WaPo: Ruling gives Fitzgerald leverage against Novak, other journalists

I didn't see this posted, but the WaPo article on the contempt ruling has some eye-catching details: first, that the Post's Walter Pincus was subpoenaed yesterday after the ruling came out, and second, that this gives Fitzgerald the leverage he wants to go after Novak now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52895-2004Aug9.html

Lawyers involved in the case said it appears that Fitzgerald is now armed with a strong and unambiguous court ruling to demand the testimony of two journalists -- syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, who first disclosed the CIA officer's name, and Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, who has written that a Post reporter received information about her from a Bush administration official.

Pincus was served with a subpoena yesterday after Hogan's order was unsealed.

gets all high and mighty about protecting "sources."

why the hell has CNN kept him on after this treasonous act.
A free press can withold confidential sources. A responsible press does not engage in treason.

His ass should have been fired a year ago.

Same with the CST. He still works there too. Novak may or may not have committed a crime but he certainly did something extremely unethical and should have been canned immediately.

On another note, I hope Fitzgerald is watching his back. I'm afraid there may be a stroke or heart attack in his future.

Chicago Man Arrested in Plot to Bomb Courthouse


CHICAGO (Reuters) - A convicted counterfeiter who had a grudge against the government was arrested on Thursday for plotting with undercover U.S. agents to blow up the building housing federal offices in Chicago, prosecutors said.
Gale Nettles, 66, told a fellow inmate of his desire to use a fertilizer truck bomb to blow up the Dirksen federal building, authorities said. The inmate told authorities, and undercover FBI agents and other informants contacted Nettles after he was released from prison last year.

"The only people he dealt with were FBI agents and informants ... this had nothing to do with any terrorist group," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told a news conference in the building Nettles was suspected of targeting.

"Today's action is not related to the nation's current terrorism threat level. Nettles was always acting alone and had no connections to any terrorist organization," Fitzgerald said.

He said the Dirksen building, a glass and steel skyscraper that houses courtrooms as well as the offices of the FBI and federal prosecutors, was never in jeopardy.

more
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5888437

Nettles told the undercover agent he could make a 3,000-pound fertilizer bomb.

``He had a rational plan to build a bomb. We weren't going to wait to see if it would work,'' Fitzgerald said.

Timothy McVeigh used a bomb made of 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.

Nettles was arrested at a park early Thursday with the pickup truck when he met the undercover agents who he thought were terrorists, according to the criminal complaint. The fertilizer he obtained in the sting does not have the explosive potential of ammonium nitrate.

According to the complaint, Nettles met July 26 with an undercover agent he thought was a member of a terrorist group. In a recorded meeting, Nettles said he had a half ton of ammonium nitrate in New Orleans that he could have in Chicago in two days and that he had a target in mind - the U.S. courthouse downtown, the complaint said.

A court appearance for Nettles was scheduled Thursday afternoon.

Nettles was released from prison in 2003 after serving time for counterfeiting and apparently retained a grudge against the court system, Fitzgerald said. The Dirksen federal building in downtown Chicago houses federal criminal and civil courts and the U.S. attorney's office

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4390698,00.html


just a little warning :shrug:

... speculated that he IS/WAS CIA.

Pincus probably would NOT be one of the ones the White House called to out Plame. Pincus is likely not being called to ask him to reveal any sources. But b/c of his connections, Pincus may nevertheless KNOW who outed Plame (and be willing to testify to it).

I'm not optimistic about Novak. He'll play martyr to the end. He's got two motives to do so. The journalistic and the partisan: Protection of his sources and Protection of his party.

He will not risk jail. I predict he will roll before he risks going to jail...

What makes you think Republicans are loyal? They will throw whoever they have to the wolves to protect their asses and they always have...

too much of a punk to stand in his truth and take his ass whippin' for it.

Interesting material; I hope you will add it to the Plame threads!

What do you think it means? I'd like to hear your interpretation.

They hate plamegate cause it makes both the press and their god bush look bad.

I was wondering why it appeared he was going after peripheral figures while seeming to let Novak alone. My hunch is that he wanted to have a surefire approach before reeling Novak in. It'as better to lose on the small fry and try again with a different tactic, than to let the main target skate.

I think he wanted to get the court ruling before going after Novak.

he could hardly have been LESS interested, saying it wasn't his desk that was handling it

I asked if he'd pass it on, and he said, very unenthusiastically, that he would

I told him that the ONLY newspaper that had covered it all was the New York Times

I've heard about the CIA connections, too

dunno if it was WRT the Bernstein story a long time ago



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