Author: spiderleaf

Wake up America. Your President doesn’t give a flying monkey about the security interests of the United States. Not one bit. Oh he talks a good game… with us or against us… bring ’em on…. you know, all the fun stuff. But actions, as we all know, speak louder than words. And his actions are a risk to you and yours.

First Bush and his NSA decide a silly thing like “bin Laden determined to strke in US” is just Richard Clarke reading tea leaves.

Then Bush and his cronies decide to lie about “intelligence” to take America to war with Iraq.

Not content with that,  they out a covert CIA officer who was working on those same WMD issues that were so high on the Presidential radar he needed to go bomb someone to sleep well at night. This vendetta put not only Valerie Plame at risk, but intelligence officers and sources around the world.

And now this.

President Bush last week appointed nine campaign contributors, including three longtime fund-raisers, to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a 16-member panel of individuals from the private sector who advise the president on the quality and effectiveness of U.S. intelligence efforts.

Over half of this group are now Bush cronies. Do they have any expertise with Foreign Intelligence? Are they qualified to advise the most powerful person on the planet on sensitive matters pertaining to foreign threats? Do they even know the difference between Sunnis and Kurds?

Let’s see who some of them are:

Bush reappointed William DeWitt, an Ohio businessman who has raised more than $300,000 for the president’s campaigns, for a third two-year term on the panel. Originally appointed in 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, DeWitt, who was also a top fund-raiser for Bush’s 2004 Inaugural committee, was a partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Other appointees included former Commerce secretary Don Evans, a longtime Bush friend; Texas oilman Ray Hunt;  Netscape founder Jim Barksdale, and former congressman and 9/11 Commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton. Like DeWitt, Evans and Hunt have also been longtime Bush fund-raisers, raising more than $100,000 apiece for the president’s campaigns. Barksdale and five other appointees–incoming chairman Stephen Friedman, former Reagan adviser Arthur Culvahouse, retired admiral David Jeremiah, Martin Faga and John L. Morrison–were contributors to the president’s 2004 re-election effort. Friedman also served a year on the intelligence board under President Bill Clinton, who appointed chairmen with very different profiles from Bush’s Pioneers: former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe, former Defense secretary Les Aspin, former House speaker Tom Foley and former GOP senator Warren Rudman. (Clinton did also appoint two donors who gave $100,000 apiece to the Democratic National Committee: New York investment banker Stan Shuman and Texas real estate magnate Richard Bloch.)

According to the White House, the intelligence advisory board offers the president “objective, expert advice” on the conduct  of foreign intelligence, as well as any deficiencies in its collection, analysis and reporting…… Indeed, its members have been considered important presidential advisers, receiving the highest level security clearance and issuing classified reports and advice to the president.

Yet, as with many federal panels, membership on the board has also been doled out to top campaign contributors and supporters of the president–a move the White House defends since panelists are not required to have significant intelligence experience.

That’s rich. The mandate of the panel is to provide “objective, expert advice” but the White House turns it on its head and appoints people who won’t be objective as they are Bush insiders and defines “expert advice” as not being required to have significant intelligence experience (kinda like the head of FEMA not being required to have any disaster relief experience ~ Bush is obviously a big proponent of on the job training)… Looking on the bright side, they won’t have anyone to question the next batch of fake documents proving Syria is selling radioactive donkeys to the Taliban.

Now that’s progress.

Guess you just have to laugh until the next disaster in the US when the talking heads on TV keep repeating the spin that “no one predicted the levees would break”…

So how about it Mr. “War Time President”? Mr. “Restoring Honor & Integrity”? It is quite clear that your “brain” violated, if not criminal law, then an Executive Order relating to disclosure of classified info. We have Chris Matthews and “your wife is fair game”. We have “Official A” and Novak. We have Matt Cooper. Rove told reporters Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, which, as Fitzgerald noted in his press conference and in Libby’s indictment, was classified…. No need to wait for Fitzgerald to finish his business; Rove dunnit. .. at least as it pertains to actions that you, Mr. President, can take to restore the public trust and integrity to the national security of the United States. And you have the power, indeed the obligation, to hold him accountable as outlined in the EO.

Or do the rules only apply to people who don’t work for you?

Atler at Newsweek:

According to last week’s indictment of Scooter Libby, a person identified as “Official A” held conversations with reporters about Plame’s identity as a an undercover CIA operative, information that was classified. News accounts subsequently confirmed that that official was Rove. Under Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton in 1995, such a disclosure is grounds for, at a minimum, losing access to classified information.

Section 5.1 of Clinton’s executive order prohibits “any knowing, willful or negligent action that could reasonably be expected to result in an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” While the law against revealing the identity of a CIA operative requires that the perpetrator intentionally disclosed such classified information (a high standard, which may be one reason Fitzgerald did not indict on those grounds), the executive order covers “negligence,” or unintentional disclosure.

That means the only proper answer to a reporter’s questions about Joseph Wilson’s wife would have been something along the lines of, “You know I cannot discuss who may or may not be in the CIA.” The indictment makes clear that this was not the answer Official A provided when the subject was discussed with reporters Bob Novak and Matt Cooper.

The sanctions for such disclosure are contained in Section 5.7 of the executive order. That section says that “the agency head, senior agency official or other supervisory official shall, at a minimum, promptly remove the classification authority of any individual who demonstrates reckless disregard or a pattern of error in applying the classification standards of this order.” Any reasonable reading of the events covered in the indictment would consider Rove’s behavior “reckless.” The fact that he discussed Plame’s identity with reporters more than once constitutes a pattern.

If the rumours swirling round the blogosphere are correct, Karl Rove’s last minute submission of an email exchange with Adam Levine to Fitzgerald is designed to “prove” (I take it his 4 trips to the GJ didn’t suffice to convince them fully) that he did not lie about talking to Cooper about Plame, but instead is just a busy guy with a not so good memory for pesky little things like talking about a covert agent working on WMD’s, after her husband had smacked down the 16 words in the SOTU a few days before in the NY Times.

Believable? Perhaps. I once heard of a guy who found a four-leaf clover, so anything is possible I suppose.

Back to July 11th and the email exchange with Levine…
From Isikoff:

One small item was a July 11, 2003, e-mail Rove sent to former press aide Adam Levine saying Levine could come up to his office to discuss a personnel issue. The e-mail was at 11:17 a.m., minutes after Rove had gotten off the phone with Matt Cooper –the same conversation (in which White House critic Joe Wilson’s wife’s work for the CIA was discussed) that Rove originally failed to disclose to the grand jury. Levine, with whom Rove often discussed his talks with reporters, did immediately go up to see Rove. But as Levine told the FBI last week, Rove never said anything about Cooper. The Levine talk was arguably helpful to one of Luskin’s arguments: that, as a senior White House official, Rove dealt with a wide range of matters and might not remember every conversation he has had with journalists.

Where to start on this nice bit of spin from the Rove playbook, disseminated to the masses via your favorite insider and mine, Isikoff…

How about with this salient little fact… Rove wasn’t too busy or forgetful to send off an email to Stephen Hadley before he left early for a family vacation to let him know he spoke to Cooper…

“Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he’s got a welfare reform story coming,” Rove wrote Hadley, who has since risen to the top job of national security adviser.

“When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn’t this damaging? Hasn’t the president been hurt? I didn’t take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn’t get Time far out in front on this.”

Now Rove & company have tried to prove that this email to Hadley shows that Rove was not leaking, he was doing damage control on the upcoming Novak article and trying to minimize how many reporters were going to cover the issue. Poor Rove, he just wants to talk about welfare reform and the mean journalist starts bringing up Niger…

Well, that’s one way to look at it of course.

But you could also read it this way ~ Hey Hadley… Cooper called and started hammering me on our illegal case for war… I didn’t take the bait and stuck to our talking points about Wilson instead… have Scooter call him tomorrow to confirm that Wilson sucks. (Libby did indeed call Cooper the next day)

{Update} GMA , via firedoglake, is reporting that Matt Cooper confirmed this morning that Scooter told him on the 12th Plame was covert after first hearing about her from Rove (see below for why all this matters in the context of Rove)

This also makes sense considering what else happened on July 11, 2003 in relation to Niger… Tenet fell on his sword, probably because of the leaks coming out of the CIA which were putting the blame right back at Bush’s door… so much so that both Rice & Powell had to do damage control.

So yes, it is entirely possible that Rove had a lot on his mind when he talked to Levine. Unfortunately for his story, you don’t typically forget things that are in direct relation to the thing that’s keeping you up at night… you typically forget the unimportant stuff… like, you know, welfare reform.

Then of course, there’s this little problem for Karl… Matt Cooper didn’t quite remember things the same way…

He called Rove, not to talk about welfare reform (wow, Bush’s Brain must need some time off if he can’t remember what he talked about even minutes after a conversation… maybe he isn’t lying and just needs to resign for health reasons… can’t have someone that forgetful advising the President can we?), but to talk about the Niger admission by the White House and, yup, about Wilson:

…But at the same time, I was interested in an ancillary question about why government officials, publicly and privately, seemed to be disparaging Wilson. It struck me, as I told the grand jury, as odd and unnecessary, especially after their saying the President’s address should not have included the 16-word claim about Saddam and African uranium.

I told the grand jurors that I was curious about Wilson when I called Karl Rove on Friday, July 11. Rove was an obvious call for any White House correspondent, let alone someone trying to prove himself at a new beat. As I told the grand jury–which seemed very interested in my prior dealings with Rove–I don’t think we had spoken more than a handful of times before that. I recalled that when I got the White House job a couple of weeks earlier, I left a message for him trying to introduce myself and announce my new posting.

As I told the grand jury–and we went over this in microscopic, excruciating detail, which may someday prove relevant–I recall calling Rove from my office at TIME magazine through the White House switchboard and being transferred to his office. I believe a woman answered the phone and said words to the effect that Rove wasn’t there or was busy before going on vacation. But then, I recall, she said something like, “Hang on,” and I was transferred to him. I recall saying something like, “I’m writing about Wilson,” before he interjected. “Don’t get too far out on Wilson,” he told me. I started taking notes on my computer, and while an e-mail I sent moments after the call has been leaked, my notes have not been.

…. In fact, I told the grand jury, Rove told me the conversation was on “deep background.” I explained to the grand jury that I take the term to mean that I can use the material but not quote it, and that I must keep the identity of my source confidential.

Rove went on to say that Wilson had not been sent to Niger by the director of the CIA and, I believe from my subsequent e-mails–although it’s not in my notes–that Rove added that Dick Cheney didn’t send him either. Indeed, the next day the Vice President’s chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, told me Cheney had not been responsible for Wilson’s mission.

Much of my grand jury session revolved around my notes and my e-mails. (Those e-mails and notes were given to the special counsel when Time Inc., over my objections, complied with a court order.) …. The notes, and my subsequent e-mails, go on to indicate that Rove told me material was going to be declassified in the coming days that would cast doubt on Wilson’s mission and his findings.

As for Wilson’s wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name and that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak’s column or Googled her, I can’t recall which. Rove did, however, clearly indicate that she worked at the “agency”…. Rove added that she worked on “WMD” (the abbreviation for weapons of mass destruction) issues and that she was responsible for sending Wilson. This was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson’s wife.

Rove never once indicated to me that she had any kind of covert status. I told the grand jury something else about my conversation with Rove. Although it’s not reflected in my notes or subsequent e-mails, I have a distinct memory of Rove ending the call by saying, “I’ve already said too much.” This could have meant he was worried about being indiscreet, or it could have meant he was late for a meeting or something else. I don’t know, but that sign-off has been in my memory for two years.

….

A surprising line of questioning had to do with, of all things, welfare reform. The prosecutor asked if I had ever called Mr. Rove about the topic of welfare reform. Just the day before my grand jury testimony Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, had told journalists that when I telephoned Rove that July, it was about welfare reform and that I suddenly switched topics to the Wilson matter. After my grand jury appearance, I did go back and review my e-mails from that week, and it seems as if I was, at the beginning of the week, hoping to publish an article in TIME on lessons of the 1996 welfare-reform law, but the article got put aside, as often happens when news overtakes story plans. My welfare-reform story ran as a short item two months later, and I was asked about it extensively. To me this suggested that Rove may have testified that we had talked about welfare reform, and indeed earlier in the week, I may have left a message with his office asking if I could talk to him about welfare reform. But I can’t find any record of talking about it with him on July 11, and I don’t recall doing so.

So back to Adam Levine… is this really Rove’s excuse for perjury and obstruction? That he didn’t tell a press aide so therefore he just has a bad memory? I highly doubt that is what gave Fitzgerald “pause”. Something else is going on.

Wish I knew what it was… but what I do know, to paraphrase our friend Fitz, is that those talking points won’t fly Karl.

Oh, and one last thing about the leak of Plame’s name… and why it is not crucial that she was identified as “Valerie Plame” or “Valerie Wilson” vs. “Joe Wilson’s wife” for the purposes of disseminating classified info and putting a NOC at risk…

From Cooper’s recounting of his GJ testimony:

I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak’s column or Googled her, I can’t recall which.

The damage was done when “Wilson’s wife” & “CIA” were used in the same sentence to a reporter. People can Google, as Matt points out… It’s not as if she lives in an underground bunker with Cheney or anything. And if he can Google and find her, so can anybody who might have a more sinister reason for doing so… ummm, like, terrorists or something.

crossposted @ Jaded Reality

It’s the deadly incompetence that keeps on giving.

Mike Brown’s post-resignation (as opposed to actually being fired for being responsible for the deaths of residents of NOLA) contract has been extended by DHS for another 30 days.

They say they need his “expertise” from Katrina to help FEMA figure out how to handle current and upcoming disasters… No wonder they ran out of water in Florida… Brownie’s still doing a heck of a job evidently.

“It’s important to allow the new people who have the responsibility … to have access to the information we need to do better,” Chertoff told The Associated Press as he flew to view Hurricane Wilma’s damage in Florida.

“We don’t want to sacrifice the real ability to get a full picture of Mike’s experiences; we don’t want to sacrifice that ability simply in order to make an image point,” Chertoff said.

Excuse me? The head of FEMA didn’t even know people were at the Convention Center until Thursday and yet he is still on the goddamn government payroll? Do you think the people of NOLA would be comfortable paying even a half cent of their taxes to keep this guy employed? An image point. Don’t worry Chertoff, the image points were all made on CNN by Anderson Cooper and on Fox by Geraldo and Shep.

This is shameful. No amount of incompetence goes unrewarded in the Bush White House. And other than the Dem rep from LA there is no outrage on the people’s behalf from the Democratic party leadership.

Let’s just get it over with and appoint Barney to head FEMA… at least he knows some songs to take our minds off how completely unprepared the US gov’t is for a major disaster… or a terrorist attack… maybe Barney could sing “Nearer My God to Thee” as the ship goes down.

cross posted @ Jaded Reality

Freedom is on the march to Syria.

Disclaimer – I am not on Syria’s side if they did murder the Lebanese PM, but I find this all a little too convenient as a case for war by the neocons. Take it for what it is, but we seem to have heard all of this before.

… about 3 years ago actually.

President Bush said today that military action was a “last resort” in dealing with Syria if Damascus refused to co-operate with a United Nations investigation into the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.

….

“A military (option) is always the last choice of a president,” Mr Bush told al-Arabiya television in an interview broadcast today. “I am hoping that they will cooperate. It is the last — very last option… I’ve worked hard for diplomacy and will continue to work the diplomatic angle on this issue.”

Could someone point me to where exactly Bush has been working hard on diplomacy with Syria these last 5 years? When did he stop beating the terrorism, aiding the insurgency & torturers (only when they’re doing it without the extraordinary renditions dropped in their laps by the US) drums long enough to try diplomacy?

“This is true confessions time now for the government of Syria,” Mr Bolton said. “No more obstruction. No more half measures. We want substantive cooperation and we want it immediately.”

Wow, I’m amazed that Bolton would be so honest about what the international community expects from America… oops, sorry, I forgot, Orwell lives.

In his interview with al-Arabiya, a transcript of which was obtained by Reuters, Mr Bush said Syria had to meet a set of demands from the international community, including expelling Palestinian militant groups, preventing insurgents from crossing its borders into Iraq to fight US forces, and ending Syrian interference in Lebanon.

“Nobody wants there to be a confrontation. On the other hand, there must be serious pressure applied,” he said.

“In other words, there are some clear demands by the world. And this report, as I say, had serious implications for Syria, and the Syrian government must take the demands of the free world very seriously.”

Nobody wanted to invade Iraq of course, it was totally a last resort… is history really repeating itself already? Are we going to allow the US populace to fall for it again? Is it now the US’s job to patrol the world and invade countries who aren’t following UN resolutions? When would you get the time?

Mr Bush would not be pinned down on what action Washington would take if Syria does not comply. “I certainly hope that people take a good look at the Mehlis report … there’s clear implications about Syrians’ involvement in the death of a foreign leader,” he said.

Really? Does this mean that he’s going to open the files on the US’s involvement in assassinations of foreign leaders (including the failed attempts on Chavez and Castro) so we can all take a good look and decide the best course of action to take to remedy this serious situation? Thought not. And people wonder why America is reviled in the third & second-world’s (and in a large portion of the “first” world to boot).

The funniest (in a dark sense) part of the article comes when Bush is asked if he will support international war crimes charges against those who killed Hariri as his son is calling for. Now, most peace-loving internationalists who weren’t looking to start a war would jump all over the chance to try these guys and show the world what justice and democracy is all about… but that ain’t our Bush… justice is never a clear cut way to go for him… unless he’s trying to suppress votes in Florida of course.

“Well, we want people to be held to account. And I’d be glad to talk to other leaders to determine whether or not that’s the best course of action. But certainly, people do need to be held to account. And the first course of action is to go the United Nations,”

I really didn’t think it would escalate this fast, but with the UN draft report released (yes, you heard that correctly, this report was just a draft, the investigation continues until Dec. 15th according to Annan), the US jumped. But the US doesn’t care about the wheels of justice and evidentiary procedures to determine culpability (damn that pesky Hans Blix). Bush wants to cut it short and move now.

The Bush Administration is talking about next Monday as a target date for a resolution.

Times Online

For additional background on how the US is setting up the Syrian campaign, see: SusanHu’s diary ~ NSC Chief Hadley asked Italy for a Bashar Replacement & an article Bri found ~ Syria Being Set Up to Fail

cross posted @ Jaded Reality & My Left Wing

I had promised myself I wouldn’t get involved in the Plame case again, but I’ve been following along and kept feeling like something was missing.

Today I know what that is. Bush.

The focus has been on Rove, Libby, Cheney, Hannah, etc. but what of the esteemed W? Perhaps Fitz has been widening his net a bit further than previously thought?

Let’s look at the statements that were either spoken directly by Bush or were official statements from the WH immediately following the leak…
First – who is responsible and are they cooperating?

President Bush’s aides promise to cooperate with any DOJ inquiries, but admit that “Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role” in the leak. (Allen, “Bush Aides Say They’ll Cooperate With Probe Into Intelligence Leak,” Wash. Post. Sept. 29, 2003 at A01)

Really? He had no plans to ask them if they broke the law and endangered national security?

Then how do you explain this statement…

Before an internal investigation is conducted, the White House rules out Karl Rove, vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby, and National Security Council senior director Elliott Abrams as possible sources for the news leak. (Mikkelsen, “White House Says Three Senior Aids Innocent In Leak,” Reuters, October 7, 2003

So Bush was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt in early October 2003 that those three individuals were innocent… yet 8 days previously aides were saying Bush didn’t even ask them? Hmmm… believable? I think not.

My take on this is that Bush didn’t ask those particular aides because he already knew who the leakers were. At least the 3 people named above. I’m not a lawyer, but this appears to be obstruction of justice to me. Or cheap propaganda… take your pick.

Then there’s this gem the next day…

President Bush says that he is not sure if the Justice Department will determine source of leak. (Stevenson and Lichtblau, “Leaker May Remain Elusive, Bush Suggests,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 2003.)

Does he have ESP or was he saying they’d covered all their bases? Seems to me the president knows a lot more than he is letting on now… I’m pretty sure Fitz understands this as well.

This dovetails nicely with deFrank’s recent article about Bush’s displeasure with Rove…

An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.

….

“Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way,” the source said.

Exactly. Back in early October 2003 Bush was convinced his “Brain” had everything under control and there was no way they would be caught…  that continued all the way up to July of this year when he changed his tune to only those convicted of a crime would be fired vs. those who had any involvement.

Second – How can this further directly tie back to Bush?

Because of the actions of his WH counsel… Alberto Gonzales… anything Gonzales does Bush knows about. That’s the way it works.

Text of an e-mail to White House staff Tuesday from counsel Alberto R. Gonzales about the Justice Department’s investigation about the leak of a CIA officer’s identity:

“We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee. …you must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department’s investigation.”

A follow up email was sent asking staff to save all records of any kind relating to the Ambassadors trip to Niger, his wife’s relationship with the CIA, any contact with the press about these topics, and any contact at all with journalists Robert Novak, Knut Royce, Timothy M. Phelps

Eleven hours pass between when the White House is notified of the investigation and when administration officials asked staff to preserve records. (Editorial, “Investigating Leaks,” NYT, Oct. 2, 2003)

11 hours is a long time to give Bush, Cheney et al time to cover their tracks… and who was responsible for the notification to staff… AG, the new AG.

Then there’s his take on constitutional law and evidently what he has been advising his client, the President…

White House officials turn in investigation documents to meet 5 PM deadline. Administration officials said the White House counsel’s office would review investigation materials before submitting them to the Justice Department to determine relevancy. Officials also left open the possibility that the counsel’s office might assert executive privilege on some or withhold all or parts of others for national security reasons. Senator Schumer said, “I am very troubled by the fact that the White House counsel seems to be a gatekeeper, and I want to know what precautions Justice is taking to ensure that it gets all relevant information from the administration.” (Stevenson and Lichtblau, “Leaker May Remain Elusive, Bush Suggests,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 2003.)

October 9, 2003 – Senators Daschle, Levin, Biden and Schumer call for appointment of a special counsel and note five missteps of the Administration/DOJ: 1) the DOJ waited three days before notifying the WH of the investigation, 2) the WH waited 11 hours before asking its staff to preserve any evidence, 3) the State and Defense Departments were tipped off that the investigation was coming to their divisions, 4) WH spokesperson Scott McClellan publicly ruled out Karl Rove, Lewis Libby and Elliot Abrams as suspects, and 5) the Attorney General’s conflicts of interest.

October 14, 2003 – Senator Tom Daschle asked CIA director George Tenet to conduct a damage assessment for the leak. (Reuters, Oct. 14, 2003.)

White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales claims that Congressional suggestions about how to handle the leak are unconstitutional: “We believe it is inconsistent with the constitution’s separation-of-powers principles for members of Congress to direct the president’s management of White House employees…”(Reuters, Oct. 15, 2003)

Third, and this is one we don’t hear much about in the discussion of what charges could be forthcoming, but it is interesting that our favorite bulldog, Conyers, thinks something is fishy with the way the WH responded to the investigation…

January 26, 2004 – Congressman Conyers, along with Congresswoman Pelosi, Congressman Waxman and Senators Daschle, Lieberman and Rockefeller ask the GAO to investigate whether the White House’s response to the leak conforms with administrative security requirements.

Finally… who has testified that we haven’t been talking about much… and what are their relationships to W?

It is confirmed that Ari Fleischer, Karl Rove, Scott McClellan, the President’s press secretary and Adam Levine, a former press aide, testify before the grand jury. Several members of the Vice President’s staff have also testified.

In addition to the grand jury proceedings, “prosecutors have conducted meetings with presidential aides that lawyers in the case described as tense and sometimes combative.” Finally, Fitzgerald is conducting these interviews in secret, asking the subjects to sign confidentially agreements, and often staff are refusing to do so. [of course they can’t sign, they needed to report back to Bush]

These lawyers also say that the prosecutors have evidence confirming that White House officials were extremely upset with the Wilson article, and with the CIA for sending him to Africa. (David Johnston, “Top Bush Aide is Questioned in CIA Leak,” NY Times, Feb. 10, 2004; Allen and Schmidt, “Bush Aides Testify in Leak Probe,” Wash. Post Feb. 10, 2004 at A1.)

So all the president’s mouthpieces testified. This could be nothing, ruling them out as the leakers, but it also could open the door to discussing what the president knew and when he knew it.

What else?

Well the GJ also decided they needed to get phone records from Air Force One… doesn’t mean Bush made the call to the journos, but it means he was on the plane and likely debriefed on the subject matter.

The grand jury subpoenas a week’s worth of phone logs from Air Force One. (Mike Allen, “Leak Investigators to Get Phone Log,” Wash. Post, Mar. 5, 2004)

Finally, our friend Alberto testified as well…

June 16, 2004 – White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales testifies before the grand jury. (Susan Schmidt, “Bush Aide Testifies in Leak Probes,” Wash. Post, June 16, 2004 at A7.)

This is stronger in my opinion than the press aides testifying. The White House counsel testified… but about what? About what Bush knew? About the 11 hour delay in securing the records? About the instructions provided to the WH aides to not sign waivers? Who knows, but whatever it is it’s not good news for the WH.

Does this mean the president will be indicted? I’d eat a shoe if that actually happened, so no, that’s not what I’m getting at. What I do see though is that this goes further than just Cheney. McClellan and Bush lied directly to the American people (and potentially the GJ in the case of Scottie or Fitz in the case of Bush) and tried to obstruct justice.

My prediction… He ain’t off the hook yet.

cross posted @ Jaded Reality