Call A New Special Prosecutor!

[Annie]

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005763.php
Link at site:

November 10, 2005
Will The DoJ Probe The CIA For CYA?

A joint call for Congressional investigations into a rash of recent CIA leaks by Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist may get pre-empted by a criminal probe at the Department of Justice, Jonathan Allen reports for The Hill today:

Rank-and-file members of the House and Senate intelligence committees said they were in the dark yesterday about the timing and logistics of a possible joint investigation into alleged leaks from the Central Intelligence Agency, and there were strong indications that congressional action could be preempted by a potential Justice Department probe. ...

The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA has been operating secret prison camps in foreign countries to interrogate detainees. Many lawmakers said they could neither confirm nor deny the existence of such “black sites.”

At least two lawmakers, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said yesterday that the intelligence panels should defer to the Justice Department, which is determining whether to launch a criminal investigation into the matter, according to the Associated Press.

A House source familiar with discussions of the proposed congressional probe said he had been told that the Justice Department would be the primary agent for an investigation.​

A Justice investigation would create considerably more pressure on the CIA. First and foremost, the FBI would certainly take over the investigation. The FBI's traditional rivalry with the CIA might be just what's needed in rooting out the increasingly transparent effort by some within the agency to undermine the elected government through selected and contextless release of classified information on ongoing operations. Also, the Justice Department will not prove as hesitant to use subpoena power to compel witnesses into court and force them to testify under oath.

As an added benefit, it will remove the incentive for some politicians in Congress to grandstand this into a political circus instead of solving a longstanding cancer in the midst of our intelligence service. The Niger dodge pulled off by Joe Wilson and his wife Jane Bond Valerie Plame only gives a taste of the capability for mischief that an entrenched bureaucracy can create, and apparently does create now, for an administration whose policies don't kowtow to their world view.

Blowing sensitive missions during wartime like the detention facilities and the airline cover can easily cost lives of valuable agents, not to mention the loss of critical information regarding enemy capability and movements. Overt acts that release such information are felonies and require vigorous prosecution, once the perpetrators are identified. It certainly provides a better use of prosecutorial time than an investigation to determine the person who leaked the status of a CIA employee who staged her husband's political credentials so that he could seriously misrepresent the little intelligence the CIA had bothered to gather in the wake of British analysis of Saddam Hussein's efforts to find uranium.

The recent rash of leaks intends on throwing the spotlight off of the CIA's effort with Wilson to derail Bush and turn Plame's husband into a CIA proxy for the 2004 election. Instead, the leakers just found out how much hardball the Bush administration might play to preserve the notion of executive control of foreign policy and protect the American electoral system from government interference.

 

[Annie]

http://spectator.org/blogger.asp?bwd=46&byear=2005#769

More Wilson Meltdown - Friday, November 11, 2005 @ 5:59:11 PM

Earlier this afternoon, I had a very unpleasant conversation with Mr. Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer who is now out and about defending Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. Johnson, in my interview with him, confirmed some things, left some open, but revealed something startling: the defense of Joe Wilson is apparently being run from inside the CIA.

Johnson came up on the scope when he accused Gens. Paul Vallely and Tom McInerny of falsely attacking Wilson. Vallely, you may recall, said last week on John Batchelor's ABC radio show that Wilson -- husband of CIA employee Valerie Plame -- had told Vallely (a year before Robert Novak outed Plame) that Plame was a CIA employee. I asked Johnson about several points regarding his defense of Wilson and attack on Vallely. Johnson was very specific about certain things.

First, he said that since Vallely had made his statements, he -- Johnson -- has been in contact with both Wilson and Plame, and that Wilson denied to him making the statement to Vallely. But there is a lot more. I asked Johnson about a statement he made to congressional Democrats in July.

In particular, I asked him about the statement attacking Fred Rustman -- one of Plame's former CIA supervisors who left the agency in 1990 -- who had said she was under "light cover." Johnson's statement said Rustman's claims are not true. When I asked if he had talked to Rustman or Plame about it, Johnson became agitated. He said, “I talked to several people, I’ve talked to multiple people…" When I pressed him on who, he said:

"Hey, I’m not getting into specifically which individuals I’ve talked to, some are still active duty.

“I’ve not talked to Rustman. I’ve talked to people that know and it’s absolutely certain that Rustman has not been in contact with her, has not stayed in contact with her and did not know her subsequent status when she turned, when she became a NOC."​

When I told him I would have to conclude that his statement was not supported because he wouldn't cite sources, instead of accepting this as just one man's conclusion, Johnson continued to be agitated and argued,"Your conclusion is wrong...I have had contact with other individuals, [tape garbled] other CIA officers who had contact with Fred." (emphasis added)

Johnson insisted on giving me what he called, the direct quote: "I have spoken with people who are knowledgeable, who have direct knowledge of the situation. I have spoken to multiple sources on this and they -- to a person -- indicate that Rustman was not in social contact with her after 1992 and had no knowledge of her new status as non-official cover officer."

The conversation ended a moment or two later when Mr. Johnson suggested I should place the entire matter inside a bodily orifice, which I declined to do. At that point, I hung up on him.

What does all that mean? When Johnson says that he has been in contact with other CIA officers, some still on active duty, about Rustman it can mean only one thing: someone -- or some group -- still on active service inside the CIA is managing and directing the people such as Johnson who are attacking Wilson's critics and doubters. (Correction: there is one alternative possibility, that Mr. Johnson's story and defense of Wilson/Plame is baloney. Either is equally possible.) This story gets worse and worse. Stay tuned.

Posted By: Jed Babbin

 

[dilloduck]

It IS supposed to be a government of "...We the people...".

If we are smart "we the people" will let a group of "we the people" keep some secrets to protect "we the people".

 

[Bullypulpit]

Does't this sound like CIA leaking? :shocked: In Washington? :shocked:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644.html?nav=hcmodule

Given that Trent Lott admitted the leaker was likely a Republican Senator, the calls for an investigation are entirely appropriate. Let's indict andother...Shall we?

 

[jon_forward]

Given that Trent Lott admitted the leaker was likely a Republican Senator, the calls for an investigation are entirely appropriate. Let's indict andother...Shall we?

so everything Mr.Lott says is true? if the leak came from a Senator, it should be dealt with...what differance does it make what party they are with???Would it still be appropriate to investagate if the leak orginated from somebody other then a Republican?

 

[Annie]

Given that Trent Lott admitted the leaker was likely a Republican Senator, the calls for an investigation are entirely appropriate. Let's indict andother...Shall we?

I agree with you Bully. I also think that it was right that Libby was indicted, for the same reason WJC should have been convicted in the Senate.