from a blogger on UTNE Here's a juicy e-mail I got from a Hill staffer. Blog Tools EMAIL PRINT 16 COMMENTS
A Democratic Hill staffer we'll call "Dobby" sent me the goods on Fitzgerald. I just got this e-mail from a Democratic House member's staffer with tons of good dirt on the Plame investigation. I'm reprinting it whole cloth to share all, and show that while these Hill staffers are well-informed, they sure could use some capitalization classes. Among the things I hadn't seen before: -Fred Flights, an assistant to John Bolton, is a named name who could be indicted. -Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have been suggested as replacements for Dick Cheney. -Colin Powell told John McCain he showed the infamous memo with Plame's identity on it two just two people; Dick Cheney and George Bush. -Fitzgerald is looking at the precedent set from the indictment of Tricky Dick's veep Spiro Agnew to pursue against Cheney. That's red meat folks. Text of the e-mail: below, some extremely sensitive information about the impending conclusion of the valerie plame investigations. the sources include two senior members of senate and key staffers; counsel for individuals that have been called before the grand jury; and two journalists taking a lead position in investigating the case. the following represents a composite of the information from those sources. plamegate coming to conclusion. the investigation has focused mostly closely on vice president cheney and his staff, as well as us ambassador to the un (and former undersecretary of state for arms control) john bolton and his staff. we are told that eight indictments have already prepared, with the possibility of another ten. these indictments include senior white house staff, most notably vice president cheney's chief of staff scooter libby, fred flights (special assistant to john bolton), and--very surprisingly-- national security adviser steve hadley. apparently, libby and hadley have both been told by their lawyers to expect indictments. the indictment of senior bush political advisor karl rove seems highly probable. most critically, a plea bargain process has evidently been opened with vice president cheney's lawyer. that does not mean that an indictment is coming. but i've some critical background around the issue. in the past several days, former secretary of state colin powell had a meeting with senator john mccain (R-AZ), primarily about the mccain-sponsored amendment on inserting a rider prohibiting torture onto the us defense budget (a bill which powell has himself been lobbying heavily for, against objections of president bush). during the meeting, powell recounted to the senator that he had traveled on air force one with bush and cheney, and brought to their attention a classified memorandum about the issue of whether there was indeed a transaction inolving niger and yellow cake uranium. the document included ambassador joe wilson's involvement and identified his wife, valerie plame, as a covert agent. the memorandum further stated that this information was secret. powell told mccain that he showed that memo only to two people--president and vice president. according to powell, cheney fixated on the wilson/plame connection, and plame's status. powell testified about this exchange in great length to the grand jury investigating the plame case. according to sources close to the case, powell appeared convinced that the vice president played a focal role in disclosing plame's undercover status. in his conversation with mccain, powell felt that--at a minimum-- there would be a serious shakeup at national security council as a consequence. in particular, vice president cheney would no longer hold a pivotal role in us national security affairs. powell apparently did not discuss the potential of a cheney resignation. lead prosecutor patrick fitzgerald has apparently been looking at the precedent of formerly indicted nixon vice president spiro agnew. this shows the likely path, because addressing executive immunity and privilege questions would necessarily begin start with a plea- bargain deal that would entail a resignation. this is all likely to occur within the next week. 28 october (next friday) is the last day of the grand jury, and no requests have been made to extend their session. the investigator is expecting to wrap up by then. there are enormous implication for what would be the biggest white house shakeup since the iran-contra scandal in the reagan era. president bush's approval rating at 39% has already led to a significant decrease in policy efficacy with key legislators in congress. i'll spin out the broader policy implications when i have some time to write at greater length, but i wanted to get this out immediately. one interesting point though--it is worth noting that a parade of senior republican senators have evidently been privately pushing mccain to lobby to be cheney's replacement. senator lindsey graham (R-SC) has also been mentioned. meanwhile, the white house has already been developing countermeasures--notably including senior white house officials privately voicing president bush's disappointment in karl rove's involvement in the case, calling it "misconduct." an urgent search for a rove replacement is already underway. « The AlterNet Blogs « Jan Frel Comments Give Us Feedback » Tools: [Post a new comment] [Login] [Signup] View: Threaded Minimal Flat Flat Unthreaded interesting for sure Posted by: beetruetoyou on Oct 19, 2005 1:51 PM [Report this comment] It's about damn time. We'll see if anything really comes of this. Afraid to get my hopes up. It will greatly restore my faith in our system if it does. If not, it will be tough to believe in democracy at all anymore. Hope your sources know what they're talking about. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] rwpowell Posted by: rwpowell on Oct 19, 2005 1:51 PM [Report this comment] Uh, since the president and vice president NEVER fly on the same plane, has this staffer got the rest of his RUMIT straight? Regardless, still looking forward to seeing Rove "frog marched" out of the White House. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] » RE: rwpowell Posted by: Jan Frel » RE: rwpowell Posted by: cold2touch » RE: rwpowell Posted by: jca Shades of Watergate? Posted by: navistic50 on Oct 19, 2005 3:42 PM [Report this comment] I must say I throughly enjoyed reading this article/e-mail. To tell you the truth, it reminds me of the types of cloak & dagger stuff of Woodward and Bernstein. And I am hopeful as well that this intel is close to becoming acccurate and a reality. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] Yes, Virginia, there are roosting chickens Posted by: Velos on Oct 19, 2005 5:23 PM [Report this comment] Oh! Thank You; Thank You, GOD! "Dont-cha just love it when a plan comes together? Ok, now bring out the marshmallows, and squirt that lighter fluid...... [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] McCain as W's Veep... Posted by: sgtmartin1 on Oct 19, 2005 5:29 PM [Report this comment] Ha! I bet the only way to get Himself to agree with that is to make John move to Cheney's old bunker and never say a word. Dubya is said to be sensitive to people upstaging him. McCain is drawn to TV cameras like DeLay's drawn to corporate cash. New on EWM: Fitzgerald Issues Frog-Marching Guidelines [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] Confused Posted by: richards1052 on Oct 20, 2005 1:52 AM [Report this comment] Is this fiction or fact? If the author means it as fact, then why the silly photo graphic? If fiction, then why didn't she/he even allude to that fact (other than through the graphic). This scandal is already too byzantine & operatic to allow people to be confused between fiction & fact. The fact that an earlier commenter noted that POTUS & VPOTUS don't travel on the same plane indicates this is fiction. If so, why not say so? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] let them eat yellow cake Posted by: cold2touch on Oct 20, 2005 6:31 AM [Report this comment] wouldn't it be poetic justice if the grand jury, in tradition of grand inquisition, employed torture to obtain various admissions from accused GOP-ers? I am not sure that Powell and McCain would object, there is always that honorable exception to the general rule. And the Supreme Court would refuse to intervene and a Merry Christmas to us all. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] Oh, no, who is going to keep "Gods annointed" from taking on the world? Posted by: Pepper on Oct 20, 2005 7:30 AM [Report this comment] Well, that means Bush will be without a handler and given all the insights about his erratic and crazy behavior in the White House from Capitol Hill Blue its a real concern. Don't forget, the word out is he is drinking and drugging again and he was on the edge before when he was clean, so he could push that button and poof we are all gone. I am celebrating just like everyone else, but we need to look deeper into the implications of these moves. Also, do you think martial law will be declared before the indictments can come down???? They have been touting that bird flu for two weeks now. Any thoughts on these two points???? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] » RE: yes, I will comment Posted by: cyclone McCain... Posted by: magistre on Oct 20, 2005 9:55 AM [Report this comment] If John McCain were made V.P. he'll probably have less "freedom" than when he was in 'Nam. And as far as the Bushzis declaring 'marshall law" goes, who's going to stop him? He owns Congress and the Supreme Court. You know, just like "Uncle" Adolph: first get "legitimately elected", then the "Reich-stag fire", then "Hero for Life"! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] » RE: McCain... Posted by: jca Only if Cheney takes all the baggage... Posted by: Thxs1138 on Oct 20, 2005 4:50 PM [Report this comment] ... would Team Bush have him resign. If Team Bush could wrap up all the Iraq trouble, CIA Leak, and Katrina into a nice package then they'll let him resign. But Cheney wears the pants in the Team Bush family and like Rumsfield ain't going no where. Its a fantasy, just like Rove leaving, the only thing we'll be talking about in November is how they got away with it, again. Nobody will be falling on their sword for Team Bush they don't need to. November 2006 is a long way off and so is 2008. All they have to do is bring out the boogie man (Osama) again and you'll all vote Republican.. again. Plame, as far as J Q Public is concerned, is about freedom of the press and protecting sources. The media has done a fine job on keeping the real issues far from the public eye. Not only is Robert Novak almost never mentioned. No one has even reminded the President of his first commitment about the CIA leak and that was to fire anyone involved... soon replaced with if anyone is convicted of a crime they're fired - well obviously. But I'm sure Rove could telecommute from prison. I hate to burst everyone's bubble but your country is lost - its a theocratic corporatist state now. Had the Plame case been given the attention it needed from day one then Team Bush would be seating in a jail cell for high treason and someone else would be in the White House. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] Many thanks... Posted by: vlglees on Oct 20, 2005 6:45 PM [Report this comment] Many thanks to the House staffer for the email and to Jan for posting it. Very very interesting. An ex-repub [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/vseplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
