the epicenter of the Military Industrial ultra right wing complex.
There is such a positive stir on the Internet over Patrick Fitzgerald it is mind-boggling. I have looked everywhere and found no critical analysis of him. Everyone believes he is a savior of the Democrats. I don’t know why he would be. They say he is non-partisan, a bulldog, an honest man who doesn’t’ like to be lied to. How about some factual, at least circumstantial information.
It should be clear by inference that Patrick Fitzgerald is a Republican and possibly extremely conservative. He may be conservative and perhaps even reactionary. His associations are with Republicans like his “best friend” Comey. Fitzgerald is godfather to Comey’s child. His possible conservative outlook and sentiments can greatly influence the outcome of the Plame investigation. Lets suppose he feels that an indictment of VP Cheney or of George Bush would be appropriate but in the interests of protecting the sanctity of the office of the Presidency he decides not to pursue these serious charges. That’s possible.
This investigation….if it isn’t doesn’t end up expanding to include the conspiracy to deceive the public and congress toward war in Iraq….it isn’t about anything. It’s nothing. If the Plame investigation hasn’t expanded to that, then Fitzgerald has done nothing but gloss over or cover up what the Bush Administration has done.
What Cheney and Bush and Libby and Rove have done is involve the entire United States in an unnecessary war that has killed over a hundred thousand people and destabilized the entire planet on a grand economic and political scale.
There are rumors that the investigation has expanded to the origin of the Niger forgeries, but they don’t seem to pan out. It seems that at best, the Niger forgeries are peripheral, not central to the investigation. The Niger forgeries lead to the only things of value. The Niger forgeries lead to the entire panoply of lies and criminal deception that the government has conspired to produce. Valerie Plame should be nothing more than a footnote to what has really occurred.
If all the investigation can produce, as a highlight is that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby lied to the Grand Jury but were not found guilty of conspiring to punish Joe Wilson by revealing his wife’s name to the public, then you have absolutely nothing gained that has lasting value.
Rove and Libby will resign and be admonished for telling little lies, not BIG ones. It may spur more revelations about the war’s origins, but these revelations will not have the force they need to unravel the whole Iraq debacle. If Rove and Libby and others were found guilty of a criminal offense involving the exposure of a covert agent, then a precedent would be established for further investigation into why and how. Being found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice has nothing directly to do with Valerie Plame and the War in Iraq. It concerns their behavior with the Grand Jury much more than their behavior as public officials in matters of national security and war. Perjury and obstruction of justice charges will not be easily understood by the public and they will most likely not lead to investigations of the wars origins. It will all be nothing more than another big, murky ball of confusion around which the Bush administration can play double speak.
If the Bush administration officials are not found guilty of at least violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, then all that will occur is that we will find that, like Martha Stewart, they lied to the Grand Jury, not to cover up a crime but rather cover up their conversations with reporters, which they apparently felt might make them “look bad”. Their lies were lies more easily associated with vanity and not criminality. This will in fact be the Republican defense. And it will be effective to a point. If they are found guilty of at least violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act they can be called traitors and you cannot hide from that accusation with impunity.
Patrick Fitzgerald cannot cover up the fact that Rove, Libby and others may have lied to the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury heard the lies. Patrick Fitzgerald’s self imposed function may be to reduce the damage as much as possible to the Bush administration. It may be that he is sympathetic to the Bush administration. He may not be always sympathetic to all the individuals that comprise it.
There is a war between elements of the CIA and State Department and many other current and former officials in the government and this Grand Jury is where the battle is taking place and the Prosecutor cannot keep all the information at bay. There are strong governmental elements on both sides fighting each other.
I believe Patrick Fitzgerald to be extremely conservative. His association with James Comey, I choose to believe, verifies that. All the hype about him is nothing but hype without any foundation. As I pointed out in a previous diary, his indictment of George Ryan is an indictment of a Republican Governor who crossed George Bush on the issue of the death penalty.
This Grand Jury is not like the Grand Juries of Patrick Fitzgerald that indicted Illinois governor George Ryan and members of Chicago’s Mayor Daley administration. There were numerous indictments of people while the Grand Jury was going on and they turned on each other. This isn’t happening with this Grand Jury.
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