Archive for category: emptywheel

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 →

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 →

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 →

This is a follow-up to my post speculating that Cheney got his talking point about DOD and State being interested in the Iraq intell from the documents Valerie Wilson wrote before Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger. This post will do something very simple: show where that talking point shows up, and where it doesn’t. This post raises more questions than answers–about the real function of Libby’s note, about Cathie Martin’s role, and about Libby’s conversation with Novak. But I happen to think they’re really fascinating questions.

As I’ve stated before, the DOD/State talking point doesn’t show up in the article it was purportedly intended for. Here’s what Pincus’ article says about the genesis of the trip:

The CIA’s decision to send an emissary to Niger was triggered byquestions raised by an aide to Vice President Cheney during an agencybriefing on intelligence circulating about the purported Iraqi effortsto acquire the uranium, according to the senior officials. Cheney’sstaff was not told at the time that its concerns had been the impetusfor a CIA mission and did not learn it occurred or its specific results.

The simplest explanation for why the talking point doesn’t appear in the article is that CIA got involved–around 5:30 PM on Thursday, June 11–too late to get it to Pincus in time for a Friday morning article. It’s also possible that CIA refused to confirm the talking point on the record.

The talking point also doesn’t appear in the Judis-Ackerman article that appeared later in June.

One year earlier, Cheney’s office had received from the British, viathe Italians, documents purporting to show Iraq’s purchase of uraniumfrom Niger. Cheney had given the information to the CIA, which in turnasked a prominent diplomat, who had served as ambassador to threeAfrican countries, to investigate.

That’s not a surprise either–there’s no indication this article includes any input from OVP–though the absence of the talking point does suggest Ackerman and Judis’ sources, which may or may not have CIA ties, are in no mood or position to describe State and DOD’s interest.

This is the post I’ve been promising for weeks, in which I will speculate wildly as to the source of Cheney’s knowledge about Plame’s role at CPD and in her husband’s trip. Here’s the argument, in brief:

• Cheney learns during the week of June 9 that "Defense and State expressed a strong interestin the Niger intelligence"
• At a time when Cheney presumably already knew that information, he tried to get CIA to repeat it in such a way that it could be published
• This suggests he could not use his original source for that information (either because the source refused to publish that information or because he wanted to hide the source itself)
• One possible explanation (this is speculation, mind you) is that Cheney saw Valerie Wilson’s emails leading up to Wilson’s trip to Niger–which would have informed him of key information–and would have made it clear that Valerie’s identity was protected