CIA Leak Probe Relatively Inexpensive

WashPost ^ | 9-27-06 | Carol Leonnig

[STARWISE]

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who investigated whether senior Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of a CIA operative for political payback, has spent $1.4 million in his probe over the past three years, his office reported yesterday -- a figure that establishes him as remarkably frugal in the ranks of recent special investigators.

Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr's investigations of President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and his ties to the failed Whitewater land investment cost $71.5 million and took eight years. Independent Counsel David M. Barrett's examination of Clinton housing secretary Henry G. Cisneros over an extramarital affair and potential illegal payments cost $21 million and lasted 10 years.

Nevertheless, some are already arguing about whether the parsimonious prosecutor's expenditures in the Valerie Plame case were worth the results.

Fitzgerald's probe roiled the White House, laid bare an Oval Office intent on squelching a critic of the Iraq war and forced reporters to do the unthinkable -- name their confidential sources. Though Fitzgerald debated for months whether to charge Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove with a crime, the investigation eventually led to no charges of a criminal leak.

[ravingnutter]

Have you seen this:

U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Being Evacuated

This was where the Scooter's hearing was to be held. Fitzgerald was already in the building, Scooter had not arrived yet. Reminds me of when kids play pranks and call in bomb threats in order to get out of test at school...maybe Fitzgerald got cold feet, LOL!

[wildbill]

Right! Actually these government employees weren't going to be doing anything important anyway so it was a good thing that Fitzgerald found them something to do.

[Enchante]

"Fitzgerald's probe roiled the White House, laid bare an Oval Office intent on squelching a critic of the Iraq war...."

What a pile of 'Rat feces!! This mantra of the MSM (adopted from the sleazebag David Corn and Joe Wilson himself) is truly psychotic - no amount of failed lib articles and Joe Wilson rants can hide the FACT that there is not a shred of evidence that anyone in the WH tried to "squelch" blowhard Wilson. This is what the left has come down to, any attempt to gather FACTS and reply to one of the most depraved traitors in this nation's history amounts to trying to "squelch" him. Yup, the left says "let us rant and rail and rave, and don't you dare try to reply."