How the White House will kill the Plame investigation
As have a bunch of other folks, I raised the red flag about the possibility that BushCo would smother the Fitzgerald investigation through pardons a la Iran-Contra.
But there is another, even darker possibility, which now looks increasingly likely. As you may recall, the Special Prosecutor in that case, Lawrence Walsh, got a bunch of convictions -- Oliver North, John Poindexter and Elliot Abrams, to name a few. But Poppy Bush's buddies on the bench, Laurence Silberman and David Sawtelle, threw out a bunch of the convictions because, it was claimed, the limited immunity these fine gentlemen received from Congress relating to their testimony tainted the case Walsh presented. (Kinda like those "technicalities" that so enrage the conservatives when they protect someone not in the club.) That made it possible for Bush the Elder to drive the final nail into the coffin by pardoning -- even before trial -- of Cap Weinberger and others, thus saving himself from the prospect of them publicly fingering him.
In other words, the Congressional Democrats, in trying to get to the truth, inadvertently gave the right wing judges who inherited the convictions the tool they needed to stop the bleeding before it reached the White House.
Our Republican Congress has generally shown itself to be utterly nonplussed by the burning of an entire covert op for political revenge, except when it rises to impugn Joe Wilson. But now -- two years after the story first broke, but mere days after the heat reached Rove -- we see that Senator Pat Roberts is talking about holding hearings.
If I were the kind of Machiavellian stooge that Senator Roberts seems to be, I would hold hearings and grant a few key underlings immunity in exchange for their testimony, and do it pronto. Under the Poindexter-North precedents, that would utterly contaminate Fitzgerald's case, and probably checkmate any chance of reaching the levels where the evil really lies.
Fitzgerald seems like the kind of guy who cannot be intimidated. And pardons, though probably effective, exact a political price. But I doubt anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania will have any second thoughts about sending their legislative lackeys out to monkey wrench the works for them.
We need to make some pre-emptive noise about this.
But there is another, even darker possibility, which now looks increasingly likely. As you may recall, the Special Prosecutor in that case, Lawrence Walsh, got a bunch of convictions -- Oliver North, John Poindexter and Elliot Abrams, to name a few. But Poppy Bush's buddies on the bench, Laurence Silberman and David Sawtelle, threw out a bunch of the convictions because, it was claimed, the limited immunity these fine gentlemen received from Congress relating to their testimony tainted the case Walsh presented. (Kinda like those "technicalities" that so enrage the conservatives when they protect someone not in the club.) That made it possible for Bush the Elder to drive the final nail into the coffin by pardoning -- even before trial -- of Cap Weinberger and others, thus saving himself from the prospect of them publicly fingering him.
In other words, the Congressional Democrats, in trying to get to the truth, inadvertently gave the right wing judges who inherited the convictions the tool they needed to stop the bleeding before it reached the White House.
Our Republican Congress has generally shown itself to be utterly nonplussed by the burning of an entire covert op for political revenge, except when it rises to impugn Joe Wilson. But now -- two years after the story first broke, but mere days after the heat reached Rove -- we see that Senator Pat Roberts is talking about holding hearings.
If I were the kind of Machiavellian stooge that Senator Roberts seems to be, I would hold hearings and grant a few key underlings immunity in exchange for their testimony, and do it pronto. Under the Poindexter-North precedents, that would utterly contaminate Fitzgerald's case, and probably checkmate any chance of reaching the levels where the evil really lies.
Fitzgerald seems like the kind of guy who cannot be intimidated. And pardons, though probably effective, exact a political price. But I doubt anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania will have any second thoughts about sending their legislative lackeys out to monkey wrench the works for them.
We need to make some pre-emptive noise about this.
posted by bluememe at 7/27/2005
9 Comments:
fff
agreed...and howzabout someone suggest to Fitgerald that he begin using those nifty patriot act provisions in his investigation. They were passed to aid in the fight against terror; destroying cia op dealing with WMD certainly seems to fall in the "hurting" the fight against terror category.
shit
i think you got something here...Roberts' hearings, if meant to do what you say, should be considered an obstruction of justice.
conyers is trying to get pre-emptive
Lets hope Fitzgerald is following your advice.
Lets hope Conyers gets his pre-emptive.
I think we are going to have to let them do what they can to spoil the cases against Rove and the rest and then use that to remove every single member of Congress who was involved in this (and other) ideas which only serve the major parties.
I want every person who voted for the Patriot Act removed from office in '06. They voted for a bill they had never read. There is only one Senator(Feingold) who voted against it and he said he could nt vote for a bill that nobody had read (it was 11,000 pages long).
Interesting theory. Question: Could the Democrats on the committee simply derail such a plan by refusing to allow a quorum?
Fitzgeralds appointment as US Attorney ends this October. Speaker, of the House Hastert, & ranking Illinois Republican, nominates the position & is approved by W. When asked yesterday if he would ask Bush to extend Fitz., Hastert was visually shaken, & said its up to Bush. Bush will simply appoint someone else & any indictments returned by the Grand Jury will be trashed. Vote GOP in 2006, for more of the same.
1.) We also know Bolton gave testimony to Fitzgerald's grand jury.
2.) We know Bolton was one of the officials neo-cons forced upon the State Department in May 2001. The became the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International
3.) We know that a secret State Department memo given to Powell by Armitage just before his trip to Africa in 2003 contained the information (marked secret) to the effect that Wilson's wife (Plame) was instrumental in his visit to Niger.
4.) We know that a number of "high ranking administration officials" knew this information within a day and leaked it (winthin 2) to the press to discredit Wilson and his criticism of the administration with respect to Saddam's desires for WMDs.
Connect the dots. IF THE INFORMATION CAME FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO (as was speculated upon last week because of grand jury testimony in the Plame case THEN IS IS MORE THAN SIMPLY LIKELY THAT BOLTON WAS THE CONDUIT OF THE INFORMATION AND, THEREFORE, THE PRIMARY LEAKER!
Even if Bolton was not on the 2003 trip to Africa, ti was like that in the capacity of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security he would have been given the same momo by Armitage.
Now President Bush is considering appointing Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N. through a mid-term appointment.
If the press begins seriously putting this together and speculating upon it, Bush will either pull back or brazenly apoint him at significant political damage.
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