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Re: Plame to retire

Postby dbeach » Sat Oct 29, 2005 3:43 pm

must be nice to retire from da company at age 42...<br><br>I trust her NOT <p></p><i></i>
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Fitzgerald

Postby Peachtree Pam » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:01 pm

I don't know anything about this site or the poster who made this comment:<br><br>Tuesday, October 25, 2005 - 03:22 AM, - Posted by valis (6066 Reads)<br><br> <br>"Coincidentally, the U.S. Attorney for Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, on the job for only a couple of weeks, had extensive experience as a terrorism prosecutor and immediately became involved in the investigation of BIF [Benevolence International Foundation] and GRF [Global Relief Foundation]"<br><br>Is Patrick Fitzgerald a Zealous "Independent" Prosecutor or Experienced Cover-up Artist? <br><br><br>National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States <br>Terrorist Financing Staff Monograph <br>Chapter 6 - The Illinois Charities Case Study [ PDF | HTML]<br><br>And "Fitzgerald immersed himself in the case and took a major role"? Well, this was quite a "coincidence." In this post Re: FRANK RICH: It's Bush-Cheney, Not Rove-Libby!!!!, I explained that Fitzgerald also was part of the prosecution team in the Omar Abdel Rahman case. Just to recap this, the prosecutors in the Rahman case didn't want their case thrown out on "national security" grounds, so they were careful to totally leave the CIA out of the picture. The leading prosecutor even claimed that when they discovered this "mujahideen" paramilitary training by Rahman's followers, "the FBI’s concern was that the group could be violating federal 'neutrality' laws." Of course, everybody knows that the US was not "neutral" in the Afghan war, and US officials publicly eulogized the "mujahideen" as "freedom fighters." I think that Fitzgerald's role in the Rahman case indicates that the Valerie Plame case will remain as matter of "Rove-Libby," and not "Bush-Cheney." <br><br>After examining Fitzgerald's role in the GRF & BIF cases, I am even more convinced that this Valerie Plame case will not reach the "Bush-Cheney" level. Just look at the outcome of the BIF & GRF cases. As soon as the investigations reached those close to higherups in Washington, the prosecutors seemed to spend more time on a coverup, than on pursuing a bona fide investigation. Then attorney general Ashcroft kept a tight rein on the BIF-Arnaout case. "The case fell apart and Arnaout was convicted only of fraud." The terrorism charges were dropped and the DOJ reached this plea deal with Arnaout. It doesn't look like the feds ever even intended to bring a criminal case against the Haddad or the GRF. The plan seemed to be to lock him up until they got him out of the country. <br><br>"The decision to deport him rather than continue the criminal investigation was made in Washington, without consultation with the Detroit case agent who had investigated Haddad"? I think that the feds opted to skip a public trial and to get Haddad deported because Haddad had worked directly with the Bin Laden, Azzam, & MAK. With Arnaout, he did work for MAK, but there was more distance between him & the hierarchy of the MAK. GRF co-founder "Rabih Haddad had worked for years for bin Laden‘s [and Azzam's] Makhtab al-Khidamat, which supported the tens of thousands of Arabs who rushed to Afghanistan to join the anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s." A GRF attorney said "The United States also supported that organization [Makhtab al-Khidamat] then." This is true. A BIF attorney also correctly stated that "Mr. Arnaout's activities in war-torn regions like Afghanistan in the 1980's and Bosnia in the 1990's came on behalf of many of the same rebel fighters the United States was backing then." I think this is the main reason why Fitzgerald came to have such a "major role" in these cases. He had already proved himself in the Rahman case, as someone who knew when to limit the scope of these inquiries. Quite frankly, if he didn't have this reputation, I think that the Bush administration would have found a way to get him off the Valerie Plame case. <br><br>It came out in the Kifah Waed Jayyousi case that Rahman's followers had "a network across North America to fund-raise for and recruit mujahedeen to train and fight in various areas including but not limited to Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, and Somalia." Jayyousi "was transferring money intended for Chechen militants through the Global Relief Foundation." Fitzgerald would have been well aware of a connection between the GRF and the followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman through Alkifah and Wadih El Hage:<br>"At the beginning of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, El Hage left Louisiana and traveled to Pakistan to enroll in mujahedeen war training programs. Thousands of young Arab men from around the world flocked to Pakistan to help the Afghans expel the Soviets. Sources told FRONTLINE that El Hage was a follower of Sheik Abdullah Azzam, one of the most important spiritual leaders of the Arab mujahedeen forces. Azzam preached that the war in Afghanistan was a jihad, or holy war, and that those who participated would have a special place in heaven...<br><br>In early 1991, according to El Hage's grand jury testimony, he was called to New York to help direct the Alkifah Refugee Center, a Brooklyn-based group that raised money to support veterans of the Afghan war. According to documents from the World Trade Center case, Alkifah had a Tucson office and contacts with the main mosque in Arlington, Texas, and family members confirmed that El Hage had been in contact with the group." "<br>Azzam was also involved with Brooklyn's Alkifah group. During the CIA’s Jihad, to the “US intelligence community,” "Azzam was considered a prime asset because of his close connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi intelligence, and the Muslim World League." Note that Rahman himself had received four visas from "CIA agents acting as consular officers at American embassies in Khartoum and Cairo." Alkifah in Brooklyn “became the de facto headquarters of” Rahman. This was the springboard for building up this "string of jihad offices that had been set up across America with the help of Saudi and American intelligence.” This network didn't dry up after the Cold War ended. It came out in Rahman's trial that his followers were receiving funds from the Saudi embassy in Washington to recruit for Bosnia. See: Al Qaeda Recruited U.S. Servicemen: Testimony Links Plot To Saudi Gov't. Alkifah followed suit: ARAB VETERANS OF AFGHANISTAN WAR LEAD NEW ISLAMIC HOLY WAR<br>[Oct. 1994] "The Al-Kifah, or Struggle, Refugee Center in New York, which used to recruit and raise funds for Mujahedeen headed for Afghanistan, last year announced it was switching its operations to Bosnia. It was established in the mid-1980s by Egyptian Mustafa Rahman as a joint venture with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, spiritual leader of Gamaat al-Islamiya."<br>If the FBI wanted to know what the GRF & BIF were doing and where the money was going, they didn't have to rely on what they found in trash bins. The GRF & BIF didn't exactly keep their agenda a secret. It was known for years that these "charities" did a lot more just than feed starving kids. This List of Muslim Relief Organizations was published by the Muslim Students Association of the USA and Canada in the 1990's. The BIF & GRF are listed: <br>Benevolence International Foundation <br>PO Box 548, Worth, IL 60482 USA <br>Tel. 708-233-0062 <br>Fax. 708-233-0069 <br>Email: bif@benevolence.org <br>URL: www.benevolence.org <br>Focus: Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) is a humanitarian organization dedicated to helping those afflicted by wars. BIF first provides short-term relief such as emergency food distribution, and then moves on to long term projects providing education and self-sufficiency to the children, widowed, refugees, injured and staff of vital governmental institutions. <br>Current list of projects include running refugee camps, hospitals and clinics, sponsoring orphans, operating vocational and computer centers, and conducting seasonal projects. <br>Established in 1987, BIF is currently conducting projects in five countries including Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Daghestan, and Tajikistan. <br>BIF is incorporated in the state of Illinois, USA as a non-profit, humanitarian organization and coordinates its efforts through an office in Chicago. BIF is solely supported by private donations and does not receive any governmental assistance. <br>Entry updated: Apr 1999. ....... <br><br>Global Relief Foundation <br>PO Box 1406, Bridgeview, IL 60455 <br>Phone: 1-888-256-2532 (1-888-ALNAJDA) <br>Phone: 708-233-1473 <br>Fax: 708-233-1474 <br>Email: talk2grf@aol.com <br>Email: info@grf.org <br>URL: www.grf.org <br>US Tax ID#: 36-3804626 <br>Focus: Chechnya, Kosova (Kosovo) and other places. You can ask for a documentary illustrating the genocide in Kosovo. You can use this documentary to create awareness and raise funding for Kosvo. You can order English/Arabic. <br>Entry updated: Dec 1999."<br>In 1992, the GHW Bush administration decided that Izetbegovic was their man to lead the Bosnia "jihad." Warren Zimmerman, U.S. Ambassador in Belgrade "persuade[d] Izetbegovic to renege on the [Lisbon peace] agreement, promising him all political, diplomatic and military aid if he agreed to do so." The GHW Bush & Clinton administrations "pulled the strings from the background, encouraging the world-wide Moslem agitation in favor of Izetbegovic." Many of these "strings" were in the Bin Laden network. As to Kosovo, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) training camps in Albania were "run by Osama bin Laden, and various other foreign mujahedeen" and also by the "CIA and British intelligence." And "the CIA seems to have provided monetary support." There was a civil war in Kosovo with atrocities on all sides, but there was no "genocide." Kosovo - the site of a genocide that never was. In other words, after the Cold War, the CIA & the Pentagon continued to use this same network of "charities," like the BIF & GRF, to serve US strategic aims. <br><br>Batterjee was "affiliated with a group of wealthy donors from the Persian Gulf region known as the 'Golden Chain'"? This Golden Chain was a huge Pandora's box, which shows that the BCCI never was really shut down. Just some of the names of the fronts changed. After Fitzgerald took on a leading role in the BIF investigation, the feds made a plea deal with Arnaout, dropping the terrorism charges and ending any further investigation of the case. Now the last time I looked, Bin Laden's Al Qaeda was officially called a "terrorist organization." So there was no lack of evidence. The evidence just led to directions where the higherups in Washington didn't want to go. How many references do you see to the Muslim World League [MWL], the Binladens, Bin Mahfouz, & Abdullah Taha Bakhish on this Golden Chain? According to the DOJ's own documents in the Arnaout case, this is "a list of people referred to within Al Qaida as the 'Golden Chain,' wealthy donors to mujahideen efforts." This was found in a file called "Osama's history" in the BIF office in Bosnia. The CIA had used the BCCI to channel the funds "to CIA client Osama bin Laden, part of the $2 billion Washington sent to the Afghani mujahideen." Bill Clinton's old pal in Arkansas, Jackson Stephens, arranged a BCCI "bailout" for George W. Bush's Harken. "A board seat was given to Harken shareholder Sheikh Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, whose chief banker was BCCI shareholder Bin Mahfouz." You may also remember Jackson Stephens and the Riadys from the Clinton "China-gate" scandal. In 1984, Mochtar Riady bought "a stake in the Worthen holding company whose assets include the Stephens-controlled Worthen Bank....Other Worthen co-owners will eventually include BCCI investor Abdullah Taha Bakhish." Jackson Stephen had bankrolled both Republican and Democratic campaigns. <br><br>It is also clear from this 9-11 Commission's staff report account that the CIA was working with the FBI on both the BIF & GRF cases prior to 9-11 and the Patriot Act. Apologists for the Patriot Act claim that this was needed to authorize communications and "intelligence sharing" between the FBI and CIA or other intelligence agencies. Of course, since the BIF & GRF involved the protection of former and current CIA "assets," the "CIA held back some information" in dealing with the FBI. Also one way to kill an investigation is to make inflated claims, which if disproved, can bring down the entire case. I think that the WMD in these "charity" cases was really a stretch, and I think that when the investigation was diverted into this direction, that it was headed for a deadend. Also this could have served as a rationale for Haddad's deportation. Unproven weapons claim led to Islamic charity raid in '01 <br><br>"This plan went awry when word of the impending action apparently leaked to GRF. FBI personnel learned that some of the targets of the investigations may be destroying documents"? There is some question as to Judith Miller's involvement in "alerting" the GRF of action to freeze their assets. We do know that Judith Miller had connections to the Pentagon & other top Bush officials and that she did play a role in the disinformation about Saddam's WMD. Last year, Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald "informed the [New York] Times by letter...that his office has subpoenaed telephone company records" of reporters Philip Shenon and Judith Miller. "The move is part of an effort to determine whether anyone in the government told Times reporters of planned federal asset seizures in December 2001" at the GRF's office. "The FBI believes that a call from a reporter to a representative of the charity, the Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation, may have led to the destruction of documents there the night before the government's raid, according to findings by the Sept. 11 commission." It is possible that Shenon & Miller were the channel for this "alert" to the GRF. However, this "alert" could have come from a number of sources through channels in the US "intelligence community," in ways that could not be traced back to the source. There is also a question of exactly how much damage that this destruction of evidence may have done to the prosecutors' case. It is very unlikely that there was ever any serious intent to prosecute Haddad or anyone else in the GRF. The Bush administration certainly seemed in a rush to get him out of the country, and this plan was brought to fruition after "Fitzgerald immersed himself in the case and took a major role."<br><br>By BlackJade<br> <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://valis.cjb.cc/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=100">valis.cjb.cc/index.php?na...le&sid=100</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Taking Plame and Brewster Jennings out

Postby Peachtree Pam » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:14 pm

Two comments from 'the next hurrah":<br><br>Posted by: jwp | October 29, 2005 at 01:13 <br><br>JWP, with all the information that Libby had access to, I agree with you that Libby probably knew she was NOC.<br><br>But I don't think Libby told Rove that Plame was NOC.<br><br>So Libby gets the whole telephone game started, then Rove picks it up from there and says, "Yeah, I heard it from all the other reporters" to fan the flames.<br><br>Then Wilson goes on TV and says, "I'm shocked these clowns at the WH are outing my wife because she is undercover and they are committing a crime."<br><br>According to Wilson, after he made that statement, the phone calling to reporters about Plame stopped.<br><br>I think that's why Libby was charged and Rove still might have a chance to weasel out of it. Rove could always claim, I was just playing hardball politics, never thought I was committing a crime.<br><br>It's also why I think the WH has set up Libby as the designated fall guy. I don't think the Bushies have a problem with the scummy things that Libby did; the problem is that he had people doing the dirty work without informing them of the risks involved, i.e., careful how you leak this, she's NOC.<br><br>Posted by: saugatak | October 29, 2005 at 01:56 <br><br>Saugatak,<br><br>Interesting, and plausible. But I doubt it for one reason more than any ohter -- if Libby knew that Plame was NOC, then Cheney knew. Libby did nothing on his own (that's how you get to be a Libby in DC).<br><br>I have long suspected that Plame (not Wilson), Brewster-Jennings, and some part of CIA were the target. Some sort of dance was going on. Cheney decided to take them out.<br><br>Also, somehow, whatever was happening in England simultaneously was related to all this.<br><br>In the background, the spooks were fighting. If we knew what Plame was doing, we might understand better.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2005/10/libby_as_a_fict.html#more">thenexthurrah.typepad.com....html#more</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Fitzgerald

Postby dbeach » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:21 pm

That is THE QUESTION:<br>Is DA Fitzgerald an honest man???<br><br>From what I read last yr on some of the way out sites..<br><br> He is not bribable..<br><br>Now so far he is A-OK in my book and IF I smell dirty DA<br>..I will make my voice heard..He bagged Libby thus far..Cheny best be careful cuz Poppy o may be taking back complete controls..SOME CHANGE is gonna happen..then the criminals regroup .<br><br>We are opening up the greatest crime syndicate in world history through the bush family..all ARE dirty AND KNOW MANY HAVE FIGURED OUT THEIR CRIMES..<br><br>This is complete new terrority..so many crooks ..a couple good shakes on the tree and lots of rotten and over ripe fruits are fallin off.<br><br>We will figure out Mr. Fitzgerald soon enough. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Fitzgerald

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:03 pm

This 2002 event keeps coming to mind when I think of the job the Brewster Jennings operation was doing:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/12/12/wscud12.xml">www.telegraph.co.uk/news/...scud12.xml</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=544DKFLCW4KL3QFIQMGCM54AVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/2002/12/11/wkor11.xml">www.telegraph.co.uk/news/...wkor11.xml</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Fitzgerald

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:23 pm

Bob Parry makes a good point:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/102905.html">www.consortiumnews.com/2005/102905.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>snip<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>...Fitzgerald, who is the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, appears to have bought into the notion that government officials had a right to discuss Plame’s covert status among themselves as long as they didn’t pass the secret on to journalists. Then Fitzgerald didn’t even seek punishment for that, limiting his criminal case to Libby’s lying about how and when he learned of Plame’s identity.<br><br>But to veterans of U.S. intelligence, one of the ugliest parts of Plame’s outing was the cavalier manner in which White House officials tossed around references to her CIA job to undercut her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for criticizing George W. Bush’s case for war with Iraq.<br><br>Sensitive Secrets<br><br>Within the U.S. government, few secrets are more sensitive than the identity of a CIA officer under “non-official cover,” or NOC, meaning the agent operates outside government protection, such as posing as a business executive as Plame did. Lacking diplomatic cover, a NOC faces a far greater chance of execution if caught spying.<br><br>“The CIA is obsessive about protecting its NOCs,” one angry former senior U.S. official told me after Libby was charged only with perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice. “There’s almost nothing they care about more....”<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Freemasonry

Postby antiaristo » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:32 pm

If you are a Freemason, there is one thing that will get your throat cut for sure.<br>And that is if you publicly identify another Freemason. <p></p><i></i>
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Re

Postby AnnaLivia » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:56 pm

Patrick Fitzgerald = the real deal<br><br>GO PADDY <p></p><i></i>
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Paddy

Postby rapt » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:00 pm

Hope yr right Anna. Got my fingers crossed.<br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Freemasonry

Postby robertdreed » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:08 pm

"Not a secret society- a society with secrets."<br><br>That's what the Lodges say about themselves, at any rate.<br><br>I always wondered whether one of the unspecified "secrets" to which they referred had to do with concealment of individual membership.<br><br>Certainly there are a great many Freemasons who openly acknowledge their membership status. And I've seen a great many membership rolls from various lodges available to the general public. Some of them are available on-line. <br><br>As the case may be- is it possible for a given individual to conceal his status as an initiated Mason if he chooses- including keeping his name off of all membership rolls and other documents available to outsiders- and are his Lodge brethren obligated to help him keep that secret? <p></p><i></i>
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Re:investigation and Saddam

Postby chiggerbit » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:52 pm

If you add up all the information revealed during this investigation and add it to the information that has been revealed this week that Saddam tried to accept the exile offer, what do you get? An administration that was determined to invade Iraq no matter what? Why? Would they have been so determined if that had been their children dying?<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9864433/">www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9864433/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Brewster Jennings

Postby Peachtree Pam » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:01 am

From WMR:<br><br>October 29, 2005 -- Indictment aftermath and review. The GOP spin machine is claiming that the indictment of Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby is not a big deal because he was not indicted on the underlying charge of exposing a covert CIA agent to the media. To the contrary, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald went to great lengths in the obstruction of justice count to explain in as much detail as possible Libby's damage to the national security of the United States. <br><br>BREWSTER JENNINGS <br><br>Libby: There is more behind his motives than to politically retaliate against a Bush critic. It is Libby's background and network of associates that remains a major issue.<br><br>The prosecutor is also empanelling a new group of jurors in the grand jury process to investigate the motives behind Libby's and others' leaking of highly-sensitive classified information to the media. Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley, Cheney, and others remain under active investigation. When Fitzgerald said that the bulk of his investigation is over, he is correct. He and his team of Justice Department prosecutors and FBI special agents have investigated the leak and who was involved. They know the damage caused to a network of covert CIA operative engaged in sensitive counter proliferation tasks. All that remains is establishing the motives of the perpetrators (or should that be perpe-traitors?) The motives are where criminal conspiracy enters the fray. Fitzgerald supplemented his team with FBI agents from the counter-intelligence section of the bureau. They are looking into possible foreign entanglements of the perpetrators. This is a road that leads to cells of neo-con operatives across the Potomac at the Pentagon and in Rome, London, and Jerusalem. This is also where Fitzgerald's investigation dovetails with that of US Attorney for Eastern Virginia (and incoming Deputy Attorney General) Paul McNulty.<br><br>It is sad that President Bush uttered words of praise for Libby and his actions before he fled Washington for Camp David yesterday. Bush said Libby "sacrificed much, " serving the administration in “extraordinary times in our nation’s history.” What B.S.! Libby sacrificed our nation's national security on behalf of a shadowy political agenda crafted in right-wing funded think tanks in Washington and the back rooms of London, Rome, and Jerusalem. Libby and his co-conspirators are traitors in every sense of the term. Libby joins Aldrich Ames, John Walker, Robert Hanssen, Jonathan Pollard, and Benedict Arnold in the halls of treason. For Bush to praise such an individual is yet more proof that this swaggering dolt and failed human being is certainly no leader and is, in fact, traitorous to the United States as much as his top aides who remain under investigation. Bush and Cheney aided and abetted treason inside the White House. They should not only be impeached and tried by the Senate, but jailed for the rest of their lives as an example to future American leaders who believe it is proper to place the security of the nation in jeopardy for selfish political purposes. Bush should also be forewarned: any attempt to pardon Libby and others convicted for treason will mean the end of the Republican Party and the end of the Bush political dynasty.<br><br>There are several cross currents in the aftermath of the Libby indictment. One is that the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's name and status to the media did not have a drastic effect on the CIA's counter-proliferation work. This is being spun by the stenographer-laden Washington Post and other apologists for the Bush administration. WMR can report that the damage to the CIA, as well as allied intelligence services, was "devastating" -- a term consistently conveyed by a number of CIA and intelligence community insiders. Not only did the White House leak put Mrs. Wilson and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in potential jeopardy but the entire Brewster Jennings & Associates non-official cover operation was "rolled up." The term "rolled up" has also been described to the editor by a number of current and former CIA sources. Foreign, including"denied nation," security services, even went to the lengths of checking out the hotels where Brewster Jennings employees stayed, when they stayed there, and what parties associated with their own nuclear programs stayed there at the same time. These individuals were identified and, in some cases, tortured and executed. Foreign security services had an easier time of checking attendee lists at various conferences to see whether their own officials and businessmen were in attendance with Brewster Jennings employees.<br><br>In addition to Brewster Jennings, a Boston-based brass plate firm, a predecessor CIA front company, Synergistic Technologies, Inc. -- its brass plate being based in Pittsburgh -- was also compromised. In the early 1990s, there was a nexus between the work of the two firms in their efforts to counter WMDs. That nexus was also compromised by the White House leak.<br><br>Bush's hand-picked CIA Director, Porter Goss, has just about completed his purge of the CIA's upper and mid-level management levels, replacing seasoned officers with Bush lickspittles. One of these is reportedly Burt Bechtel, the new head of the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division. Bechtel is spinning, along with Jennifer Millerwise Dyke (the CIA's public affairs spokeswoman who worked with Scooter Libby in the Vice President's office as press secretary and Porter Goss as spokesperson for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) and Goss himself, the story that the Valerie Plame/BJ&A leak had little effect on the CIA's counter proliferation program. That will be news to the half dozen or so BJ&A non-official cover agents who were put in physical harm by the leak. It will also be news to the hundreds of people BJ&A had spotted and helped recruit into a complex global network of informants and agents who closely worked with CIA case officers -- from North Korea to Pakistan, Iran to South Africa, and Libya to Malaysia -- in identifying sources and destinations for nuclear materials and components. After the revelation of the identities of the CIA counter-WMD team, there were reverberations around the world -- in places with names like Natanz, Bushehr, Dayr al Hajar, Yongbyon, King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology, Salaspils, Almaty, Chelyabinsk, Nilore, and Kahuta. Midnight knocks on doors, computer disk erasing, paper shredding and burning, quick get aways, and worse, were the order of the day. No big deal, according to the Bush apologists.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/">www.waynemadsenreport.com/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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A brilliant analysis

Postby Peachtree Pam » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:22 am

Anti, don't fail to read the comments. Most think Fitz will go with the espionage act. This is a must read.<br><br>Fitz’s Knuckle Ball<br>by gadfly<br>Sat Oct 29th, 2005 at 08:02:54 PM EDT<br><br>Gadfly is Marty Aussenberg, a columnist for the weekly Memphis Flyer. Marty is a former SEC enforcement official, currently in private law practice in Memphis, Tennessee. (A full bio is below the fold.) <br><br>The indictment of “Scooter” Libby, ONLY Scooter Libby, and ONLY on investigation- related charges (perjury, obstruction of justice, lying to investigators), is bound to be misinterpreted (read: spun), by ideologues on both sides of the political spectrum. Lefties (in addition to being disappointed that their favorite bête noire, Karl Rove, has seemingly evaded the prosecutor's net) will feel like some of the wind has been knocked out of their sails because no crime was charged in connection with the underlying revelation of Valerie Plame's identity (a key element in their assertion that such revelation was motivated by the need to discredit a vocal critic of administration's casus belli for the war--Iraq's possession or acquisition of nuclear weapons capability). And righties will revel in that same fact (i.e., since no crime was committed by the Plame outing, the outing was nothing more than a legitimate defense against the attack on the motivation for the war--in other words, politics as usual). <br><br>But, to continue Patrick Fitzgerald's somewhat tortured baseball analogy, there is no reason either for joy or sorrow in Mudville. Mighty Casey (a/k/a Fitzgerald) has, in essence, taken a base on balls, four (or, in Libby's case, five) lousy pitches, none of which he could really swing at, much less hit out of the park. And, just like a base on balls does't count as an at-bat, in some ways Fitz still hasn't stepped up to the plate. But, I suggest that what he may have done is to cork a bat for his next up. <br><br>Yesterday's indictment was dictated by time more than anything else. With the grand jury's term expiring today, if any indictment was going to be returned, this was the day, and I, for one, don't question Fitzgerald's statement that Libby's obstruction of the investigation prevented him from getting to the truth about the so-called “underlying” charges (e.g., those associated with outing a CIA operative). Indeed, the obstruction charged against Libby prevented the prosecutor from furnishing the one element of the underlying crimes that may be the most difficult to prove: mens rea, as it's known in the criminal law (i.e., a culpable state of mind). But, be assured: the last out in this game is still to come, and the indictment is a shot across the bow for a whole host of characters in this unfolding drama that should indicate to them sighs of relief would be premature. <br><br>First, we know that Fitz intends to continue the investigation, albeit with a new grand jury. That's no big deal, since the evidence that was presented to the first grand jury will be available, word-for-word and page-for-page, to the next one for their examination and, if necessary, for further elaboration or elucidation either by the prosecutor or by additional witnesses. In other words, the new grand jury won't be starting from scratch---not by a long shot.<br><br>Second, even the fact that Libby wasn't indicted for any of the possible classified-information-related offenses does't mean he still can't be, since the special prosecutor has the prerogative of getting a superseding indictment from the grand jury which is to follow (not unlike what the prosecutor in Texas did in Tom Delay's case). Thus, Libby is still, technically under the gun, and the indictment itself is rife with indications that there is another shoe yet to drop, something Fitz also strongly foreshadowed in his responses to reporters' questions during his press conference. And, of course, neither Rove nor any of a variety of other characters whose participation was described in shadowy terms are, as yet, off the hook. <br><br>Continued below: <br><br><br>Under the applicable federal rule, indictments are only required to be a “plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged.” The rule goes further to say indictments “need not contain a formal introduction or conclusion.” <br>The Libby indictment goes considerably beyond what the rule requires, or even envisions. It is what's called, in courthouse vernacular, a “speaking indictment.” The purpose of a “speaking” filing, in any court proceeding, is to show the other side some of the stronger cards you're holding in your hand, and this indictment is no exception. <br><br>The first 25 paragraphs of the indictment take great pains to lay out a factual scenario, replete with the identity (if not by name then by title) of the entire cast of characters, which, when carefully parsed, seems to set out the elements of at least one of the underlying classified information crimes, if not both. For example, the indictment indicates that the White House was well aware than Valerie Plame was a covert operative. Paragraph 9 states: <br><br><br>Libby was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. Libby understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.<br>Anyone with knowledge of the CIA's organizational chart (but particularly Cheney and Libby) knows that the Counterproliferation Division is part of the CIA's Directorate of Operations (i.e., where the spooks are), and not where the more benign employees (e.g., analysts) are assigned. The indictment also makes it clear that Plame's status at the CIA was classified, and that disclosure of such status could jeopardize national security. <br><br>Paragraph 13 of the indictment takes the guilty knowledge of Plame's status one step farther: <br><br><br>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.<br>The indictment makes it clear that Libby was authorized to have access to classified information (Paragraph 1), but also takes pains to point out not only that he was obligated not to disclose that information, but that he had signed a “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement” the primary purpose of which was to let its signatories know, in no uncertain terms, that disclosure of classified information would be a big no-no. <br><br>Voila! All of the elements, at least of the Espionage Act (if not the Intelligence Identities Protection Act), have been made out in the indictment. So, why go to all the trouble of setting up the factual predicates for violations of the classified information statutes in the indictment (especially when he didn't have to) and then stop short of charging them? The explanation he gave during his press conference (i.e., that he was balancing the interests of the First Amendment with the wisdom of charging the crime) does't fly. Subpoenaing reporters, sending one to jail and threatening to do the same to another one demonstrate, I suggest, his less-than-overarching concern about the First Amendment. And, his expressed concern that the U.S. statute governing classified information not become subject to the loose application which has characterized its British analog (i.e., the “Official Secrets Act”) also rings hollow, especially given the fact that he trumpeted, loud and long, during his press conference the serious violations of national security the conduct in this case appears to have constituted. <br><br>No, the real reason to lay out as much factual detail as he did was for Fitz to show the world (and in particular, the world within the White House) that he has the goods, and that he won't hesitate to drop the dime on some additional malefactors, particularly, Cheney. Let's face it: Libby is only the consigliere to Cheney's don. Even though the threat of spending 30 years in the pokey will be a powerful incentive for Libby to cut some kind of deal that might include turning on his boss, the possibility of the additional charges of revealing classified information, particularly against Cheney, is even more powerful since, presumably, Cheney does't appear to be at risk of a truth-telling-related indictment. <br><br>Let's agree on something else right now: Libby's case will never get to trial, primarily because Bush and Cheney will never allow such a trial to become precisely the kind of exposé of the administration's motives and actions in the run-up to the war they were worried the indictments would constitute. It would be their worst nightmare to have their war machinations presented to a jury of 12 ordinary citizens in the District of Columbia (read: predominantly African Americans) who would be sitting as proxies for the families of 2,000 plus military fatalities in Iraq and the plurality of the country that opposes the war. The risk there is not just exposure to the possibility of conviction in Washington, D.C., but a subsequent prosecution in The Hague as well. <br><br>Yes, my friends, Fitz is about to grab the pine tar rag, choose another, very special, piece of lumber and step back into the on-deck circle for the home run that is sure to follow. Batter up! <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/10/29/20254/872">www.boomantribune.com/sto.../20254/872</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br>Gadfly is Marty Aussenberg, a columnist for the weekly Memphis Flyer. Marty is a former SEC enforcement official, currently in private law practice in Memphis, Tennessee. (A full bio is below the fold.) <br><br>BIOGRAPHY:<br>Mr. Aussenberg is an attorney practicing in his own firm in Memphis, Tennessee. He began his career in the private practice of law in Memphis after relocating from Washington, D.C., where he spent five years at the Securities and Exchange Commission as a Special Counsel and Trial Attorney in its Enforcement Division, during which time he handled or supervised the investigation and litigation of several significant cases involving insider trading, market manipulation, and management fraud. Prior to his stint at the S.E.C., he was an Assistant Attorney General with the Pennsylvania Department of Banking in Philadelphia and was the Attorney-In-Charge of Litigation for the Pennsylvania Securities Commission, where, in addition to representing that agency in numerous state trial and appellate courts, he successfully prosecuted the first case of criminal securities fraud in the state's history. <br><br>Mr. Aussenberg's private practice has focused primarily on investment, financial, corporate and business counseling, litigation and arbitration and regulatory proceedings. He has represented individual, institutional and governmental investors, as well as brokerage firms and individual brokers, in securities and commodities-related matters, S.E.C., NASD and state securities regulatory proceedings, and has represented parties in shareholder derivative, class action and multi-district litigation, as well as defending parties in securities, commodities, and other "white-collar" criminal cases. <br><br>Mr. Aussenberg received his J.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and his B.A. degree in Honors Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Immediately following law school, he served as a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellow with the Delaware County Legal Assistance Association in Chester, Pennsylvania. <br><br>He is admitted to practice in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, before the United States Supreme Court, the Third and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the United States Tax Court, as well as federal district courts in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. He is an arbitrator for the NASD, New York Stock Exchange and American Arbitration Association, has published articles ("Stockbroker Fraud: This Kind of Churning Doesn't Make Butter", Journal of the Tennessee Society of C.P.A.'s,; Newsletter of the Arkansas Society of C.P.A.'s; Hoosier Banker (Indiana Bankers Association), and been a featured speaker on a variety of topics at seminars in the United States and Canada, including: Municipal Treasurers Association of the United States and Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Government Finance Officers Association; National Institute of Municipal Law Officers, Washington, D.C. ; Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants, Memphis, TN; Tennessee Association of Public Accountants, Memphis, TN (1993) .<br><br>Mr. Aussenberg has two children, a daughter who is a graduate of Columbia University and holds a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and is currently a student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and a son who is a graduate of Brown University and is working with a conservation organization in Marin County, California while he decides what to do with the rest of his life. <br><br>Mr. Aussenberg is an avid golfer whose only handicap is his game, an occasional trap shooter whose best competitive score was a 92, and an even less frequent jazz drummer. <br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Brewster Jennings

Postby dbeach » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:25 am

Madsen knows something..I have NEVER heard him speak so strongly..I am not a big fan but feel he has been unjusted labeled . he has been close to the edge of TRAITORGATE <br>without risking too much credibility..remember he testified for the 9/11 commission.<br><br>THIS IS HUGH that he is saying this stuff.WOW<br><br><br><br>"For Bush to praise such an individual is yet more proof that this swaggering dolt and failed human being is certainly no leader and is, in fact, traitorous to the United States as much as his top aides who remain under investigation. Bush and Cheney aided and abetted treason inside the White House. They should not only be impeached and tried by the Senate, but jailed for the rest of their lives as an example to future American leaders who believe it is proper to place the security of the nation in jeopardy for selfish political purposes. Bush should also be forewarned: any attempt to pardon Libby and others convicted for treason will mean the end of the Republican Party and the end of the Bush political dynasty."<br> <p></p><i></i>
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Fitzgerald visits bush lawyer before indicting libby

Postby hmm » Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:22 pm

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.sethabramson.blogspot.com/">www.sethabramson.blogspot.com/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>"3 Hours Before the Indictment of Cheney's Chief of Staff, the Special Prosecutor Pays a Mysterious Visit to President Bush's Criminal Defense Attorney<br><br>Paragraph Buried in New York Times Story Suggests President Bush Is Now the Target of a Criminal Investigation<br><br>From Talking Points Memo.<br><br>Things that make you go hmm.<br><br>So, let's see here:<br><br>1. According to the block-buster New York Daily News story from last week, Rove has the power to blow the President out of the water by telling investigators that Bush knew he (Rove) was the leaker prior to speaking with federal investigators. Meaning--according to an unchallenged major-media news report--<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Rove can confirm that the President of the United States committed two crimes: obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. Indeed, these two offenses have already been effectively established by the Republican majority in Congress as impeachable offenses (cf. William Jefferson Clinton)."<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006889.php">www.talkingpointsmemo.com...006889.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>"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." <p></p><i></i>
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