J Raimondo: "Let Justice Be Done: Though the heavens fall"

[understandinglife]

Let Justice Be Done
Though the heavens fall

by Justin Raimondo on October 24, 2005

Fiat justitia, ruat coelum.

"Let justice be done, though the heavens fall."

The above Latin quotation – usually attributed to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a Roman statesman and Julius Caesar's father-in-law – succinctly summarizes both prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's view of the law and the possible consequences of its application in the case of the CIA leak investigation.

In Washington, D.C., the heavens will surely fall on the heads of several prominent players, including not only the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, but also the president's top national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley; John Hannah, the vice president's chief national security adviser; and David Wurmser, the VP's chief of Middle Eastern affairs. The fate of the more high-profile Karl Rove is in some doubt: he's probably looking at obstruction of justice and/or perjury charges, but the others – including, perhaps, a number of unindicted co-conspirators – are looking at some real jail time. The number of the indicted is likely more than just these few, however, especially as rumors that Fitzgerald's investigation has widened considerably harden into near certainty. It wasn't for nothing that Fitzgerald's people posted on their brand-new Web site a letter from the Justice Department making clear that the special counsel has "the authority to investigate and prosecute violations of any federal criminal laws related to the underlying alleged unauthorized disclosure." This isn't just about the "outing" of deep cover CIA agent Valerie Plame anymore, if it ever truly was. Scooter-gate is about one of the biggest and most brazen lies used by this administration to drag us into an unjustified and reckless war: the Niger uranium forgeries.

No sooner had I written about this in my Wednesday column of last week than it was confirmed a couple of days later by MSNBC, which reported that Fitzgerald's investigation has led him to ask for the Italian parliamentary report on the Niger uranium forgeries, which, I am told, points directly at the identity of the forgers.

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Much more at the link:

http://antiwar.com/justin

As noted by Jane Hamsher at firedoglake:

Last week, Justin Raimondo at AntiWarcom ran a story that said Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation had expanded to include looking into the Niger forgeries. From October 19, 2005:

Even as the FBI was following the trail of the forgers, the Italians were looking into the matter from their end. A parliamentary committee was charged with investigating, and they issued a heavily redacted report: now, I am told by a former CIA operations officer, the report has aroused some interest on this side of the Atlantic. According to a source in the Italian embassy, Patrick J. "Bulldog" Fitzgerald asked for and "has finally been given a full copy of the Italian parliamentary oversight report on the forged Niger uranium document," the former CIA officer tells me:

"Previous versions of the report were redacted and had all the names removed, though it was possible to guess who was involved. This version names Michael Ledeen as the conduit for the report and indicates that former CIA officers Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf were the principal forgers. All three had business interests with Chalabi."

Now UPI seems to be backing up Raimondo's claims in a story that ran this morning:

More at the link:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/10/is-smoking-gun-turning-into-mushroom.html

And, Josh Marshall offers the following:

There's another part of Martin Walker's article I should note ...

There is one line of inquiry with an American connection that Fitzgerald would have found it difficult to ignore. This is the claim that a mid-ranking Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, held talks with some Italian intelligence and defense officials in Rome in late 2001. Franklin has since been arrested on charges of passing classified information to staff of the pro-Israel lobby group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. Franklin has reportedly reached a plea bargain with his prosecutor, Paul McNulty, and it would be odd if McNulty and Fitzgerald had not conferred to see if their inquiries connected.

I reported on these meetings for much of last year. And to my knowledge the most detailed account, particularly of the US government's knowledge of the meetings and reactions is in this article I wrote with two colleagues at the Washington Monthly (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshallrozen.html).

More at the link:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006818.php

Mr Fitzgerald appears to be the thorough investigator his reputation suggests.

Bush and the neoconsters are truly confronting the 'wheels of justice' attached to a behemoth steamroller.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

1. "Conflict-of-interest rules are important and protect the public interests

... U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said in a prepared statement.

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The former chief financial officer for Boeing pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to illegally helping Darleen Druyun, the Air Force's former No. 2 procurement official, land a lucrative job with the company.

Michael Sears, 57, who along with Druyun was fired by Boeing in late 2003, pleaded guilty to a single count of aiding and abetting illegal employment negotiations in United States District Court in Alexandria, Va. Sears, who will be sentenced in January, could receive up to five years in prison.

"Michael Sears' secret employment negotiations with a senior Air Force official struck at the heart of the integrity of the multibillion-dollar defense acquisition process. Conflict-of-interest rules are important and protect the public interests," U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said in a prepared statement.

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From Ex-Boeing CFO pleads guilty in Air Force procurement scandal by George Cahlink on November 16, 2004

Link:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1104/111604g1.htm

In the biggest Pentagon scandal in 20 years, it appears that billions of dollars were doled out to the Boeing Company, as Druyun was accepting personal favors for her family.

Now, as Correspondent Scott Pelley reports, both the Pentagon and defense industry are reeling from what might be called "The Curse of the Dragon Lady."

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"Darleen Druyun understood the rules of the game, and that this discussion about employment was gonna violate the rules of the game," says Paul McNulty, the U.S. attorney in charge of prosecuting crime at the Pentagon. He told 60 Minutes Wednesday that while getting jobs for Druyun’s family isn’t against the law, getting a job for herself is a felony -- a violation of conflict of interest laws.

If, in that time period, Druyun had made those calls and sent those Emails herself, what would that have meant?

"Well, it wouldn't really have meant much different than what happened, because by using her daughter, she was still doing something indirectly that she wasn't allowed to do directly," says McNulty, who adds that any contact, even through her daughter, is against the law. "That's part of the conspiracy to violate the federal conflict-of-interest law."

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From Cashing in for Profit? on CBS 60 Minutes II, January 5, 2005

Link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/04/60II/main664652.shtml

The same Paul McNulty that took down Franklin/AIPAC and may well be coordinating with Patrick Fitzgerald.

Many have expressed reservations about Mr McNulty and I don't mean to challenge their basis for concern.

Perhaps, however, he's less friendly towards those who break the law than might have been appreciated. He certainly seems not at all hesitant to take on the neoconsters and corporatistas. Rumour has it he may be tracing another leak from the neoconville.


Peace.

[Carolab]

2. I knew it. It was all about the forgeries. n/t

[understandinglife]

3. In_deed!!

Peace.

[crispini]

4. Good Gad!

Excerpt:

Yet drawing American troops into the Levant is precisely what the neocons are counting on to distract the American people from their treason, in a "wag the dog" scenario so bold it leaves one breathless. According to Joshua Landis, the respected scholar of Syrian politics and culture who resides in Damascus, the very people who fear indictments the most are behind this new push for war:

"I have it on good authority that Steven Hadley, the director of the US National Security Council, called the President of the Italian senate to asked if he had a candidate to replace Bashar al-Assad as President of Syria. The Italians were horrified. Italy is one of Syria's biggest trading partners so it seemed a reasonable place to ask! This is what Washington has been up to."

[Cults4Bush]

6. Oy Crispini that is almost worthy of its own thread... have at it and I'll

post and rec.

[understandinglife]

5. "With the help of Chalabi, and the White House Iraq Group, Wurmser helped

... Cheney's office, particularly the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, build a case for war. Wurmser frequently met with Cheney, Libby, Feith and Richard Perle, the former head of the Defense Policy Board, to go over the "evidence" of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein that could then be used by the White House to build public support for the Iraq war. Wurmser routinely butted heads with the CIA over the veracity of the intelligence he was providing to Cheney's office, sources close the investigation said.

Wurmser had long been a proponent of removing Saddam Hussein from power. Indeed, in 1996, Wurmser, his wife Meyrav and Perle, authored a paper for "Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." It called on Israel to work with Jordan and Turkey to "contain, destabilize and roll back" various states in the region, overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq, press Jordan to restore a scion of the Hashemite dynasty to the Iraqi throne, and, above all, launch military assaults against Lebanon and Syria as a "prelude to a redrawing of the map of the Middle East which would threaten Syria's territorial integrity," according to an investigative report in the January/February 2004 issue of Mother Jones magazine.

A year later, Wurmser wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal titled "Iraq Needs a Revolution" and two years later authored a book, "Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein." With his new as a defacto head of a secret intelligence unit he was about to see his dream come true. But then former Ambassador Joseph Wilson entered the picture in May of 2003, two months after the war started, and said privately to close colleagues and a handful of journalists that the intelligence used by President Bush was "twisted."

For two years, Wurmser, Feith, Perle, Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had a tumultous relationship with the CIA who they blamed for not providing them with the type of evidence they wanted to see, specific, tailor made assessments that Iraq was an imminent threat. But with Wilson they feared a public backlash.

In June of 2003 that Libby first learned that Wilson was discrediting the administration's intelligence information, specifically the claims that Iraq tried to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Africa for an atomic bomb.

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From Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby, Hadley, those close to leak investigation say by Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovna on October 24, 2005

More at the link:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheney_aide_passed_Plames_name_to_1024.html

I suspect Mr Fitzgerald has understood the "frame" for quite some time regarding the neoconster agenda and cast of participants.

If I were Chalabi, I wouldn't be entering US territory any time soon.


Peace.

[robertpaulsen]

7. Condileeza, Condileeza, WURM HAS NAMED YOU!

As well as Scooter, Hadley and Darth Vader himself!

Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told him that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle because she was a CIA agent, the sources said.

Libby then shared the information with Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, the sources said. Wurmser also passed on the same information about Wilson and his CIA to Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, they added.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheney_aide_passed_Plames_name_to_1024.html

[bpilgrim]

8. thank you!

the FULL context MUST come out!

these fuckers LIED us to WAR & put every american man, woman and child at risk by exposing our agent investigating WMDs to try and cover it up



peace

[Orrin_73]

9. Raimondo is a good writer but

he is a buchananite and sometimes his writings should be taken with a grain of salt. He attacks anyone except for pat buchanan.

[understandinglife]

10. He's cited here because he has been on target with regard to ...

... this particular issue. I cite Raimondo for the same reason I cite Col Wilkerson and Adm Scowcroft and others, irrespective of their party affiliation -- as long as folk are throwing rocks at the neoconsters and they seem to have them aimed roughly in the right direction I'm eager to share their actions with others.

Thank you for your comment.


Peace.

[Carolab]

11. One thing he left out that is critical is that Burba already knew.

And was prevented from "going public" over here with that.

She pronounced the forgeries fakes BEFORE Wilson did.

[understandinglife]

12. Correct!! Thank you! And, for those not familiar with Elisabetta Burba ...

For those not as informed of the details, here's one segment from an essay Josh Marshall published at The Hill on July 28, 2005:

For instance, first we talked to Elisabetta Burba. She’s the reporter for Italy’s Panorama magazine who first brought the papers into the U.S. Embassy in Rome back in October 2002.

The FBI had spoken to Burba. But Burba described an essentially cursory interview. One prime interest of the bureau was finding a way to make contact with the unnamed “security consultant” who had tried to sell her the documents.

The agent who interviewed Burba suggested possible ways that they could communicate with this Mr. X while still maintaining his anonymity. She was asked to follow up with the man and see if any of the proposed means of communicating would be acceptable.

She did that. But, according to Burba, the bureau’s agent never followed up. The next she heard from him was a courtesy call months later to tell her he was moving on to another assignment. That’s what Burba told us.

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From The FBI's review of WMD forgeries looks like a sham

More at the link:
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Comment/JoshMarshall/072805.html

Peace.

[Carolab]

14. Bears repeating: 60 Minutes: The Story That Didn't Run

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines04/0923-02.htm

Here’s the Piece that ‘60 Minutes’ Killed for Its Report on the Bush Guard Documents

by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball

In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger.

{snip}

[understandinglife]

15. That's so neat!! You were posting it at the same time I was!!!

Thank you, as always :hi:


Peace.

[understandinglife]

13. Good time to revisit to the Newsweek story on 60 Minutes suppressing ...

.... their report on the forged Niger documents.

Burba, the Italian journalist, confirmed to NEWSWEEK this week that Martino is the previously mysterious “Mr. X” who contacted her with the potentially explosive documents in early October 2002—just as Congress was debating whether to authorize President Bush to wage war against Iraq. The documents, consisting of telexes, letters and contracts, purported to show that Iraq had negotiated an agreement to purchase 500 tons of “yellowcake uranium from Niger, material that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. (A U.S. intelligence official told NEWSWEEK that Martino is in fact believed to have been the distributor of the documents.)

Burba — under instructions from her editor at Panarama, a newsmagazine owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — then provided the documents to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in an effort to authenticate them. The embassy soon passed the material on to Washington where some Bush administration officials viewed it as hard evidence to support its case that Saddam Hussein’s regime was actively engaged in a program to assemble nuclear weapons.

But the Niger component of the White House case for war quickly imploded. Asked for evidence to support President Bush’s contention in his State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa, the administration turned over the Niger documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Within two hours, using the Google search engine, IAEA officials in Vienna determined the documents to be a crude forgery. At the urging of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the FBI launched an investigation into the Niger documents in an effort to determine if the United States government had been duped by a deliberate “disinformation” campaign organized by a foreign intelligence agency or others with a political agenda relating to Iraq.

So far, the bureau appears to have made little progress in unraveling the case. “The senator is frustrated by the slow pace of the investigation,” said Wendy Morigi, the press secretary for Senator Rockefeller, who was recently briefed on the status of the FBI probe.

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From The Story That Didn’t Run: Here’s the piece that ‘60 Minutes’ killed for its report on the Bush Guard documents

by Michael Isikoff & Mark Hosenball on September 24, 2004

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6073449/site/newsweek

CBS should take it off the shelf and run it -- Tonight.

Sure wish Senator Rockefeller could be something other than just frustrated.


Peace.

[Carolab]

16. Maybe DUers should wage a campaign that they air it?

Think that might do anything?

(Or do they want to keep on playing "Hide The Salami"?)

[understandinglife]

17. I suspect we won't have to push very hard. CBS will boost their ratings ..

... with this one and I would not be surprised if they run it this Wed.! especially if announcement that the GJ has voted to indict is made before show time.


Peace.

[proud patriot]

18. locking this

Justin Raimondo and Anti-War.com are not considered
acceptable sources for use on DU.

proud patriot Moderator
Democratic Underground