Posted on 10/28/2005 2:34:41 PM PDT by MikeA
22 months and millions of US tax-payer dollars later, the Valerie Plame CIA leak case ends with not the roar of a lion and the speculated ten indictments against Bush administration officials for their “culture of corruption”, not with charges against DNC public enemy #1 Karl Rove, or the pipe-dream resignation of Dick Cheney, but rather with the squeak of a mouse and the sought indictment of one… Chief of staff for VP Dick Cheney, “Scooter” Libby…
It appears that he is not being indicted for “outing” a CIA NOC, the original basis for the entire investigation. But rather for telling the Grand Jury that he originally learned Valerie Plame’s name from a reporter, when it is alleged that he instead learned it first from the VP himself.
Two White House officials with security clearance discussing secure information is not exactly a unique event, let alone a crime. It also goes without saying that nobody could have leaked anything had someone in the CIA itself not leaked it first. Surely it wasn’t Tenet himself. After all, he was a Clinton appointee, not a member of the “culture of corruption”.
It would have helped if the CIA employee at the center of the investigation had actually been under-cover at the time of the alleged outing. It also would have helped if the investigation had been able to find any credible witnesses instead of working a case entirely dependent upon the word of one Joe Wilson, a man with literally no credibility in the real world at all.
But stay tuned… Less than thirty days into the investigation, Prosecutor Fitzgerald requested authority to expand the investigation beyond its initial intent. 22 months later, with one half-baked indictment for an alleged secondary infraction of a crime there is no evidence ever existed, the Prosecutor is once again requesting authority to expand the investigation even further.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, all roads lead to the relentless pursuit of Bush administration officials who liberals have repeatedly accused of “lying” us into a war in Iraq. Hence, the second request in the 22 month old investigation to expand the depth and breadth of the investigation once more.
Yet after 22 months, it is pretty clear that if any reasonable evidence existed to support the original purpose of the investigation, it surely would have been uncovered by now. I mean, they took every opportunity up until the eleventh hour here, and this is what they have?
Frankly, any Prosecution team that couldn’t uncover the evidence of a real crime by now either ain’t much of a prosecution team, or they ain’t working with much of a crime… Take your pick!
Bottom line, only those who think Martha Stewart is a hardened criminal who belongs behind bars, (like Fitzgerald and relentless liberal Bush-basher’s), will see this as anything less than a complete failure to make a real case.
Well, let’s face it. After 22 months and millions of dollars, somebody was going to be charged with something.
Instead of appearing to be the massive “culture of corruption” democrat fund-raisers made it out to be, (with the help of their friends in the press of course, thank you Chris Mathews), this one has the appearance of an eleventh hour indictment aimed at justifying a 22 month old investigation going nowhere…
The liberal so-called mainstream press has spent all day - every day for the last two weeks building this case into a crescendo based on the “culture of corruption” drummed into the hearts and minds of liberal Bush-hating democrat minions, for what? One indictment for a secondary allegation in a crime that apparently never happened? You must be kidding me…
Of course when Clinton “crony” and Kerry National Security Advisor Sandy Burger was “convicted” of stealing TOP SECRET documents stuffed in his shorts from the national archives, the so-called main-stream press didn’t give it a seconds notice even on the back page.
But just watch how fast they convict, draw and quarter and tar and feather Scooter Libby over the coming days and weeks…
Liberals better start pricing flights to Canada again… Culture of corruption? Right!
We tried to tell you liberal idiots!!!!
Finally, we agree on something. No hard feelings huh????
When you think about it....Fitz indicted a politician for his lying ......about like indicting a used car salesman for selling used cars.........
"I think you can count on that. Fitzgerald said this would have been wrapped up a year ago had Scooter not lied and let Judy Miller sit in jail for him."
I really don't think it took a year for Fitzgerald to wrap this up simply because Libby wasn't truthful about where he heard the leak from, especially since there was no indictment here related to the Identities Act. Besides, Libby didn't testify until this summer.
I've said this from day 1. Why are the Republicans even talking to the NYT and the WaPo and all the other liberal MSM rags.
Effective immediately, all offline meetings with the liberal press should stop. The only information given to these slimebags liberals should be by press releases and news conferences. No more phone calls, no more breakfast meetings.
They wont need to hide their sources because they wont have any. LOL
You make a really good point. It's not as if the MSM will ever report the administration's side of anything anyway. It's not like anything other than Joe Wilson is a god who exposed the lying Bushies to the world was ever reported about Joe Wilson in the MSM. So what did all this back channel communication do for the administration? We certainly never heard much about the lies Clowny Boy Wilson told about who he was working for or even the Senate Intelligence Committee's findings of the lies he told about his trip to Niger.
No hard feelings.
The fact is Fitzgerald had a job to do, it's not an easy job. As conservatives we should respect an officer of the court and respect the process. I see no reason to think that Fitzgerald did not do a workman like job. And the indictment seems to have a reasonably sound basis. I've never heard yet, of a Special Pro sector whose investigation did not drag out and cost a lot of money. It is the nature of the beast.
I won't be too impressed if the conservative media starts beating up on the special prosecutor. And I doubt very seriously that the White House will. We are conservatives WE respect the law.
Did you read my post mentioning that a former federal prosecutor on Wolf Blizer's show, very familiar with the applicable laws, stated that Rove going back to the grand jury to update them on what he knew, in effect expunged whatever may have been the former crime of lying, and that Libby's lawyer missed the boat? Apparently, while the same grand jury is in session, one can revise and extend one's remarks. Now, apparently, Fitzgerald to bag Rove, will have to nab him on the underlying merits of outing Plame. He may try to get Libby to finger Rove in a plea bargain, if Libby has any info on that.
Ya, unless Libby recounted his conversation to someone about his conversation with Cheney after he testified, or near when he testified, that he first learned about Plame from Russert.
After he made his initial statement he should have cut it off after 10 or 15 minutes of questions by the media. Fitzgerald began to lose credibility, even with his allies in the liberal MSM, after that point. He overstated his case and came across as someone who was too caught in the moment.
This Indictment where no crime has been commited needs changing. Under these conditions, 90% of Texans, and 100% of fishermen will go to jail!
Don't HATE.
Don't fall prey to their brand of poison. Just KNOW that they, as hate-filled as THEY are, will fall victim, ultimately and in the end, to their OWN poison....and rightly so (pun intended).
Mega-dittos!
I couldn't believe how unprofessional this guy Fitzgerald handled himself. He had these weird ticks and anger in his voice. He also sounded like he was acting a part rather than being a normal prosecutor.
What pissed me off the most was when he talked about "showing the world" something or other -- that's not his job at all.
Yes, he did say today that he is not registered in either party, and has been accused from both ends of being in effect on the payroll of the other side. I am willing to believe he is a good prosecutor, but listening to this lengthy "interview/statement" made me a little queasy, since for all its high-mindedness and breathless self-importance and contrived " gravity" it is really a big empty bag of nothing. And to think that all programming literally stopped cold so that we could hear this momentous drivel. I simply can't believe adults are eager and willing to involve themselves in such pathetically vacuous enterprises.
Exactly ! See my #59. which I typed before i saw yours.
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