Cunningham, CIFA, and Cheney, a New Chronology

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In light of the news that Alberto Gonzales granted Cheneypresidential powers to snoop into ongoing investigations in May 2006, I thoughtit was time to update my chronology of the CIFA side of the Cunningham scandal.

  • September 2002, then Deputy Secretary of Defense for Counter-Intelligence Burtt establishes CIFA to oversee counterintelligence units of the armed services; consulting on the new agency was James King, recently retired director of National Imagery and Mapping Agency and MZM vice president
  • Late 2002, Cunningham gets Mitchell Wade a data storage contract worth $6 million, of which $5.4 was profit
  • January 2004, Cunningham adds $16.5 million to defense authorization for a "collaboration     center" that appears to include business for Wade’s company
  • June 27, 2005, James King takes over MZM
  • August 2005 Veritas announces takeover of MZM–will become Athena
  • November 28, 2005, Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery
  • November 30, 2005, USNORTHCOM JPEN deletes all TALON reports
  • December 2005, Pincus reveals a CIFA database contains raw intelligence data on peace activists (and, presumably, Jesus’ General)
  • March 2006, prosecutors in the Cunningham case are reviewing CIFA contracts to MZM
  • March 2006, Stephen Cambone announces an investigation of CIFA’s contracting
  • Goss implicated in Cunningham scandal
  • May 4, 2006, Gonzales gives himself authority to "communicate directly … regarding any matter within the Read more →

Let the Sunshine In

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I’m with David Kurtz. In addition to offering good reason to begin impeachment procedures, Bush’s dangerous claims to executive and deliberative privilege really ought to invite us to reconsider the notion that Presidents need to hide their deliberations.

As long as we’re going to be discussing the parameters of executiveprivilege in the weeks and months ahead, can we start by revisiting thenow commonly accepted notion that the President can only get free andunfettered advice if those giving the advice know it will remainconfidential?

Every talking head starts the discussion of executive privilege witha solemn nod to this totem. Heck, even Kevin Drum conceded this pointin a post back in March: 

The president and his immediate staff really do have astrong interest in their ability to receive candid, provocative advice,and that interest is threatened if advisors are worried that the ideasthey toss around in private are likely to become public. This is animportant principle regardless of who occupies the White House.

Is that really true though? Literally, Kevin is right. Presidents dohave a strong interest in this principle. But the President’s interest,in this instance, is not in line with the public interest. In fact,executive privilege offers the President and his advisers a perversedisincentive to Read more →

Dear Congress

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John Bates has issued a ruling I’ve been anticipating–dismissing the Wilson lawsuit against Cheney, Rove, Libby, and Armitage. If I’m reading correctly, Bates ruled that he has no jurisdiction to rule in this matter.

This Court therefore lacks subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ tort claim for public disclosure of private facts.

He therefore did not deal with many of the arguments the Wilsons and the defendants raised in this case–including Cheney’s claim to absolute immunity. But he prefaces his detailed discussion with the following comment.

The merits of plaintiffs’ claims pose important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials.

All of which is a 40-page way of saying what Cheney and Libby and Rove and Armitage did was wrong. But a civil suit is not the appropriate venue to address that wrong. And with Bush’s self-serving commutation of Libby’s sentence, the criminal courts have been foreclosed as the means to address that wrong, too.

Which leaves Congress. There is abundant evidence already in the public record showing top members of the Administration–including Bush himself–abused their positions of power to rebut Joe Wilson. Some of those actions–including the commutation itself, since it removed Bush from criminal liability for his actions–fit Read more →

Propaganda Squared

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I’ve been referring to Brigadier Bergner as Baghdad Bergner since he first started giving press conferences. There was the press conference where he blamed Iran for the woes in Iraq, based on the interrogation of one Shiite. There’s this press conference where he blamed all the woes in Iraq on Al Qaeda in Iraq. The man clearly has no shame at telling the most transparent lies–from a podium not far from where his predecessor Baghdad Bob used to do the same.

But I gotta say, as someone whose credentials for analyzing all things postmodern are impeccable, this makes me dizzy.

In March, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, andhis purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV. But on Wednesday,Abu Omar Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an Al Qaeda-affiliated groupin Iraq, was declared nonexistent by U.S. military officials, who saidhe was a fictional character created to give an Iraqi face to aforeign-run terrorist organization.

An Iraqi actor has been usedto read statements attributed to Baghdadi, who since October has beenidentified as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq group, said U.S.Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner.

Bergner said the new information came from a man captured July 4,described as the highest-ranking Iraqi within the Islamic State of Iraq.

Hesaid the detainee, identified as Khalid Abdul Fatah Daud MahmoudMashadani, has served as a propaganda chief in the organization, aSunni Muslim insurgent group that swears allegiance to Osama binLaden’s Al Qaeda.

Here’s our shameless propaganda chief, claiming that their shameless propaganda chief invented a bogeyman that we could then say we had captured. Because it’s not like we’ve invented such bogeymans for our own use, nuh uh, not us. And conveniently, this little hall of mirrors ends up right back where BushCo would like to have us, with the claim that Al Qaeda in Iraq is Al Qaeda is the War on Terror is the never-ending war is the big bogeyman no one seems to care about anymore.

Now, to her credit, reporter Tina Susman provides two caveats presumably designed to suggest she can tell bullshit when she sees it:

AGAG Says “Good Job”–but about What?

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Al Kamen chronicles the latest joy-ridden interaction between Alberto Gonzales and Patrick Fitzgerald.

In the Justice Department‘s Great Hall (the very room where giant, blue drapes covered the underdressed statuary during John Ashcroft‘s tenure as attorney general), an array of prosecutors, securities regulators and FBI honchos gathered yesterday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force.

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who famously prosecuted former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby, was chatting with a pair of reporters about his upcoming appearance on the National Public Radio program "Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!" when none other than Attorney General Alberto "Fredo" Gonzales appeared at his side.

"Good job," Gonzales said, extending his hand to Fitzgerald. Must havebeen thinking of Fitzgerald’s office’s successful prosecution last weekof media mogul Conrad Black for fraud, obstruction, etc. Fitzgerald, taken aback, didn’t say much in response, our colleague Carrie Johnson reports.

I suppose the context–an event on Corporate Fraud might support the explanation that AGAG was complimenting Fitzgerald on his successful prosecution of Conrad Black. But that’s not the only thing Fitzgerald has done in the last few weeks that might please Bush’s Fredo. After all, in an attempt to salvage some modicum Read more →

The Resignation of CIFA’s Top Management

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I’m still reading the November 2005 affidavit on Cunningham’s bribery. It has a previously unknown level of detail on the CIFA-related pork Cunningham made possible. I think some of those details provide new insight into why the Director and Deputy Director of CIFA resigned (speaking of "trepidation") in August 2006, when the Cunningham investigation was focusing closely on CIFA.

The affidavit provides details of the involvement of the top management of CIFA in Cunningham’s deals for MZM. In particular, Deputy Director Hefferon intervened directly to make sure MZM still got its contracts.

A letter signed by Cunningham on or before February 24,2004, congratulates the Director of
CIFA regarding the Collaboration Center, stating in full as follows (emphasis added):I wish to take this opportunity to thank your staff for supporting the recent execution of the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) Collaboration Center Program. Additionally, I wish to endorse and support MZM, Idc.’s work, under your Statement of Work, DTD 20Feb04. As the Collaboration Center is completed, I hope to help you inaugurate the center as I did
at the inception of CIFA. According to Wade, MZM actually authored this letter on Cunningham’s congressional stationary.

[snip]

That same day, at approximately 12:26 p.m., Wiatrak objects: "Because we are being Read more →

MZM’s Republican AND DEMOCRATIC Congressmen

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I’m working my way through this November 2005 affidavit relating to the Cunningham scandal (hat tip Kentucky Jelly). But this paragraph and footnote jumped out at me, especially in light of Democratic refusal to declassify the complete report on Cunningham’s House Intelligence Committee contracting.

On a page entitled "Election Impact on Congressional Mandates," Wade listed a number of politicians, starting with Cunningham, all of whom won reelection in November 2002. Wade
commented at the bottom of the slide: "Election enhanced MZM, Inc. . . . Thus CIFA Position." On a page entitled ‘Benefits to CIFA from Congressional Mandates Initiative Support," Wade trumpeted as one item: ‘Delivery of over $6?.62M in the last three fiscal years over budget — no other entity within the CIFA family has accomplished this task."

[footnote] The Members of Congress listed by Wade are: Congressmen Randy Cunningham, Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, Duncan Hunter, [Jerry] Lewis, Allan Mollohan, John Murtha, David Weldon and Bill Young, and Senators Robert Byrd, Larry Craig, Robert Dole; Orin Hatch, Daniel Inouye, Trent Lott, Jay Rockefeller and Richard Shelby.

This isn’t all that big a surprise. After all, both Murtha and Mollohan appear on lists of the most corrupt Congressmen. Byrd is the kind of pork. Read more →

Desperation at the DOJ

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The DOJ’s refusal to let John Tanner testify before the House Judiciary Committee reeks of desperation. After all, Brad Schlozman and Hans Von Spakovsky have already testified before Congress. Alberto Gonzales has testified repeatedly. What possible excuse can DOJ make not to allow Tanner to testify, ostensibly a career employee?

The absence of any good reason to refuse the request for his testimony suggests DOJ–and the Administration–is particularly worried about what he would say under oath. He would have to admit to:

There may be one more thing DOJ and the Bush Adminsitration are trying to prevent Tanner from admitting under oath. This ePluribusMedia article suggests that Tanner’s single-minded interest in becoming Vote Section chief seems to be stronger than his racism and Republican partisanship. Which raises the possibility he adopted such racist policies in exchange for the job he has wanted for over Read more →

Useful Details about Armitage Might Be In There

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As predicted, Tom Maguire links to the two affidavits I made available yesterday without pointing out what those affidavits say: that in Fall 2004, Fitzgerald was still actively investigating Armitage and Novak and Rove and Libby on the Novak leak–because their stories all contradicted what the others were saying. Let me help you out, Tom, by quoting the entire passage on Armitage and the Novak column:

A brief discussion is in order to place the Libby conversation with Miller–and the evidence of a broader effort to disseminate information discrediting Wilson–in context with the Novak column and to address the assertion by Miller that Miller’s interview may not be necessary "if the government has already interviewed or otherwise queried Mr. Novak."

Let me interject two points. First, Miller’s complaint might as well stand in for the Libby Lobby, since the complaint is the same, that Fitzgerald shouldn’t have to proceed beyond Novak. And second: note that Fitzgerald references "evidence of a broader effort" to smear Wilson. That means Fitzgerald saw the Novak leak–with or without Richard Armitage’s role–to be part of a larger effort. Now back to Fitzgerald:

The investigation to date has conclusively established that columnist Robert Novak spoke to Deputy Secretary of Read more →

Where is Mary McCarthy Now?

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Reuters reports that the EU report on secret prisons got much of its information from anonymous US intelligence officers.

Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details ofsecret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday.  

SwissSenator Dick Marty, author of a Council of Europe report on the jails,said senior CIA officials disapproved of Rumsfeld’s methods in huntingdown terrorist suspects, and had agreed to talk to him on condition ofanonymity.

 

"There were huge conflicts between the CIA andRumsfeld. Many leading figures in the CIA did not accept these methodsat all," Marty told European Parliament committees, defending his workagainst complaints it was based on unnamed sources.

Which makes me wonder where Mary McCarthy is now. You remember–she was the CIA’s Deputy Inspector General fired last year for allegedly leaking classified information, including details on the secret prisons in Poland and Romania.

But another CIA officer — the agency’s deputy inspector general,who for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminalmistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan –was startled to hear what she considered an outright falsehood,according to people familiar with her account. It came during thediscussion of legislation Read more →

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