Posted on 10/26/2005 10:36:20 AM PDT by Brilliant
WASHINGTON - The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity met for three hours Wednesday with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and adjourned for the day without announcing any action.
Fitzgerald is known to be putting the finishing touches on a two-year criminal probe that has ensnared two senior White House aides.
After the grand jury left for the day, federal prosecutors conferred for about an hour in the grand jury area of the federal courthouse.
There was no word on whether Fitzgerald planned to make any announcement or whether the grand jury planned to meet again.
They were there for such a short time, I'm thinking they just issued subpoenas, or something like that.
Grand jury in CIA leak case adjourns
INteresting excerpt .....
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Fitzgerald has been in Washington since Monday and over the last two days dispatched FBI agents to conduct some 11th-hour interviews, according to lawyers close to the investigation, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
One set of interviews occurred in the neighborhood of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, whose wife Valerie Plame was outed as an undercover CIA officer. Agents asked neighbors whether they had any inkling that Plame works for the CIA.
"They wanted to know how well we knew her, which is very well," said neighbor David Tillotson. "Did we know anything about her position before the story broke? Absolutely not."
Agents also interviewed a former unidentified associate of Rove about his activities around the time the leaks occurred.
Two lawyers familiar with the activities said the interviews involved basic fact-checking and did not appear to plow new ground.
Fitzgerald may want to establish Plame had carefully protected her CIA identity as part of the process of determining whether the disclosure of her name amounted to a crime.
I'm beginning to suspect Fitzgerald may be having trouble getting the Grand Jury to do everything he wants.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald (R) departs the U.S. District Court in Washington October 26, 2005. The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity met on Wednesday with special counsel Fitzgerald amid signs the prosecutor was preparing to seek criminal charges. Fitzgerald later left the building following the session with no comment. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald leaves the U.S Federal courthouse after meeting with the grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005 in Washington. Fitzgerald is putting the finishing touches on a two-year criminal probe that has ensnared two senior White House aides. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Fitzgerald is known to be putting the finishing touches on a two-year criminal probe that has ensnared two senior White House aides.
If inclusion on the witness list (which is all we know for a fact at this point) ensnares somebody, then there were a few more people than just two senior WH aides involved.
The AP just couldn't resist, could they?
I doubt that. He probably doesn't think much of his case, though, or he would have brought it to a head long ago.
Fitzgerald Meets With Grand Jury as CIA Leak Probe Wraps Up
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Excerpt:
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On Monday, two FBI agents combed the northwest Washington neighborhood where Wilson and Plame live, showing their badges and questioning neighbors about whether they knew Plame worked for the CIA before her employer was revealed by Novak in July 2003.
Critics of the leak investigation have said it was an open secret that Plame worked for the CIA; if many people knew that she worked for the agency, it would make prosecution under the 1982 law protecting covert agents nearly impossible.
Sounds like an accurate prediction. What I have to laugh at is the pundits. They will sit there and issue projections. Then the news breaks and we see that they were totally wrong. Then they sit there and discuss the next things to happen as if they are actually right all the time. And I thought only weatherman were paid even when they were consistently wrong!!
Man-O-Man I sure do! The announcer would warm everybody up with a cresendo of hype, ending in the phrase... "Well calculated to keep you in SUSPENSE!"
It's obvious that SP is looking at the CIA.
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As anticipation built in Washington about potential indictments -- and what it would mean for a Bush administration beset by low approval ratings, the Iraq war and a controversial Supreme Court nomination -- a related problem was brewing in Italy over how the Niger allegations made their way into the intelligence stream.
Italian parliamentary officials announced that the head of Italy's military secret service, the SISMI intelligence agency, would be questioned next month about allegations that his agency gave the disputed documents to the United States and Britain, an Associated Press report said. A spokeswoman said Nicolo Pollari, the agency's director, asked to be questioned after reports this week in Italy's La Repubblica newspaper claiming that SISMI sent the CIA and U.S. and British officials information that it knew was forged.
The newspaper reported that Pollari met at the White House on Sept. 9, 2002, with then-deputy national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley. The Niger claims surfaced shortly thereafter. A spokesman for Hadley, now the national security advisor, confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to say what was discussed.
Hadley played a prominent role in the controversy over Bush's claims in his State of the Union address. He took responsibility for inserting into the speech the famous 16 words that laid out the allegations.
I remember Suspense....from the Green Hornet....what a radio show....
those forged documents were planted as a poison pill to discredit what was otherwise a valid story - that's why the Brits never backed off from the Niger uranium claim. that the documents were forged is not in question, they were - its how and why they got into the intel stream that is the question.
why wouldn't he send that part of the case back to the DOJ?
1) Homeland security should be called and search for the briefcase.
2) The briefcase had his lunch in it and he ate it, therefor no longer needed said briefcase
One could speculate Both of these possibilities mean Scooter and Rove are indicted.
Hey! I know it's off the thread's subject, but heck... We're not going to learn anything via all this speculatin we're doin anyways!!! (grin)
How about the ....The Lone Ranger...and Tonto....damn I loved those shows....
Hey...Sky King was a TV show...?
I didn't have no TV....I was half way between Denver and KC....the original fly over country...
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