FBI names new Phila. chief (head Plame investigator off case)

[shockingelk]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/9249173.htm

The FBI agent in charge of investigating whether top Bush administration officials leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent as political payback against her husband has been named to head the Philadelphia FBI office.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has designated John C. Eckenrode, a 29-year veteran, to be special agent in charge of the Philadelphia division, the agency announced today.

Eckenrode heads the current probe of the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to conservative syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
...
Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the local FBI office, said it is not unheard of for an agent heading a high-level probe to be transferred before the probe is finished.

(edit: changed parenthetical)

[Old and In the Way]

1. "it is not unheard of for an agent heading a high-level probe to be

transferred".

How many of those cass involved the White House?

They are so guilty, it's just a joke now.

[StandUpGuy]

6. Its so so serious its no joke

When will enough be enough.

So what if John Kerry gets elected.

When are they going to be held accountable and how are they going to be held accountable.

It would seem folly to expect Kerry to do it. Will the American people be satisfied to see this criminals out of office. Will they demand justice for these crimes.

All of these crimes.

[pa28]

23. "Accountable"

It's a great word. I heard it ten times a day during the Clinton years. The Republicans talked about it all the time and their surrogates in the media would take their cues and repeat it endlessly. Yet I never hear it anymore outside of this forum. Strange.

[librechik]

2. Ack! The Max Cleland gambit!

this smells worse than a Bush turd wrapped in a page of the American Spectator.

[shockingelk]

3. while DU was conventioning ...

This development seems to me much more concerning than any of the speculation I've read recently.

The article doesn't say when he'll take his new assignment, but if it is indeed before the investigation is complete, it will definitely and at the lease pause progress for some amount of time.

It'll be interesting to see if someone already involved in the investigation takes charge, or if it's someone new to it that will have to familiarize themselves with the investigation so far, shuffle a few people around, give rise to potential personality conflicts, reorganize the investigation so they can "get to the bottom of these serious allegations" ... perhaps piss of some of the investigators enough to throw in their towels ...

[Zorra]

43. There has been very little media coverage of this.

Even on the internet.

Interesting.

[Zorra]

4. Stalling until after the election. Investigation derailed.

This stinks like everything Cheney does.

Mueller should be investigated by Congress.

[maryallen]

8. Mueller: Poppy's "clean-up" man to the rescue ...

One more time.

Pay attention folks, Mueller is the sucker the Bushes ALWAYS call in to tidy up their messes.

Remember also, that Mueller arrived on the job as FBI director, when? Somewhere around September 9 or 10, 2001.

How CONVENIENT!

The Bushes are the "luckiest" SOB's this country has ever known.

[leesa]

11. You know, I forgot that little tid-bit...so many 'coincidences' to keep

track of with the Bush Crime Family.

[Zorra]

17. This is kind of interesting, and sort of relative to your post.

09/24/2001 - Updated 01:50 AM ET
CIA recovering after failure to prevent attacks
By Barbara Slavin and Susan Page, USA TODAY

snip

"He's the best we've had in a long time," says Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington for 2 decades. He said Tenet developed close contacts with security services in the Middle East as he tried to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, and those contacts could be crucial in the new U.S. campaign against terrorism. "President Bush has developed confidence in him in a very short period of time," Bandar says. "I doubt very much that he will be made a scapegoat."

A former deputy director of the CIA, he got the top job 4 years ago after President Clinton's first choice, Anthony Lake, withdrew his nomination under grilling by Shelby's committee. When Bush took over, he asked Tenet to stay in the job. Influential figures from Boren to Bush's father urged the new president to keep Tenet.

After the attacks, Bush went out of his way to offer Tenet private reassurances, a White House official says. When Vice President Cheney was later asked whether Tenet should stay on, he said he had "great confidence" in Tenet. "It would be a tragedy if somehow we were to go back now in the search for scapegoats and say that George Tenet or any other official ought to be eliminated at this point," Cheney said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/24/tenet.ht...

Bandar bin Sultan is often called "Bandar Bu$h". Seems like the Bu$hies were pretty fond of George Tenet as well as Mueller.

[shockingelk]

24. they saved the scapegoat for later

"It would be a tragedy ... to go back now in the search for scapegoats and say that George Tenet or any other official ought to be eliminated at this point."

Yeah, the point they were saving him for was their Iraq "intelligence" fiasco. :)

[Zorra]

33. Exactly. Now the job is finished.

[Zorra]

18. Mueller apparently took over on Sept. 4, 2001.

During the two years since the Bush administration gained office, the old guard at the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been sytematically and extensively cleared out. The pretexts have been the inadequate performance of the "old regime" and the new "anti-terrorism". But the real reason is certainly to produce a Bureau more amenable to the imperial and police-state aims of the oil cabal (of which the administration is a front); and amenable too to the underhand methods used to achieve these aims.

The first target was the FBI's Director himself, Louis Freeh. President Clinton had appointed Freeh in 1993 to a ten-year term as Director. By 2001 Freeh was already facing accusations of incompetence over Waco, the Oklahoma bombing and the Olympic bombing. The final straw for Freeh was the arrest of FBI agent Robert Hanssen (18 Feb. 2001), on charges of spying for the Russians since 1985. Freeh "retired early" in May.

Freeh's "retirement" was followed by that of John O'Neill, head of counter-terrorism at the FBI. O'Neill had had differences with the new Bush administration over the handling of al-Qaeda cases, and in August he "resigned in protest over the administration's obstruction of the ongoing al-Qaeda investigations". He took the job of head of security at the World Trade Center in New York, a poisoned chalice as it quickly turned out. O'Neill was presumed to have died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
('Trade Center security chief thought dead', CNN.com, 12 Sept. 2001; www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm)

In July 2001 President Bush appointed Robert Mueller, a conservative Republican, as Director. (Mueller had been Attorney-General Ashcroft's assistant from Jan. - May 2001.) Mueller took up his post (after congressional approval) on 4 Sept. 2001.
('Bush names new FBI chief', BBC news, 5 July 2001; 'Profile: FBI chief Robert Mueller', BBC news, 28 Sept. 2001.)

http://www.911review.org/Wget/www.geocities.com/libertystrikesback/fbi.html

[psychopomp]

35. The very strange case of John O'Neill

I'd forgotten that weird twist. He resigns in protest over the stupifying efforts to ignore the AQ threat then takes over security at the WTC just to be killed by AQ (allegedly). :shrug:

[webtrainer]

5. Eckenrode is expected . . . timesleader

to begin his latest assignment in Philadelphia by mid-August

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/9248757.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

kick!

[shockingelk]

16. Oooh, interesting connection, doesn't meaning anything, or does it?

Eckenrode is replacing Jeffrey A. Lampinski, who left to work at Allied Security (all that here: http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/9248757.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp ).

The 47th wealthiest person in the World, Ron Owen Perelman last year bought a majority stake in Allied Security. (http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2003/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&uniqueId=3GOC&datatype=Person )

Owen Perelman helped Monica Lewinski get her WH internship (http://www.askmen.com/men/business_politics_60/67c_ron_perelman.html )

Allied Security is providing security for some businesses near the Republican Convention: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-nymsg193898177jul19,0,2857243.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-manhattan
And it's VP was interviews on FOX about that convention: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,126388,00.html

So the same guy who put Lewinski in the WH owns a majority share in the company that hired the Philadelphia FBI chief, creating the opportunity for Eckenrode to be promoted and is providing security around the GOP convention.

[stickdog]

26. And will the Repuke convention be 'mysteriously' struck by a terrorist

attack?

[0007]

7. What is it that stinks? Oh God! Why am I not surprised over this move?

Man, The people should cause an uproar over this one.

[TahitiNut]

9. With whom did he play ball, and how?

How did he inspire the confidence of the current regime? :eyes:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. Folks...get a grip, please. All this means is that the evidence....

...gathering phase of this case is over. Due to the fact that the Grand Jury has been hearing testimony on this case for weeks, the investigative phase has probably been over for quite some time.

Additionally, the Special Prosecutor is the guy in charge of this case. Eckenrode would not have been transferred without the approval of the Special Prosecutor.

It's up to the Special Prosecutor to make the case now.

[Merlin]

12. Ok, I'll suspend disbelief and accept your view. But, please tell me...

whether you still have faith in the prosecutor. I know he's a straight-up guy, but he is an R, and it wouldn't take all that much to get him to delay. That's what bothers me.

I think we're all a little on edge because of the recent blogger promises that indictments were iminent.

You sound like you've got your head wrapped around this. Sure hope you're right.

[Zorra]

13. Then this is inaccurate?

"Eckenrode heads the current probe of the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to conservative syndicated columnist Robert Novak."

[Rose Siding]

15. If he handled the investagatory portion of the probe

...it could be that part is complete.

[shockingelk]

20. TIME magazine

In a sign of high-level interest in the leak case, several of the interviews were conducted by veteran G-man John Eckenrode, the lead FBI official on the investigation. Agents asked interviewees to keep mum about their chats so as not to disclose the government's strategy. Both McClellan and Rove declined to comment on the probe. http://foi.missouri.edu/iipa/nocnoc.html

So if Eckenrode did "keep quiet" about his interviews, parts of the interviews could leave with Eckenrode ... hmm.

(edit: changed Drudge Flash to TIME report)

[Zorra]

22. I don't really know where they are in this investigation, but

this article by David Corn suggests that it is ongoing...so yeah, Eckenrode might be conveniently being removed.

Defending Joe Wilson
By David Corn, The Nation. Posted July 19, 2004.

What Wilson told his CIA contacts, what he told reporters, what he said in public – accurate or not – did not justify disclosing Valerie Wilson's identity. Nor did it justify the subsequent White House effort to encourage other reporters to pursue the Valerie Wilson story. The leak was thuggish and possibly felonious. And the Wilsons and others are waiting to see what comes from Fitzgerald's investigation. (NBC News reported recently that the probe had expanded to examine possible acts of perjury and lying to investigators.) There is no telling if the investigation will end with indictments or whitewashing. It has been a mostly leak-free probe, and even senior people at the Justice Department say they have no idea where Fitzgerald is heading – if anywhere.

Whatever Fitzgerald's criminal investigation produces, the Wilsons were wronged. And Bush and his White House crew did nothing to seek out or punish the Novak-enabled leakers who placed politics ahead of national security and decency. Instead, White House officials peddled the leak further to discredit Wilson, and GOPers have been seeking to blast him ever since.

http://www.alternet.org/story/19270/

[shockingelk]

14. That makes me feel a bit better ... sorta

Are there not distinct possibilities that new things may come out during testimony that need further investigation?

[sofa king]

21. There may be further investigation., but probably not.

Federal grand juries are kind of strange birds. Their mission is not to determine whether or not someone is guilty or innocent, but whether or not a person or people should be charged with crimes. Evidence is presented to a grand jury by a federal prosecutor, and after all the evidence is presented and reviewed, the grand jury votes on whether or not to return a "true bill," or validation of the prosecutor's charges.

I can see an easy way for a complicit prosecutor to manipulate this process. He or she needs only present a bad case, withold information, piss off the jurors by calling them on holidays and weekends or at other inconvenient times, extending their duty (up to a total of 18 months) and other similar hijinks. Frustrated jurors may be goaded into voting against proffering charges, which is coincidentally known as "returning a bill of ignoramus."

However, a federal grand jury is not prevented from exercising another function, which is investigation by the grand jury itself. There is a possibility, however small, that this grand jury may smell a rat inside the executive branch and go after the executive branch itself for obstruction. (Edit: I forgot the most interesting bit of significa: Once convened, grand juries can also tell prosecutors to screw off completely! I've never read it, but I presume this is the subject of that John Grisham book, because a termagent grand jury is known as a "runaway jury." The link below suggests that these days, grand jurors are not generally informed of this liberty.)

Of course there is a catch. The grand jury cannot proffer charges on its own. There is an appeals court decision which says that charges recommended by a federal grand jury only stick if they are signed off by the federal prosecutor. In this case, that ain't gonna happen if the jury goes after the executive branch as a whole. If the grand jury insists and brings a case before the Supreme Court, well, you know how that one's gonna turn out, too.

But there is a catch to that, too. Grand jury decisions do not trigger double jeopardy, since they don't determine guilt or innocence. Even if a grand jury refuses to sign off on the Plame case this year or is prevented from doing so, the case could be revived under a theoretical Kerry Administration. It's kind of nasty, but that tactic could be an expedient way to expunge Republican shills within the FBI and the Justice Department.

You can learn more about your deceitful federal government here:

http://www.udayton.edu/~grandjur/faq/faq.htm

[Crachet2004]

29. I have a question: Does the decision to indight have to be unanimous?

Can there be a 'hung' Grand Jury? Look, the reason I ask, is that if a typical cross-section of the population in this country is chosen to serve a term on the jury, at least one or two are going to be completely boneheaded and intractable freeper-type idiots, who will never surrender.

What happens if, in the face of overwhelming evidence and against ALL commonsense, a couple of jurors refuse to indight? What happens then?

When the population becomes politically polarized, does'nt it become impossible for any grand jury process to work, if the outcome is sure to impact in a negative way on one of the political parties-in this case, the GOP?

[spotbird]

30. I thought that he grand jury had the option to vote on

whether their term should be extended. They almost always agree, but they can decline. The prosecutor requests an extension, the judge agrees and the grand jury votes.

Am I mistaken?

[sofa king]

32. I'm not sure, spotbird.

In the federal case a grand jury is usually limited to three six-month terms, and I think a judge must approve any term extension. It was my impression that the prosecutor can request the extension, but I'm not well versed on that point.

Also, Crachet, I'm almost certain that federal grand juries do not have to be unanimous in returning a bill, probably in part for the exact reason you suggested. Giving a single well-placed shill the opportunity to trump a federal criminal investigation would be extremely poor government--not to say that we should expect better!

Not relevant to much of anything, there is another kind of federal grand jury which is explicitly given investigative powers and which is sometimes comprised of jurors with specific expertise in the fields at issue. I don't know if this case involves that sort of a jury, but my impression is that they are pretty rare. (And if you will forgive my cynicism, such a jury would seem to me to be far more difficult to control, which may be unattractive to certain figures within the DoJ.)

The dark horse of a runaway jury in this case, in an election year, would be nothing short of spectacular, because if news were to leak out that they've gone rogue it would instantly imply possible criminal activity on a level previously unacknowledged my most major news sources (but not here, fortunately). It would be exceedingly bad press for the Bush Administration, because it would not be able to counter the speculation without relying upon the very sort of indiscriminate disclosure for which they are currently being investigated. And I'm willing to bet that there are still plenty of undisciplined RNC knuckle-draggers here inside the Beltway who don't understand that. If the Republican Party remains as negative and vindictive and uncomprehending of the law as it regularly shows itself to be, a runaway jury could spell nothing short of disaster as their counterattacks get instantly translated into allegations of jury tampering, slander, perjury, intimidation, obstruction, and contempt. I'd have to wonder if they could even limp along until election day under such fallout.

Edit: I've left out the most important point. I'm not a lawyer! I was, however, a pretty decent legal researcher, and the above isn't anything I wouldn't offer to an employer as a "first look" analysis.

[TacticalPeek]

19. "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."

[piece sine]

27. that's usually not how it works..

the lead investigator is part-and-parcel of entire infestigation, beginning to end. He or she doesn't just drop-off the groceries and let someone else cook them. I think you're ignoring a very disturbing development.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

28. I don't think I'm "ignoring" anything.

[spotbird]

31. But if there are indictments the chief investigator would

be essential for a prosecution, particularly if he was as involved in the nuts and bolts of the investigation as this guy apparently was. He could be called back of coarse, but the prosecution of this case will be a full time job.

This can't be a promising sign. I really hope I'm wrong but it could very well be that he was promoted for doing a "good job" on this case.

[merh]

36. And maybe the special prosecutor asked that he be

transferred? Who knows? Ashwipe is anxious to know what is going on with the investigation?
Or maybe Ashwipe transferred him because he was too good?

Hummmmmmmmmmmm :shrug:

[stickdog]

25. Do you smell bleach? (nt)

[Zorra]

39. Washington D.C. reeks of it. I can smell it 3,000 miles away.

[yellowcanine]

34. "it is not unheard of for an agent heading a high-level probe to be

transferred."

It is not unheard of for the FBI. In fact it is par for the course when one wants to delay or impede an investigation.

[RebelYell]

37. Kerry Dumps Joe Wilson From Campaign Team

By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
July 27, 2004

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Last week, the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) very publicly distanced itself from former National Security Advisor Samuel "Sandy" Berger after it became known that Berger was under investigation for removing highly classified documents from the National Archives. Talon News reported that Kerry's anti-terror policy was removed from the candidate's web site immediately following Berger's dismissal as a campaign advisor.

But in the last few days, another advisor has apparently been jettisoned from the Kerry campaign. All traces of former Ambassador Joe Wilson, the central figure in the controversy of faulty intelligence about Iraq and uranium has disappeared from the Kerry web site. Wilson had appeared on a web site www.restorehonesty.com where he restated his criticism of the Bush administration. The link now goes directly to the main page of www.johnkerry.com and no reference to Wilson can be found on the entire site.

Wilson was discredited by a Senate Intelligence Committee report that contradicted Wilson's public statements about how he was selected for a sensitive mission to Niger in 2002 and the results of his report about Saddam Hussein's attempt to purchase uranium in Africa. Wilson represented his investigation as proof that President Bush misled the United States in making the case for the invasion of Iraq. An investigation into British intelligence confirms that Bush's claim was "well founded."

It is likely that Kerry's handlers took advantage of the Berger affair to quietly break official contact with someone who has proved to be something of a loose cannon. The ambassador was known for his vitriolic rhetoric against members of the Bush administration, particularly political advisor Karl Rove. Last year he suggested that Rove be "frog-marched from the White House in handcuffs," over the alleged leak of his wife's identity. The Kerry campaign did not respond to a Talon News inquiry about Wilson's departure.

http://www.talonnews.com/news/2004/july/0727_kerry_dumps_wilson.shtml

(I believe this is a right wing news source. I checked both sites - restore honesty site is redirected to Kerry site. Kerry's site has no mention of Wilson anywhere.)

[spotbird]

38. Talon reports fiction with a scattered few facts in it to make

it look like a news source. There is no way to know from the fact that the link has been removed from the Kerry page that Wilson has been dumped. If the Kerry campaign announces it then I'll believe it.

Either way it has absolutely nothing to do with Novak's crime.

[calimary]

42. I believe it was a Talon "news" reporter who made such a stink

at that AWOL-related press conference with Scott McClellan - way back in January when that whole AWOL scandal first broke. He was in the back of the room. He was young-ish, brash, I think I remember that he had one of those Jeff Skunk Baxter paramilitary-look bad-ass berets on, and while EVERYONE else in the White House press corps was actually doing his/her job and asking pointed questions, this guy barks out a question trying to refocus the "real" story on what John Kerry did AFTER he came home from Vietnam (as in, HORRORS!, trying to stop the war he'd just come home from, wherein he'd seen some rather despicable things). He yelled his question in this combative voice as though he were begging one of the other people to knock the chip (or the batteries) off his shoulder, and he came off as a World Class horse's ass. Scotty, of course, bit at the question. Fortunately, nobody else in the room did.

[Zorra]

40. kick

[Zorra]

41. So, do we need an official explanation of why Eckenrode was

reassigned?

Inquiring minds would like to know in order to ease our minds, and know that our justice system is working in the best interests of the people.