Wrecking Patrick Fitzgerald?
by Larry C Johnson
from NoQuarter.com
Looks like Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney charged with investigating the leak of that identified Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA officer, has hit a real nerve and is on the verge of dropping a new legal bomb on the Bush Administration. How else to explain the sudden surge of criticism directed against Mr. Fitzgerald? A story in today's New York Times by David Johnston is the latest salvo in what looks like a coordinated assault on the steely-eyed prosecutor. Plameologist EmptyWheel has a terrific post at The Next Hurrah dissecting Johnston's shoddy attempt at journalism. His piece, at best, is speculative analysis. Unfortunately, it is uninformed analysis.
Now, I'm up front about my bias in this case. Valerie Wilson is an old friend and colleague who was an excellent case officer until Robert Novak, citing Bush Administration sources, flagged her as a CIA employee. Until that day in July 2003, her husband and her friends (who were witting of her true employment status) protected her cover. She was in the process of shifting from "non-official cover" status to "official cover". Both types of cover are protected under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
It was the Bush Administration--Richard Armitage, Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove--who spread the lie that Valerie sent her husband, Joe Wilson, to Africa as part of an elaborate conspiracy to damage the credibility of the Bush Administration. In 2003 there was publicly [sic] speculation that the Bush Administration lied to the American people about the case for going to war in Iraq. Today, the evidence of the lies is overwhelming. The question about Iraq's alleged efforts to buy uranium from Niger was one of the critical foundations of the Administration's effort to rally public support for the war. When Joe Wilson started contacting Journalists in early 2003, after the President lied in the State of the Union Address about Iraq's efforts, Dick Cheney and his minions began collecting ammunition to attack Wilson and try to destroy his credibility.
(The rest is here.)
from NoQuarter.com
Looks like Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney charged with investigating the leak of that identified Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA officer, has hit a real nerve and is on the verge of dropping a new legal bomb on the Bush Administration. How else to explain the sudden surge of criticism directed against Mr. Fitzgerald? A story in today's New York Times by David Johnston is the latest salvo in what looks like a coordinated assault on the steely-eyed prosecutor. Plameologist EmptyWheel has a terrific post at The Next Hurrah dissecting Johnston's shoddy attempt at journalism. His piece, at best, is speculative analysis. Unfortunately, it is uninformed analysis.
Now, I'm up front about my bias in this case. Valerie Wilson is an old friend and colleague who was an excellent case officer until Robert Novak, citing Bush Administration sources, flagged her as a CIA employee. Until that day in July 2003, her husband and her friends (who were witting of her true employment status) protected her cover. She was in the process of shifting from "non-official cover" status to "official cover". Both types of cover are protected under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
It was the Bush Administration--Richard Armitage, Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove--who spread the lie that Valerie sent her husband, Joe Wilson, to Africa as part of an elaborate conspiracy to damage the credibility of the Bush Administration. In 2003 there was publicly [sic] speculation that the Bush Administration lied to the American people about the case for going to war in Iraq. Today, the evidence of the lies is overwhelming. The question about Iraq's alleged efforts to buy uranium from Niger was one of the critical foundations of the Administration's effort to rally public support for the war. When Joe Wilson started contacting Journalists in early 2003, after the President lied in the State of the Union Address about Iraq's efforts, Dick Cheney and his minions began collecting ammunition to attack Wilson and try to destroy his credibility.
(The rest is here.)
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