Category : CIA

Oh man, this is good stuff:

The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby of revealing Plame’s CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration’s motives in Iraq.

This is great news. I think it’s clear that Dick started this whole fiasco, so it’s fitting that he would be sued for it. Will this be a civil suit? I would imagine so, but I’m not sure. If so that would mean she could really only nail him for cash, but it certainly would provide some negative PR for the Bush administration.

Nail the hypocritical fuckers. They’re always complaining about leaks — except when they’re the ones doing the leaking.

CIA group hunting for Bin Laden shut down

Oh, well that’s a relief.

A CIA unit that had hunted for Osama bin Laden and his top deputies for a decade has been disbanded, according to a published report.

Citing unnamed intelligence officials, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the unit, known as “Alec Station,” was shut down late last year.

The decision to close the unit, which was created before the September 11, 2001, attacks, was first reported Monday by National Public Radio.

Whew! That was a close one. I thought there might be some dangerous activities than Bin Laden was involved in, but the government knows best, right?

Haha, just kidding. I’m not really worried about this. It just means that the government knows what I’ve been suspecting: Osama Bin Laden is already dead. His kidney problems must’ve done him in. A man with a portable dialysis machine does not go running willy-nilly through the mountains of Afghanistan. He’s fuckin’ dead. Stick a fork in him. Toast.

I’d celebrate if this could be confirmed. Bin Laden and Ken Lay? What a great two-fer! Except Bin Laden has probably been dead for years. Well, that’s no reason not to celebrate!… but wait? Why isn’t the government telling us? Could it be they are, like me, simply waiting for confirmation? Or could it be that they don’t want to know for sure since they like to use Bin Laden as an all-purpose boogie man, especially to win elections?

Well, as long as Bush isn’t concerned about Bin Laden, neither am I. The president could never be wrong, of course. None of this stinks to high-heaven. No weirdness going on at all. Why don’t we all stop thinking critically and remember that asking Bush tough questions makes baby Jesus cry.

“All right, you’ve covered your ass now” is what George Bush said to the CIA agent who flew out to his ranch specifically to warn him about intelligence concerning the presidential daily brief entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.”

On Aug. 6, a CIA official brought the infamous “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US” memo to Crawford, to read it out personally to the President and make sure he got the warning. Bush sat in silence as the briefer delivered his fell message. Duty done, the agent awaited the president’s orders, or the president’s guidance, or the president’s questions. He got nothing but a curt, snide dismissal: “All right, you’ve covered your ass now.”

That was it. Bush had nothing else to say about this stark threat of impending slaughter. He had no questions, no advice; the “Commander-in-Chief” had no commands. Just smirking contempt. “You’ve covered your ass.” You’ve gone through the motions, you’ve played your part in the charade, just like me – now get lost.

Even if you give Bush every benefit of the doubt here, even if you put the most charitable construction possible on his behavior – although his proven record of duplicity and malevolence deserves no such charity – even with all this, the very best you could say of his reaction is that it represents a blood-curdling degree of depraved indifference and criminal negligence, worthy of Nero.”

Bush is a real card isn’t he? Funny guy. What kind of games are they playing over there in Washington, D.C.? “You’ve covered your ass” is not an appropriate response to a grave terrorist threat from one of America’s supposed top enemies. What’s going on here? Are we to assume that our president is so surly and callous that he just doesn’t care? Or does it run deeper than that, perhaps into the murky land of “fore-knowledge”?

It’s hard to tell. But one thing is for sure: Bush simply is not competent to run this country. He should be impeached immediately, without delay.

But those Republicans sure do stick together, don’t they? Jeeze, sometimes you’ve got to wonder about their fabled ability to fall in line. Does Karl Rove have incriminating pictures of every single one of them or what? C’mon! Grow some balls, guys (and gals). GW is a menace and we need to impeach him forthwith. Perhaps during the hearings we will find out what really happened in the run-up to September 11th.

Luskin: Karl Rove won't be charged in CIA leak case

Fuck!

White House senior adviser Karl Rove has been told by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that he will not be charged in the CIA leak case, according to Robert Luskin, Rove’s lawyer.

“In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation,” Luskin said in a written statement Tuesday. “We believe that the special counsel’s decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove’s conduct.”

A grand jury has heard testimony from Rove in five appearances, most recently April 26.

After that appearance, Luskin issued a statement saying, “In connection with this appearance, the special counsel has advised Mr. Rove that he is not a target of the investigation.”

Granted, he is a lawyer and so he could be full of shit, but I don’t know. What would he have to gain from lying about this? This sucks, I wanted to see Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in chains.

Hopefully this means Fitzgerald is concentrating on Cheney, but I doubt it. I think he’s chickened out. Or maybe the evidence just wasn’t there, but if a guy has to show up at the grand jury on five different occasions, it doesn’t look good. Surprising that Fitzgerald couldn’t get him for anything.

This is not getting out of hand. It’s way beyond that now. We are watching our rights, our privacy, our Constitution, our nation — crumble before our very eyes. So this is what the death of democracy feels like. For me it feels like numb, helpless outrage. Are you ready for the latest outrage?

Here it is, from Capitol Hill Blue:

Now that he is officially sworn in as the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden plans to build a vast domestic spying network that will pry into the lives of most Americans around the clock.

President George W. Bush told Hayden to “take whatever steps necessary” to monitor Americans 24/7 by listening in on their phone calls, bugging their homes and offices, probing their private lives, snooping into their financial records and watching their travel habits.

Can I prove this in a court of law? No. Do I know it is happening? Yes, without a doubt. Enough sources within the CIA, FBI, NSA and Pentagon have come forward in recent days to warn about Hayden’s plans for an expanded, consolidated spy network aimed at Americans, not terrorists, and violating numerous laws that prohibit such activities against citizens of this country.

“What Hayden plans to do is not only illegal, it is immoral,” says a longtime CIA operative who may retire early rather than participate in what he sees as an illegal extension of the spy agency’s activities.

The article goes on to mention that resignations are at an all-time high at The Agency. The reporter, Doug Thompson, wishes he could prove this to us. I guess we have to take his word for it for now. But would I be surpised if every word were true? Not one bit.

I wish I could prove this. I wish one, just one, source on the inside was willing to come forward and allow his or her name to be used but those who might be tempted see what happened to Mary McCarthy, the CIA employee fired and under threat of prosecution for leaking information about CIA torture camps in Europe.

But I know it is happening. People I’ve known for years and trust tell me it is happening and the past record of spying, lies and deceit by the Bush administration point to just such an operation.

This nation is under attack. We, the people, are under attack. And the enemy in this case is not an Islamic radical hiding in a cave in Afghanistan but a cabal of truly evil men and women at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and on Capitol Hill aided by carefully-picked, law-ignoring appointees at the Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, a black glass-walled building at Fort Meade, MD, and a complex in Langley, Virginia.

Not the normally sedate language we’re used to reading in the press. But he’s right. We are under attack. Let me say it again:

We Are Under Attack. By Our Own Government.

Karl Rove Facing Indictment Next Week?

It sure looks like it.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

If this is true, it is huge news. I haven’t found anything in the mainstream media news sources yet. I’m not sure if this FatCats site is reputable or not; we’ll have to wait for confirmation. Here it is from the source, t r u t h o u t. Didn’t expect this to come on a Saturday night…

Looks like they’re not sure what Rove will be charged with, however:

It was still unknown Saturday whether Fitzgerald charged Rove with a more serious obstruction of justice charge. Sources close to the case said Friday that it appeared very likely that an obstruction charge against Rove would be included with charges of perjury and lying to investigators.

Throw the book at him.

Ha! I’m posting again! Just minutes after my last post. So cool…

Anyway, it looks like Cheney may have been the man with the plan when it comes to outing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent. From the Washington Post:

A court filing last month by Fitzgerald — who has been gradually spelling out what he plans to say during Libby’s trial next year — stated that Cheney had expressed concern about whether Wilson’s trip was a junket set up by his wife. The new filing includes the precise annotations that Cheney wrote on a copy of Wilson’s July 2003 article in the New York Times, titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa.”

“Have they done this sort of thing before?” Cheney wrote. “Send an amb[assador] to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?”

Fitzgerald’s filing states that Libby learned of Plame’s name from Cheney, in the course of discussions by the vice president’s office about how to respond to a June 2003 inquiry from Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus about Wilson’s trip to Niger. Fitzgerald asserts that those conversations — and earlier ones sparked by a May 2003 column about the trip in the Times — help demonstrate that Libby’s “disclosures to the press concerning Mr. Wilson’s wife were not casual disclosures.”

This doesn’t look good for Dick, who could be in hot water if Libby squeals on him and claims that Cheney was the impetus behind the leak. It certainly seems logical to me that Libby (Cheney’s good friend and ex-chief of staff) would follow up on ideas Cheney had for responding to their detractors.

There’s so many things to impeach Bush and Cheney for, it’s hard to pick a favorite. I’d have to say that Plamegate and the NSA Wiretapping Scandal are definitely contenders, but the whole War in Iraq is a excellent argument for impeachment in my opinion. There seems to be Americans and Iraqis dying at a steady rate, with the Iraqis dying in far greater numbers. I hope that oil is worth it. Peak Oil or not, it’s time to get Bush and Co. out of the White House before they do any more damage.