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March 16, 2007
More Fire on Cheney Please

Watching the Waxman Oversight Committee on Valerie Plame there seem to be some points that will further get the White House into trouble.

Waxman says the CIA confirmed to him that Plame was undercover – so no doubts on that. Then Plame was under questioning and confirmed this too (Wilson must be a lucky man btw.)

Later the committee questioned the director of the White House office of security, James Knodell. The White House first had tried to keep him away from the hearing, but Waxman insisted.

The man, a career employee – not a political appointment, confirmed that Rove had the duty to report to his office that he had breached the security by uncovering Valerie Plame. Even if he had thought she was not undercover, he should have done so immediately after the first public discussions. He says neither Rove or anybody else did so and that there should have been an investigation into this but none was done. I wonder what might be construed from that.

It is just one detail and it may not matter at all. The bigger issue is the whole process that was involved in selling the Iraq war and slowly, slowly this may come to light by such committee hearings.

Together with the Rove involvement in the US Attorney firing it is another impact near the President. The big issue that is still missing in the congress investigation circus is the illegal NSA spying. I wonder who (Conyers?) and when that case will be taken up.

The hearing fire is becoming more dense and one wonders when someone or something in the White House may break through simple
overload.

All of these hardly matter in what will be divulged. But it keeps the President’s staff busy and pulls it away from doing more damage. Even Karl Rove can only have so many meetings a day. If those are all about how to cover for the next round of congress subpoenas, some nasty stuff that was originally planned may well get pushed down the road.

But the bigger danger is Cheney and his shadow government. Is there any investigation touching his immediate realm? In his latest piece Seymour Hersh reported on a new Iran-Contra like effort led from Cheney’s office. Like Tom Engelhardt I wonder why nobody in the media seems to be on that trail.

Starting with the immediate response on 9.11, when Bush was on a plane and Cheney gave the orders, there are many Cheney issues that deserve some attention. The various committees in Congress certainly should put some effort there too.

Posted by b on March 16, 2007 at 19:51 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Indeed, it is hard to figure.
The move Rice made recently regarding North Korea at least seemed independent of, even negative to Cheney’s agenda.
First, one might think Cheney had been weakened. But that might be a mistake, if for nothing else because a bear like Mr. Snarly is probably most dangerous when crossed.
This sudden focus on terror and the gov’t’s success implied in the public confessions of Mr. Kahlid are troubling. Was its publication now just to gain time and defuse the affect of other scandals — or was its purpose to alert us to Danger, remind us of our Fear and prepare us for yet another bold attack upon the Enemy?
Like I said it’s hard to figure.
Has anybody heard anything about reinforcements to the two carrier groups in the Persian Gulf. I’ve read rumors/hints that a third and even a fourth are on the way, but nothing concrete.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Mar 16 2007 20:54 utc | 1

It is so hard to create an opinion, the Amazon is there, it needs no justification it merely is and it is because it flows and one day it meanders here and another day it meanders there.. reality needs no justification but our understanding is restless and wants to see what it is as if it were the result of causes. The USA has a huge problem and will be transformed into some other problem by itself and that will be a revelation of what the spirit of the USA is actually, by passing from one possibility into another. If I were younger I might think that by acting I would change the flow of reality but I no longer think so.

Posted by: jlcg | Mar 16 2007 21:35 utc | 2

waxman stated in the hearings he had tried to get congress to check out this matter previously. chances are fitz introduced enough info in the trial that is public record that combined w/testimony that couldn’t be introduced at trial (like her covert status) waxman may very well feel there is enough to go on to open an investigation that could drag on for quite awhile.
obviously the WH left no paper trail of any involvement because they would have had to turn it over to fitz. i think one of the most damning things is the lie, i assume it is a lie, that the prez declassified portions of the nie to leak to miller. they just did it after the fact and since the VP wasn’t authorized to declassify it by word of mouth w/no paper trail they had to drag the prez in. so any conspiracy would have had to include him.
the concept of conspiracy was introduced. i wouldn’t be surprised if somebody, fitz, whoever, has orchestrated a line of questioning w/the help of fitz that sets a trap or leads down an inevitable path.
one thing that really stood out for me during tonsings incessant yapping about how plame was not covert under this law she developed because T claimed plame hadn’t traveled covertly during the last 5 years which plame made very clear she in fact did.
another red herring was this claim that plame suggested sending her husband, she debunked that. so perhaps there was an overriding crime that does fit the circumstance. i’m comfortable w/this dragging on for the next few years. even if libby is pardoned of the crime of lying to the grand jury he still hasn’t been charged w/other crimes that he could have commited (like conspiracy) and i’m sure he is aware of that. ultimately i’m sure they are aware w/the slow wheels of justice any trial to come out of this could mean convictions that occur after the regime is up,hence, no cronies around to pardon.
i got the feeling fitz didn’t play all his cards, not in the least, and the fdl crowd mentioned during the trial a number of witnesses fitz could have called but didn’t. w.all that grand jury testimony to draw from, i imagine things could get very very interesting. plus, we still have plame’s civil trial to look forward to. don’t think the WH isn’t considering that.

Posted by: annie | Mar 16 2007 22:40 utc | 3

Then Plame was under questioning and confirmed this too (Wilson must be a lucky man btw.)
Yes very lucky indeed.
I get the hope that the intelligensia are pushing back big time now in DC. I can’t wait to read what Ms. Coulter/Malkin have to say about bright spark Valerie.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Mar 16 2007 22:44 utc | 4

more from fdl. empty wheel focuses in immediately on the nie and bush/cheney role as well.

Posted by: annie | Mar 16 2007 23:50 utc | 5

N. Korea deal dead?
China Matters has the skinny on a possible unraveling of the N. Korea agreement. The Treasury Department has evidently scuttled the deal to lift sanctions on the Macao bank that NK uses, the supposition is that the neo-cons have struck back once again.
NK is still mum about it, but China has expressed their displeasure.
I’m curious to know if this would even cross onto Feckless Leader’s radar screen. Christopher Hill must be displeased, and I would think he would complain to Condi, but can she put it in the plain and simple terms that FL could understand? Can anyone?
From the outside it appears that such decisions are not made by FL, the realists and the neo-cons run a continual game of gotcha behind the scenes that must make interpreting US policy a difficult matter for friend and foe alike. Despite reports that the realists have the upper hand, the surge and now this episode cast doubt on that.

Posted by: Dick Durata | Mar 17 2007 2:15 utc | 6

since I have been down with a cold/flu/my ears won’t unstop, even after ear candles and if mucus were pennies I’d be a millionaire (more than you wanted to read, eh…)
I have spent my time between naps watching and rewatching and rewatching The Men Who Killed Kennedy via Google video. I already know the story, so if I go to sleep I can pick up on the plot, and I keep watching it because it is so elemental to my and many other (tho probably not most now) living American’s experience of this nation.
Over and over I watch grown men cry when they must admit that a conspiracy which had to involve some element of the government of this nation was responsible for the murder of Kennedy…and the murder of their belief in this nation’s claims to democracy, and their hope for justice in this world.
I think about what my experience of this nation has been… Kennedy’s assassination, Vietnam, Nixon/Watergate, Kissinger and Pinochet, investigations shut down, criminals pardoned, Reagan and Ollie North and a cake shaped like a Bible with coupons for munitions inside for their “enemies” the Iranians who released those hostages as a way to say “WAKE UP” to Americans, but those Mickey Mouse pictures flipping a bird to Iran made them feel good about themselves again after My Lai and that Carter who wanted to force folks out of their pickups and BCCI for terrorists of any persuasion, and drug money for more black ops and the Savings and Loan/Neil Bush crap that American taxpayers floated for him, and Republicans who were fucking their mistresses and licking whipped cream off stripper’s nipples while they waged war on Clinton’s bended penis, and Ann Coulter’s call to communicate with liberals with a baseball bat, and Poppa Bush and Baby Bush and Chene, Chene, Chen-ey — Cheney’s fools.
And how long, how long till some truth comes out about the last seven years.
Isn’t Cheney just the designated hitter at the moment for the oil-i-garchs and the weapons makers who drive this economy, and the intel agencies, et al, who left their humanity at the door of a cell in Abu Ghraib…if not at the school of the americas.
What hope is there for a nation that doesn’t want to know the truth, whose news agencies are committed to hiding the truth? — Whose leaders hate democracy? –A nation with a vocal minority with a megaphone who calls anyone who opposes their fascism a communist?
Surely the powers that be know there’s too much dirty laundry in the Bush administration and they need some limited hang out to keep people off the streets, what with Christians actually marching in Washington against killing and all that…and where are THEIR good christian values… the hate of fags and birth control is where god resides.
And how many people, after all these many years, still defend the “lone gunman” theory, even after the American govt. finally had to admit, more than thirty years ago, that there were at least two gunmen (and three, really, for a triangulated professional hit, which it was).
and btw, Saddam had wmds.
/rant
Cheney, go fuck yourself.

Posted by: fauxreal | Mar 17 2007 2:49 utc | 7

fauxreal,
Seriously, nice rant…
Someone needs to write the complete lyrics to “Chene, Chene, Chen-ey — Cheney’s fools”
hope you feel better soon.

Posted by: Rick | Mar 17 2007 3:04 utc | 8

They’re getting increasinly desperate and have had to play a trump card in their war game just to deflect domestic flak when they’d planned it would stir the ‘surge’. I doubt even a Tonkin could swing it for them now. For me, the worst thing is that they’ve pretty much destroyed what positive influence the States/West had in a world where countless atrocities rule over the human spirit. When ‘free’ people vote for their own savage slavery, what is the point of democracy?

Posted by: Raveheart | Mar 17 2007 3:17 utc | 9

oh, and since I seem to be awake for the moment, and sorry this is not totally ot tho it may seem to be so – over on HuffPo I find less and less reason to read the innanity, and I finally cut the cord because I saw a headline that read something about “CIA Glam” whatever and spent the lede paragraphs talking about Plame’s hottiness…not that’s she’s not, but in journalism, you shouldn’t bury the lede under a dye job…
anyway, so, I posted a comment saying something of the same, but added…and why don’t you go the full Variety and write “Boffo blond CIA chick begins nix of Machiavelli hicks”
…and that was at least three hours ago and the post has never appeared. LOL. I despise the Nora Ephroning of the news so I don’t need to go there anyway.
And so, does that “journalist” over at HuffPo indicate the take by the American newspeakedia? Who gives a fuck what Plame says, as long as she says it as a blonde? hubba hubba. nudge nudge, say no more.

Posted by: fauxreal | Mar 17 2007 4:04 utc | 10

“Boffo blond CIA chick begins nix of Machiavelli hicks”
yowza baby, nice rant. get better girl. hope your runniness subsides..xx

Posted by: annie | Mar 17 2007 4:54 utc | 11

1952 time article on brewster jennings, prez of socony-vacuum [at the time], one of the seven sisters
and, not really tying into that link per se, but why do i have this feeling that the retribution slant on the outing story is scripted/acted out for official public consumption?

Posted by: b real | Mar 17 2007 5:19 utc | 12

@fauxreal, that shit ends when people begin by writing “the fat balding brunette etc. “.

Posted by: jj | Mar 17 2007 6:59 utc | 13

…but why do i have this feeling that the retribution slant on the outing story is scripted/acted out for official public consumption?
You may be on to something b real..
get this:
Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings
snip:
The thing is, Brewster Jennings was ‘outed’ (privately, within the criminal network) long before Valerie Plame was officially outed. In fact, Brewster Jennings’ cover was blown in the Summer of 2001 by Marc Grossman.
snip:
Later, in April 2006, we confronted Sibel with this set of facts and ask her to go on the record. Sibel’s line about Plame and Brewster Jennings is just gold. She said: “During my time at the FBI, I never heard the name Valerie Plame – but if you are asking me about Brewster Jennings, that’s another story, a story that I cannot comment on because I cannot talk about anything that I did at the FBI – and the targets and the details of the investigations.” The message is crystal clear: there are mentions of Brewster Jennings on the wiretaps! Praises to Sibel to be so smart in front of a camera.”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 17 2007 8:09 utc | 14

What Rick and annie said faux. Be better soon. And it’s always open season on blonds, one way or another.

Posted by: beq | Mar 17 2007 10:32 utc | 15

…but why do i have this feeling that the retribution slant on the outing story is scripted/acted out for official public consumption?
Oh yeah, baby. Yesterday’s NYT and WaPo online headlines were: Plame “rebukes” “derides” WH, whose motives were “purely political”. On CNNI, the brief Ed Henry (?) story focused on the “personal face” of the outing – how this woman lost her career. I was mildly surprised he didn’t give hand-flapping motor mouth Toenails half the vid-time. Just a vindictive blonde here, folks, move along.
Oh, and pass me your cough syrup, will you please fauxreal?

Posted by: Hamburger | Mar 17 2007 11:19 utc | 16

uncle, from your 14 link..
In any case, it’ll be interesting to see if any of this comes out in the hearings today. As you know, Waxman knows all of this – Sibel has briefed his office in classified hearings – and it appears that he is going to make a decision (& announcement) early next week about whether he will hold separate hearings into her case.
this is excellent news. i called his and conyers offices a few days ago. both receptionists were extremely receptive to my calls expressing how requests for edmonds hearings had been escalating.
it would be amazing if we had simultaneous plame/edmonds hearings that dovetailed.

Posted by: annie | Mar 17 2007 14:26 utc | 17

Val must be the first undercover agent, who, after uncovering (to use the term in the head post, it made me laugh..) appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair… What we see here is a semi-real soap, I think. A genre that is increasing in popularity all the time.
And Sibel is more attractive than Val.
More seriously, the murder of David Kelley (and the Inquiry by Lord Hutton etc.) seems simpler; The Brits keep up a distinction between tabloid plots, which are frothy and tangential, and covert matters of State, which are treated seriously, in committee, with utter unscrupulousness.

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 17 2007 19:43 utc | 18

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