The Dubai Debacle, Iraq and the Senate

Well, I've been away from the keyboard for a couple days and all hell's a bustin' loose. (With a hearty tip of the Hat to KISS) .

First you've got GOPers running from the President like rat-fuckers desserting a burning ship on the Dubai Debacle. It even looks like Homeland Security objected, Micheal Chertoff didn't know and John Snow was AWOL on the deal to sell six - no, wait make that Twenty-ONE - U.S. Ports to DPW. Rassmussen's latest poll shows that only 17% of Americans support the Dubai Deal. John Podheretz is about to burst a blood-vessel as he notes that Democrats are now polling better than the President (43 to 41%) on National Security. Oi Vey!

It looks to me like people are starting to wake-up to the reality that indescriminate torture and illegal spying on innocent American citizens does not make you tough guy on terrorism when you literally give the keys to the kindom away to the ownwer of one of Bin Laden's favorite Bed and Breakfast outfits.

Presidential Puppeteer Karl "Turd-blossom" Rove can see the writing on the rapidly approaching wall and is back-peddling furiously, but the Pentagon and NSA head Stephan Hadley are diggin in. This is gonna get messy folks.

Speaking of National Security nightmares, the readiness of Iraqi troops is actually going in reverse - From CNN:

Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded
No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support

The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.

The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.

It's gotten so bad that even Bully O'Leily when he's not trying to get Keith Olberman fired, has decided to join the ranks of the "cowards and traitors" such as Howard Dean, John Murtha, and William F. Buckley and is now calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq

During the February 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly suggested that the United States "hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible" because "[t]here are so many nuts in the country -- so many crazies -- that we can't control them." O'Reilly then claimed that the "big mistake" was actually "the crazy-people underestimation."

Meanwhile, Sen Rockefeller is calling Bullshit on CIA Director Porter Goss's latest conniption fit over NSA leaking since the Vice-Presidents Office has been leaking like a week-old pair of Depends(tm) for years.

I am surprised and puzzled, however, that Director Goss chose to lay the blame for this damage on what he describes as misguided whistleblowers. Clearly "leaks" and damaging revelations of intelligence sources and methods are generated primarily by Executive Branch officials pushing a particular policy, and not by the rank-and-file employees of the intelligence agencies.

For confirmation we need look no further than press reports from the past few days. On February 9th, the National Journal reported that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a grand jury that he was "authorized" by Vice President Cheney and other White House superiors to disclose classified information from a National Intelligence Estimate to the press to defend the Administration's use of pre-war intelligence in making the case to go to war in Iraq.

This blatant abuse of intelligence information for political purposes is inexcusable, but all too common. Throughout the period leading up to the Iraq war the Administration selectively declassified or leaked information related to Iraq's acquisition of aluminum tubes, the alleged purchase uranium, the non-existent operational connection between Iraq and al Qaeda, and numerous other issues.

All of this has Harry Reid ready to do the Happy Dance in Nevada.

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that if midterm elections were held today Democrats would win the five seats they need to draw even in the Senate, due largely to the Bush administration's "general incompetence" at home and abroad. [...]

Reid said polls show Democrats winning Republican-held seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Montana, Missouri and Rhode Island.

"And we have good shots in Arizona and Tennessee," he said. "If elections were held today, we'd pick up five seats. The Senate would be 50-50. "

Perhaps by November we'll be looking at picking up more than five seats in the Senate.... and perhaps 15 to 20 in the House. Not a bad week, IMO.

Vyan

The DP World Wig Out - Obscuring the Obvious

This week has certainly been an active one for the Bush Administration, following closely on the heels of Shotgate, and the scathing Katrina Report has come the revelation that Dubai Ports World will be taking over the operation of six U.S. Ports.

Congress has threated to blocked the sale, even Republicans, and Bush responded with his second veto threat ever (his first of course being his threat to veto anti-torture legislation).

But the question few people are asking is - does any of this furor over DPW really matter, or is it just more bread and circuses while embers of Rome begin to smolder?

Look guys, the problem with the port sales isn't the fact that the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will gain control and access to America.

The current company operating the ports is foreign (British). The employees are still going to be American. Any foreign employees would still have to get a Visa and go through immigration.

This is simply a sale of one international company to another. No big deal.

The good news is that port security itself will still be handled by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs.

The bad news is that both the Coast Guard and Customs have been made part of the Homeland Security Dept under Michael Chertoff. (Yes, "Oh Shit" indeed)

The fact is that Homeland Security is a total fucking disaster, and has been for some time. We got a big honking wiff of the DHS stench during Katrina, we're sure to get another nose full before much longer.

Long before the Department was created, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clark wrote in "Against All Enemies" that even Tom Ridge didn't support the idea of creating the Department of Homeland Security.

I believed that adept White House coordination and leadership could get the many agencies all working on components of a consistent overall [domestic security] program. As a career civil servant wih almost thirty years' experience in Washington headquarters, I believed that the alternative method, rewiring the organizational boxes [into the Dept of Homeland Security] would make us less able to deal with domestic security and preparedness for years to come. The smaller mergers that created the Energy Department and the Transportation Department had taken years to jell. [Tom] Ridge agreed and told me. "The last thing we need to do now is reorganize and create a new department."

Unfortunately, "create a new department" is exactly what they did -- no thanks largely to Sen. Joe Leiberman who drafted the legislation needed.

People are getting off-track, and frankly behaving in a borderline racist manner in their assumption that DPW is some kind of terrorist front organization. That simply isn't true. Long before 9/11 the UAE supported moves made by the Clinton Administration against al Qaeda and the Taliban. They closed their airports to travel from Ariana Airlines (the primary carrier for Afghanistan). They helped the U.S. broker and negotiate with the Taliban and did so in far better faith than the Saudis. No, the Taliban didn't listen and expell Bin Laden, but the point is that the UAE was clearly on our side in the discussion.

The U.S. Navy has been using the port of Dubai as a veritable base for years. The Dubai port is the only one in the entire Persian Gulf with the capability of handling aircraft carriers.

The truth is, just like with China, creating an economic inter-relationship with the Arab world means that they become invested in our well being. If our ports get damaged they could potentially lose $billions -- and that's one primary reason why they won't let that happen. It's in their best interest to protect their investment.

DP World isn't the problem, even Jimmy Carter says so and he certainly hasn't gone out of his way to support Bush lately.

But Bush and Chertoff certainly aren't going to fix the problem (Homeland Security) - they are instead going to try and slam home this deal because it looks good in the right columns of the ledger books and is going to make Treasury Secretary John Snow $Millions.

Bush shouldn't block this sale because the UAE is an Arab nation, and it might make our ports less safe -- they already aren't safe, that's just par for the course -- he should block it because it's completely improper for Secreatary Snow to have been head of the committe overseeing this sale when he stands to gain so much from it financially.

It's called Conflict of Interest.

But, being as bullheaded as he's always been - Bush is going to certainly do the wrong thing. Congress will fight for a while and then cave just as they always do. John Snow with get rich(er), and we'll lose nothing that we didn't already have barely a shadow of - other than our delusions of security. Being the barely closeted racists and theocrats they are Bush's Base is going ballistic over this. It's also interesting to note, as has Glenn Greenwald, that Republicans in Congress seem to have completely reversed themselves - last week people like Pat Roberts were claiming the President Article II powers for Foreign relations and national security were absolute -- now suddenly he has to have to have Congressional approval on a Foreign relations issue? Not to mention that many of the Republicans barking the loudest have been fighting the hardest against toughening port security for years.

Hypocrisy much?

As a results we -- and by "we" I mean both Dems and Repubs of the reasonable stripe - are gaining a clearer and clearer picture of just how callous and tone-deaf President Bush is when there's a profit to be made, and I do consider that to be one for the Win column of the Reality-Based community.

The only thing that could mess things up for us politically is if Bush actually grows a brain and stops the sale - yeah, I know - Fat Chance.

So, Let Bush be Bush, and let us make sure we hammer this cluster-fuckup of naked-greed, cronyism and incompetence home this coming November.

The revolution will not be televised - it'll be a Podcast.

Vyan

2006 Battleground States

Last week I wrote a diary which identified the ten most likely states for Democrats to gain back Congressional seats.

* California (8)
* Texas (7)
* Pennsylvania (7)
* Ohio (6)
* Florida (4)
* Illinois (4)
* Colorado (3)
* Indiana (3)
* Kentucky (3)
* Virginia (3)

This week we have good news and bad news.

Bad First: the number one state, California, has (Temporarily) Certifed Diebold. The good news is that the latest poll numbers from SurveyUSA are out and his numbers are sinking just where we need them too.

• Vyan's diary :: ::
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According to SurveyUSA our top ten Battleground States have the following approval ratings for George W. Bush. (Approv/Disappov%)

* California (30/68)
* Texas (49/46)
* Pennsylvania (36/60)
* Ohio (37/60)
* Florida (42/55)
* Illinois (33/64)
* Colorado (39/58)
* Indiana (46/51)
* Kentucky (47/49)
* Virginia (45/42)

We absolutely can not afford to lose California to Deibold, it's far too valuable. Texas though valuable for the number of potential seats we could gain is still marginal with nearly 50% approval of Bush and his policies, not to mention the Tom Delay redistricting which has weakened the impact of minority and Democratic. Pennsylvania remains strong in the anti-Bush column, as does former Red-State Ohio and Illinois.

It still remains to be seen if the DNC and DCCC can help mount effective campaigns for these candidates which can transform Bush's negatives into negatives for Republicans in Congress who repeatedly rubberstamp his policies and refuse to investigate his many scandals.

People all we need is 15 seats in Congress. 15 Seats and Rep. John Conyers becomes head of the Judiciary Committee - the Impeachment Committee. In order to convict we also need at least 5, hopefully 6 seats in the Senate, but that's an issue for another diary.

We should be able to win this just by playing clips from The Daily Show. No, not the one where they compare Democrats to the EWOKS, the the one where they began listing all the Bush Administration Scandals before the commercial break, and didn't finish until after they'd returned.

There's...

• Jack Abramoff
• "Duke" Cunningham
• Tom DeLay
• The Katrina Response
• The Plame/CIA Controversy
• NSA Spying
• "Free Speach" Zones
• Terry Schiavo
• Abu Ghraib Torture
• Guantanemo Torture
• Secret Torture Prisons around the World
• The Rising Insurgency
• The Flu Vaccine Shortage
• Medicare Part-D
• Social Security "Reform"
• The Bankruptcy Bill
• The Exploding Defecit
• Arresting Cindy Sheehan over her T-shirt.
• Downing Street Memos I and II
• Who Shot Harry and why didn't he take a breathalizer or talk to the Sherriff for 14 hours?

When your agenda is a punchline, you're in deep, deep trouble.

Besides, even the EWOKS won... eventually.

Vyan

Drunk with Power!

This entire Dick Cheney shooting situation is just plain beyond belief.

Ok, first they say that Harry Whittington was just "Peppered" by some birdshot, the next thing we know he's having a near heart-attack from some pellets that just managed to "work it's way" to his heart muscle?

Katherine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the shooting takes places states that:

MSNBC, 2/14/06:

“If someone wants to help themselves to a beer,” she said, “they may, but I did not see anyone do that,” Armstrong says. She says she was not sure if there were beers in the coolers but wasn’t ready to rule it out: “There may be a beer or two in there, but remember not everyone in the party was shooting,” she told NBC News.

And then MSNBC scrubs this from their site. And just look at some of her other statments:

Scripps Howard News Service, 2/13/06:

None in the hunting party was drinking alcohol, said the owner, Katharine Armstrong. “No, zero, zippo and I don’t drink at all,” she said. “No one was drinking.”

LA Times, 2/14/06:

The party of 11 hunters set out in two trucks Saturday morning, driving around the mesquite-dotted property and shooting quail until about 12:30 p.m., said Anne Armstrong, co-owner of the ranch. Then they broke for a lunch of antelope, jicama salad and camp bread, washed down with Dr. Pepper.

Editor and Publisher, 2/15/06:

CNN today reports that Armstrong had told CNN she never saw Cheney or Whittington “drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house.”

Several days later The Big Dick, Cheney goes onto the F-Word Network and admits that he did "have a beer at lunch", but that it was four or five hours befor the shooting took place - but of course we can't possibly determine if this is true or merely a minimization of the truth because the Secret Service turned back the Sheriff's Deputies when they arrived at the ranch. Cheney wasn't interviewed until almost 14 hours later - and any sobriety test, breathalizer or blood tests (which could have either cleared or incriminated him as being intoxicated) would have been useless.

Whittington was supposed to have been shot from 30 yards, but the spray pattern from head to chest is just about 2-feet - which suggests that he was shot from a much closer distance. (Let's see the CSI Freaks in the word try and explain that one) Note: Cheney stated to Brit Hume that it was only "30 Feet" not yards - so much for the accuracy of Ms. Armstrong who was supposed 100 yards (300 feet) at the time and still couldn't tell the difference between 30 yards and 30 Feet.

This is just flat out ridiculous. What are we supposed to believe that Cheney had a beer, but he just didn't swallow? How many times have we all seen someone on Cops say "I just had one beer with dinner." just before they slapped the cuffs on? And just how would the consumption of alcohol - even just a single beer - effect the medications that a man with multiple heart attacks like Cheney would undoubtably still have to be taking.

Unlike many who've criticized Cheney's Office for not informing the Press, that particular part of the story doesn't bother me as much as his avoidance of the police. Cheney attempting to ride in the ambulance with Whittington would have been a nightmare. It would have meant that a Secret Service detail, and a veritable motorcode would have had to travel with the ambulance. It would have been a madhouse. Cheney staying away, and letting the doctors and paramedics do their job was appropriate -- making it immediately public with an instant press conference before all the facts were known would have turned Whittington's hospital stay into a media circus and destroyed any desire for privacy by his friends and loved ones. But Cheney's ducking the cops isn't so easily ignored.

It almost makes one wonder if he had $10,000 a gun and disguise tucked away in a White Bronco for a fast dash to Mexico, just in case the Secret Service didn't back him up with the local Barney Fife Corp.

Think what an exciting episode of Police Chase caught on Film that would have made.

This is Cheney's Chappaquiddick. He's never gonna live this down. I don't care what happens, it's never going away. That 14-hour gap is going hang over him like dark fart cloud. He'll never be able to have a Press Conference, without pre-screening the crowd and the questions again. Ever. People forget that there was an investigation of Ted Kennedy's accident back in the 60's, that he plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was sentenced to probation. Cheney was convicted of drunk driving twice after he dropped out of Yale in 1961 - for excessive drinking!.

And now he's Drunk with Power. Talk about failing your way upwards.

This is the same Dick Cheney who lobbied the Congress agressively to justify torture, and is currently lobbying them over the NSA Spying program. He thinks it's justified to ignore U.S Federal Laws against torture, the Uniform Code of Military Justice regulations against "Maltreatment", not to mention the 4th Amendment and allow the creation of a terrorist watchlist that currently includes an estimated 325,000 names, but he can't be bothered with answering questions from the Sherriff after he shoots someone in the frigging face?

"I love my people. I love my people. Pull!" BLAM!

Incredible. Just freaking incredible.

Vyan

Cheney/Libby : Timeline to Treason

Crossposted on Dailykos.

Scotter Libby's recent anouncement that he was given authority by the Vice-President to release classified information has created an avalanche of information in the last few days.

During his interview yesterday Vice-President Cheney has essentially confirmed that he was granted the authority to declassify information via Executive Order. What truly interesting is the timing of all this.

On March 2,2003 Joseph Wilson was interviewed by CNN. and criticized the Bush Administration.

WILSON: The problem is, it seems to me, is this is not a disarmament exercise any longer. The president made it very clear in his speech at the American Enterprise Institute and his comments at the White House that this is a regime-change activity. This is a war to go in, invade, conquer and occupy Iraq, and it doesn't make any difference what Saddam Hussein does.

...

WILSON: Well, the underlying objective, as I see it, the more I look at this, is less and less disarmament, and it really has little to do with terrorism, because everybody knows that a war to invade and conquer and occupy Iraq is going to spawn a new generation of terrorists.

So you look at what's underpinning this, and you go back and you take a look at who's been influencing the process. And it's been those who really believe that our objective must be far grander, and that is to redraw the political map of the Middle East...

...

The question is, can you really bring democracy at the point of a bayonet or at the point of a gun? And is it really America's military's responsibility to go in and occupy a country for 10 years, in the hopes that you're going to create a democracy, which probably will not be any more pro-American than what you've got in the region?

This interview apparently also featured David Albright who argument that the inspectors needed more time angered the Vice-President so much that the very next day he visited the CIA with NSA director Stephen Hadley to "dig up information on Albright".

Wilson went on CNN a second time on March 8, where he discussed assertions made by Dr. El Baradea of the IAEA that claims made by Colin Powell about Iraq's WMD and Nuclear capability were faked.

WILSON: Well, you know what it's like when you go into court. A prosecutor comes up with some evidence that is obviously false, it casts doubt on every other bit of evidence that he produces. And I think it's safe to say that the U.S. government should have or did know that this report was a fake before Dr. ElBaradei mentioned it in his report at the U.N. yesterday.

According to Jason Leopold these comments brought a strong reaction from Cheney.

The CIA and State Department officials said that a day after Wilson's March 8, 2003, CNN appearance, they attended a meeting at the Vice President's office chaired by Cheney, and it was there that a decision was made to discredit Wilson. Those who attended the meeting included I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff who was indicted in October for lying to investigators, perjury and obstruction of justice related to his role in the Plame Wilson leak, Hadley, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and John Hannah, Cheney's deputy national security adviser, the officials said.

"The way I remember it," the CIA official said about that first meeting he attended in Cheney's office, "is that the vice president was obsessed with Wilson. He called him an 'asshole,' a son-of-a-bitch. He took his comments very personally. He wanted us to do everything in our power to destroy his reputation and he wanted to be kept up to date about the progress."

It's at this point that the digging operations begins into Wilson's background and in all likelyhood the employment of his wife was discovered.

Cheney knew the State Department had prepared a report saying the Niger claims were false, but he thought the report had no merit, the two State Department officials said. Meanwhile, the CIA was preparing information for the vice president and his senior aides on Wilson should the former ambassador decide to speak out against the administration again.

On March 19th, the Iraq War Began.

On March 25th, the executive order granting the Vice-President nearly co-equal powers to the President to classify and declassify information was signed. This document would allow the Vice-President legal cover to release any information which he may have discovered regarding Wilson or others who opposed their view of Iraq and the War.

Wilson began attempting to contact members of Congress behind the scenes concerning the lack of Iraq Nuclear intentions, meanwhile the weapons of mass destruction remained elusive. In May, Wilson went to the Press and began talking to Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times about his trip to Niger, which resulted in a scathing column criticizing the Vice-President.

What in the previous months had been a request to gather information that could be used to discredit Wilson now turned into a full-scale effort involving the Office of the Vice President, the National Security Council, and the State Department to find out how Wilson came to be chosen to investigate the Niger uranium allegations.

"Cheney and Libby made it clear that Wilson had to be shut down," the CIA official said. "This wasn't just about protecting the credibility of the White House. For the vice president, going after Wilson was purely personal, in my opinion."

Cheney was personally involved in this aspect of the information gathering process as well, visiting CIA headquarters to inquire about Wilson, the CIA official said. Hadley had also raised questions about Wilson during this month with the State Department officials and asked that information regarding Wilson's trip to Niger be sent to his attention at the National Security Council.

That's when Valerie Plame Wilson's name popped up showing that she was a covert CIA operative. The former CIA official who works in the counter-proliferation division said another meeting about Wilson took place in Cheney's office, attended by the same individuals who were there in March. But Cheney didn't take part in it, the officials said.

It was at this point that Cheney himself appeared to take a back seat.

"Libby led the meeting," one of the State Department officials said. "But he was just as upset about Wilson as Cheney was."

The officials said that as of late May 2003 the only correspondence they had had was with Libby and Hadley. They said they were unaware who had made the decision to unmask Plame Wilson's undercover CIA status to a handful of reporters.

On June 10th, a memo was attached to CIA document regarding Wilson's Niger trip which (incorrectly) indicated that his wife, a CIA employee, had sent him. The source of this memo was someone within the State Department. Apparently the plot at this time was to create a "false fact" within the intelligence data, then to let that information leak out in various ways so that it's original source couldn't be traced - and with the Vice-President's Office now having the "cover" of being able to declassify such information at will.

By June 23rd, after two more articles on Wilson's Niger trip had appeared, Libby spoke to Judith Miller of the New York Times and informed her that "Wilson's Wife might work for the CIA." which laid the groundwork for the leak to begin and it's origin to be hidden.

On July 6th Wilson's Op-ed "What I didn't find in Africa" was released by the New York Times, but by that point in time the efforts to undermine Wilson were well underway according to Patrick Fitzgerald.

The next day, July 7th, Libby discussed with the White House Press Secretary that "Wilson's Wife worked for the CIA" creating another potential leak source. He spoke again with Judith Miller on July 8th, and with Tim Russert on July 10th (although Wilson's wife was not discussed with Russert).

By now Robert Novak through other reporters and officials to whom the rumor had been spread (by Libby) learned of the connection between Plame and the CIA and had contacted "Official A" (who is generally known to be Karl Rove) indicating that he intended to write an article on the subject, even though the CIA had warned him not too.

On July 14th, Novak's column on Wilson was published - this was the first public revelation of Plame's status as a CIA employee. This exposed not only her, but the CIA anti-proliferation front organization Brewster Jennings & Associates.

We now know due to Newsweek that Valerie Plame WIson was an undercover CIA operative, a NOC. And that her work with in trying to prevent Iran from creating a Nuclear Weapon. As far as I'm concerned Scooter Libby, at the Vice-President's urging has commited Treason and Sedition.

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

The Vice-President, with the tacit aid of the President in giving him declassification authority, attempted to discredit a critic of claims that Iraq was attempting to gain nuclear materials - a claims which was completely correct according to the Dulfer Report - and in the process may have done significant harm to our own efforts to curtail Iran's Nuclear aims.

The President and Vice-President may have maneuvered this situation so that what occurred is technically legal, but as to whether what has occured represents a "High Crime and Misdemeaner" I think the answer is clearly, Yes.

Vyan

Cheney finally connected to Plame Leak?

A rather off-the-beaten-path web paper has just released a report that claims several former and current Administration Officials have now come forward to state that the outing of Valerie Plame's identity was part of a coordinated effort by Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Advisor Stephan Hadley to discredit Joseph Wilson and his OP-ed on Niger.

Update: Truthout.org also has had the story posted as of Feb 9th, apparently this is the original source. Details over the flip.

As Reported.

Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley led a campaign beginning in March 2003 to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for publicly criticizing the Bush administration's intelligence on Iraq, according to current and former administration officials.

The officials work or had worked in the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council in a senior capacity and had direct knowledge of the Vice President's campaign to discredit Wilson.

These officials have apparently testified before they Grand Jury already, but another issue which comes to mind is - did these person reveal this information to the Grand Jury and FBI? If so, then Fitz has a great deal more information at his fingertips than he's let on -- if not, they may be subject to the same charges as Libby.

The officials said they decided to speak out now because they have become disillusioned with the Bush administration's policies regarding Iraq and the flawed intelligence that led to the war.

Now, they've become disillusioned?

They said their roles, along with several others at the CIA and State Department, included digging up or "inventing" embarrassing information on the former Ambassador that could be used against him, preparing memos and classified material on Wilson for Cheney and the National Security Council, and attending meetings in Cheney's office to discuss with Cheney, Hadley, and others the efforts that would be taken to discredit Wilson.

A former CIA official who has worked in the counter-proliferation division, and is familiar with the undercover work Wilson's wife did for the agency, said Cheney and Hadley visited CIA headquarters a day or two after Joseph Wilson was interviewed on CNN.

I wasn't able to locate this interview which the article indicates took place on March 2, 2003, but I did find one that took place on July 8th, 2003 with CNN's Bill Hemmer. Wilson's New York Times Op-Ed describing what he hadn't found in Niger had been been published the previous day.

These were the first public comments Wilson had made about Iraq. He said the administration was more interested in redrawing the map of the Middle East to pursue its own foreign policy objectives than in dealing with the so-called terrorist threat.

The indication that Wilson had spoken to CNN before the start of the War is relatively new to me. But this story indicates that this was when Wilson first came only Cheney and Hadley's radar. This became a bit more heated when Wilson begin to leak information to reporters in May as Wilson discussed his trip with Nicholas Kristoff of the New York times which eventually lead to a column.

Wilson said he believed the administration had ignored his report and were dishonest with Congress and the American people.

After the Kristoff column:

What in the previous months had been a request to gather information that could be used to discredit Wilson now turned into a full-scale effort involving the Office of the Vice President, the National Security Council, and the State Department to find out how Wilson came to be chosen to investigate the Niger uranium allegations.

The report indicates that Cheney and Libby made it clear Wilson had to be "shut down".

Cheney was personally involved in this aspect of the information gathering process as well, visiting CIA headquarters to inquire about Wilson, the CIA official said. Hadley had also raised questions about Wilson during this month with the State Department officials and asked that information regarding Wilson's trip to Niger be sent to his attention at the National Security Council.

That's when Valerie Plame Wilson's name popped up showing that she was a covert CIA operative. The former CIA official who works in the counter-proliferation division said another meeting about Wilson took place in Cheney's office, attended by the same individuals who were there in March. But Cheney didn't take part in it, the officials said.

Libby himself was deeply involved in the effort to discredit Wilson, but exactly who made the decision to reveal Valerie Wilson's identity was not known by the sources.

One key factor mentioned in the reports is that Cheney, Hadley and Libby were aware that Plame was a Covert Agent, which would put them in violation of the Intelligence Agent Identities Act when they revealed her CIA connections to reporters.

As far as I recall the indication that Valerie Plame was connected to sending Joseph Wilson to Niger was originally planted (although the CIA has vigorously denied that Plame "sent" Wilson to Niger) in a Classified INR Memo on June 10th. This would be a month after the Kristoff column - this Memo essentially seeded the ground for the disinformation campaign to come once Wilson went fully public in July.

Libby's claims that his "superiors" (Cheney and Hadley?) had requested him to release classified information to discredit Wilson including, but not limited to, the NIE of Iraq WMD programs and the revelation by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that White House emails (which might either confirm or refute Libby's story) have disappeared, is very interesting.

Some of the claims made here are quite damning, but also need to be seriously questioned and verified. It's almost too good to be true for Bush-bashers -- could it be like the (possibly) forged National Guard documents, giving the Blue-Staters exactly what they've been salivating for just before yanking the rug out?

The fact that this report comes from Jason Leopold who has frequently written for Truthout.org lends it a considerable level of credibility to me.

We'll just have to see, won't we?

Vyan

Additional Abu Ghraib Photos

The following are 15 of the 60 additional Abu Grhaib photos which the Dod have attempted to keep secret despite the decision by Judge Hellerstein last month that they be released in response to the FOIA request by the ACLU.


Bully O'Leily would have you believe that these photos are "more of the same" and simply examples of "frat behavior" by the night shift at Abu Ghraib prison, but even a coursery examinition of them shows that this isn't the case. Detainees can clearly be seen naked with bloody wounds and even foaming at the mouth, in several shots blood can be seen smeared on the floor and walls.

Sydney Morning Herald story here.

Tonight the SBS Dateline program plans to broadcast about 60 previously unpublished photographs that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Although a US judge last year granted the union access to the photographs following a freedom-of-information request, the US Administration has appealed against the decision on the grounds their release would fuel anti-American sentiment.

Some of the photos are similar to those published in 2004, others are different. They include photographs of six corpses, although the circumstances of their deaths are not clear. There are also pictures of what appear to be burns and wounds from shotgun pellets.

Vyan

C&L On Cheney and Canned Lawyer Shooting

TDS: Cheney makes Stewart so happy!

Jon Stewart was having a really boring weekend and he was really sad. Nothing had been getting his blood boiling lately and he just wasn't excited to be alive anymore-Until:

Video-WMP Video-QT

Stewart was on fire tonight:

"Whittington was mistaken for a bird."

"Harry Whittington, seasoned to an inch of his life."

"Don't let your kids go hunting with the Vice President. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land or-energy regulations they're trying to get lifted. He'll shoot them in the face."

Rob Corddry joined in.

Corddry : "Jon, tonight the Vice President is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. Now according to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time-there-were-quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be the 78 year old man. Even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists-he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face.

Scotty McClellan on Cheney Shooting

Here's the press briefing with Scotty and the gang.

Video-WMP Video-QT (David Edwards)

Atrios before the briefing:

Why was the White House relying on a Texas rancher to get the word of Cheney's hunting accident out over the weekend, asked Gregory, accusing McClellan of "ducking and weaving.''

"David, hold on-the cameras aren't on right now,'' McClellan replied. "You can do this later.''

"Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,'' the newsman said, his voice rising somewhat. "Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question.''

"You don't have to yell,'' McClellan said....read on

Raw Story has the transcript up now...

What I found most interesting was the interview on Countdown w/Keith Olberman with the reporter (Catherine Garcia of the Corpus Christi Caller Times) who received the called from Mrs. Armstrong. Apparently she had been attempting to reach an old family friend on the local papers staff beginning at 8 am Sunday morning, finally reaching Ms Garcia at 11am. After taking the story and confirming "You do mean Vice-President Cheney, right?" The reporter called the Whitehouse - after looking up the phone number on the web - and attempted to confirm the report with the "Press office". After being told the it wouldn't be "open until Monday Morning" she said "The Vice-President just accidently shot someone..." to which the White House switchboard operator responded. "Oh, okay", and put her though.

It doesn't get much more surreal than that. But just in case you want more -- here's Countdown's Official Digital Recreation of the Cheney Shooting.

Vyan