The Bush administration is in danger of being subject to prosecution under RICO statutes.
“WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chief presidential adviser Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he talked with two journalists before they divulged the identity of a CIA officer but that he originally learned about the operative from the news media and not government sources, according to a person briefed on the testimony.
The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.
Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story.”
If true, this would seem to indicate that Novak used Rove to confirm what he had heard from another source. Who is that other source? Elliot Abrams (of Iran-Contra fame) and “Scooter” Libby (Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff) have been named as other possible sources. My bias leads me to Abrams who has a track record of having a skewed sense of loyalty. During the Reagan years he showed us that his allegiance is to his ideology, not to the Constitution of the United States.
What’s more important is the disregard for the rule of law that continues to be shown by “The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity.”
A reporter sits in jail because she refused to rat on an anonymous source; now someone is committing a crime by anonymously revealing accounts of secret grand jury testimony that appears to exonerate Rove. Who could that source “who works in the legal profession” possibly be? The brazenness of Rove’s legal team is of epic proportions.
The thing is that the leak exonerates Rove only to those who want to believe. For the rest of us it serves as a reminder that rats like Rove seldom work alone. The Reagan years taught us the wisdom of building plausible deniability into the plan. How difficult is it to set up a scenario in which Abrams, Libby or some other hack leaks the information to reporters, along with a list of names of those in the know? The diligent reporter then calls one or two of those on the list for confirmation. What you have is a plausibly deniable leak, a perfect leak.
I hate to use the “C” word but when two or more people act in concert to break the law, that’s a criminal conspiracy. When they then act in concert to cover up the aforementioned criminal activity, that’s another criminal conspiracy. The Bush administration is in danger of being subject to prosecution under RICO (Racketeer Influenced Criminal Organization) statutes.
The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.
Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story.”
If true, this would seem to indicate that Novak used Rove to confirm what he had heard from another source. Who is that other source? Elliot Abrams (of Iran-Contra fame) and “Scooter” Libby (Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff) have been named as other possible sources. My bias leads me to Abrams who has a track record of having a skewed sense of loyalty. During the Reagan years he showed us that his allegiance is to his ideology, not to the Constitution of the United States.
What’s more important is the disregard for the rule of law that continues to be shown by “The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity.”
A reporter sits in jail because she refused to rat on an anonymous source; now someone is committing a crime by anonymously revealing accounts of secret grand jury testimony that appears to exonerate Rove. Who could that source “who works in the legal profession” possibly be? The brazenness of Rove’s legal team is of epic proportions.
The thing is that the leak exonerates Rove only to those who want to believe. For the rest of us it serves as a reminder that rats like Rove seldom work alone. The Reagan years taught us the wisdom of building plausible deniability into the plan. How difficult is it to set up a scenario in which Abrams, Libby or some other hack leaks the information to reporters, along with a list of names of those in the know? The diligent reporter then calls one or two of those on the list for confirmation. What you have is a plausibly deniable leak, a perfect leak.
I hate to use the “C” word but when two or more people act in concert to break the law, that’s a criminal conspiracy. When they then act in concert to cover up the aforementioned criminal activity, that’s another criminal conspiracy. The Bush administration is in danger of being subject to prosecution under RICO (Racketeer Influenced Criminal Organization) statutes.
posted by Unknown at 7/27/2005 07:35:00 PM
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