All About Iraq (WSJ Editorial Calling on Fitzgeral to Close Shop)

WSJ ^

[indianrightwinger]

All About Iraq October 24, 2005

Rampant leaks notwithstanding, no one but Patrick Fitzgerald knows all of the criminal evidence the special prosecutor is considering against senior White House officials. Our hope is that he also understands that the job of a prosecutor is not to settle what at bottom is a political and policy fight over the war in Iraq.

Let's stipulate that the law is the law, and if Bush administration officials lied to a grand jury in the clear and obvious way that Bill Clinton did, they should be prosecuted. If Mr. Fitzgerald has evidence of a malicious attempt to expose a CIA undercover agent, as defined by the relevant statute, the same applies. But the fact that the prosecutor has waited as long as he has -- until the last days of his grand jury -- suggests that he considers this a less than obvious case. A close call deserves to be a no call.

All the more so because this entire probe began and has continued as a kind of proxy for the larger political war about the Iraq War. In July 2003, Joseph Wilson used his insider status as a former CIA consultant to accuse the Bush administration of lying about Iraq WMD as an excuse to go to war. A political furor erupted, and Mr. Wilson became an antiwar celebrity who joined the Kerry for President campaign.

Amid an election campaign and a war, Bush administration officials understandably fought back. One way they did so was to tell reporters that Mr. Wilson's wife, CIA analyst Valerie Plame, had been instrumental in getting him the CIA consulting job. This was true -- though Mr. Wilson denied it at the time -- as a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee documented in 2004.

[indianrightwinger]

This editorial lays out the issues at hand as clearly as I have seen. Close shop Mr. Fitzgerald!

[hsalaw]

Darn! The complete article is available only to subscribers!

[goldstategop]

Its about criminalizing policy differences. Those should be settled by voters not decided in the courts through questionable prosecutions.

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")

[goldstategop]

Look up the editorial on the WSJ's sister site OpinionJournal.com. You can read the Journal's editorial content there every day for free.

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")

[indianrightwinger]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007447

Try this. You just need an e-mail address to sign/read.

[smoothsailing]

Good read.

Fitz should act on the limited mandate of his appointment(if any action is required),and having done so,shut down.

In the end,whatever he does,it will define the quality of his integrity.

[traviskicks]

Yes, well written.

Here is the link for those who aren't suscribed to the WSJ:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007447

[hsalaw]

Thank you both for the helpful information and links. Good article; one of the few I've read recently that actually makes sense.

[Just A Nobody]

If Mr. Fitzgerald has evidence of a malicious attempt to expose a CIA undercover agent .....

IF this is what the "investigation" is about, then Mr. Fitzgerald owes the American people their money back. It was ascertained a long time ago that Plame WAS NOT A CIA UNERCOVER AGENT.

[indianrightwinger]

But, he requested and has apparently gotten authority to expand the probe to cover other aspects of the case, like obstruction blah blah blah.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. Plame was a desk agent at the CIA. It has been established she was never a covert operative and her ties to Langley have been an open secret in Washington. There was no crime committed here even by a very strict reading of the law. If Rove and Libby are indicted, it certainly won't be for the alleged offense that had the MSM in such an uproar for the past year.

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")

[wildcatf4f3]

bttt

[Berlin_Freeper]

I used to laugh at the French system where indicted politicians stay in power until they are convicted of a crime.

It is a shame, but the Democrats are forcing us towards the French model of governance, because Democrat justice officials seek to attack our elected Republican representatives (Delay and possibly Rove, etc)by forcing them to resign with bogus indictments.

[ThirstyMan]

IF this is what the "investigation" is about, then Mr. Fitzgerald owes the American people their money back. It was ascertained a long time ago that Plame WAS NOT A CIA UNDERCOVER AGENT.

For sure!

[Jeff Chandler]

If Rove and Libby are indicted, it certainly won't be for the alleged offense that had the MSM in such an uproar for the past year.

It will be for fame and fortune.

[Lancey Howard]

The WSJ gets it nearly exactly right.

[Spirited]

I think that enough money has been wasted by this group for the benefit of the Democrats in this nation.

As a taxpayer I am disgusted with the whole deal. Only Democrats can get away with rampant corruption.

[Paladin2]

Looks like tying the obvious partisan attack on Delay to Fitz' actions could be used to discredit both as a 'Rat/MSM planned attack.

[Timeout]

This paragraph from the editorial is PERFECT:

Mr. Wilson's original claims about what he found on a CIA trip to Africa, what he told the CIA about it, and even why he was sent on the mission have since been discredited. What a bizarre irony it would be if what began as a politically motivated lie by Mr. Wilson nonetheless leads to indictments of Bush Administration officials for telling reporters the truth.

[jocon307]

"As for Mr. Bush, we hope he realizes that anyone who is indicted was defending his policy and his Presidency. He should consider carefully the nature of the charges and the evidence before he dismisses his most loyal advisers."

This concluding paragraph gives me a bad feeling.

And, this is off-topic, but I must say it, Bush has picked a darn poor time to alienate so many of his base with the bizarre nomination of Harriet Meirs for SCOTUS.