Who's going to be indicted?

[Eagle43]

It's just after 8 a.m. central, and the press is salivating about this special prosecutor.  So, whoever is online, cast your vote.  No fair, after the announcements. 

Probably should run another poll on who should be indicted. Oh that's a good idea.  After you select whom you think will be indicted, then pick who you believe should be indicted. 

I'm picking Libby, with an inside shot at Cheney himself.  Karl Rove, crafty as usual, will remain untouched.  I believe it's much ado about nothing, so I think none of them should be.  But the sp will have to justify his time and expense, so he'll get someone.  OTOH, if it can be proven they deliberately lied about wmd, well, that would be the subject of impeachments.

I put the poll limits to one day, believing that something is gonna happen today.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I'm not voting (no reflection on the poll) because I think it's all
a bunch of crap.

JG

 

[Danny]

I'm going with Libby & Rove as the likely initial ones with the possibility that others will be drawn into the net in the coming days. Cheney among them.

 

[mikew]

Whoever's indicted, I am wondering if they will turn snitch or take a chance on going to the slammer.

 

[Danny]

Will they go to the White House and do the handcuff march with cameras following along....they do it for corporate perps....

 

[TromboneAl]

I don't think Dick Cheney can smile as broadly as DeLay did in his mugshot.

 

[Danny]

Interesting background.

At Root of Leak Probe
Is Prewar Dispute
CIA-White House Clash Over Intelligence
Set Stage for Fitzgerald's Investigation
By JAY SOLOMON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 28, 2005; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- At the root of the investigation into the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative is a feud between the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House over whether top administration officials politicized intelligence information in the buildup to the Iraq war.

With charges likely to be filed as early as today, the ripple effects of that feud are still being felt. The same tension over prewar intelligence that led to the leaking of a CIA operative's identity also led to finger-pointing between the agency and the White House and contributed to a decision to reorganize the intelligence community and put the CIA under new White House oversight. Dozens of senior CIA analysts and covert operatives, including the No. 2 at the Directorate of Operations -- the agency's clandestine network -- have in recent months left the Langley, Va., offices, often to higher wages in the private sector.

Now some intelligence professionals think indictments might help clear the air by effectively penalizing administration aides for intruding into intelligence matters and prompting the White House to tread more carefully. And that, say current and former intelligence officials, might embolden the CIA to be more forceful in its analysis, without fearing information would be twisted.

Any indictments would be a "huge deal ... because they will help restore hope that the system works," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and counterterrorism official at the State Department.

Pressed by Congress to revamp the nation's intelligence agencies after the 2001 terrorist attacks, Mr. Bush this year created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, putting intelligence agencies under one roof. The director, John Negroponte, has been stripping out some units of the CIA and placing them under his direct control. He has also been seeking to institute standard procedures across the intelligence community, such as ways to handle clandestine agents.

The White House says the new structure will allow the nation's intelligence bodies to better share information and assist law-enforcement agencies. Administration officials also say it has better positioned the U.S. government to gather intelligence overseas and at home.

On Wednesday, Mr. Negroponte announced new strategic guidelines for America's 15 intelligence agencies, stressing the need to spread democracy to combat terrorism. "Our feeling is that we must change the way we do business," Mr. Negroponte said in a briefing.

Still, some inside the intelligence community see the changes as unwarranted attacks on their operations. They also see it as adding another level of bureaucracy that impairs quick response to terrorist threats.

"There's been a huge wedge between what the analysts think and what the Bush administration wants them to say," said Michael Scheuer, who headed the CIA's special unit targeting Osama bin Laden before quitting in 2004.

Some in the intelligence community have criticized Mr. Bush's promotion of Porter Goss, a former congressman and CIA official, to oversee the restructuring of the CIA. Critics say Mr. Goss brought senior-level aides and an aloof management style that didn't mesh with the CIA's culture, and failed to restore the confidence of the U.S.'s principal intelligence body.

Resentment between the CIA and the White House, though, goes back to the earliest days of the Bush administration. The White House -- and some members of Congress -- blamed U.S. intelligence agencies for al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But even before those strikes, a number of senior White House officials sought to brand the CIA as soft in its analysis and unwilling to offer more clear-cut views on the threats to America.

The leak case grew out of tensions within the CIA itself, and between the CIA and other parts of the Bush administration, over whether intelligence showed Iraq had or was seeking weapons of mass destruction. The administration used that specter in its justification for invading Iraq. George Tenet, then director of the CIA, in some cases helped assure the White House there was a good case that Iraq had such a weapons program, but some of his own analysts had different conclusions. The dissenting views within the CIA frustrated officials in the Pentagon and White House and led to a feeling during the lead-up to the war that agency analysts were too skeptical of evidence of Iraqi wrongdoing.

At the time, some foreign intelligence reports suggested Iraq had tried to acquire uranium yellowcake, an essential ingredient in nuclear weapons, in Africa. Mr. Cheney and others in his office, including Mr. Libby, wanted more information from the CIA about the veracity of the reports. Mr. Cheney's request for details led the CIA to dispatch former diplomat Joseph Wilson, husband of CIA operative Valerie Plame, to Niger to investigate the claims. It was the leaking of Ms. Plame's identity in July 2003 that led to the current probe.

Some in the intelligence community predict that any initial indictments will snowball into broader investigations of the alleged mishandling of intelligence information by the White House and Pentagon. Recent probes into the government's intelligence failures -- such as the 9/11 Commission's and the Silbermann-Robb investigation into Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons-of-mass-destruction programs -- discounted political pressure as a root cause. But some retired intelligence operatives say the special prosecutor's report may cause these assumptions to be re-examined.

"Many people will feel vindicated," said Patrick Lang, a former head of human intelligence collection at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, who has regular contact with many active analysts and agents. "There's a deep sense of satisfaction among those who were pressured [on intelligence issues] but were told not to say they were pressured."

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Cheney and Libby indicted. Both resign to speed along the "healing" process.

Bush appoints Condoleeeeeeza as the new, first woman and first african american vice president.

 

[TromboneAl]

There's one thing about this I haven't understood:

"Wilson and his supporters have charged the leak of Plame’s name, which ended her ability to work undercover for the CIA, was designed to discredit him and punish him ..."

I'm not clear on how releasing the name would discredit him. I understand how it could punish him, but how would saying "His wife works for the CIA" discredit what he said??

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

He blew the whistle on the whole "iraq trying to buy stuff to make a nuke from north africa" bullshit. His visit there provided no evidence of that suspicion. Not what the white house wanted to hear, so they buried it. Wilson went public with the info. So the white house said he wasnt a reliable person, and the only reason why he even got the job to go do the investigation was because his wife was a cia agent and she pushed for him to get the assignment.

Basic discredit. Unfortunately a lot of badness all around. We were fed bad information from people who knew better, and when someone wanted to blow the whistle, we'll cut him down even though her safety may have been at risk as a result.

 

[Martha]

Plus, the Whitehouse's position was the the CIA had blinders on and was way too conservative on its analysis of the Iraq situation.

I voted for Scooter only. I want to change one of my dogs' names to Scooter and the other to Libby.

 

[Danny]

Libby charged with perjury, false statements, obstruction of justice.
No others charged...

 

[brewer12345]

Libby charged with perjury, false statements, obstruction of justice.
No others charged...

At least not yet. I think these indictments are just being used as a lever to crack the whole mess open so we can see all the maggots inside.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Libby charged with perjury, false statements, obstruction of justice.
No others charged...

One fall guy? Sadly, that makes sense.

 

[Eagle43]

We now have a bagholder. Question is: Will he go quietly??

 

[BigMoneyJim]

In my last post I thought that was a prediction, not a news item.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051028/pl_nm/bush_leak_dc

President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not indicted along with Libby but special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has made clear to Rove that he remains under investigation and in legal jeopardy, legal sources said.

 

[Danny]

At least not yet. I think these indictments are just being used as a lever to crack the whole mess open so we can see all the maggots inside.

Exactly my view.

We now have a bagholder. Question is: Will he go quietly??

Think the WH has been sweating more than just indictments, it's the examination of their behavior leading up to Iraq.
Hope Libby is no Liddy....

Liddy's world view is probably best explained by some of the colorful anecdotes he likes to share. At parties, Liddy was known to hold his hand over a candle flame until it burned, in order to demonstrate the merits of willpower, explaining that "the trick is not to mind the pain." Liddy was once afflicted with a fear of rats, so he caught, cooked and ate a rat, just to get over it.

The White House was a bit freaked out by such stories and other evidence of Liddy's extreme fanaticism. At one point, he reputedly sent the administration a message that he would happily stand on a street corner and wait to be assassinated, if they thought that would help.

Although no one took him up on this offer, Liddy never budged and never disclosed any incriminating information until long after it was all over. Eventually, he was convicted of conspiracy and served more than four years in prison, more than any other member of the Nixon administration. His 20-year sentence was eventually commuted by Jimmy Carter, more or less on the grounds that no one else was doing that kind of time, so there wasn't much point in singling Liddy out.

 

[laurence]

Hmmm, I wonder if a night club owner associated with the Mob with terminal cancer is going to put a couple rounds into Libby on his way to court....because if I was Libby, I'd be singing like a bird!

 

[73ss454]

I smell a rat!

Never liked rats.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Exactly my view.Think the WH has been sweating more than just indictments, it's the examination of their behavior leading up to Iraq.
Hope Libby is no Liddy....

Liddy's world view is probably best explained by some of the colorful anecdotes he likes to share. At parties, Liddy was known to hold his hand over a candle flame until it burned, in order to demonstrate the merits of willpower, explaining that "the trick is not to mind the pain." Liddy was once afflicted with a fear of rats, so he caught, cooked and ate a rat, just to get over it.

The White House was a bit freaked out by such stories and other evidence of Liddy's extreme fanaticism. At one point, he reputedly sent the administration a message that he would happily stand on a street corner and wait to be assassinated, if they thought that would help.

Although no one took him up on this offer, Liddy never budged and never disclosed any incriminating information until long after it was all over. Eventually, he was convicted of conspiracy and served more than four years in prison, more than any other member of the Nixon administration. His 20-year sentence was eventually commuted by Jimmy Carter, more or less on the grounds that no one else was doing that kind of time, so there wasn't much point in singling Liddy out.

Liddy has courage and is a smart guy. Both qualities I admire. He chose
to gut it out. For that, he has my admiration.

JG

 

[Cut-Throat]

Well - They didn't call him Scooter for nothing. He scooted well before the press conference.

 

[Nords]

Never liked rats.

I love rats, especially with a little garlic sauce...