Friday, October 07, 2005

NYT: "Rove Ordered to Talk Again in Leak Inquiry" (David Johnston)

The special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case has summoned Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, to return next week to testify to a federal grand jury in a step that could mean charges will be filed in the case, lawyers in the case said Thursday.
The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has held discussions in recent days with lawyers for several administration officials suggesting that he is considering whether to charge them with a crime over the disclosure of an intelligence operative's identity in a 2003 newspaper column.
Mr. Fitzgerald is said by some of the lawyers to have indicated that he has not made up his mind about whether to accuse anyone of wrongdoing and will use the remaining days before the grand jury's term expires on Oct. 28 to decide.


The above is from David Johnston's "Rove Ordered to Talk Again in Leak Inquiry" in this morning's New York Times. Brendan e-mails on the article. We'll note Miller's rumored to be called back for additional questioning next Tuesday and that Scoots and others in the administration may be as well. We'll note this from the article as well:

One new approach appears to involve the possible use of Chapter 37 of the federal espionage and censorship law, which makes it a crime for anyone who "willfully communicates, delivers, transfers or causes to be communicated" to someone "not entitled to receive it" classified information relating the national defense matters.

B-b-b-ut, Vicky ToeJam told us all summer long, and the Times was damn happy to repeat it, that there was no crime here, move along. True, she was spinning about another piece of legislation, one she distorted to the point that she all but claimed it dripped from her own open veins -- the bloodloss, no doubt, explaining why neither she nor the Times could toss four little words along side her name as ToeJam on parade continued nonstop: "friend of Robert Novak."

ToeJam is not quoted for the above article. Has her moment in the sun passed?


Lori e-mails to note Juan Gonzalez's "Slain Puerto Rican Rebel Didn't Have to Die" (Common Dreams):

According to the official version, Ojeda opened fire from inside when agents moved in to arrest him. One agent was wounded and Ojeda was shot beneath the clavicle in the initial shootout.
The fugitive's wife, who was with him at the time, surrendered immediately. She later claimed the agents opened fire without warning and that her husband offered to give up in the presence of well-known Puerto Rican journalist Jesus Davila, but agents refused.
Over the next 20 hours, the FBI team sealed off the area and would not allow Puerto Rican police near the scene. By the time they entered the house the next day, Ojeda had bled to death. The long delay, officials say, was caused by waiting for bomb detection units to arrive and check for possible booby-trap.
But even those who oppose Ojeda's radical views and methods aren't buying that account.
Many are especially furious at the timing of the operation.
Sept. 23 is the anniversary of El Grito de Lares, Puerto Rico's failed 1868 independence revolt against Spanish colonialism. It is a date commemorated each year by the independence movement with a march to the town of Lares.
At the very moment federal agents were moving in on Ojeda's hideout, a taped speech of his was being played at the Lares event.
"I'm a statehooder, but I see the FBI was trying to humiliate all Puerto Ricans by going after him on El Grito de Lares," says the former naval officer who provided the agents information. "I feel I was used."


Juan Gonzalez is a columnist for the New York Daily News and, of course, co-host of Democracy Now!.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.





(Note: Corrected by Shirley per C.I.)