Month: October 2005

The real story of Plamegate is told in these 3 paragraphs from a hard-hitting Knight Ridder story:

CIA officer Valerie Plame was outed in an apparent attempt to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, after he challenged President Bush’s allegation in his 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had tried to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from the African nation of Niger.

A Knight Ridder review of the administration’s arguments, its own reporting at the time and the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2004 report shows that the White House followed a pattern of using questionable intelligence, even documents that turned out to be forgeries, to support its case – often leaking classified information to receptive journalists – and dismissing information that undermined the case for war.

The State of the Union speech was one of a number of instances in which Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their aides ignored the qualms of intelligence professionals and instead relied on the claims of Iraqi defectors and other suspect sources or, in the case of Niger, the crudely forged documents.

If you live near Caledonia, Michigan and have a job available, please consider offering it to Ms. Suzette Boler, who just got royally screwed by her coldhearted employer.

Apparently, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. hadn’t gone up in 4 decades, but Bush has broken the streak.  Do the people who put up crosses for aborted fetuses do the same for newborns who die of preventable diseases in the richest country in the world?  No they don’t and that’s messed up. Why do people become disposable after birth?

I try to vary the tone of my cartoons from light to biting.  Today’s is an attempt to punch the GOP right between the eyes because this is a disgrace.

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Political Animals – Featuring an All-Nude Cast!

According to Thursday’s WaPo, Fitzgerald is “is expected to announce a final decision on charges in the two-year-long probe tomorrow [Friday]” after presenting his final summary to the grand jury on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, back at the WH ranch:

Even as Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald wrapped up his case, the legal team of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has been engaged in a furious effort to convince the prosecutor that Rove did not commit perjury during the course of the investigation, according to people close to the aide. The sources, who indicated that the effort intensified in recent weeks, said Rove still did not know last night whether he would be indicted.

Apparently, Wednesday was a “surreal” day at the White House. That’s what happens when lies meet reality.

Yesterday’s [Wednesday’s] three-hour grand jury session came after agents and prosecutors this week conducted last-minute interviews with Adam Levine, a member of the White House communications team at the time of the leak, about his conversations with Rove, and with Plame’s neighbors in the District.

Rove is spooked:

People close to Rove said he fears a perjury charge because he did not initially tell the grand jury that he had spoken with Time reporter Matthew Cooper about Plame before her name was publicly disclosed.

Update [2005-10-26 23:47:47 by catnip]:: More on Adam Levine:

There were signs that Fitzgerald was still trying to piece together the Rove case as recently as Tuesday. Peter Zeidenberg, a Justice Department prosecutor working with Fitzgerald, called Levine that day to discuss a conversation Levine had with Rove on July 11, 2003, the day Rove spoke with Cooper, according to Daniel J. French, Levine’s lawyer.

Levine, part of the White House communications team at the time of the leak, “was contacted as a witness,” French said. Levine told Zeidenberg that he and Rove did not discuss Cooper in that conversation, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

They may not have discussed Cooper, but did they discuss Plame? Did Levine learn about Plame from one of her neighbours and then pass it on to Rove? It’s been rumoured that someone “outside of the White House” leaked her name. Did Rove the tell Novak? Or Libby? Who said what to who??

I can’t wait til Friday!

[editor’s note, by catnip] As Chamonix pointed out in the comments, agents and/or prosecutors spoke to Plame’s neighbours. Adam Levine did not, according to the article.

From our perspective, it was only a matter of time before Al-Qaida in the Land of the Two Rivers discounted news published by Mafkarat al-Islam (Islam Memo in English) as the controversy surrounding the media outlet continues to grow. And that’s Al-Qaida did Sunday in a lengthy statement.