Congressman Conyers on Libby and Miller; he's on it, and more ....

[understandinglife]

I just read Murray Wass' excellent piece in the American Prospect describing a private meeting between Judith Miller and Scooter Libby on July 8, 2003, two days after Ambassador Wilson's now famous column questioning the WMD assertions of the Administration, and before Novak's outing of Wilson's wife -- based on two administration sources. This is a very comprehensive piece, and adds much critical information to what we know about Treasongate.

Wass also explains that one of the key hold ups in Fitzgerald's investigation is that Libby has not yet issued a specific privelege waiver to Miller allowing her to tell the prosecutor what she knows about these alleged crimes.

Given that the president said he wanted full cooperation so that the prosecutor could get to the bottom of the security leak, and that he he raised the bar for dismissal to committing a federal crime, this is nothing less than outrageous. Needless to say, I intend to pursue this matter further in the coming days.

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From New Confirmation that Libby was a Source for Miller by Congressman Conyers on August 7, 2005

Link:
http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000196.htm

For the few of you who are not aware of the contents of Mr Waas' artilce here are some excerpts and the link:

The Meeting: Scooter Libby and Judy Miller met on July 8, 2003, two days after Joe Wilson published his column. And Patrick Fitzgerald is very interested.
by Murray Waas


August 6, 2005

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has told federal investigators that he met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, and discussed CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to legal sources familiar with Libby's account.

The meeting between Libby and Miller has been a central focus of the investigation by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald as to whether any Bush administration official broke the law by unmasking Plame's identity or relied on classified information to discredit former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, according to sources close to the case as well as documents filed in federal court by Fitzgerald.

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The one person with some of the answers as to whether Libby is telling the truth very well may be Judith Miller. But she currently is incarcerated in an Alexandria jail. Lewis Libby may possibly have the ability to ascertain Miller’s release by simply signing a specific, personal waiver that she disclose what she knows. But Libby does not appear to be willing to do that.

And the president of the United States -- at whose pleasure Libby serves and who has vowed to do everything possible to get to the truth of the matter -- does not appear to be likely to direct Libby to grant such a waiver any time soon.

Link:

http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=10077

Arianna Huffington expands her "Judy File" today

The Judy File expands. A well-connected media source e-mailed to say that the most interesting development on the Miller story is coming from inside the Times: "I gather that Doug Jehl, who is a dogged and respected reporter, has been assigned to do an in-house investigative report for the Times and that he is already cutting pretty close to the bone. Several editors he has spoken to are now asking themselves why there wasn't more questioning of whether Miller's silence reflects a fear of incriminating herself rather than betraying a source. I predict this will start to unravel in the next couple of weeks -- if only because the Times is afraid of getting scooped again by outside rivals." A different source within the Times confirmed that Jehl is indeed on the story, having been given the assignment not from New York but from the paper's Washington bureau. And the Plamegate story he filed last week shows that he isn't afraid to step on the toes of his bosses. Stay tuned.

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From The Judy File Expands by Arianna Huffington on August 7, 2005

Much much more at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/arianna-huffington/the-expanding-judy-file_5248.html

And, a perspective on what we need to do to the 'political chess board' - I suggest throwing it on the floor and refusing to allow Bush and the neoconsters to play any more games.

Arianna Huffington, Lawrence O’Donnell and others on this post have done a terrific job of staying on top of every new fact in the Plame-CIA leak case. I, however, want to go beyond the facts and engage in a little conjecture:

George W. Bush will pardon Karl Rove.

I know I’m getting WAY ahead of the facts, but this thing has the smell of a serious legal problem for the Bush Administration. From the outside, Mr. Fitzgerald does not look like a prosecutor who sees wrongdoing but believes it falls short of criminal conduct, like, say, Joe DiGenova did when he investigated allegations that the Bush 41 Administration rummaged Bill Clinton’s passport file.

The Bush team excels at political strategy. They pride themselves on seeing three moves ahead on the chess board. So let us look a few moves ahead as well: ......

From I Predict: Bush Will Pardon Rove by Paul Begala on August 7, 2005

Full essay at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/paul-begala/i-predict-bush-will-pard_5266.html

I suggest taking what Mr Begala predicts will be war criminal-in-chief Bush's 'rationale' for pardoning Rove and build a robust debunking, now. Mr Begala has essentially done a fine job of beginning that process -- looking ahead several moves on the 'political chess board.'

Let's make the most of Mr Begala's analysis and show Bush and the neoconsters that their treason, deception, illegal war, torture and crimes against humanity are an evil game that we will bring to an end and punish them for playing.

We need to begin specifically by calling the Nation's attention to the fact that Libby will not grant Miller the opportunity to testify about their conversation(s) - conversations that every American citizen has THE RIGHT TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Given that the President is continuing not doing what he committed to the Nation he would do -- get to the bottom of the treasonous act of outing a CIA covert agent and destroying related national intelligence infrastructure assets and possibly people's lives -- we need to do all we can to show that he is not only a liar, but he is aiding and abetting the traitors.

Why does it matter. Here are a few of the 1000s of reasons why:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4283183&mesg_id=4283183

And, here is another:

Matthew Donaldson, an independent visual artist from Auckland. “On this, the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima's bombing, my grief for all of those murdered and yet to be murdered by America's weapons - of mass destruction or otherwise - overwhelms me” said Matt.

It overwhelms me, as well, Mathew.

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[blue sky at night]

1. Wow.......

I loved the whole post, but the two things at the bottom just ROCKed me....thanks and I intend to print that sentence out and begin posting it around the whole freaking universe. Indeed we are number one! Thanks.

[frictionlessO]

2. uh yep and kick.... thanks UL! n/t

[troubleinwinter]

3. Kick, nominated, and appreciated.

Important words of the original poster:

"We need to begin specifically by calling the Nation's attention to the fact that Libby will not grant Miller the opportunity to testify about their conversation(s) - conversations that every American citizen has THE RIGHT TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Given that the President is continuing not doing what he committed to the Nation he would do -- get to the bottom of the treasonous act of outing a CIA covert agent and destroying related national intelligence infrastructure assets and possibly people's lives -- we need to do all we can to show that he is not only a liar, but he is aiding and abetting the traitors."

[understandinglife]

4. Larry Johnson interviewed ....

Johnson and I next launched into a discussion on why he decided to leave the CIA, which led to an interesting conversation on the lead-up to the Iraq War. In Johnson's last year he was given two distinguished service awards, but he ran into a problem with the Promotion Panel. He was informed that there were questions about the integrity of his analysis. Every morning Johnson was responsible for providing message traffic from Latin America to the front office for review. He had to decide which information was pertinent and would be of interest. "In my last year I got a new branch chief, who had no experience in Latin America. Unbeknownst to me, she was forwarding messages to the front office that differed from mine. Instead of asking me to explain the discrepancy in what messages were being selected, the panel just assumed that I was withholding material. The most critical resource an analyst possesses is his or her integrity. I decided to leave the CIA, because I was unwilling to work in an organization that would make judgments based on assumptions rather than seek out facts easily in their grasp. Unfortunately for the country, this aspect of CIA behavior came back to haunt us during the lead up to the war in Iraq."

The Downing Street Leaks demonstrated that the facts were `fixed around the policy'. How many analysts were confronted with questions about the `integrity of their analysis' when their analysis was inconsistent with the worst-case scenarios being espoused by Cheney, Rice, and Bush? And if the decision to invade Iraq was finalized in April of 2002, was there really any sincere effort at impartial analysis thereafter? Or did the CIA's job become more a matter of preparing domestic and international opinion for the war? Johnson agreed these were good questions.

(Note: Larry has reviewed this article and approved its characterization of our conversation.)

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From a far-ranging interview by BooMan23 entitled An Interview with Larry C. Johnson on August 8, 2005

Link:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/8/132152/0005

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us