April 6, 2006, A White House in Desperate Need of Plumbers
Apparently, the rumor mill that surrounds the very, very secretive Plame-gate special prosecutor Patrick FitzGerald was hinting that something big was coming; many expected an imminent Rove indictment (which may yet happen.)
But nobody (I don't think) saw this coming: a revelation that the President himself authorized Lewis "Scooter" Libby to disclose some of the most closely guarded secrets of government (so secret the President refused to turn them over to Congress), to wit, parts of the National Intelligence Estimate, which Libby disclosed to Judith Miller as part of the campaign to justify the Iraq war.
Obviously, this is a case of "9-11 changed everything", because, thus far, the mirth and merriment had gone as far as Dick Cheney, and seemingly stopped... nothing arguably an "impeachable offense" (except for those "technical" FISA violations... and a few other minor things) had emerged before... this, however, sure looks like it might be one (not to worry: the "investigation" will be the usual whitewash.) For those who, like me, are fascinated by this sort of thing, you can look at FitzGerald's web site and at the relevant document, revealed of all places in a discovery motion.
Fascinating reading: only three people even knew that the relevant document was being tacitly declassified: Libby, the Vice-President... and the President himself. Amazing. While not directly implicated in the leaking of Plame's identity itself, this clearly shows that great lengths were gone to-- relevaling super-secret information-- to justify the war and to discredit Joe Wilson-- at the very, tippy tippy top level-- the Oval Office itself.
The President's insistence that he would look for-- and deal with-- "the leaker(s)" would seem to belong in the same league as O.J. looking for the real killer.
This won't go anywhere, of course (it being the post 9-11 world, and all)... but man... this is an unbelievably huge development. If we actually had accountability in our government, some very, very important should be very, very worried right now.
Since we don't... no worries!
Comments
And as OJ plays golf, Bush clears brush.
Posted by alicia at April 6, 2006 10:39 PM