Re: [cia-drugs] Fwd: [SPY NEWS] Bush Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak Documents
There is a certain amount of "garbage factor" in this message. The Vice
President is a Constitutional officer as well as the President. The V.P. does
NOT serve at the pleasure of the President, and the office should be
independent of the President.
If we delude ourselves into allowing the President to claim immunity for
every crime he commits, we will soon be back in a monarchy. This was NEVER the
intent of the founding fathers. The Presidential papers are PUBLIC PAPERS, and
this idiot insists that the public PAY for storing them in a publicly-financed
"Presidential Library" from which the public is excluded. This is nonsense.
Sheer nonsense.
End the oppression of cannabis and its consumers. Self defense is always
correct, and it is never illegal. b_jb2001
--- On Sat, 7/19/08, RoadsEnd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: RoadsEnd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [cia-drugs] Fwd: [SPY NEWS] Bush Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak
Documents
To: "Cia-drugs Cia-drugs"
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008, 8:02 AM
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Mario Profaca" Date: July 19, 2008 4:01:08
AM PDTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .comSubject: [SPY NEWS] Bush Blocks DOJ From
Releasing CIA Leak DocumentsReply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .com
http://www.scoop. co.nz/stories/ HL0807/S00187. htm
Bush Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak Documents
Saturday, 19 July 2008, 4:34 pm
Column: Jason Leopold
Bush Asserts Exec Privilege; Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak Documents
By Jason Leopold
The Public Record
In the latest twist in the "Plame-gate" scandal, President George W.
Bush has asserted executive privilege to block release of Vice
President Dick Cheney's interview with a special prosecutor about
possible criminal violations in the leaking of a CIA officer's covert
identity.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, promptly
denounced the White House legal reasoning as "ludicrous," noting that
executive privilege covers advice that an aide gives the President,
not responses to legal questions posed by a prosecutor about a
possible crime.
Bush applied his broad assertion of executive privilege Wednesday at
the request of Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who earlier had
rebuffed congressional requests for interviews conducted with both
Cheney and Bush about the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame
Wilson's identity.
"I am greatly concerned about the chilling effect that compliance with
the [House Oversight] Committee's subpoena would have on future White
House deliberations and White House cooperation with future Justice
Department investigations, " Mukasey wrote in a letter to Bush on Tuesday.
According to the letter Mukasey sent to Bush, the documents Waxman
subpoenaed from the Justice Department includes "Federal Bureau of
Investigation ("FBI") reports of the Special Counsel's interviews with
the Vice President and senior White House staff, as well as
handwritten notes taken by FBI agents during some of these interviews.
"The subpoena also seeks notes taken by the Deputy National Security
Advisor during conversations with the Vice President and senior White
House officials and other documents provided by the White House to the
Special Counsel during the count of the investigation. Many of the
subpoenaed materials reflect frank and candid deliberations among
senior presidential advisers, including the Vice President, the White
House Chief of Staff, the National Security Advisor, and the White
House Press Secretary.
"The deliberations concern a number of sensitive issues, including the
preparation of your January 2003 State of the Union Address, possible
responses to public assertions challenging the accuracy of a statement
in the address, and the decision to send Ms. Plame's husband,
Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Niger in 2002 to investigate Iraqi
efforts to acquire yellowcake uranium. Some of the subpoenaed
documents also contain information about communications between you
and senior White House officials," Mukasey's letter says.
Since becoming Attorney General in December 2007, Mukasey has balked
at investigating crimes allegedly committed earlier by Bush
administration officials – from torturing detainees to arranging
political prosecutions – a "no-look-back" approach that drew criticism
from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In reaction to Bush's assertion of executive privilege, Waxman said
"we are not seeking access to the communications between the Vice
President and the President. We are seeking access to the
communications between the Vice President and FBI investigators. "
The California Democrat also noted that special prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald told the committee in a July 3 letter that Cheney had met
with the FBI voluntarily and knew his answers could be disclosed at a
[cia-drugs] Fwd: [SPY NEWS] Bush Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak Documents
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: July 19, 2008 4:01:08 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [SPY NEWS] Bush Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak Documents
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00187.htm
Bush Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak Documents
Saturday, 19 July 2008, 4:34 pm
Column: Jason Leopold
Bush Asserts Exec Privilege; Blocks DOJ From Releasing CIA Leak
Documents
By Jason Leopold
The Public Record
In the latest twist in the "Plame-gate" scandal, President George W.
Bush has asserted executive privilege to block release of Vice
President Dick Cheney's interview with a special prosecutor about
possible criminal violations in the leaking of a CIA officer's covert
identity.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, promptly
denounced the White House legal reasoning as "ludicrous," noting that
executive privilege covers advice that an aide gives the President,
not responses to legal questions posed by a prosecutor about a
possible crime.
Bush applied his broad assertion of executive privilege Wednesday at
the request of Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who earlier had
rebuffed congressional requests for interviews conducted with both
Cheney and Bush about the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame
Wilson's identity.
"I am greatly concerned about the chilling effect that compliance with
the [House Oversight] Committee's subpoena would have on future White
House deliberations and White House cooperation with future Justice
Department investigations," Mukasey wrote in a letter to Bush on
Tuesday.
According to the letter Mukasey sent to Bush, the documents Waxman
subpoenaed from the Justice Department includes "Federal Bureau of
Investigation ("FBI") reports of the Special Counsel's interviews with
the Vice President and senior White House staff, as well as
handwritten notes taken by FBI agents during some of these interviews.
"The subpoena also seeks notes taken by the Deputy National Security
Advisor during conversations with the Vice President and senior White
House officials and other documents provided by the White House to the
Special Counsel during the count of the investigation. Many of the
subpoenaed materials reflect frank and candid deliberations among
senior presidential advisers, including the Vice President, the White
House Chief of Staff, the National Security Advisor, and the White
House Press Secretary.
"The deliberations concern a number of sensitive issues, including the
preparation of your January 2003 State of the Union Address, possible
responses to public assertions challenging the accuracy of a statement
in the address, and the decision to send Ms. Plame's husband,
Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Niger in 2002 to investigate Iraqi
efforts to acquire yellowcake uranium. Some of the subpoenaed
documents also contain information about communications between you
and senior White House officials," Mukasey's letter says.
Since becoming Attorney General in December 2007, Mukasey has balked
at investigating crimes allegedly committed earlier by Bush
administration officials – from torturing detainees to arranging
political prosecutions – a "no-look-back" approach that drew criticism
from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In reaction to Bush's assertion of executive privilege, Waxman said
"we are not seeking access to the communications between the Vice
President and the President. We are seeking access to the
communications between the Vice President and FBI investigators."
The California Democrat also noted that special prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald told the committee in a July 3 letter that Cheney had met
with the FBI voluntarily and knew his answers could be disclosed at a
public trial.
"Mr. Fitzgerald told us that `there were no agreements, conditions and
understandings' that limited Mr. Fitzgerald's use of the interview in
any way," Waxman said. "This unfounded assertion of executive
privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person."
Waxman also accused Mukasey of applying a different standard for a
Republican administration than was applied to its Democratic
predecessors.
"Ten years ago," Waxman said, "Attorney General Janet Reno, provided
the Committee the FBI interviews of both President Clinton and Vice
President Gore. Mr. Mukasey decided that a different rule should apply
to Republican presidents than to Democratic presidents."
Actually, the Bush administration's resistance to releasing the
responses from a President and a Vice President in a criminal
proceeding contrasts with precedents for both parties, including the
appearances of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton before
various special prosecutors.
Waxman's committee was scheduled to vote Wednesday to hold Mukasey in
contempt for refusing to comply with the Cheney subpoena. However,
Waxman postponed the vote after Bush's assertion of executive
privilege.
Long-running Scandal
