[YaYa123]

I'll re-read before I comment, but I do wonder why Bob Woodward didn't write this story himself, and why on TIME, not the Washington Post.

[Keith in Iowa]

I may be wrong, but some in journalism still follow the adage that you can't write the story when you are the story...

[Eagle of Liberty]

Woodward comes out and claims that HIS source just recently came clean? Is that what this is saying? If so, I guess Fitzgerald already knows Woodward's source then?

[Drammach]

It's called "plausible deniability"..
It works for reporters just like it does for politicians..

If someone else "esplains" what happened, if the facts come out and don't correlate with the story your mouthpeice told, you can always claim he "misunderestimated" or "deconclusified" what the situation was..
At any rate, Woodward doesn't have to claim he "misrememembered" or anything...

[Orblivion]

During his time with the prosecutor, Woodward said, he found Fitzgerald "incredibly sensitive to what we do. He didn't infringe on my other reporting, which frankly surprised me. He said 'This is what I need, I don't need any more.'"


Of course he's only asking for what he "needs" he doesn't want his case to blow up anymore than it already has.

[T.L.Sink]

Don't all FReepers love the delightful irony? Woodward has always been lionized by liberals and now he's potentially blown apart Fitzgerald's case with respect to Libby. Last night the Dem shill, Chris Matthews, was so excited and perplexed he probably peed his pants!! I love it! Give us more!

[YOUGOTIT]

Since there was NO crime committed why is my tax money being spend on this?

[KarlInOhio]

Is Woodward's source in the CIA still Bill Casey?

[Jake The Goose]

COLIN POWELL

[xcamel]

I'm wondering who woodward is lying to cover up for....

[Diddle E. Squat]

Is Viveca Novak related to Bob Novak?

[Lancey Howard]

Boy, this is really a poorly written piece. I never heard of "Viveca Novak - - is she fresh out of college? She writes:

"... even though Woodward's name shows up on various White House officials' calendars, phone logs and other records during June and July, 2003, the time frame that is critical to determining whether a crime was committed when information about Plame's employment was shared with reporters.

Does Viveca Novak really still believe that there could have been a crime committed in the "outing" of CIA desk jockey Plame? At this point in time, that's pathetic.

[Eva]

Well, I read on NRO that Walter Pincus could possibly be trouble over his testimony regarding the Plame affair and what he knew, when he knew it and who first told him about it. That should explain why this wasn't in the post.

[marty60]

Because the CIA was actually aware they had a rogue operation inside the Company. And now is the time to sping the trap.?????

[TravisBickle]

Fitzgerald had White House notes that indicated Woodward had been in contact with several people during June/July 2003 period that is being investigated, but was never called to the Grand Jury.

Maybe Fitzgerald didn't know that Woodward is a reporter. Afterall, he's only one of the TWO most famous reporters in the freaking world!

[Dolphy]

Here's a new twist on Woodward, not exactly laying low.

...According to Woodward, that triggered a call to his source. "I said it was clear to me that the source had told me [about Wilson's wife] in mid-June," says Woodward, "and this person could check his or her records and see that it was mid-June. My source said he or she had no alternative but to go to the prosecutor.

...Woodward said he had tried twice before, once in 2004 and once earlier this year, to persuade the source to remove the confidentiality restriction, but with no success.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

This was posted by FP libstripper
I think he/she is hit the nail on the head in the post 133.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1518814/posts

---

Take a look at Fitzgerald's Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Fitzgerald He spent most of his career before September 1, 2001 in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, eight years of which was under the Clinton administration, whose AG was Janet Reno.

Fitzgerald was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois on September 1, 2001. At the time it was likely he'd only serve about four years, ending September 1, 2005, after which he'd be looking for other employment. Indeed there were rumors to that effect in Chicago. Being appointed special prosecutor was a gold mine for him in that it opened up a host of new career opportunities, including becoming Hillary's AG if he could destroy the Bush administration with this investigation.


The investigation was of a non-crime, something he could have determined in the first few days just by looking a Plame's personnel record and discovering that she wasn't legally "covert" in the five years before her identity was revealed. If he wasn't a self-seeking climber out to destroy the Bush administration, he'd have wrapped it up right then. Instead he continued in an effort to manufacture "crimes" out of air.


In the course of this search he managed to develop discrepancies between the testimony of Libby and three reporters about alleged conversations between Libby and those reporters. At the time Libby didn't have any motive to lie about his recollection of the conversations because the incident Fitzgerald was investigating was a non-crime.


OTOH all three reporters either misspoke or had real motives to lie. Before Andrea Mitchel backtracked a day or two ago, she pointed out that Russert failed to remember, in his GJ testimony, how generally known Plame's identity was. Judy Miller was on the skids at the NYT because of her earlier, probably accurate, reporting on the WMD issue and had every reason to slant her testimony against Libby to try to keep her job. Cooper, of Time, had almost as much motive to slant his testimony against Libby because his employer was also trying to get the Bush administration.


Nevertheless, Fitz chose to believe these three very flawed witnesses instead of Libby. That leads straight to the reasonable conclusion that he did it for an ulterior motive, the most logical of which is being on Hillary's short list for AG.


A few weeks ago Newsmax picked up on the fact that Gerald Nadler, a far left New York Democrat, thought Fitz would be great to lead an impeachment investigation against President Bush. Nadler is a close ally of Hillary's. It's very unlikely he would have made this suggestion if he didn't know a lot about Fitz that we don't. Hence, I stand by my view that Fitz is an ambitious, unscrupulous lawyer who's just let his real colors show, something that would make him well qualified ethically to be Hillary's AG.


133 posted on 11/13/2005

[Wild Irish Rogue]

More eveidence that Fitzgerald conducted an incomplete and one track investigation.
He only spoke with Wilson twice and did not feel the need to put him before the grand jury.

" But it is the first time Woodward had contact with Fitzgerald,
even though Woodward's name shows up on various White House officials' calendars, phone logs and other records during June and July, 2003,
the time frame that is critical to determining whether a crime was committed when information about Plame's employment was shared with reporters.
Those White House records were turned over to Fitzgerald long ago."

" Woodward expressed some surprise that Fitzgerald hadn't contacted him earlier in the probe, ..."

[Taffini]

bump