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that WAS looming. If Leopold/TO were not "burned"--that is, if their sources which told them a month ago that Rove had been indicted were right (or generally right)--then I suspect that the crisis, that has been looming all along in this case, came to a head then--that is, a power play by the Bush Junta, possibly through torture memo writer AG Gonzales, to remove Fitzgerald, who was pressuring Rove with perjury charges to cooperate on the case. It looks like Rove has so much power in the White House from his demoted position of Chief Of Whatever He Is Now (in charge of the Dark Lie of the Bushite's "comeback" narrative for the fall), that he can dictate withholding White House cooperation on witnesses and their subject areas. And having broken Rove (or Rove/aspens having decided to give Libby up*), Fitzgerald can breathe a sigh of relief to the judge, and say...
"The White House is aware of the witnesses we intend to call ... and the subject areas. This is not a crisis that is looming. I want to assure you of that." --Fitzgerald to the judge.
I have felt all along--from the very beginning of this prosecution--that Rove was a relatively minor player in the Cheney/Rumsfeld plot against the CIA, and that they may even have lied to him about the legality of outing Plame, and set him up to take the fall. The political revenge story--that Plame was outed by Rove in a fit of political revenge against her husband--very early on struck me as shaky and invented. It was one of the things that first pointed me to the mood of panic and high risk that seems to have prevailed among the top Bushites back in July 2003 when they outed Plame and the entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation network that she headed, Brewster-Jennings. They outed Plame on July 14. But why on earth would they GO ON to ADDITIONALLY out the Brewster-Jennings network, a week later, on July 22? (There were TWO outings by Novak.) This was an extremely high risk thing to do, putting covert CIA agents/contacts around the world in great danger of getting killed, and compounding the treason of outing our own people. And all this was to punish an ex-diplomat for his dissenting article--something that could have been 'disappeared' into the Bushite-controlled newsstream? Didn't add up. Smelled.
Ultimately, this shakiness of the Rovian revenge story led me to the Brits chief WMD expert, David Kelly, who was found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances, on July 18, right in the middle of these two outings; his office and computers were searched after his death, and four days later the entire BJ network was outed. Was this WHY they outed BJ as well--something Kelly knew? Kelly had been whistleblowing to the BBC about the "sexed up" pre-war WMD intel. What else did Kelly know that might have gotten him suicided? These questions were the basis of the WMD-planting theory of Traitorgate--that the outing of Plame and BJ was itself a cover up--of a Bushite plot ot PLANT nukes in Iraq that got foiled, possibly by the BJ network. And this is nothing that Rove would be likely to be involved in directly, or to cook up. This was, surely, a project of the OSP at the Pentagon, with Cheney as co-conspirator (and Rumsfeld as mastermind?)
Politicos here at DU wanted Rove to be the perp--or a chief perp--for political reasons. I certainly sympathize with their reasons, and believe that Rove is a lying, deceitful, criminal with huge crimes to his name (worst of all Bushite crimes, bar none, because it is aimed at destroying our democracy--stealing elections; also, destroying people, dirty tricks, blackmail, bribery, spying, black ops stings, etc.) But Rove's political villainy may have been distracting to people--distracting them from what may have really been occurring, behind the scenes, in the blood-drenched, Mafia-like, death and torture, Rumsfeldian underworld. Rumsfeld/Cheney were up against a new culture in the CIA that had rejected torture and assassination as methods of serving US global corporate interests, and saw their job as preventing war, not manufacturing it. A post-Iran-Contra culture. Rumsfeld/Cheney's purpose, obvious from many different news items and investigations, was to manufacture war in the corporate interest. They had to break or circumvent those who were committed to more peaceful methods of supporting US corporate power. That's how I see the broad outlines of what Libby himself has called the "war" between the Bushites and the CIA.
The "crisis" that Fitzgerald is referring to (that he assures Judge Walton has been averted) actually goes way back to July 2003 itself, and this massive assault that the Bushites launched against the CIA all over the world. The BJ counter-proliferation network had been 20 years in the making, and likely had operatives in key positions in numerous countries, keeping eyes and ears on illicit WMD movements, and acting to PREVENT proliferation. That our own government would destroy these people (via the second Novak outing)--ruin their careers, get them killed--IS a crisis of grave proportions. Because we have a secret government, we can't really see how serious this was. The Bushites committed treason, in their own words "in a time of war"--a hanging offense.
Thus, the Fitzgerald investigation--fairly solidly insulated from White House/Pentagon interference (George Tenet's one act of independence, and parting shot at the Neo-Cons?). Rove may have called Novak, at the behest of the anti-CIA conspiracy, but he would not have been in a position to launch this assault on the CIA, nor, possibly, to understand its full import. Only Cheney, and his chief aide Libby, and Rumsfeld, would have that power and cognizance.
The governmental "crisis" may have continued, lurking in the background, through May of this year, and a showdown between the White House and Fitzgerald over Rove's perjury, and over White House witnesses in the Libby trial (for perjury and obstruction). For one thing, if the WH barred certain witnesses, Libby (according to him) would be unable to defend himself, and thus his trial (the means of getting at the larger conspiracy) would be moot. And Fitzgerald himself may need WH witnesses to make his case against Libby, and/or to pursue other elements or perpetrators of the crime. It is in this context that Fitzgerald may have seriously threatened Rove with prosecution for perjury--and maybe even drew up papers for it--which could have led Leopold/TO's sources to become convinced that Rove had been indicted (if Leopold/TO were not deliberately burned by their sources). Better legal heads than mine have speculated that the sealed indictment that Fitzgerald filed, back in May, which he gave the unusual title of "Sealed v Sealed" (rather than "U.S. v Sealed"), is actually Fitzgerald v. Gonzales. Fitzgerald not only has the goods on Rove (on perjury, at least), he also likely has the goods on Gonzales, for giving the White House overnight notice of the prosecution, which would have enabled Traitorgate conspirators to shred documents and cook up better cover stories. If Gonzales sought to intervene on a Rove indictment for perjury--to get the pressure off Rove and other WH witnesses to testify in the Libby case--Fitzgerald may have played the obstruction card on Gonzales, to expose Gonzales' conflict of interest, and personal jeopardy, in this case. "Sealed v. Sealed" (if that's what it is) would then remain sealed as a threat to Gonzales and the WH to STOP obstructing his investigation, and to back off of any behind-the-scenes "Saturday Night Massacre."
All this seems to the good, as far as Fitzgerald exposing the conspiracy (or having the potential to do so)--and also holding the Bushites to SOME kind of accountability on SOMETHING (at the least on perjury and obstruction in this case). I don't know if my guesses about David Kelly and the WMD-planting theory are right--it's just a theory (a pretty good one, though)--or how deep Fitzgerald has been able to get, or intends to go, on this case. He has very carefully avoided letting the case become a contest on the right or wrong of the war, which could easily distract from criminality culpability that is provable and enforceable. (Only Congress and the American people and the international community can bring about justice on THAT matter--the war itself.) Traitorgate has to do more with the LIMITS on presidential power in other respects. Can the president and his operatives break the law protecting CIA agents, in the pursuit of whatever goal (punishing Wilson, manufacturing war, a free flow of illicit WMDs around the world)? Can they conspire to do that? Can they cover it up with impunity?
I would guess that Dick Cheney is in a lot of trouble--or, we're just seeing an "aspen" (fatcat, behind-the-scenes Republican) scenario spun out, of "sacrificing" Libby, as a first line of defense against this enormous scandal, and then Cheney, if necessary. Retire him in splendor (with a wrist-slap by the Diebold Congress), and put in a fresh face as V-P for '08. Rove is still around to orchestrate the theft of the '06 by-elections (and pre-write its phony narrative). They're aiming at '08, a bigger threat (by which time--who knows?--we may be into the "civil disorder" part of this fascist coup). This is the downside, of course, and we simply don't know whether or not Fitzgerald is being played, and, if he is, whether or not things will work out the way the "aspens" want them to. It's a very blurry picture we're looking at, with lots and lots of unknowns. We rarely hear Rumsfeld's name mentioned in connection with this case, and there has not been the slightest hint from Fitzgerald that Rumsfeld is a target. But, given the entire arc of the story--from the Neo-Con connections to the Niger forgeries in 2001, to what may have been a power struggle and "crisis" this May (and considering also the AIPAC case)--I still pick Rumsfeld for mastermind, and I don't know if he is catchable. He may be the one they are all protecting--because his international prison/torture system, and personal cloak and dagger/black ops network--which has replaced the CIA, which at least had some tenuous oversight by Congress, as a residue from Iran/Contra (Rumsfeld's doings have NO oversight)-- are critical to the toppling of Iran, and other profitable ventures. and may also be critical to the continued coverup of unknown Bush junta crimes.
I would advise: STOP hoping that "white knight" Fitzgerald is going to save our country and our democracy, and get busy at the state/local level to rid our election system of Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machinery. It is still possible at the state/local level. Our window of opportunity to accomplish this may be limited. We had better get on it. Careful monitoring of '06 election results is a must do, to build the case against the machines.
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