Larry Johnson: New Republican Talking Points on PlameGate?

[understandinglife]

New Republican Talking Points on Plame Gate?

by Larry Johnson

October 10, 2005

It is unclear whether Jack Burkman, self-described Republican strategist, is working from a new set of Ken Mehlman inspired talking points or free lancing it when it comes to talking about the legal jeopardy facing the White House over the outing of CIA officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, in July 2003. Burkman, who appeared on today's MSNBC show hosted by Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley laid out three new points:

U.S. prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is an out of control publicity hound.

U.S. prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has a weak case and has been unable to secure an indictment.

The leak was no big deal, everyone leaks.

More at the link:

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/new_republican_.html

Mr Johnson readily dispatches with Burkman's :puke: points ....

And, do be sure to read Larry Johnson's Plamegate Update:
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/plamegate_updat.html


Peace.

[ClassWarrior]

1. The Republicons recycle! Who'da thunk?

:rofl:

NGU.

[longship]

2. How will they spin jail sentences?

What good does all this spin do? The court of public opinion isn't going to keep these guys out of jail if they're convicted of felonies.

This is so much bullshit.

[Kazak]

16. *

:shrug:

[cassiepriam]

18. Mitigate any sentencing? Or perhaps lessen the fall out to other repugs?

[lancdem]

3. An out-of-control publicity hound??? LOL!

Fitz never even appears in public. BTW, these were the same people who loved Ken Starr, a real partisan hack/publicity hound.

The WH is scared shitless, or else they wouldn't feel the need to have surrogates attack Fitz.

[greenbriar]

14. and so by their words Ken star was a gentle kitten right???

bwhahahahahahaha:puke: :crazy: :freak: :dunce: :rofl:

[understandinglife]

17. I'm still laughing about that one !!

:rofl:


Peace.

[MADem]

4. Uh, what about PATRICK FITZGERALD IS A REPUBLICAN

PATRICK FITZGERALD WAS APPOINTED BY A REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION...

Geez, they only like them when they are stupid little parrots, I guess! What part of his charge to investigate these allegations do they fail to comprehend??

[mod mom]

19. I often wonder if Ashcroft left thinking these guys had gone too far. He

had to know of Fitzgerald's reputation as a tough prosecutor. Just maybe could Ashcroft have had a bit of decency in him?

Ridge left and later admitted he was at odds with raised alerts by Homeland Security.

I just wonder if somehow there were some diluted strengths of koolaid passed around.

[Rainbowreflect]

5. The leak was no big deal, everyone leaks.

:rofl: :spray:

[hootinholler]

8. Depends...

:evilgrin:

-Hoot

[understandinglife]

6. "So it’s up to the Daily Show and blogs sort out the spin from the truth."

A truly great quote from Think Progress in a related thread, today:

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/10/rove-attorney-lies

So true ... so very, very true ....


Peace.

[HereSince1628]

7. You gotta love the Republicans, they have given rhetoric teachers

so many examples of flawed argument to work with.

[Catherine Vincent]

9. Fitzgerald a publicity hound?

Most folks don't even know what the guy looks like. You'd have to google him to find out. Now if you want an example of publicity hound, Ken Starr comes to mind....

[leftchick]

10. Remember Ken Starr and his daily press briefings???

now that would be a publicity hound. Fitz has not had one!

[DemReadingDU]

11. Recommended,

Thanks for the Larry Johnson updates.

[Neil Lisst]

12. Larry Johnson is an astute observer

Remember at the start of the military actions, Larry Johnson was a prized consultant for Fox News. But then he fell out of favor, when, unlike David Hunt and others, he wouldn't shill for Bush as the war entered the theatre of the absurd.

I value his insights.


------
TERROR ALERT!
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[tinrobot]

13. Publicity hound?

I've never even seen a picture of Fitzgerald or seen him on TV.

Try again.

[flyarm]

15. FITZGERALD COMES OUT OF THE NY DA OFFICES..

they are renowned for their silence and non leaks!!

Fitzgerald was weaned as an assistant in ny 's southern district as an assistant US attorney...they take no crap..and they are tough ..and they are silent..nothing leaks from these guys..remember they go after the mafia!!

In the 1990's when he was little known in this country... ..Fitzgerald drew up the first indictment on Osama Bin Laden !!

and if the rethugs claim he wants to go to the head of the FBI??
just a little fact... any special prosecutor who has indicted anyone from any sitting presidents administration..to go to the head of the Fbi...zero...

the rethugs are reaching and getting more desperate by the day!

HOW SAD THEY ARE..PITIFUL AND SAD.. what human being would support their leaders lying them to war and killing unknown numbers...of their own countrymen..their own military being abused?? and god knows how many people in the country we attacked and occupy..

and then have the audacity to call themselves christian!

i guess traitors ..just attract traitors!!

fly

[mod mom]

20. If Fitz unseats a corrupt Repb administration, I would certainly hope

that Dems (if they took over power) would see he was a man of integrity and place him in a prominent position.

[understandinglife]

21. These are important observations about Mr Fitzgerald.

Comey knew exactly what he was doing when, with Ashcroft being forced to recuse himself, Comey appointed Fitzgerald.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec03/leak_12-31.html (You may all enjoy this bit of commentary from December 31, 2003)

That day the clock for oh so many neoconsters, along with georgie and dickie, started ticking - the last tock may be real soon now.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

23. USA Today on Fitzgerald

Investigator of CIA leak seen as relentless

By Judy Keen, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — When defense attorney Ron Safer heard that Patrick Fitzgerald would lead an inquiry into the leak of a CIA operative's name, his first thought was that, from the Bush administration's perspective, "they could not have picked a worse person."

Safer, a Chicago lawyer who has watched Fitzgerald since he was named U.S. attorney there in 2001, says the prosecutor "will bring to this the same energy and aggression that he does to every other project he undertakes."

<clip>

Fitzgerald, 44, was born in Brooklyn. His Irish immigrant father, Patrick Sr., worked as a doorman at a building in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Fitzgerald went to Regis High School, a Jesuit preparatory school, then worked on its maintenance crew to pay his way through Amherst College. He majored in math and economics, then went to Harvard Law School.

He worked in a New York law firm before joining the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan in 1988. He stayed for 13 years, convicting Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and indicting bin Laden in a conspiracy that included the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

<clip>

More at the link to one of the few articles with details about Fitzgerald:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-10-fitzgerald_x.htm

Peace.

[understandinglife]

22. Larry Johnson: Mambo Italiano and Plame Gate

With friends like the Italians who needs enemies? If Karl Rove and Scooter Libby are indicted they can shift some of the blame to the Italians. If it were not for Italy, Joe Wilson probably never would have been sent to Africa to investigate the claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger and the ensuing chain of events to smear Wilson would not have happened. A careful review of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Report on the Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq (July 2004) shows very clearly that there was only one source claiming that Iraq was buying the uranium. Shades of Curveball! Except in this case the source was not an Iraqi linked to Ahmed Chalabi, but a foreign liaison service. Knowledgeable friends say it was the Italian Intelligence Service (SISME).

SISME provided the CIA with three separate intelligence reports that Iraq had reached an agreement with Niger to buy 500 tons of yellowcake uranium (October 15, 2001; February 5, 2002; and March 25, 2002). (See Expanded PlameGate Timeline below). The second report from February was the subsequent basis for a DIA analysis, which led Vice President Cheney to ask CIA for more information on the matter. That request led to the CIA asking Ambassador Joe Wilson to go check out the story in Niger.

Even in the much maligned October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, the entire intelligence community remained split on the reliability of the Iraq/Niger claim. During briefings subsequent to the publication of the NIE, senior CIA officials repeatedly debunked the claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. They also dismissed as unreliable reports from Great Britain, which also were derived from the faulty Italian intelligence reports.

Italy’s SISME also reportedly had a hand in producing the forged documents delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in early October 2003 that purported to show a deal with Iraq to buy uranium. Many in the intelligence community are convinced that a prominent neo-con with longstanding ties to SISME played a role in the forgery. The truth of that proposition remains to be proven. This much is certain, either SISME or someone with ties to SISME, helped forge and circulate those documents which some tried to use to bolster the case to go to war with Iraq.

<clip>

Posted October 10, 2005

Much more at the link:
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/mambo_italiano_.html

Very important.


Peace.