Please help me with this RE: Subpoena of WH records...

[AZCat]

In this Newsday article (posted in LBN)
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usleak0305,0,2896503.story?coll=ny-top-span-headlines
it states that:
<snip>
That subpoena also sought a complete transcript of a July 12 press "gaggle," or informal briefing, by then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer while at the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria.

That transcript is missing from the White House Web site containing transcripts of other press briefings. In a transcript the White House released at the time to Federal News Service, Fleischer discusses Wilson and his CIA report.
<snip>

Being the curious person that I am, I checked out the WH press briefing archive at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/
and noticed that there is not a link for July 12, 2003.

I wondered if even though there is no link, that the file might still be there. The WH uses a fairly simple method for organizing URLs, so I just copied the one for July 11, 2003 and changed it to the 12th. I had to try a couple of times (the last number is apparently for distinguishing separate articles on the same day) but I did find the briefing transcript!
The url is here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030712-11.html

I have saved a copy of this, and would appreciate it if other people would also. But what should I do about this? Should I notify someone?

Thanks,
AZCat

[fearnobush]

1. Nice Work!!!

[bicentennial_baby]

2. Here's his info page (Fitzgerald)

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/patrickjfizgerald.html

[AZCat]

3. Thanks! I'll call tomorrow n/t

[Stephanie]

4. YOU are a Freaking GENIUS! *Everybody save this file*

Save the file, mirror the page or something.

Great job!

[ParanoidPat]

5. I just e-mailed a copy of your post and the "print friendly" version.....

.....of that page to Newsday! :evilgrin:
Good Job! :toast: :thumbsup: :)

[Oilwellian]

6. This is why I love DU

Good job! :toast:

[Stephanie]

7. Hello!! DU!! Wake up and read this...

We have a DU Scoop here, folks.

[symbolman]

38. Yep

I thought so too! Brilliant work indeed Azcat.. I was up til 2am last night fighting a downed system to get the word out on this at Take Back the Media.. writing Buzzflash to push it, and they are

we're asking everyone to write to the Prosecutor and send this link to him as good citizens who want to help the Dept of Justice :)

GREAT WORK, keep getting the word out everyone!

[caledesi]

8. Clever thinking AZ! Woo Hoo! nt

[dutchdemocrat]

9. Brilliant work

I can't believe they are that stupid to leave the original link. That is amazingly careless and proves how many holes there are in this administration. The more they try and hide the harder it is to keep a lid on data.

Brilliant work AZ.

[Ladyhawk]

10. Bwahahahahahaha. Smart thinking!

[Nlighten1]

11. Could it be that AF1 was used to commit a felony?

Oh dear...talk about bringing respect and dignity back to the White House.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. I have saved it too but it should be compared

against any available tape or transcript of that time to make sure it's not a clever "plant" of some kind by the WH.

[HootieMcBoob]

13. quick before they remove it for good

if you have internet explorer you can take a "snapshot" of the page. That way you have a copy of the page as it is on your hard drive even if they remove the page from their server.

[AZCat]

14. Update...

I left messages this morning with the office of Patrick Fitzgerald (the US Attorney in Chicago) and Tom Brune (the author of the Newsday article).

I have yet to hear back from either of them, but we will see if anything happens.

As of 8:50 AM Mountain time, the document is still on the WH web site.

[WilliamPitt]

15. SAVE IT TO YOUR HARD DRIVE NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW

good fucking work!!!!!!!!!

[Jacobin]

16. Here is his fax number:

for Fitzgerald's Chicago USDJ office:
[phone]

:evilgrin:

Maybe we could fax the gaggle transcript to him?

[soup]

17. Well Done!

copied and saved.

[hang a left]

18. I have read the transcript you provided and thanks to you!

Now I have questions, alot of questions. What the hell is so important about this briefing. What could they be looking for? And if it could be found, do you think the transcript that you did find, could have been doctored?.......Anyone?


Edit because it made no damn sense.

[chiburb]

19. I emailed your post (minus AZCat) to

Press Contact:

Randall Samborn
Assistant US Attorney, Public Information Officer

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Cell/Pager: [phone]

US Attorney's Office
219 S. Dearborn St.
Suite 5000
Chicago, IL 60656

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/index.html

Along with a note that said:

Re Plame investigation:

The story mentioned that the "gaggle" transcript from July 12 was subpoenaed (because it was missing from the WH website). Don't know if this helps or not, but just in case... (from a thread at Democratic Underground)

I also gave my name and phone # in case they cared...

Great Job, AZC!

[Jacobin]

20. Keep this puppy on TOP!

[gasperc]

21. Great Job!!!! sent this e-mail to Fitzgeralds office

Buzzflash and take back the media are all over it!!!
I hope you make the evening news, incognito of course!!!!

Please forward this to the honorable Patrick Fitzgerald
Dear Mr. Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald
The stalling on the Plame investigation must stop - Provided is a link to the "missing" July 12th press gaggle transcript from the official white house web site.
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030712-11.html>
We need to find out WHO TRIED TO HIDE THIS PAGE ON THE WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE AS WELL.
SOMEONE in the WHITE HOUSE OUTED a CIA Agent - a CRIME against our country, National Security and we need to be secure in this day and age.
All members of the Administration must OBEY THE RULE OF LAW and rogue elements must be prosecuted as it is in the interest of national security and the protection of human life, many of which have been lost in Iraq and on September 11th, 2001.
It's all about Personal Responsibility and Credibility.
A very concerned citizen
[email protected]

[frank frankly]

22. Welcome back, Ari, you're going to jail!

AZCat is awesome.

this made my day.

they just erased the link but kept the info? amazing!

:hi:

:yourock:

[gasperc]

23. the transcript link still works as of 11:50am

take back the media copied and posted, I saw no advantage of doing that they need to see it come right off the site or they'll think it was tampered with

Azcat you may have changed the world!!! great job!!

[myrna minx]

24. Amazing work, AZCat.

I am saving a copy of this!!!!! :bounce:

[ParanoidPat]

25. Want to see what else they're hiding? :)

Go to this page and download it. http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt :evilgrin:

This is the 'robots.txt' file that gives a list of pages that the Whitehouse webmaster does not want the 'web crawlers' used by search engines to index. Any page appearing on this list will be ignored by entities like Google, Alta Vista and any other search engine and will not show up in 'cached' pages. Look under 'news releases'.

Remember to do a 'File > Save Page As... > Web Page, complete' on anything important you may find!

Have fun! :)

[Stephanie]

30. I can't get those to work

If I paste the extension on to www.whitehouse.gov I get an error - how are you getting the pages to load?

That is quite an extensive list that they are hiding! No wonder I get no results when I search the site for 'Mission Accomplished' or 'Mushroom Cloud'!

[ParanoidPat]

34. Well that didn't take long.....

.....I guess they've been scrubbed! :evilfrown:
I notice that the link to the press gaggle page has been fixed too. :shrug:
Does anyone know if pages hosted on the official Whitehouse web site constitute 'historical public documents' that must remain in the 'public domain'? Do they have to be archived and if so, can they be requested by issuing a FOIA request?

The Bush* Administration, changing his*story one web page at a time! :(

[ParanoidPat]

35. The Bush* Administration claims that they never tried to link......

.....Iraq to 911 so why did they have these pages 'disallowed' on their web page robots.txt file?

Disallow: /911/911day/iraq
Disallow: /911/heroes/iraq
Disallow: /911/iraq
Disallow: /911/patriotism/iraq
Disallow: /911/patriotism2/iraq
Disallow: /911/progress/iraq
Disallow: /911/remembrance/iraq
Disallow: /911/response/iraq
Disallow: /911/sept112002/iraq

And my personal favorite! Disallow: /infocus/faith-based/iraq :evilgrin:

[TacticalPeek]

36. "Disallow: /911/remembrance/iraq"

Luke keen to ma eyeees.

[Stephanie]

37. I don't see "mission accomplished" on that list

but it won't turn up in a search at whitehouse.gov either

[TacticalPeek]

39. If I read it correctly, it disallows entire directories (folders),

which could contain hundreds or thousands of files, some of which would have "mission accomplished" embedded.

I notice they're touchy about the Poland visit, for example, which would probably contain the file(s) where he brightly observes that "We have found WMD."

In this case, they appear to not have a whole directory devoted to "mission accomplished", perhaps understandably.

They have roped off a vast amount of dark space hidden from the search engines.


Disallow: /president/iraq
Disallow: /president/japantrip/iraq
Disallow: /president/japantrip/text
Disallow: /president/koreatrip/iraq
Disallow: /president/koreatrip/text
Disallow: /president/latinamerica/iraq
Disallow: /president/latinamerica/text
Disallow: /president/militarysupport/photoessay/text
Disallow: /president/mourning/iraq
Disallow: /president/mourning/text
Disallow: /president/multifront/iraq
Disallow: /president/multifront/text
Disallow: /president/polandvisit/iraq
Disallow: /president/polandvisit/text
Disallow: /president/presidential-homes/iraq
Disallow: /president/presidential-homes/text
Disallow: /president/putin-visit/iraq
Disallow: /president/putin-visit/text
Disallow: /president/response/iraq
Disallow: /president/response/text


My guess is some Poindexter-type operative keeps the webmaster apprised of what is verboten.

[Stephanie]

40. Has anyone written about this?

Who would cover this?

Washington Post? Wired? Mother Jones?

[chiburb]

26. A Kudos Kick! n/t

.

[chiburb]

33. Another Kudos Kick n/t

.

[leesa]

27. Oh, this is so good. I actually miss Ari the Egghead, the ultimate

spinmaster. Will his new wife get conjugal visits?

[Stephanie]

28. Anyone get a response on this?

I sent it out at 2:00 a.m. but no reply and I don't see it posted by the people I sent it to.

[AZCat]

29. Update 3

The WH press briefing archive page NOW shows a link to the July 12, 2003 transcript!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/

I guess someone has been paying attention...

[Stephanie]

31. WOW!

Did you capture the page before they changed it?

I wonder if they had already handed the info over to Fitzgerald?

[Stephanie]

32. Let's look at the text - WHY was the WH hiding this? To protect Ari?

Q Does the President still have confidence in Director Tenet?

MR. FLEISCHER: Yes. President Bush has confidence in Director Tenet and President Bush has confidence in the CIA.

Q Ari, the President often speaks of accountability. Does he feel accountability is achieved in this circumstance? Or how do you address that issue?

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me explain to you the President's thinking on this. A greater, more important truth is being lost in the flap over whether or not Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. The greater truth is that nobody, but nobody, denies that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. He was pursuing numerous ways to obtain nuclear weapons. The United States never said that he had nuclear weapons. We have said that he was pursuing them. It should surprise nobody that Saddam Hussein was seeking to acquire the means to produce from a variety of sources and a variety of ways.

He had previously obtained yellow cake from Africa. In fact, in one of the least known parts of this story, which is now, for the first time, public -- and you find this in Director Tenet's statement last night -- the official that -- lower-level official sent from the CIA to Niger to look into whether or not Saddam Hussein had sought yellow cake from Niger, Wilson, he -- and Director Tenet's statement last night states the same former official, Wilson, also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official, Wilson, meet an Iraqi delegation to discuss expanding commercial relations between Iraq and Niger. The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales.

This is in Wilson's report back to the CIA. Wilson's own report, the very man who was on television saying Niger denies it, who never said anything about forged documents, reports himself that officials in Niger said that Iraq was seeking to contact officials in Niger about sales.

What did the President say in the State of the Union? He said: according to British reports, Iraq is seeking uranium from Africa. And the intelligence cited two other countries, in addition to Niger.

So, again, the larger truth, was Saddam Hussein a threat, in part because he was seeking nuclear weapons, in addition to what we know and have said about chemical and biological.

Now, if you ask, how is the President approaching this, what's the President's approach, the President sees this as much ado, that it's beside the point of the central threat that Saddam Hussein presented.

Q But doesn't that make it all the more important that some accountability be achieved that this flap over one fact can obscure his larger message?

[Stephanie]

41. Look at this text ^ | Why do you think they were hiding this?

Do you think what Ari says about what Wilson said is true?

[AZCat]

42. Yessssss! It's in the media!

Tom Brune, the author of the original Newsday article, wrote this:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usleak0306,0,2962040.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

about the transcript.

We did it folks! Thanks to everyone who helped to get this out in the media!

:party:

[symbolman]

43. Here's what we got linked on Buzzflash today

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/whitehousejuly12.html

We asked everyone to be a good citizen and help out the Dept of Justice by sending this found evidence to Patrich Fitzgerald :)

glad to help

I think we're going to push the robot.txt connections next - my wife (who's a computer geek) was cruising the WHite House site and seeing all those same iraq/911 connections, etc..

great job Azcat

[CaptainMidnight]

44. okay, so???

What's the verdict here?

Was the page restored by them, or "cleaned up" and then restored by the WH?

The page that we are all now viewing, is there some significant smoking gun in there now?

I'm forwarding all of this stuff to my "constituents" on The Captain's List, and wanna make sure I'm fully understanding the current status of this potential bombshell, and if it is indeed one.

Nice work, everyone who pounced on this!

Captain Mike

[AZCat]

45. To be honest- I don't know if there is any significance to this

It appears to be the correct transcript. A poster over at www.atrios.blogspot.com found a copy at the state department site that matches word-for-word, and nothing appears to be missing from the transcripts.

A poster on the related LBN thread (see post #1 for link) had a good point- the attorneys may just be trying to establish a chain of custody situation, and may have had the 'text' of the transcript already- if they didn't, they sure do now!

Reading through the transcript, I came to the same conclusion as Tom Brune, the Newsday reporter who wrote the original story- that this is an early attempt to discredit Wilson. Other than that, I don't think there is a 'smoking gun' here, but no-one seems to know what the U.S. attorney's office is up to.

I know that doesn't answer your questions, but I don't think we have those answers right now. We'll just have to wait and see what Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in charge, does regarding this case.

[belle]

47. That list of "disallowed" files really made me sit up, I'll tell you...

Whatever it means, they are: dumb. Like beyond Nixon dumb. Arrogant and secretive and lazy: bad combination.

[TacticalPeek]

46. Kick the robots.txt.

WHITE HOUSE ROBOTS HIDE IRAQ BLUNDERS

Alien alliance suspected, Duckweather refuses comment


"When Johnny Jupiter needed to send an emissary to Earth he touched Reject the Robot, and said "Super Jelly Bean Power." When Reject the Robot arrived on Earth, he could only be seen by Mr. Duckweather."