Stacking the Deck to Save the Administration (Judge Walton)

Chris Deliso put an *EXCELLENT* article up this morning that goes into great detail about Judge Walton and the "pseudo-random" selection process that assigns judges like him multiple times to Sibel Edmonds' cases and to Scooter Libby's case. This really belongs in LBN forum, but given it's source it will probably get censored over there, even though it really is articles like these that should be what LBN is all about as an alternative to the MSM.

This article has relevance to both the Plame and Sibel Edmonds' court cases and investigations.

From:
http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=8340

Stacking the Deck to Save the Administration
How a "random" judicial appointment may decide the Libby trial in advance
by Christopher Deliso
http://balkanalysis.com/">balkanalysis.com

The Bush administration – and the nation – has a lot at stake in the upcoming trial of former Cheney aide I. Lewis Libby over the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to the media. And if prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald decides to indict others (especially top Bush aide Karl Rove, as some expect), the stakes will get even higher.

If the trial gets messy for the administration, the president will be forced at least to reconfigure his government and suffer the fickle wrath of a duplicitous mass media. But things could get much worse, if convictions are handed down. At best (for the neocon-led government, anyway), the whole thing could just get smothered under a heavy blanket of "state secret" luxuries granted to the defense. Given the track record of the case's presiding judge, this is a distinct possibility.

The key issue arising out of not only Plamegate but so much else involving the current administration has been secrecy. Secret wiretapping and other secret requests put to the judiciary since 9/11 have doubled and have been handled in widely differing ways, even by the same judges, as have other cases in which secrecy has been cited. Examining some of these cases indicates how difficult and tortuous the issues are that the judiciary is being presented with by the most vigorously secretive American administration in history.

At the same time, we will also see how these precedents may inform the upcoming Libby trial, with special attention given to the trial's appointed judge – Reggie Walton, allegedly selected "randomly," but repeatedly and specifically chosen for cases presented by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds since 2002. In his 2004 decision, Walton ruled "with much consternation" to uphold the government's line that Edmonds could not present her case because it would threaten national security.

...

if there is an obstruction of justice and a judge is seen trying to hide criminal activity under the cloak of threat of national security? This would need a supreme court view? Trouble is the supreme court......

Walton needs to recuse himself for conflict of political interests.

:kick::kick::kick: