Hinchey Leads Broad Congressional Coalition Calling For Expansion Of Plame

[ray of light]

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny22_hinchey/morenews/091505fitzgeraldletter.html

Hinchey Leads Broad Congressional Coalition
Calling For Expansion Of Plame Name Leak Investigation

Forty-One Members Of Congress Ask Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald To Examine
Bush Administration's False Uranium Claims That Led To Disclosure Of CIA Operative's Identity To Determine If Additional Federal Laws Were Broken

Washington, D.C. - Troubled by what they see as violations of federal law that prohibit making false and fraudulent statements to Congress, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and 40 of his House colleagues today sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asking that he expand his investigation of who in the Bush Administration revealed to the news media that Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a covert agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Hinchey and his colleagues urged Fitzgerald, who was designated as special prosecutor for the case, to examine the causes behind the exposure of Plame's identity -- specifically, the Bush Administration's false and fraudulent claims in January 2003 that Iraq had sought uranium for a nuclear weapon, which the Administration used as one of the key grounds to justify the invasion of Iraq.

[texpatriot2004]

1. Thank you. We need to do this. n/t

[RallyInDC]

2. hopefully if fitz's prosecutors haven't already looked into this.....

they get it all in now.....and check the entire case of record....

we need to force DSM into the open.....and FORCE congress to act on it..

[applegrove]

3. Hopefully - somehow - accountability needs to happen in this government.

[ngGale]

4. One can only hope...n/t

[ray of light]

5. For all the people

who are whining that Democrats always play dead...looks like Hinchey is round two!

AND they have taken it out of the political spere and placed it with the criminal one.

[Frances]

6. The Dems have no power in Congress

so this was a very creative way to keep Bush's lies before the public.

I know I sound like a broken record, but here goes: If we can get a majority of Dems in Congress so that they have some power, then we can use our energy to criticize them. Until that time, criticizing Dems is a waste of time because they have no real power.

For now, it's toss the Repub bums out! (If we replace Repubs with Repubs there will be no real change.)

[OzarkDem]

7. I disagree

Dems do have some power to get things done or at least call attention to problems in Congress. They have the ability to appeal to the more reasonable Republican members and make their case to gain bipartisan support.

If they don't show some leadership now and let Americans know where they stand on issues and reveal their own alternative policies to the public, they will never get a majority in Congress.

Waiting for Republicans to fail isn't going to get them anywhere. It hasn't worked yet and its not likely to in the future.

[Frances]

9. Many Dems have called attention to problems in Congress

but because the MSM is corporate media, you don't hear about it.

I am definitely not for just waiting for Republicans to fail. I am for working hard to get rid of Republicans and replace them with Dems.

Then when Dems chair committees, they can force Halliburton officials to testify on C-span, among other things.

[Peace Patriot]

11. "...toss the Repub bums out!...". We don't really have that power any

more. Bushite companies--Diebold and ES&S--now count the nation's votes using SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our elected secretaries of state are permitted to review it. Not that they would care. They're all off at the Beverly Hilton being wined and dined during a week of fun, sun and high-end shopping (and future job offers), sponsored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. (This last August, see below*.)

They sold our right to vote away, when they signed contracts with major Bush donors and rightwing billionaires containing "trade secret" vote tabulation. A third of the country with not even a "paper trail." The rest with extremely inadequate auditing. And, finally--the coup de grace--with the war profiteering corporate news monopolies FALSIFYING their own exit polls on everybody's TV screens, late on election day, by "adjusting" their exit poll data (Kerry won) to "fit" the "official result" derived by Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won), thus denying the American people major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation.

And until we repair this egregiously fraudulent election SYSTEM, we're going to have Freeper Congresses, spiced with some War/corporate Democrats and a few eccentric, token libs, from now until they get us blown off the map by something other than a hurricane.

My advice: We need to throw these election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW! (--or a Louisiana levee might do!)

---------------------

*See Amaryllis' post on the hogfest for our election officials at the Beverly Hilton this August, sponsored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia--it will burn your eyeballs!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

[tomg]

8. Hinchey is my Rep and he is absolutely

fantastic. I have heard him speak a number of times and he is direct, honest and funny. I saw him on NO'Reilly and Hinchey suggested that Rove set up Dan Rather with the Bush National guard memo. NoReilly told him he owed the American people an apology. Mo just laughed at him, and said something to the effect that this whole administration owed the American people an apology. Seriously, he is a very effective congressman with wide-spread support in a district that is fairly left or fairly right ( Ulster County in particular doesn't do moderation)

I only wonder why every Democrat didn't sign on, and whose signature was illegible.

[calimary]

10. This guy needs our support! (877) 762 - 8762 - TOLL FREE to Capitol Hill

Switchboard - where they'll transfer you to his office, and also to your own rep's (so you can urge him or her to support this guy).

Do it. It won't cost you anything but maybe 90 seconds.

BTW, tomg - I just took my own advice and called Hinchey's office. They appreciated it, and were receptive to my "please don't be hesitant about calling for IMPEACHMENT" also.

And when I mentioned MY congressman, Henry Waxman, the staffer on the phone with me said "Oh yes. We love Henry Waxman. He's great. He's always been VERY helpful." GOOD to hear!!! And I called Waxman, too, and urged him onward also.

Try this, guys. It just might help a little!

[Peace Patriot]

12. I would like to see the Fitzgerald Grand Jury investigation expand to

address the issues and potential criminal acts that arise from this time-line:

July 7, 2003: Tony Blair is informed that David Kelly, the Brits chief weapons inspector who had been whistleblowing anonymously to the BBC (starting in late May), about Blair's Iraq WMD lies, "could say some uncomfortable things." (--after Kelly was outed and interrogated; "COULD say," not HAD said.) (Hutton Report.)

July 14, 2003: Plame outing (by Novak).

July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances; his office and computers searched.

July 22, 2003: Bigger Plame outing (also by Novak), of the entire CIA WMD monitoring capability, the Brewster Jennings front company, disabling all projects and putting all agents at great risk.

-----

I suspect that the Plame outings were precipitated by what Kelly "could say," not by the Wilson article (July 6, 2003), and that this is why the Bushites went into panic mode and were so uncareful, calling at least SIX reporters (journalist witnesses to treason) and involving so many top Bushites, putting them all at great risk of treason charges, to disable the CIA weapons monitoring program. There is evidence (from Wilson himself) that they expected his article--and they undoubtedly had a long term plan to use the Niger forgeries to discredit the CIA, or some such scheme--and certainly, in that case, would have had plans in place for a more careful leak (and better deniability and cover stories). I think that what Kelly knew was UNEXPECTED, that Blair probably called AF-1 on July 7 or so and told them about it, and that this prompted the rash actions that led to the Fitzgerald Grand Jury investigation. (My guess: They were going to plant WMDs in Iraq, for the great political gain, and that plan got foiled.) I also strongly suspect that David Kelly was killed because of what he knew.