"White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove escaped indictment in the CIA leak case Friday but remained under investigation.Not quite "out-of-the-woods" yet.
Rove's lawyer said he was told by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's office that investigators had 'made no decision about whether or not to bring charges' and would continue their probe into Rove's conduct.
What does the 'I' stand for in I. Lewis Libby?
At all relevant times from January 1, 2002 through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community.posted by kirkaracha at 10:33 AM on October 28, 2005
"I, GERALD R. FORD... grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in..."posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:52 AM on October 28, 2005
That's fantastic. But why is Fitz the woman?Without answering the question in a way that might make straight men squirm, find a suitable, well recognized image of two men embraced in a passionate kiss that evokes the same sense of patriotic pride. I'm sure John doesn't intend the gender implications you read into it.
bubba clintoon committed some 200 murders, committed at least a dozen acts of high treason, recklessly endangered the country, took a guestimated $500 million in bribes, and is still unprosecuted.Uh... right.
Posted by: Halfgenius, 10/28/2005 1:32:34 PM
This had better go down in history as to a classic example ast ot why NOBODY in the White House talks to the media ever again, that's why there is such a thing as a press secretary. I don't know where Liddy's common sense went, but he's now going to pay for it with the loss of his career, and perhaps the loss of his freedom. Dumb Dumb Dumb!!!
Reply 21 - Posted by: jkendal, 10/28/2005 2:19:34 PM
I hope this FIRES up the base enough to gain a few more seats in the senate next year. It's really the only way we're going to be able to roll back the liberal agenda in this country.
Like Rush said the other day - I want liberals to CHOKE on defeat!
Just keep moving forward, people.
"'This investigation is not yet over,' one of the lawyers in the case said. 'You must keep in mind that people like Mr. Rove are still under investigation. Rather than securing an indictment on perjury charges against Mr. Rove Mr. Fitzgerald strongly believes he can convince the grand jury that he broke other laws.'posted by ericb at 1:46 PM on October 28, 2005
The lawyers said that in the past month Fitzgerald has obtained explosive information in the case that has enabled him to pursue broader charges such as conspiracy, and civil rights violations against targets like Rove. Specifically, the lawyers said Fitzgerald is focusing on phony intelligence documents that led to the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity: the documents that claimed Iraq was attempting to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Niger.
A court filing posted on Fitzgerald’s website last week was the first such confirmation that the prosecutor has in fact decided to pursue the broader claims that intelligence the Bush administration used to build support for the Iraq war was flawed and, as a result, the reason many officials inside and outside of the White House went out of their way to out Plame, whose husband was a vocal critic of the Iraq war who was sent on a mission to Niger to investigate allegations that Iraq had attempted to buy Niger from the African country."
"We have more detail on what’s happening with Karl Rove. We know that something happened in the last couple of days that Rove’s legal team was able to provide to Fitzgerald, that according to one Rove associate, 'gave Fitzgerald pause' about charging Rove. They think that within the next couple of weeks, not months, that the Rove part of this investigation will be wrapped up, and that it is still centered on whether he provided false statements. It’s not clear what exactly transpired. There has been this flurry of conversations between Rove and his team and Fitzgerald over the last week, with Rove trying to convince him, like, 'Look, I may have forgotten some things but I did not lie.'"posted by ericb at 1:51 PM on October 28, 2005
Patrick Fir=zgerald is a neduri=otic nutcase who AVOIDED the CIA connectionBest freep comment evar.
THIS COUNTRY IS FINISHED!! if this con-artist creep gets his absurd cruelty done!
*********************** This rat b8tard lying weenie deserves a knife in hi s lying heart!
"Friday's indictment says 'Official A' is a 'senior official in the White House who advised Libby on July 10 or 11 of 2003' about a chat with Novak about his upcoming column in which Plame would be identified as a CIA employee.posted by ericb at 5:14 PM on October 28, 2005
Late Friday, three people close to the investigation, each asking to remain unidentified because of grand jury secrecy, identified Rove as Official A."
Some of the people that Rove and Libby were talking to between June 10th and July 11th had to have known that Plame was covert. Did they make that clear to Rove and Libby? We don't know. I don't think they did.To shed some light on that point, here's what former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow apparently told the grand jury, as reported in the Washington Post by Walter Pincus (emphasis mine):
Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.If I understand correctly -- it is incumbent upon the holder of such security clearances (Libby, Rove, et al) to verify the classification status of information before sharing it with persons not cleared to receive it. There appears to be no indication that any of the leakers made any effort to determine whether Plame's status at CIA was classified before sharing it with reporters.
Harlow said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified.
On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.The indictment states this as a point of fact, in contrast to Libby's lies about having learned about her employment from Russert and other journalists. Fitzgerald discussed this point in great detail during the press conference as well.
13. Shortly after publication of the article in The New Republic, LIBBY spoke by telephone with his then Principal Deputy and discussed the article. That official asked LIBBY whether information about Wilson's trip could be shared with the press to rebut the allegations that the Vice President had sent Wilson. LIBBY responded that there would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that information publicly, and that he could not discuss the matter on a non-secure telephone line.So, we're to believe that he couldn't discuss Wilson, who was a contractor for the CIA with the press, but Libby believed that Wilson's wife, who Libby knew worked in operations for the CIA was fair game. I find that stretches credulity.
edverb talks about how much "homework" they did. But a covert operative's status is a closely guarded secret.Not from these guys.
It would not be available for them to find, right there in the openThey found it, didn't they? Libby lied about it under oath about when they found it, and who told him, didn't he?
My narrative is Rove doing what Rove doesTrue, I agree with your assertion about his history of making it personal, he is after all a professional smear artist, doing what he does.
"I cannot answer that question," Fitzgerald said when asked about any Ryan involvement. "We cannot discuss people not charged in the indictment."FWIW: "Official A" is how Patrick Fitzgerald referred to former IL Governor George Ryan before he indicted him.
"Mr. Fitzgerald was spotted Friday morning outside the office of James Sharp, Mr. Bush's personal lawyer. Mr. Bush was interviewed about the case by Mr. Fitzgerald last year. It is not known what discussions, if any, were taking place between the prosecutor and Mr. Sharp. Mr. Sharp did not return a phone call, and Mr. Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment."posted by ericb at 1:22 PM on October 29, 2005
"...Fitz has Libby nailed on the 5 counts from today's indictment. Just nailed. So he's bringing Libby in on those charges, they're going to talk some turkey, and Fitz is going to see if Libby will talk, maybe about VP, maybe about Official A (who's clearly Rove), or maybe about the VP's moles at State and in the CIA. Offer some carrots - maybe no jail - but if Libby refuses, then Fitz brings down the espionage or intelligence act charges. Libby has nowhere to go, and Fitz knows it. In my view, he's going to try to exploit that opening before wrapping this thing up."posted by ericb at 1:33 PM on October 29, 2005
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posted by alumshubby at 9:48 AM on October 28, 2005