The WHIGers are a freaking & Bush and Cheney can fly, here and ...

[understandinglife]

.... there, but they have NO WHERE TO HIDE.

As many of you know, I've tended to focus on the WHIGers, because not only are they a bunch of folk who deserve to be extensively scrutinized and probably prosecuted, their bosses included Dickie and Georgie boy.

On August 4, 2005, I shared with all of you Rove, Novak, the WHIGers and others got some really bad news today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4263356

That post detailed the fact that Paul McNulty, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced that Lawrence Anthony Franklin, age 58, of Kearneysville, WV; Steven J. Rosen, age 63, of Silver Spring, MD; and Keith Weissman, age 53, of Bethesda, MD, were indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in Alexandria with Conspiracy to Communicate National Defense Information to Persons Not Entitled to Receive It.

Counts 1 - 4, as filed against defendant Lawrence Allen Franklin, on May 26, 2005, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia include:

Conspiracy to communicate national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) & (g);

and,

Communication of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d).

Steven J Rosen and Keith Weissman are indicted as co-conspirators, neither of whom were US Government employees. Additionally, they did not possess security clearances and were not authorized to receive classified information from the defendant, Lawrence Anthony Franklin.

Franklin, as would be the case for Rove, all the other members of the WHIG (White House Iraq Group), and anyone accessing the Top Secret document on AF1 during Bush's Africa trip (July 6 - 13, 2003), either had signed SF-312 - Classified Information Non-Disclosure Agreement or would be in violation of the law by virtue of having unauthorized access to it and any of the information it contained.

Congressman Waxman has focused on SF-312 and rightly so. See this DU thread in which I attempted to pull various resources together on this aspect:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4130407

Ms Plame's identity was marked explicitly Top Secret and carried the additional caveat that it not be shared with other governments irrespective of their status as allies.

Novak, Miller, Cooper and any other person in receipt of the classified information from Rove or/and anyone else who signed an SF-312 are candidates for co-conspiracy status, just as Rosen and Weissman have now been indicted as co-conspirators in the Franklin case.

Murray Waas discussion with Ambassador Wilson today on Democracy Now is as explicit a linkage of Rove, WHIG, Miller, WMD and Plame as I've seen:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4261522&mesg_id=4261522

18 U.S.C. § 793 is also known as the "Espionage Act."

Based on the events in the events at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia today, I think the pucker-factor for Rove, Novak, and many others (i.e., all the WHIGers and likely Bolton) is likely to have tightened a notch or two. Would be interesting if someone were flashing (or whispering) the news to Novak during the CNN broadcast today that he might well find himself a co-conspirator under 18 U.S.C. § 793.

In any event, we no longer need to speculate whether those who have signed SF-312 are subject to indictment under 18 U.S.C. § 793 -- it happened today, August 4, 2005.

Subsequently, on August 11, 2005, I posted Rove, Novak, the WHIGers and others -- reality sucks, doesn't it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4319705

In which I noted that:

Tom Engelhardt publishes an analysis of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, you know the one that so many astute pundits and traitor-apologists have been claiming is almost impossible to prove intent.

Psst, hey Karl, hey Condi, yo Bob, ..... you might want to get your legal eagles to read what Elizabeth de la Vega, former federal prosecutor and Chief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, has to say about the application of the IIPA.

Plame in the Courtroom: Is the Intelligence Identities Protection Act really impossible to prove?

By Elizabeth de la Vega

August 11, 2005

Pundits right, left, and center have reached a rare unanimous verdict about one aspect of the grand jury investigation into the Valerie Plame leak: They've decided that no charges can be brought under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, because it imposes an impossibly high standard for proof of intent. Typically, writing for Slate on July 19th, Christopher Hitchens described the 1982 Act as a "silly law" that requires that "you knowingly wish to expose the cover of a CIA officer who you understand may be harmed as a result." Similarly, columnist Richard Cohen, in the July 14 Washington Post, said he thought Rove was a "political opportunist, not a traitor" and that he didn't think Rove "specifically intended to blow the cover of a CIA agent." Such examples could be multiplied many times over.

Shocking as it may seem, however, the pundits are wrong; and their casual summaries of the requirements of the 1982 statute betray a fundamental misunderstanding regarding proof of criminal intent.

Do you have to intend to harm a CIA agent or jeopardize national security in order to violate the Intelligence Identities Protection Act? The answer is no.

<clip>

Much more at the link:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=11747

And, that brings us to today. This evening, Josh Marshall posted the following:

And then further down there's this: "Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims."

First of all, it did play a big role. That's where the push back came from.

If this description is accurate, it must have many folks at the White House in cold sweats.

If Karl Rove goes down in this investigation it'll be a disaster for the president, both in terms of the damage occasioned by such a high-level White House indictment and, frankly, because he needs the guy like most of us need legs.

But this WHIG thing is a whole 'nother level of hurt.

Link:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_10_09.php#006732

To which, I simply respond -- back on August 4 and August 11, 2005, all of us here at DU were pondering just how very big that next "'nother level of hurt" was going to be.

In any event, Fitzgerald is a pro and we've known since Feb. 2005 from Judge Tatel's opinion that Fitzgerald had a major "National Security" case on the front burner.

So, now we will see just how many folk violated their SF312, violated Executive Order 12958, violated some or all of 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) & (g), perhaps violated the IIPA, and, on top of all of that, perjured, obstructed, conspired to obstruct, ....

My fellow DUers, I suspect that the list of crimes, and those accused of committing them, that the "Plame" Grand Jury will detail in their indictments are going to keep Federal prosecutors busy for a very long time.

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Peace.