Is Fitzgerald holding off on indictments in Plame case to protect Bush?

[The Night Owl]

Poll question: Is Fitzgerald holding off on indictments in Plame case to protect Bush?

Is Fitzgerald holding off on indictments in the Plame case to protect Bush?

[Langis]

1. I wish I knew

I really hope the indictments come down soon. Before the election would be great, but either way I want the fuckers to burn.

[Dems Will Win]

5. There is a rule at Justice, no indictments in October of political figures

time-honored tradition I read.

[BrotherBuzz]

6. My calendar says it's still September

;)

[21winner]

7. Where?

got a link?

[Owlet]

2. Does Ashcroft have to approve any indictments?

..or can the grand jury return a bill on its own?

[21winner]

8. Ashcroft has recused himself.

The investigation is independent. The grand jury will indict if there is a case.

[AlCzervik]

3. I don't know enough about him or his background to say

I'm hoping the delay is because he's being thorough.

[21winner]

4. Getting convictions is important.

The wheels of justice grind slow and increasingly fine.

[LizW]

9. Sadly, I have my doubts about Fitzgerald

I just finished Peter Lance's book "Cover-up: What the government is still hiding about the war on terror". Lance contends that Fitzgerald helped cover up an operation where the FBI used a second-generation mobster named Greg Scarpa, Jr. to get information from bomber Ramzi Yousef while the two were incarcerated in adjacent cells during Yousef's trial for the Bojinka plot. Lance says that the FBI knew through Yousef's communications intercepted by Scarpa that Yousef planned to have his associates on the outside bring down a passenger airliner with a bomb in order to cause a mistrial in Yousef's trial. There were numerous notes passed which Scarpa photographed or hand copied and provided to the FBI. Some detailed how to make the bomb, how to smuggle the bomb parts onto the plane, and where to place it on the plane in order to blow up the fuel tanks.

The FBI even allowed Yousef to make overseas phone calls from jail so that they could monitor them. However, they lost control of the arrangement, and Yousef was able to continue making calls after the FBI thought they had terminated the privilege. At least four of the Bojinka co-conspirators were still at large at the time.

TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed the night of July 17, 1996, the day before devastating evidence was to be presented in Yousef's trial. The next morning Yousef, who represented himself, asked for a mistrial due to the "unfortunate event." It was denied, and Yousef was untimately found guilty.

For complicated reasons I won't go into here, the FBI, according to Lance, was faced with a problem regarding Scarpa's informant status. To vastly oversimplify, if they put him forth as a credible witness on terrorist plots, they would lose some very high profile mob convictions. Ultimately, they disavowed his information, and claimed that they had gotten nothing useful from him with regard to Ramzi Yousef or any other terrorists.

And, as is now well known, the TWA 800 crash cause was labeled a "mechanical failure."

Patrick Fitzgerald, who was overseeing the Yousef Bojinka trial for the Justice Department, according to Lance, signed an affidavit that supported the credibility of Scarpa's information gained from Yousef. Later though, that affidavit was sealed by the court, and Fitzgerald now claims to have no knowledge of the Scarpa arrangement.

There is MUCH more to this story than I have told here. I recommend the book.

[WilliamPitt]

10. He is holding off to protect himself

Were he to release indictments during the election season, he would a) Be interfering in the political process, and b) Be accused of unconscionable bias. His work would be discredited. Fitzgerald is a man of integrity, old-school style, i.e. he won't mess with an election if he can possibly help it.

We find it strange because we haven't seen ethics in a long time.