Libby attorneys identify CIA officials in Plame leak
The identity of intelligence officials who are thought to have passed information about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, surfaced in a federal court document filed Friday evening.
Separately, Libby's defense team has once again attempted to engage in a high-stakes gambit to devalue the nature of Plame Wilson's status and work with the CIA. The attorneys claim that Plame Wilson was not a very important figure at the CIA and that therefore no damage was done to national security by unmasking her identity.
"The prosecution has an interest in continuing to overstate the significance of Ms. Wilson's affiliation with the CIA," the court filing states.
However, in previous hearings, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has pointed out time and again that Plame Wilson's CIA status is not the issue. Rather it's Libby's repeated lies to the grand jury and the FBI.
Separately, Libby's defense team has once again attempted to engage in a high-stakes gambit to devalue the nature of Plame Wilson's status and work with the CIA. The attorneys claim that Plame Wilson was not a very important figure at the CIA and that therefore no damage was done to national security by unmasking her identity.
"The prosecution has an interest in continuing to overstate the significance of Ms. Wilson's affiliation with the CIA," the court filing states.
However, in previous hearings, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has pointed out time and again that Plame Wilson's CIA status is not the issue. Rather it's Libby's repeated lies to the grand jury and the FBI.
National Lawyers Guild calls for the impeachment of South Dokota Governor Michael Rounds for signing anti-abortion legislation
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls for the impeachment of South Dakota Governor Michael Rounds for signing a bill that would effectively outlaw abortion in South Dakota. The Governor and proponents of the law have openly declared that the law is intended as “a direct frontal assault” to Roe v. Wade. The NLG opposes this unconstitutional action by Governor Rounds. We call for his immediate impeachment and for the law not to be implemented.
The age of anxiety redux
Airplanes crashing into buildings. Daily body counts from Iraq and Afghanistan. Hospitals filled with hideously mutilated young service men and women. Prisoners being tortured and abused. People being beheaded. Religious leaders urging us to “take out” heads of state. Katrina survivors stranded on rooftops while FEMA fiddles. Tsunami victims stranded nowhere -- just gone.
These are only a few of the kinds of grisly images bombarding the American people every day.
To which we can add the 24/7 menu of relentless television alarums: 90-mile-an-hour car chases, online child pornographers getting busted, corporate executives and congressmen being frog-walked to the slammer in handcuffs, judges receiving death threats, murdered children found in shallow graves, millions dead and displaced in Darfur, children dying from HIV-AIDS and many totally curable diseases, ports being turned over to ‘Muslim terrorists’, phone calls and emails being intercepted, and on and on and on.
These are only a few of the kinds of grisly images bombarding the American people every day.
To which we can add the 24/7 menu of relentless television alarums: 90-mile-an-hour car chases, online child pornographers getting busted, corporate executives and congressmen being frog-walked to the slammer in handcuffs, judges receiving death threats, murdered children found in shallow graves, millions dead and displaced in Darfur, children dying from HIV-AIDS and many totally curable diseases, ports being turned over to ‘Muslim terrorists’, phone calls and emails being intercepted, and on and on and on.
Most Democratic senators fail as presidential candidates
The Feingold resolution to censure Bush over illegal wiretapping is the single most important measure of qualification for 2008 Democratic Presidential candidates. The measure is incredibly mild. Democratic Senators should be calling for impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney based on this issue. The failure of all other Democratic Senators to support the Feingold censure resolution completely disqualifies them to represent Democrats in the 2008 Presidential election in the opinion of Democratic Talk Radio.
The censuring of Bush over illegal wiretapping is supported by 70 percent of Democrats in the latest American Research Group http://www.americanresearchgroup.com poll on the issue. Independents are fairly evenly split. Only Republicans strongly oppose the censuring of Bush, although a significant Republican minority does support the measure. Senate Democrats with the exception of Senator Feingold are demonstrating a spineless character that shames Democratic activists everywhere.
The censuring of Bush over illegal wiretapping is supported by 70 percent of Democrats in the latest American Research Group http://www.americanresearchgroup.com poll on the issue. Independents are fairly evenly split. Only Republicans strongly oppose the censuring of Bush, although a significant Republican minority does support the measure. Senate Democrats with the exception of Senator Feingold are demonstrating a spineless character that shames Democratic activists everywhere.
Domestic lying: The question that journalists don’t ask Bush
With great fanfare the other day, Oprah Winfrey asked James Frey a
question that mainstream journalists refuse to ask George W. Bush:
“Why would you lie?”
Many pundits and news outlets have chortled at the televised unmasking of Frey as a liar. The reverberations have spanned from schlock media to highbrow outlets. On Friday, the PBS “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” devoted an entire segment to what happened. The New York Times supplemented its page-one coverage with an editorial that concluded “Ms. Winfrey gave the audience, including us, what it was hoping for: a demand to hear the truth.”
A key reality of the National Security Agency spying story is: President Bush lied. But routinely missing from media coverage is a demand to hear the truth.
Many pundits and news outlets have chortled at the televised unmasking of Frey as a liar. The reverberations have spanned from schlock media to highbrow outlets. On Friday, the PBS “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” devoted an entire segment to what happened. The New York Times supplemented its page-one coverage with an editorial that concluded “Ms. Winfrey gave the audience, including us, what it was hoping for: a demand to hear the truth.”
A key reality of the National Security Agency spying story is: President Bush lied. But routinely missing from media coverage is a demand to hear the truth.
A powerful new voting block emerges: The anti-war movement becoming a political force that cannot be ignored
A new national poll shows that a near majority of voters either strongly or somewhat agree with a pledge not to vote for pro-war candidates. This makes the anti-war movement's potential impact on elections larger than pro-gun, anti-abortion, or anti-gay marriage voters. Politicians will have to pay heed to this new political force.
The pledge states:
“I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression a public position in his or her campaign.”
The national poll found that 55.9% of US voters agree – 20.1% strongly agree and 25.8% somewhat agree. Among Democrats 67.1% agreed – 33.3% strongly, 59.2% of Independents – 25.3% strongly and even 25.7% of Republicans agreed – 5.5% strongly. The poll was conducted by ICR Survey Research of Media, Pa., which also polls for ABC News, The Washington Post and many corporations and research organizations.
The pledge states:
“I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression a public position in his or her campaign.”
The national poll found that 55.9% of US voters agree – 20.1% strongly agree and 25.8% somewhat agree. Among Democrats 67.1% agreed – 33.3% strongly, 59.2% of Independents – 25.3% strongly and even 25.7% of Republicans agreed – 5.5% strongly. The poll was conducted by ICR Survey Research of Media, Pa., which also polls for ABC News, The Washington Post and many corporations and research organizations.
Obstruction trial may jog Libby's memory
Attorneys representing Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case believe they have a rock solid defense to present in their client's perjury and obstruction of justice trial expected to begin next year.
In numerous court filings over the past few months, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby have maintained that their client did not intentionally lie to federal investigators and a grand jury regarding the role he played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson during the summer of 2003.
Instead, Libby's attorneys have said that their client was dealing with other, more crucial matters, such as the Iraq war, terrorism, and national security and simply forgot about how he first learned that Plame was employed by the CIA when he told the grand jury - untruthfully - that a reporter told him that she worked for the spy agency.
In numerous court filings over the past few months, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby have maintained that their client did not intentionally lie to federal investigators and a grand jury regarding the role he played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson during the summer of 2003.
Instead, Libby's attorneys have said that their client was dealing with other, more crucial matters, such as the Iraq war, terrorism, and national security and simply forgot about how he first learned that Plame was employed by the CIA when he told the grand jury - untruthfully - that a reporter told him that she worked for the spy agency.
Harman vs. Winograd, tough choice?
For the past 10 months I've worked on a project at www.afterdowningstreet.org to urge Congress Members to hold the Bush Administration accountable for crimes and abuses of power. Some Democratic members of Congress have been as helpful in this effort as Fox News. Some have been less. In that last category you can list Jane Harman.
When Congressman John Conyers wrote a letter to Bush asking him to explain the Downing Street Memo, and 120 Congress Members signed it, Harman didn't. When Barbara Lee introduced a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo, and over 100 Members co-sponsored it, Harman didn't. Kucinich's Resolution of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group? No Jane. Holt's inquiry into the Plame leak? Uh-uh. Barbara Lee's commission on pre-war intelligence? Not Harman. Lee's commission to monitor the treatment of prisoners in US custody? Jane was elsewhere.
When Congressman John Conyers wrote a letter to Bush asking him to explain the Downing Street Memo, and 120 Congress Members signed it, Harman didn't. When Barbara Lee introduced a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo, and over 100 Members co-sponsored it, Harman didn't. Kucinich's Resolution of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group? No Jane. Holt's inquiry into the Plame leak? Uh-uh. Barbara Lee's commission on pre-war intelligence? Not Harman. Lee's commission to monitor the treatment of prisoners in US custody? Jane was elsewhere.
Trust us
Something fundamental about who we are as a nation is dribbling away, it seems, without alarm or even debate. We torture prisoners - it's out in the open, a done deal. We're fighting an unnecessary war that, well, yes, was launched on a lie, but too late now; we're in, we can't get out. And our neighbor's phone is being tapped.
But the worry that trumps all others is the state of this proud, imperfect democracy. We may be surrendering our power to change the national direction or demand that government be responsive to us. My fellow Americans, our voting machines don't work, at least not all the time. The mechanism of our democracy is in chaos, and almost everyone is going along with it.
Thanks to the allegedly well-intentioned, but disastrous, Help America Vote Act, the country is shifting, county by county, to electronic voting machines, which are not only glitch-prone on a spectacular scale (e.g., 100,000 phantom votes were recorded in Tarrant County, Texas, during the state's primary last week), but work, like God, in mysterious ways, which we're not supposed to question. The results they give us are all too often unverifiable.
But the worry that trumps all others is the state of this proud, imperfect democracy. We may be surrendering our power to change the national direction or demand that government be responsive to us. My fellow Americans, our voting machines don't work, at least not all the time. The mechanism of our democracy is in chaos, and almost everyone is going along with it.
Thanks to the allegedly well-intentioned, but disastrous, Help America Vote Act, the country is shifting, county by county, to electronic voting machines, which are not only glitch-prone on a spectacular scale (e.g., 100,000 phantom votes were recorded in Tarrant County, Texas, during the state's primary last week), but work, like God, in mysterious ways, which we're not supposed to question. The results they give us are all too often unverifiable.
Beating a dead horse
It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The only thing more depressing than watching the Democratic Party cower cluelessly in a corner while the country goes to hell in a hand-basket is reading the pathetic pleas of the liberal punditocracy exhorting their party to grab the reins and forge ahead. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, folks, but your horse is dead. Flogging it is unlikely to lead to its revival.
What will it take for you to understand this?
How many golden opportunities can the Democrats blow before you get a clue?
If your party can’t make hay out of illegal wire-tapping and torture, the bloody mess in Iraq, the Abramoff scandal and Hurricane Katrina, then isn’t it time to consider an alternative?
If you really care about your country and the future of the planet, consider your options. But understand that trying to reform a stagnant, out-of-touch, corporatized culture from within isn’t one of them.
The only thing more depressing than watching the Democratic Party cower cluelessly in a corner while the country goes to hell in a hand-basket is reading the pathetic pleas of the liberal punditocracy exhorting their party to grab the reins and forge ahead. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, folks, but your horse is dead. Flogging it is unlikely to lead to its revival.
What will it take for you to understand this?
How many golden opportunities can the Democrats blow before you get a clue?
If your party can’t make hay out of illegal wire-tapping and torture, the bloody mess in Iraq, the Abramoff scandal and Hurricane Katrina, then isn’t it time to consider an alternative?
If you really care about your country and the future of the planet, consider your options. But understand that trying to reform a stagnant, out-of-touch, corporatized culture from within isn’t one of them.