Ashcroft to Recuse Himself From Probe of CIA Leak

[in_cog_ni_to]

From an AOL article. Ashcroft will appoint a special prececutor in the CIA WH leak.

<snip>
Special Prosecutor to Be Appointed

WASHINGTON (Dec. 30) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft will recuse himself from the investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name and the Justice Department will name a special prosecutor, department officials said Tuesday.

The officials gave few details, saying only that Ashcroft was stepping down from the investigation and it would now be headed by the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald.



Further details are expected at a 2 p.m. news conference.

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into who had disclosed the identity of a CIA officer whose husband had challenged President Bush's claims about Iraq's weapons threat.<snip>


http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20031230131909990008&_ccc=1

[jmaier]

1. That is good news

but I wonder what brought this on all of a sudden? The media seems to have let go of the "Plame Affair" for the most part already. Hmm.

[Catch22Dem]

2. Discussion ongoing

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=970321

[HFishbine]

3. Here we go!!!

Yeah, man!

[worldgonekrazy]

4. Whoa

Maybe something will finally come out of this. Wouldn't that be awesome?

BTW, anybody have any info on this Patrick Fitzgerald fellow? Please tell me he isn't linked to the BFEE.

[Padraig18]

6. He is a 'knight in shining armor'

He is a professional, he is as clean as a hound's tooth and he is absolutely a TIGER in court! Dick Durbin himself approved his nomination for US Atty for the Northern District of Illinois, so that should tell you a lot.

I'm amazed that Asscraft chose him--- he must want someone to go down! :wow:

[Padraig18]

5. Awesome choice: Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago

This gentleman has indicted 66 people in the 'license for bribes' scandal here in Illinois, most prominent being former Gov. George Ryan. This guy is a barracuda!

Will KKKarl do the perp walk? Odds in chicago say someone is gonna do HARD time!

:bounce:

[salinen]

7. That's not what I heard

Radio news says that Assface will be appointing someone soon. Maybe we should wait until the corruption settles.

[Padraig18]

8. It was just announced.

That's who he appointed; just watched it live on CNN. :)

[Padraig18]

9. Kick out of pure JOY!

:thumbsup:

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. At least we know

the investigation hasn't been dropped. I can't WAIT to see who goes down for this! KKKRove would be nice.

[Virginian]

11. Finally, after six months...

Why didn't he do that a long time ago?

Will this ever move forward?
Bush as much as told the reporters involved that they had better not divulge the source when he said 'it would probably never be solved because reporters never divulge their sources'.

To get around this, "Reporter_A" tells "Reporter_B" the identity of the senior White House officials who leaked the information.
"Reporter_B" reports on the leak, but can keep the identity of "Reporter_A" confidential.

I believe there were possibly six "Reporter_A"s who were called by the senior White House officials. The problem here is that they probably all work for Faux News or else the leaks wouldn't have been given to them. They might think protecting the administration is more important than protecting a CIA operation that was keeping us safe from rogue nuclear weapons.

Do I feel any safer than two years ago? Not when this White House feels it is OK to expose a covert operation this important to our national security for their personal political revenge.

Who would have ever thought anyone that close to the seat of power would be so irresponsibly partisan to even consider compromising national security for the politics of personal destruction. Those people have done damage that leaves us all exposed to a higher terror threat. They have to be removed from access to any more information immediately. Leaving them in place for the past six months may have given them the opportunity to pass along more secrets to our enemies. They may not be over zealous partisans, they may actually be working for our enemies. This is where the Patriot act might have been used effectively.