John Dean sees anti-climax for Plame Affair

[shockingelk]

Waiting For The Valerie Plame Wilson Grand Jury: The Big Question Is Whether Dick Cheney Was a Target
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051021.html

While I may be letting the air out of some rising balloons, I think Fitzgerald's silence has fed speculation that postulates indictments way beyond the realistic potentials.

... it may make a difference that Fitzgerald and Cheney are both Republicans, whereas, of course, Starr and Clinton were politically opposed. As a rule, prosecutors do not bite the hand of the party that feeds them.

... It is difficult to envision Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuting anyone, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, who believed they were acting for reasons of national security ... In short, I cannot imagine any of them being indicted, unless they were acting for reasons other than national security. Because national security is such a gray area of the law, come next week, I can see this entire investigation coming to a remarkable anti-climax, as Fitzgerald closes down his Washington Office and returns to Chicago.

In short, I think the frenzy is about to end -- and it will not go any further. Unless, of course, these folks were foolish enough to give false statements, perjure themselves or suborn perjury, or commit obstruction of justice. If they were so stupid, Patrick Fitzgerald must stay and clean house.

[roguevalley]

1. he's been wrong before. I like him but he has not more insight

than anyone else.

[shockingelk]

2. I think it's wise not to expect too much

22 indictments ... including Cheney ... all that talk is just setting up a situation where 3-4 indictments won't "seem that bad" except to everybody that's expecting 22 indictments.

[nvliberal]

18. He's right, and I think deep down everybody believes

nothing of much consequence will happen now.

If there had been, we'd have known about it long ago.

This thing NEVER should have been investigated in the first place, especially considering how much in hot water Republicans are on things we DO know about.

As it is, Plamegate could backfire on us.

[leesa]

19. It should NEVER have been investigated? Outing a deep cover agent

shouldn't be investigated? Out of the mouths of Republicans. Nothin to see here.

[xxqqqzme]

21. what this US stuff - U got a mouse in your pocket?

it can't backfire on US because WE had nothing 2 do w/ it! tenet demanded the investigation after Plame was outed - his attempt 2 get back @ the very people who used the CIA as the scapegoat for their Iraq invasion fabricated intelligence. I was surprised tenet called for the investigation; was more surprised when asscrack recused himself (the ONLY honorable thing asscrack has EVER done).

[Justitia]

26. "U got a mouse in your pocket?" - OMG, ROFL! I love that - thanks for

a huge laugh. Don't know why, but that expression really tickles my funny bone...

[mamalone]

30. WHAAAAAAAA???????

This part of everyone does NOT believe that "nothing of much consequence will happen now"...and I don't know any thinking person that doesn't feel the investigation is warranted. Except for republicans and Bush worshippers..and of course they don't qualify as "thinking people" anyway.

[bluestateguy]

3. 5 years of door slams has prepared me for any disappointment

And I intend to stay off of DU for a week if that's what he ends up doing.

[Fridays Child]

4. I thought that Fitz' political affiliation was unknown.

I wonder how Dean knows that he's a Republican.

[Halliburton]

20. you are correct

a lot of people seem to be making that error.

[wishlist]

5. Republican Dean is mistaken about Fitzgerald being a Republican

Dean is quick to label Fitzgerald a Republican when actually Fitzgerald is politically unaffiliated. Dean also seems to not be considering the possibility that the leaks involved more than simple revenge against Joe Wilson. Dean is hedging his bets, leaving door open for indictments involving perjury and obstruction of justice "if these folks were foolish enough to give false statements" which seems quite likely.

[shockingelk]

8. Fitzgerald is a Bush WH insider

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

Patrick J. Fitzgerald began serving as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois on September 1, 2001. The United States Senate confirmed his nomination by unanimous consent and President Bush signed his commission on October 29, 2001.

Mr. Fitzgerald served on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee from 2001-2005 and was Chair of the sub-committee on terrorism. He is also a member of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force. In December 2003, he was named Special Counsel to investigate the alleged disclosure of the identity of a purported employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.

[wishlist]

11. He is career govt Justice Dept, probably conservative but not a neocon

Fitzgerald is most definitely not a neocon judging by his aggressive investigation and prosecution of AIPAC and its connections with Franklin and the whole cabal of neocons that orchestrated the push to invade Iraq.

[shockingelk]

12. I can't think of anyone else ...

... appointed by and in this administration who is a fair and straight shooter. It doesn't fit the Bush administration role.

They got rid of Clarke and O'Neill, for examples.

[emulatorloo]

16. do some research on fitzgerald. . .hasn't the white house made mistakes

before? They miscalculate all the time. . .

[Wordie]

27. Fitzgerald was a prosecutor in the AIPAC case? I didn't know that!

Do you have a link?

That is interesting...as some voices from the left and elsewhere are surmising a connection between the Franklin case and the Plame outing or the larger story of the fabrication of evidence and why we went to war.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7717
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/the-most-important-crimin_b_9183.html

And hinted at in this earlier Truthout article:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080905E.shtml
<snip>
But as the full text of the indictment makes clear, the conspiracy involved not just Franklin and the AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, but at least several other Pentagon officials who played intermediary roles, at least two other Israeli officials, and one official at a "Washington, D.C. think tank." It's an old-fashioned spy story involving the passing of secret documents, hush-hush meetings and outright espionage, along with good-old-boy networking.

But the network tied to the "Franklin case" - which ought to be called the "AIPAC case," since it was AIPAC that was really under investigation by the FBI - provides an important window into a shadowy world. It is clear that by probing the details of the case, the FBI has got hold of a dangerous loose end of much larger story. By pulling on that string hard enough, the FBI and the Justice Department might just unravel that larger story, which is beginning to look more and more like it involves the same nexus of Pentagon civilians, White House functionaries, and American Enterprise Institute officials who thumped the drums for war in Iraq in 2001-2003 and who are now trying to whip up an anti-Iranian frenzy as well.

Needless to say, all of this got short shrift from the mainstream media when it was revealed last week.

[still_one]

6. Rove has already made false statements under oath

and insiders are talking

[yowzayowzayowza]

7. Then, Mr Dean, why did Mr Fitzgerald...

bring down the Republican party in Illinois? ...seems a weak argument from Dean this time. He's usually more astute.

[shockingelk]

9. Bush can fire Fitzgerald any time he wants

I find it implausible that Bush's Attorney General would appoint someone who would bring down this WH, nor do I have confidence that Bush would refrain from firing him.

[yowzayowzayowza]

10. I wunder how much influence...

our p.o.ed career CIAs types exerted on the selection. We'll prolly never know!!

[Disturbed]

13. Dean is underestimating the ire of former and current rank and

file of the CIA. These people are not going to let this slide. Maybe Fitz will let it go but CIA know that they were scapegoated and betrayed by Bushco. These CIA people have skills.

[emulatorloo]

17. again, are you telling me the bush whitehouse has never miscalculated

or screwed up?

I think appointing Fitzgerald was another screw-up for them. . .if they wanted a whitewash they picked the wrong guy.



As to firing, it is too late. . .If Bush tries to fire, it would do incredible damage to bush admin.

[shockingelk]

24. They deal harshly with people that get in their way

Like Joe Wilson for instance!

[Connie_Corleone]

14. I think the poster above is right.

Dean is hedging his bets. Before this writing, he was acting like this was worse than Watergate. I guess he doesn't want to look like an idiot if Libby and Rove are the only ones indicted.

On edit: I'll just wait for Fitzgerald to make his announcement, whenever that happens.

[RushIsRot]

15. Merry Fitz-mas! n/t

[DemsUnited]

22. Respectfully disagree with Mr. Dean.

He's right about the central issue -- national security -- but he took his thesis in the wrong direction.

The problem isn't that the White House was overaggressive in selling a war because they felt the war was critical to national security. The problem is that, when it was becaming painfully clear that the war was sold based on faulty (and perhaps fabricated) reasoning, the White House began a coordinated campaign to discredit Joe Wilson, a vocal and credible critic.

As a result, the White House itself damaged National Security by outing CIA agent Valerie Plame which led to exposing the cover firm Brewster Jennings.

Brewster Jennings operated in the Middle East gathering WMD intelligence as well as monitoring loose nukes. Now the company is useless and potentially dangerous for those involved with it. Any operative who used B-J as a cover, or had any type of public contact with the company, is at risk of exposure. Any foreign national who did "business" with B-J will be scrutinized by their own government and suspected of passing information to the CIA.

I believe that Brewster Jennings is the real reason the CIA went screaming to the Justice Department, the reason Ashcroft recused himself and the reason a real prosecutor was called in to investigate.

There is nothing grey about this: National Security was compromised by those who should have know better and I'm sure that, after two years of investigating, Mr. Fitzgerald understands that fact very well.

[On the Road]

23. UNLESS They Gave False Statements?

Everything that's come out of the investigation so far suggests that at least some of the participants did.

Martha Stewart was jailed for lying about a stock trade that turned out to have been perfectly legal. Even if the Plame leak is ruled not to be a crime, lying about it to the prosecutor is still perjury and obstruction of justice.

[Yoda Yada]

25. UNLESS.....of course....

I think the statement in the last paragraph, which says... "Unless, of course, these folks were foolish enough to give false statements, perjure themselves, or commit obstruction of justice..", is important. They WERE "foolish enough to give false statements.." etc. By saying it in this way, Dean clarified the only ways in which they would go down. IMO, they are circling the drain.

[Gloria]

28. The other night on Mike Webb's show he said that while he

didn't know what was going to happen, he could only return to the fact that 2 conservative judges of the three judge panel thought it big enough to put Miller in jail. That told him that something big was going on.

I hope he is only being coy. Those "Unless's" are pretty big "Unless's"

[0007]

29. If this is the case, why did Rove and Libby failed to see the "wink wink"

as they testified before the Grand Jury. And I'm quite sure these guys never miss an office. So why the repeated call backs?