Month: October 2005

Update/Leak indictments

Posted by | Oct 26, 2005 |

From Richard Sale, longtime UPI intelligence correspondent:


An hour ago I was contacted by a U.S. government official close to the Fitzgerald case. This person told me that there WILL be indictments announced later this afternoon, and the Special Prosecutor will hold a press conference tomorrow.


Richard Sale



— Via Patrick Lang


Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
Recommended Books || More BooTrib <a href="Posts

Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)


“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2


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Below: Richard Sale’s first story of the morning: “Aides To Be Indicted, Probe to Continue,” via Larry Johnson.

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Before she ran off, Condi threw a tantrum in Ottawa..

Posted by | Oct 26, 2005 |

[Promoted by susanhu. Too funny. ‘cept it’s sad.] Condi Rice was in Ottawa for a couple of days on a state visit, but she had to rush off this morning back to Washington, abruptly cancelling some interviews and raising speculation what exactly was going on.

Before doing this, the aforementioned Ms. Rice got very peeved at some pesky Canadian media questioning her about the US’s committment to treaties and signed agreements. I guess she isnt used to such media scrutiny from the Beltway Press Club back in D.C.

You see, Ms Rice feels the softwood lumber dispute is a rather trivial trade dispute compared to other great issues, and when the media took her to task over it, she didnt like it…


As background for those unfamiliar, Canada has won a series of NAFTA trade panel rulings that have ruled that Canada is not illegally dumping softwood lumber on the US market, and that 5 billion $ of duties the Americans have collected in tariffs should be repaid to Canada (I’ll also mention these rulings were done with a majority of US judges on the panel listening to this case – the verdicts have been a unanimous 5-0 in Canada’s favour).

The US in effect then told Canada it was ignoring the rulings and insisted on continued negotiations to break the impasse. Canada’s government has withdrawn from talks and said there’s nothing to negotiate over – we’ve won a ruling fair and square, and the ruling is part of a panel to a treaty that the US’s signature is attached to. This led to the following testy exchange…

Continued BELOW:

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Aides To Be Indicted, Probe to Continue

Posted by | Oct 26, 2005 |

For your background, Richard was the first to tip me last year to the developing Larry Franklin spy scandal, which proved to be right. – LJ


Aides To Be Indicted, Probe to Continue

By Richard Sale, longtime Intelligence Correspondent for UPI


This comes to us courtesy of <a href="Pat Lang at turcopolier.typepad.com. I’ve found Richard to always be on target in my experience. — Larry Johnson

Two top White House aides are expected to be indicted today on various charges related to the probe of CIA operative Valerie Plame whose classified identity was publicly breached in retaliation after her husband, Joe Wilson, challenged the administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein had sought to buy enriched uranium from Niger, acording to federal law enforcement and senior U.S. intelligence officials.


If no action is taken today, it will take place on Friday, these sources said.


I. Scooter Libby, the chief of staff of Vice President Richard Cheney, and chief presidential advisor Karl Rove are expected to be named in indictments this morning by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.


Others are to be named as well, these sources said. According to U.S. officials close to the case, a bill of indictment has been in existence before October 17 which named five people. Various names have surfaced such as National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, yet only one source would confirm that Hadley was on the list. Hadley could not be reached for comment.


But letters from Fitzgerald, notifying various White House officiials that they are targets of the investigation, went out late last week, a former senior U.S. intelligence official said.


Most press accounts emphasized that Fitzgerald was likely to concentrate on attempts by Libby, Rove and others to cover up wrongdoing by means of perjury before the grand jury, lying to federal officials, conspiring to obstruct justice, etc. But federal law enforcement officials told this reporter that Fitzgerald was likely to charge the people indicted with violating Joe Wilson’s civil rights, smearing his name in an attempt to destroy his ability to earn a living in Washington as a consultant.


The civil rights charge is said to include “the conspiracy was committed using U.S. government offices, buildings, personnel and funds,” one federal law enforcement official said.


Other charges could include possible violations of U.S. espionage laws, including the mishandling of U.S. classified information, these sources said.


That Vice President Cheney is at the center of the controversy comes as no surprise. Last Friday, Fitzgerald investigators were talking to Cheney’s attorneys, and detailied questionnaires, designed to pin down in meticulous sequence what Cheney knew, when he knew it, and what he told his aides, were delivered to the White House on Monday, these sources said.


The probe is far from being at an end. According to this reporter’s sources, Fitzgerald approached the judge in charge of the case and asked that a new grand jury be empaneled. The old grand jury, which has been sitting for two years, will expire on October 28.


Thanks to a letter of February, 2004 in which Fitzgerald asked for and obtained expanded authority, the Special Prosecutor is now in possession of an Italian parliament nvestigation into the forged Niger documents alleging Iraq’s interest in purchasing Niger uranium, sources said.


They said that Fitzgerald is looking into such individuals as former CIA agent, Duane Claridge, military consultant to the Iraqi National Congress, Gen. Wayne Downing, another military consultant for INC, and Francis Brooke, head of INC’s Washingfton office in an effort to determine if they played any role in the forgeriese or their dissiemination. Also included in this group is long-time neoconservative Michael Ledeen, these federal sources said.


On the Hill, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), democratic whip, are asking for public hearings to lay bare the forgeries and how their false allegations ended up in President George Bush’s State of the Union speech.


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Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.

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