TIME: The Wilson War Continues, The DOJ opens a preliminary probe

[Ketcham]

"The Justice Department has opened a preliminary inquiry into whether a Bush Administration official illegally revealed the identity of a CIA employee whose husband criticized the Administration's handling of intelligence on Iraq, TIME has learned. The probe will determine whether to order a full-fledged FBI investigation."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,490646,00.html

[thebigidea]

1. ah yes, all in the hands of Ashcroft

the Ass is my shepherd,
I shall not want...



he leadeth me through the valley of degradation,
and oh, shall I want...

[NormanConquest]

7. your best yet, tbi. nt

[eileen_d]

2. Right on, right on!

Probe away boys & girls!

[RainDog]

3. This is even better!

As Josh Marshall noted on talkingpointsmemo.com, he noted that after FIFTEEN hours that this story had been posted via NBC/CNBC, it had not been picked up by the wires, or CNN or Fox, apparently (I'm just going by what he said)

I have to leave right now but I think we should all contact CNN and Fox news depts and Reuters and UPI and AP and ask WHY they sat on this story for fifteen hours.

In cable news cycle time, fifteen hours is like fifteen dog years.

[are_we_united_yet]

14. We can probably guess

why they sat on it.

[bsiebs]

16. CBS National News Opened with the story!

This story is growing very large, pretty legs...

[gratuitous]

18. Yeah, CBS mentioned it

But they also mentioned the Crisco Johnny is too busy reviewing federal sentences to pay any attention to things like stock exchange shenanigans or the naming of CIA operatives. Gotta make sure those penny-ante drug users are locked away for a long time, you know. No time to attend to actual crimes with real victims or the nation's security. Tommy Chong has to go down, baby!

[TacticalPeek]

19. Damn! I flicked around tv all day and missed the one bomb!

Got it on their web site, too! Fantastic!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/27/eveningnews/main575449.shtml

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Jack Rabbit]

4. DOJ has opened an inquiry into Enron, too

It pre-empts the investigation by the California state AG's office.

Ashcroft hasn't looked into anything. The opening of the probe is a shield for Bush's cronies.

What do you suppose this is?

[KharmaTrain]

5. That's Why I Was Cynical Last Night

I saw all the posts and talkingpoints as well and saw the frenzy going on. Yes, this looks very big and the visuals of Novak and Rove wearing Orange Jumpsuits is enticing (hell, I'm ready to send each a carton of soap and cigs), but something didn't look right here...The DOJ!!!

Honestly, when was the last time that Dept. has done a right and proper investigation? One not tainted in politics...especially when the "target" has an office at 1600 Pennsylvania. In fairness, Janet Reno first couldn't wait to launch investigations and then got extremely gun-shy (those stupid right wing morons...had they curried her favor, who knows how many more I.C.s could have been launched)...and that was an extremely knowledgeable, efficient and honest A.G...we're dealing with the John Asscroft Department Of Justice!

Wilson's been fighting a virtual one-man war here...with some limited TV exposure and lots of internet buzz, but he's right now all that we've got. Maybe this probe will bring more to light, or another CIA hero or two will step forward to blow whistles and push this ball along, but right now throwing it to the DOJ to investigate is like throwing it in the freezer, and that's why I feel the major media is handling this very tepidly.

[snippy]

13. I think that the career CIA people will not let this go away.

I also think that they have barely begun to leak.

[Zhade]

17. "I have not yet begun to leak!" - sounds odd, yet enticing.

NT!

[FauxNewsBlues]

6. Call your congress critters

I just called mine up, Rep and both senators. Give them heck! Do not let this one die people. Call talk radio if it's an open line hour. Call if it is not. Speak truth to the Chimp and his minions in power.

[calimary]

24. YES!!! It is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL THAT WE DO THIS!!!

Truer words were never spoken, FauxNewsBlues!

We simply MUST call all our reps. That's three calls: Two to each of your Senators and then one to your own Congressperson. THEN, if you have time, call SOMEBODY ELSE'S congressperson and senators. PLEASE! DO NOT LET THIS DIE!!! You can bet there's going to be plenty of pressure from the other side, hoping and encouraging it to be swept under the rug! We have to provide a counter-thrust!

Check www.congress.org and go to the directory section. It'll have ALL the numbers, both local and in Washington, for EVERYBODY on Capitol Hill. DO it! DO IT FIRST THING MONDAY MORNING! THIS IS ESSENTIAL! OUR DEMOCRACY DEPENDS ON IT!

[sattahipdeep]

8. Korndoggie asking A$$crack to investigate the puppet master

He'll FIX it but it will be more of a coverup than a fix.

[TacticalPeek]

9. Sure, Asskroft can stand in front of this train if he wants to.

Kinda wish he would in fact. Then he might get the same cell that John Mitchell did, the last felon AG.

If these creeps had any sense they would burn the perps now, clear the deck, and try to rebuild for Nov 04. But they'll drag it out, suck more of their cabal into the whirlpool, and create the usual clusterf**k like they do with everything they touch.

We'll see.

[MGKrebs]

10. Does Novak know Bill Kristol?

Wouldn't it be shweet if he got the intel from Kristol, who got it from one of his PNAC shleppers like Wolfowitz. Blow up that whole PNAC snake pit.

One can dream!

[TacticalPeek]

12. Hey, I like your conspiracy!

Kristol in orange, delish!

:toast:

[fujiyama]

28. My own guess is...

Novak hadn't completely bought the PNAC thing himself, at first. He never seemed as gung ho for the war as say Kristol and most in the conservative press, but he has always been a big time Bush whore, ass kisser (sorta like Chris Matthews, who also was apparently not so in favor of the war, but loves Bush very much anyways).

That's why, he went ahead and published the info on Wilson's wife. It seems likes it's a cult of personality. They're infatuated by the guy. They make excuses for his own mistakes, and if there is something that went wrong, they pin the blame elsewhere (Cheney, Rummy, Powell, but NEVER Bush himself)

Kristol, who was the ultimate seller of the war, had his own reasons. It really was about Israel for this guy. Not really anything else. Same with Pearl and Wolfowitz. For Cheney, it was about the oil. The interests of the groups coincided though, so it worked out well for them. I'm not as sure about the others in the administration, but it was pretty much a confluence of these factors, and the irrational paranoia over Iraq that has occupied Washington for over a decade now .

It's interesting the way the media works. Geraldo gives away troop positions on Fox News and no one mentions it.

On the other some others journalists criticize the war and they get canned.

It's obvious, that conservatives are defining patriotism in their own light. It's the same thing Nixon and his cronies did. They broke into Elsbergh's office. They had thugs intimidate people. It's the same thing. They can give away troop positions, expose CIA agents (treasonous if you ask me), and no one makes a peep.

I hope the analysts and others at the bottom in the CIA won't let this die out. The agency has it's own seedy reputation, but I believe that many of the people in the agency (especially at the lower levels) took the job out of a real sense of serving their nation, unlike anyone at the current White House.

The thought of Rove, Novak, and Cheney being hauled away in 'cuffs is a great thought. Unlikely to happen though, for I've come to the belief that journalists, like those of other professions like to cover for their own.

[Dudley_DUright]

11. This case screams out for a

special prosecutor to be appointed (which is still possible even though the Independent Council law has lapsed). I would not hold my breath however. This case will be known as Whitewash (at the whitehouse).

[grasswire]

15. let's hope that Perle is involved

He'll look really bad in orange.

[Barrett808]

20. Fax to my senators

The Honorable Patty Murray
United States Senate
173 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4701
Fax: [phone]

Dear Senator Murray,

As I'm sure you're aware, MSNBC and Time magazine reported today that the CIA has requested a Justice Department probe into allegations that a White House official outed former ambassador Joe Wilson's wife as a CIA operative.

Many of us are very cynical when we contemplate the current occupant of the White House and his Attorney General; it is hard not to regard this as another case of the fox guarding the hen house. For this reason, I implore you to make every effort to push this "probe" into a full-blown investigation. This matter is too important to allow the perpetrators, once again, to commit crimes with impunity.

Sincerely,

Barrett808

[RainDog]

21. And now they're torturing sentences...

I sent an email to Time about this one.

"Wilson found no evidence that Saddam was seeking yellowcake — the International Atomic Energy Agency later determined this was probably untrue — but the CIA and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice failed to fully vet the intelligence and President Bush used it in his State of the Union Address this year."

This sentence is horribly constructed and could and would lead most people who are unfamiliar with this story to assume that the IAEA determined that Wilson's claim was untrue, when, in fact the IAEA determined that Saddam had not purchased yellow cake from Niger either.

...not that anyone in mainstream American media or journalism would intentionally mislead people or anything. (9-11/Saddam)

What? I didn't say anything about Saddam and 9-11. (yellowcake uranium)

What?

(Bush did not, not have knowledge of the attack on the WTC...double negative courtesy of Ari Fleischer...but it doesn't mean anything. He wouldn't lie or deliberately misconstrue..)

What?

[Nottingham]

22. Oh I think we need a full fledge investigations! I'm sure this

preliminary probe will be dragged on for over a year! :bounce:

[SteveG]

23. There is a real possibility

That the DOJ may take this seriously.. After all it is the CIA, and very bad thing can happen to people who piss off the CIA.

[sattahipdeep]

25. All will be pardoned in the end anyway.

An all that money wasted.

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16570-2001Mar16.html
But Krongard exhibited the requisite secretiveness when asked
to explain his interest in intelligence and how he came to land
a job in Tenet's inner circle. If you go back to the CIA's origins
during World War II in the Office of Strategic Services, he
explained, "the whole OSS was really nothing but Wall Street
bankers and lawyers."

Curious trades. Curious connections. No public release of AN investigative
findings...And no one talks abou it anymore. ALL coincidence?

Bankers Funded Enron AlQuada and US CIA Coup Efforts and Corp. Death Squads

[eileen_d]

26. Exclusive photo of DOJ probe!!!!

[Dudley_DUright]

27. Wielded by none other than Crisco Johnny himself

Thanks a lot Eileen. This is definitely the stuff of nightmares!

[TahitiNut]

29. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=135657&mesg_id=135657