Friday, October 28, 2005

NYT: "Aide to Cheney Appears Likely to Be Indicted; Rove Under Scrutiny" (David Johnston & Richard W. Stevenson)

Lawyers in the C.I.A. leak case said Thursday that they expected I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, to be indicted on Friday, charged with making false statements to the grand jury.
Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.
As rumors coursed through the capital, Mr. Fitzgerald gave no public signal of how he intended to proceed, further intensifying the anxiety that has gripped the White House and left partisans on both sides of the political aisle holding their breath.

The above is from David Johnston and Richard W. Stevenson's "Aide to Cheney Appears Likely to Be Indicted; Rove Under Scrutiny" in this morning's New York Times. Lucy e-mailed to note that article.

Lucy: As Drew [Barrymore] says [in Ever After], "Breathe."


Lloyd e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "The Dreadful 2,000 Mark" (This Just In, The Progressive):

And as for Iraq, Bush said: "The best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission."
But the mission cannot be completed--or accomplished, as he once put it.
It's a quagmire at best, a losing battle at worst.
To the 2,000 families, Bush promised only more morbid company.
He’s content to send more U.S. soldiers on this fool’s errand.
And we, nonviolently, must stop him.
We will stop him when we can convince more of our elected officials to be courageous, like Senators Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy, in denouncing this war, and when we can prod even these officials to demand a withdrawal within six months.
We will stop him when we can assemble protesters by the hundreds every week in every county of every state to demand this withdrawal.
We will stop him when we have convinced the vast majority of our fellow citizens not only that the war was a mistake (they know this already) but also that withdrawal is the only way out of this hopeless situation.

Eli notes Brian Conley's "Candlelight Hacking…" (Alive In Baghdad):

Last night at about 4am I posted the first video upload from Baghdad, I hope AIB is well on its way to running a video-blog from Iraq, but tonight the 52000 bps is just not doing enough. Today has been a long and frustrating day, but we have scheduled many interviews for Saturday and are working on travelling to Kerbala, perhaps sometime next week.
Please look here for the first two videos.
Tomorrow I will be interviewing someone from Baladiyat camp and will provide a full report about the situation there and more info about the experience of Palestinian refugees in Iraq under the Interim Government.
I also made contacts with another Iraqi journalist here in Baghdad who will be helping shoot interviews with his contacts, in order to expand our ability to do work here, despite the tense security situation. Also expect an article soon about exactly what a "fixer" is, and perhaps some more history about Iraq and Baghdad in general.
As always, stay in touch and if you’re curious about something, just ask! Also, if you post a question, please leave your email, or just send it directly to me, as it will ease the response!

Susan e-mails to note Cindy Sheehan's "If You Believe in What You Are Doing, Give Me Your Stiffest Sentence. If You Don't, Then Resign" (Common Dreams):

First of all, I was followed all morning by the Park Police. I guess because I am a very dangerous subversive. I would never hurt a flea, but what I am dangerous to is the lies and corruption of our government.
Secondly, Juan, Beatriz Saldivar, and Julie Cuniglio who have all had loved ones killed in this war had brought pictures of their dead loved ones with them to Arlington. We were told by the administration of the cemetery that they couldn't take the pictures into the cemetery because they were "political statements!!" We were stunned that pictures of our children that have been killed for lies and betrayals and for purely political reasons can't be shown in a cemetery that supposedly honors those who have served, some making the ultimate sacrifice in war. We are living in a state that kills our children then calls them political statements. That speaks volumes to the chicken hawks who we are allowing to ruin our country.
After Arlington, I met with Sen. Carl Levin from Michigan who has been a strong and outspoken critic against the war. The mess that George Bush has unleashed on our country and on the innocent world weighs heavily on his shoulders. He knows something needs to be done. Let's support him in doing so. Today, I will meet with Sen. Stabenow from the same state.
We headed to the vigil at the White House for our hours long wait in the freezing cold. There was a man there who had several signs which among them said: "Saddam loves Cindy." This man didn't care that Rumsfeld (or Rumsfailed as I accidentally called him on an interview yesterday) was buddy, buddy with Saddam and gave him or sold him tons of WMDs before he became our enemy. I told this man that he didn't bother me, and he told me I don't bother him either. Well, if I don't bother him, why did he come down and make signs and march for hours screaming that I kill our soldiers? We found out why. He was making 60 dollars an hour to do so from some non-profit, right wing group. He said he would switch signs if we gave him more money.
At 7:30 PM about 100 patriots symbolically died in front of the White House. Then 26 of us refused to get up and were arrested. As usual, the Park Police were very polite and efficient and many whisper words of support and encouragement to us. We are planning another die-in tonight at 7 PM. We need more Americans to come out and symbolically die with us here in DC…or do it in your own communities at relevant places, like a federal building, congressperson or senator's office.

Zach e-mails to note Robert Parry's "'Plame-gate' & Myth of the Renegade Aide" (Consortium News):


One of the common myths of official Washington is that most political scandals result from overly aggressive aides operating out of control -- the Watergate "third-rate burglary" or Iran-Contra's "men of zeal" -- with top officials getting in trouble only later by trying to cover the mess up.
But the reality -- which is relevant again amid the probe into the outing of a CIA officer -- is that a principal official is almost always lurking somewhere in the background of the original crime, sending signals or pulling strings with the expectation that, if caught, a subordinate will take the fall.
So now, much like the historical arguments over whether the Watergate break-in was approved by Richard Nixon or which Iran-Contra dealings were green-lighted by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the new question is whether Dick Cheney and George W. Bush winked at their top aides leaking the identity of Valerie Plame as retaliation for her husband exposing a deception used to take America to war in Iraq.
The "Plame-gate" probe has focused on Vice President Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby and President Bush's deputy chief of staff Karl Rove. Based on what's now publicly known, it appears that Libby and Rove at minimum misled investigators about how they learned of Plame's identity and how they disseminated that information.
Yet while special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald examines whether Libby and Rove committed crimes, official Washington has mostly averted its eyes from a potentially bigger question: Did their superiors, Cheney and/or Bush, encourage or order the leak?
If so, based on history, one of two outcomes would seem likely: either a constitutional crisis would result, with at least one of the top two U.S. executive officers implicated in a felony conspiracy, or a conveniently truncated investigation would follow, not getting much higher than Libby and Rove.
The past two major Republican scandals -- Watergate and Iran-Contra -- represent those two alternatives, the first leading to Nixon's resignation and the second to the protection of Reagan and George Bush Sr. Conceivably, "Plame-gate" could end in some middle ground if, say, Cheney were forced to resign but not George Bush Jr.
Cheney Implicated
Already, the emerging evidence has linked Cheney to the leak case. The New York Times reported that more than a month before Plame was outed in a July 14, 2003, column by Robert Novak, the vice president was told about Plame's identity by then-CIA Director George Tenet.

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