Ari Fleischer & the Libby Trial

As the corporate media reports on information in Patrick Fitzgerald's Document # 80, regarding Scooter Libby's claim that President Bush authorized the leaking of classified NIE information to journalists, it is interesting to consider the significance of some other issues raised by the Special Counsel. In order to more fully appreciate the Bush-Cheney information, I think that we should take a few minutes to look at the role of Ari Fleischer in the Plame scandal.

Lawrence Ari Fleischer, born on 10-13-1960, served as President Bush's Press Secretary from January, 2001 to July, 2003. While his resignation became official on July 15, 2003, right when the scandal was heating up, he had actually announced it the previous May 19th.

Fleischer promoted the Bush-Cheney agenda when presenting information on Iraq to the media. His public statements were often coordinated with high-ranking officials to send mixed messages; for example, while the president was saying that he hoped to resolve the dispute with Iraq about weapons inspections without going to war, Fleischer told reporters, "I'm not saying there is no plan (of attack) on his desk." (Woodward; Plan of Attack; page 188) He also said things like, "We have intelligence information about what Saddam Hussein possesses." (Woodward; page 234)

Yet Woodward makes clear that Fleischer was not kept in the loop about many of the plans for the war. (page 397) And a July 18, 2005 report on Bloomberg.com (Special Prosecutor's Probe Centers on Rove, Memo, Phone Calls) notes he "wasn't part of Bush's inner circle during his tenure as press secretary ..."

In Document # 80, Fitzgerald notes that Team Libby has listed Fleischer as among "Potential Government Wintesses." (page 9) Fitzgerald states that Ari will be "the government's sole White House witness, (and) will focus on conversations with defendant regarding Ms. Wilson which took place in June and early July 2003." (page 11) Team Libby is focused upon Fleischer's reportedly viewing a report that Colin Powell had on Air Force 1 on a trip to Africa: "If the press reports are correct, and if Mr. Fleischer disclosed information concerning Mr. Wilson's wife to reporters, defendant argues, then Mr. Fleischer would have a motive to shade his testimony." (page 12)

While I would not recommend believing either Fleischer or Libby, because both are indeed liars, I think that looking closer at Fleischer's role actually may shed light on why the uptight, angry Scooter and his crusty pal Dick Cheney took it upon themselves to out Plame.

From page 4 (#8) of the Libby indictment, we know that, "Prior to June 12, 2003, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus contacted the Office of the Vice President in connection to a story he was writing about Wilson's trip. LIBBY participated in discussions in the Office of the Vice President concerning how to respond to Pincus." Then, on page 5 (#9), we learn that on that day, VP Cheney informed Scooter about Wilson's wife working at the CI Counterproliferation Division; Libby "understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA."

On July 6, Ambassador Wilson's op-ed appeared in the New York Times. Starting the next day, Fleischer's activities are key. In the press release from Fitzgerald's office on the day of the Libby indictment, we read, "Following Wilson's July 6, 2003 statements, according to the indictment, Libby engaged in the following actions: on or about July 7, 2003, Libby had lunch with the then White House Press Secretary and advised that individual that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, noting such information was not widely known." (page 7) It seems possible, perhaps likely, that Mr. Libby was hoping that Mr. Fleischer would share this information with journalists.

Fleischer was among the White House officials who traveled on Air Force 1 with President Bush to Africa, starting on July 7. On that trip, at least one former White House official told Fitzgerald that he saw Fleischer reading a classified report regarding Wilson's trip to Niger; the report included information on Wilson's wife. (The former official who told Fitzgerald that he saw Fleischer reading the report is believed by some to be Colin Powell.)

Newsweek (7-15-05) also reported, "Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was sent out to trash the Wilson op-ed. 'Zero, nada, nothing new here,' he said. Then, on a long Bush trip to Africa, Fleischer and Bartlett prompted clusters of reporters to look into the bureaucratic orgins of the Wilson trip. How did the spin doctors know to cast that lure? One possible explanation: some aides may have read the State Department intel memo, which Powell had brought with him aboard Air Force One." (page 30)

It is known that on July 7, Robert Novak called Ari Fleischer. It has not been publicly confirmed if the two actually spoke, and, if they did, what they spoke about. (Bloomberg.com; 7-18-05) However, in a 10-03 article, Novak wrote, "During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife." Some insightful writers have concluded that Ari may have been Novak's first source; see "Ari Fleischer is the Third Man?" from firedoglake, 10-30-05.

But on The Anonymous Liberal on 10-31-05, journalist John Dickerson is quoted as stating, "More astonishingly, we learn from the Fitzgerald indictment that Ari Fleischer knew about Plame and didn't tell anyone at all. He walked reporters, including me, up to the fact, suggesting they look into who sent Wilson, but never used her name or talked about her position. Why not? It certainly would have been helpful for him at the time."

Perhaps Mr. Fleischer was uncomfortable expoising Plame to journalists, because he knew from his lunch-time discussion with Mr. Libby that it was extremely sensitive. We do know that in his first press conference in Africa, Ari tried to put some spin on the story, by attempting to discredit Wilson. He called Wilson a "lower-level official" who made "flawed and incomplete statements on Niger." He also said that a "greater, more important truth is being lost in the flap over whether or not Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. .... People cannot conclude that the information was necessarily false." Fitzgerald would serve a subpoena for the transcript of this press conference, which the White House had posted on their website, then scrubbed, then restored. (Democracy Now; 7-19-05; // firedoglake; 10-30-05; // White House; 7-12-03)

Fleischer fumbled the attempt to spin the "16 words" as not being up to the president's high standard, but still being almost true.

Ambassador Wilson notes in his book that Fleischer's clumsy effort "kept giving the story legs." (page 336) On of the sources Wilson used for his book, William Rivers Pitt, summed it up beautifully in his 12-30-03 article, "Bush's Worst Enemy," with one of my favorite lines: "Ari Fleischer, perhaps predictable, lied." The result, in part, can be found in Wilson's book: "Almost as soon as the White House acknowledgement was announced, Walter Pincus told me he began to receive phone calls from members of the administration trying to take it back. One official told Walter that telling the truth 'was the biggest mistake the administration had made'."

What happened next? Two important events take place on July 8th: Karl Rove has a conversation with Bob Novak, which includes information on Valerie Plame; and Scooter Libby meets with Judith Miller, requesting she attribute the information he shares as coming from "a former Hill staffer."

Fitzgerald would also find a series of e-mails between Rove and Libby, in which they discuss having CI Director Tenet make a statement, taking the blame for the President including the "16 words" in his State of the Union address. A July 23, 2005 New York Times article mentions that these e-mails, which included drafts of Tenet's statement, "had not been previously disclosed."

And on July 12, Libby was with VP Cheney on their trip to Norfolk. The 10-30-05 firedoglake article focuses on a key point : "According to Josh Marshall, a key sentence was cut out of the Gellman WaPo piece last night, but is still available on Nexis:

" 'On July 12, the day Cheney and Libby flew together from Norfolk, the vice president instructed his aide to alert reporters of an attack launched that morning on Wilson's credibility by Fleischer, according to a well-placed source.' Libby talked to Miller and Cooper. That same day, another administration official who has not been identified publicly returned a call from Walter Pincus. He 'veered off the precise matter we were discussing' and told him that Wilson's trip was a 'boondoggle' set up by Plame, Pincus has written in Nieman Reports. ....Update: Anonymous Liberal suggests that the reason the WaPo pulled the quote is because it inadvertently outs Fleischer as Pincus's source."

Exactly what role Ari Fleischer played should become better understood in Libby's trial. I think that there was discomfort on the part of Cheney and Libby, because Fleischer was not effective enough in countering Wilson. Perhaps it was then that Scooter decided he needed to take charge.

Fliescher's exodus has always puzzled me.
Though I know the job has a high burn-out level, his resignation seemed oddly timed.

Good post, you provide excellent food for the day's thoughts.

made Scooter think his immediate participation was necessary.

and had set up his own consulting business before he left. The timing stood out because of the scandal breaking at the time, but he really didn't leave in a hurry.

If I recall, the Monkey, in January or thereabouts, gave everyone an ultimatum--you let me know if you are leaving, we're getting all replacements onboard BY JULY, or you are on the staff through the election. Most of the people who were leaving gave their notice around that time, he stuck out because he WAITED. Everyone had previously thought he would stay on.

Of course, he was just a figurehead, because he was more facile with the press than Scottie McDoublechins. Scottie was the real clout, and always had better access to the dunce--he'd been with Monkey since his days as Governor.

an insult to be replaced by Scottie.

Ari was hired to be the front man, because he was viewed as smoother.

Scottie had been with the Monkey since the late 90's, in TX. He started out as a Deputy PressSec to the MonkeyGuv, then was upgraded to "travelling PressSec" during the campaign--he was with the Monkey the entire time the nitwit was on the road in the run-up to 00.

It's why, when I think GANNON, I think Scottie, not Ari...

each of the two carries theirselves, alone, I agree with you.

you begin to get cut off by your colleagues. Yet Ari still got invited to go to Africa and was obviously still very much on the job when he got back. I guess if you're planning to be the fall guy, you might as well go all the way down?

Nice to see all the strands of the flying spaghetti monster coming together.

Remember Godric Smith?

He has been hailed as the antithesis of Ari Fleischer, to quote, a "straight-as-a die civil servant who - with only two exceptions, neither of his doing - never strayed into the dark side."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3041179.stm

picked up the story and did not let statements scrubbed on WH or other media websites get scrubbed completely. No wonder there's a WH-repuke effort to control the internet. What they really want to control is the free press.

Essays,that is. So who exactly handed Ari that classified report on AF1? Wasn't that a crime? Surely he didn't have clearance to that level>

about the report. Some journalists have said Colin was seen bringing it with him onto AF1. Other reports, which I think are accurate, have noted that Dick faxed it to Powell on flight, and thus the report was "in care of" Condi Rice.

It should not have been shared with a number of the people on the flight.

in order to create a pool of suspects for what he knew would be coming, since he was Libby's boss (the guy giving the orders)?

Dick Armitage.

Where was Hadley that day? And where was J. Bolton? I get the details crossed in my pee brain. ;)

That memo is the INR memo that I keep referring to, it is crucial along with the NIE and other Docs. BTW NPR mentioned this morning that the WH made a politically motivated attack against Patriot Wilson in regards to the Fibby leaking debacle, they are the only MSM that I know of to report this aspect of the 04/05/06 filing(s).



****************
Feb 02 there was mock up on Iraq War Intel/Yellowcake and Plame's name was first noted in memo's from these/this meeting.

Fast forward, out of these memo's there became one that was called the INR memo that was essentially notes from that meeting along with other Iraq Intel. (summer 2003)This is the memo that was on AF1 that was being passed around by Ari, Powell, Rice ect... This is the same memo that was handled by Armitage that he gave to Powell by request before that AF1 Africa flight. - SEE Roger Morris link below for better details

The NIE - this is a document that traditionally takes up to 3 months to prepare and is always customary before our Country does big events like a war per say. Now according to Firedoglake, the WH wasn't even gonna have an NIE until Dick Durbin asked for one and the WH reluctantly complied and did it in 20 days or so vs the usual 3 months. - SEE FIREDOFLAKE link for better details

Now here is the fun part, the INR memo that has Plame's status all throughout it, was included as a footnote in the NIE but not in the White Paper of the NIE that went to Congress as requested. In addition to the INR footnote it completely contradicted what portions of the NIE was saying about yellow cake - important omission IMO.


more on the INR and NIE here at

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:_mjOsVbkl6AJ:firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_02_05_firedoglake_archive.html+Could+Cheney+Declassify+the+NIE+plame+inr+firedoglake&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

I you have to scroll down at least a 5th of the page you'll see,

and also this on how the INR came into being by Roger Morris - Feb 02 & summer of 03 for important parts - already highlighted.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:RajaUXFaeDcJ:www.counterpunch.org/morris07272005.html+counterpunch+rice+INR+NIE+plame&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Now based on that the INR does contain Plame's name, as far as the NIE solely on it's own - well we will have to wait until it is "declassified" - oops it already is - silly me.

Lastly my bet is that the NIE does mention Plame and her Husband since they had been on the radar for quite some time. Also keep in mind that I have given you a watered down version of what went on based on my memory from reading countless articles/blogs and reports.


Also I agree 1000% with other DU'ers that leaking ANYTHING for political gain is TREASON, but I thought you all should have some insight on the how these memo's are playing with our lives.

Was it a confluence of events on that plane or was it planned? What I mean is this. Fleischer was already on the case when the fax arrived and someone handed it to him and he not being a dumb guy ran with it and immediately got in touch with Rove. Or did they know Powell would be getting the fax and manipulated it to their advantage with the possibility of being able to eventually point the finger at Powell (which has been done). A bit woowoo here but then these are woowoo times.

Condi.

by her participation, in a press gaggle at an African airport, in directing journalists to go find out who sent Wilson to Niger.

hearings, Senators had learned that Bolton had been making inquiries about people at the State Department. They wanted to see the documents relating to that. Bolton refused saying he was just checking for personal reasons, ie, birthdays etc. for the purpose of sending greetings, AIRC. But Senators weren't buying it. They pressed for the documents. This delayed the hearing ~

Condi Rice, it was learned, then instructed the State Dept. not to release the documents. I was very surprised by that. Now, it makes more sense, if Bolton had been looking into the Wilsons, especially Valerie.

I'm wondering now if the Senators knew more about the Plame affair than we did at that time. They did make a very big deal over those documents. The hearings ended when the Senate recessed and Bush appointed Bolton to his current UN position.

So, it boils down to Bolton hiding who he was inquiring about, and Condi backing him up.

personality clash, long-standing. Part of her agreeing to take Powell's position included John B. having to be moved to arm's length.

I suspect the current White House clash dwarfs that one, though. I guess it's rather tense between a few of the boys this week.

Is B*** being forced to choose between one or the other? Who's going to be left standing, Rove or Cheney?

That is why Mr. Bolton is now found at a distance.

The Rove and Cheney thing is part of a larger Watergate phase happening right now in the White House. I keep thinking of what RawStory had reported, about Rove cooperating. My understanding is that people in the administration are very suspicious of one another right now.

Who will be left standing? Mr. Fitzgerald will. He will be viewed as a man of history.

other, do you think she helped him keep those documents from the Senate Committee?

*lol* ~ I agree that it might not be pleasant to be in the WH right now ~

the outcome of her helping him? (grin)

mean by this remark 'What was the outcome...'?

I have a feeling that IF all the dirt comes out on this administration everyone will forget about Richard Nixon. The new poster boy for government corruption, deceit, death, and lies will be George W. bush**.

was that Condi is in a position of power, and Mr. Bolton isn't in a position to create problems for her.

problems since the 2000 election. And Condi has a habit of creating problems for herself every time she opens her mouth. And that hasn't cost her anything so far. She's like the rest of them, totally out of her depths.

own role in the Plame outing, possibly?

I have another question ~ regarding the evidence now that the information about Plame was leaked to both Judith Miller and Woodward, how come neither of them wrote anything about it, as did Novak? Do you think that they were used to pass it along to others, and were not supposed to publish it, being that they were so directly involved in receiving it and could be forced to name their sources?

And do you believe that Woodward actually did forget about his conversation regarding the leak? We haven't heard him dismissing the whole investigation lately though :-)

We don't know Novak's sources yet, (unless Hadley is one of them) but why was he the only one who leaked the information?

From the beginning that has been a mystery ~ maybe Fitzgerald needs to subpoena Judy's phone records from that period?

It's interesting to look at how the other journalists responded. I remember that from early on the Plame threads, when people said that the administration officials had told six journalists, I kept saying there was at least one more .... and Mr. Woodward's monkey business has since revealed that he was the 7th one. Cliff May had been told even before the others, possibly by Newt Gingrich.

Anyhow. Matthews immediately called Wilson. He knows. Actually, he is the only corporate journalist who is focusing on the biggest story in the past couple days. I'm going to do an essay that focuses on it, maybe this morning. It nails Cheney in a way that few people fully appreciate. Matthews knows.

Mitchell also has, off the record, given Wilson valuable information on what happened both before and after the call she got.

Most of them knew what Cooper knew -- the White House had declared war on Wilson & Plame.

When we look atthe "office politics" in this administration, it's important to not give them more credit than they deserve. These people are not that much different than those found in any office or department store or school or convenience store. The same pettiness, the same jealousies, the same back-stabbing, the same self-promoting and self-righteousness found among the snakes that we all know and dislike. Rice is a snake. Bolton is a snake. Rice is a sneakier snake, that's all.

decided not to write about it. Was that because they knew it might be wrong to do so?

I remember Russert also being accused by Libby of having told him, but that turned out to be untrue.

I'm still puzzled that apparently Libby went out of his way to tell Judith Miller and someone made a point of telling Woodward, yet neither wrote about it and both pretended to have 'forgotten' they had been told so early ~ I'm just wondering what role they were supposed to play after they were given the information, and whether or not they played it. Iow, were they meant to publish it, or meant to spread it around?

Btw, how did you know there was a 7th reporter? Just wondering ~ :-)

Edited to say that your statement that 'Matthews knows' is very intriguing. If he does, shouldn't he be outraged? Unless he thinks it was Cheney and doesn't believe Bush was involved? He did tell Wilson that the WH had told him that his wife was 'fair game'. I am always puzzled by Matthews, he seems to be all over the place.

I will wait for your essay ~ maybe I'll find some answers there ~

actually there were 8 reporters. How did I know? That's a secret, and if I told, it wouldn't be a secret anymore. And we all know how Leader George values secrets. (grin)

At least I don't feel so bad for not suspecting that what we were told at the time, that six reporters were told, might not have been true! :-)

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00123-RBW: NBC NEWS & AFFILIATES

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00124-RBW: MATTHEW COOPER

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00125-RBW: JUDITH A. MILLER

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00126-RBW: ANDREA MITCHELL

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00127-RBW: TIM RUSSERT

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00128-RBW: TIME, INCORPORATED

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00129-RBW: NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

Although it's difficult to choose just one "least favorite" member of the cabal, Ari was the one (other than *) who had the most intense physical effect on me -- making me run to find a bucket the moment he showed up. Hey, Ari: cantstandya! K&R.

impressed by him in a favorable way. But I do hope he has aided Mr. Fitzgerald. I note that the indictment mentioned Ari's lunch date with Scooter, while Document # 80 suggests that there were a number of meetings between the two of interest to Fitzgerald. I think people are going to be surprised by the amount of information Mr. Fitzgerald actually has.

A joy to read. In addition to the list of witnesses (and the glaring omission of several key players from the list), the swordplay in Fitzgerald's denial for the info was page turning material.

I think Ari sang long and loud. He knows he wouldn't make it in prison (even a minimum Martha-like prison) for very long.

There was all that good info on Marc Grossman in there, too. I have no doubt Fitz has known a lot of things for a long time and is just trying to see who lied about what.

To the point of Libby's request for every document ever written from any government agency and the WH: in my best :tinfoilhat: moment, I wonder if he's trying to get as much info as he can to let the BFEE know what Fitzgerald has to use against them. I can't see any other reason for the amount of paper he's requested (not to mention the 14K+ pages he already has) if not that, or stalling and obfuscation. Unless, of course, it's just because of bad lawyering.

:popcorn:

Three reasons for unreasonable requests: 1) to warn WH chums; 2) greymail; and 3) to appeal being denied the documents.

google "Patrick Fitzgerald web site," you'll get his official site for the Libby case. Scroll down to the bottom of it, and hit the last choice for court documents. It'll pop right up as the top choice.

Stigmata was a bad movie, but it had an interesting theme: The messenger is not important.

Ari Fleishcer was sent out before the press everyday to repeat what he was told. My take on Ari is that he's not as stupid as he looks and that he's a terrible liar. He knew what he was saying didn't add up and he wasn't comfortable with it.

The messenger is not important. This is not about Ari Fleischer. It is about his message, or rather the Bush junta's message that he passed on the public. The information he was given to pass on was false, but he had no other information. He told the public what Bush, Cheney and Rove wanted the public to know -- or simply wanted the public to believe. It wasn't important if Fleischer believed it, as long as he said it with a straight face; but saying it with a straight face was not his best asset. Personally, I had the feeling that Ari had surmised the truth -- or at least what wasn't true -- and kept on dutifully repeating what he was told because that was his job.

I'm not going to try to draw any conclusions about whether Fleischer left his position because he didn't like lying or was pushed out because he couldn't do it with a straight face.

The Bush leaguers in the White House did not realize that what is important is the message, not the messenger. Here we're no longer talking about Ari Fleischer repeating their lies, but Joseph Wilson telling his truth. Shortly after the toppling of Saddam, Ambassador Wilson wrote in The New York Times about his fact finding mission to Niger and how what he found did not support Mr. Bush's announcement on the subject of Saddam's alleged attempt to purchase yellow cake uranium from an African nation made int eh 2003 State of the Union message.

By itself, Wilson's story did not refute the case for war against Iraq. Wilson merely said that if there was evidence that Saddam was attempting to purchase yellow cake, it either wasn't Niger or, if it was, it was based on something he didn't know. However, Wilson had received information that Bush was referring to the attempt to buy yellow cake from Niger and that it was based on the same matter he went to Niger to investigate. As it turned out, the document (which Wilson had never seen) that was the basis of the story was a forgery.

The messenger is not important. The wise thing to do with Wilson's message was either refute it or admit that it was right and issue a mea culpa. In fact, DCI George Tenet issued a mea culpa of sorts, saying that he is the one responsible for the insertion of the infamous sixteen words into the 2003 SOTU and admitting that they should not have been there. It wasn't a very satisfactory explanation, but it was an admission that Wilson found nothing because there was nothing for him to find.

If the only thing wrong with the Bush leaguers' case for war against Iraq had been that sixteen words found their way into the 2003 SOTU that did not belong there, no one would have cared. Mistakes happen. If US and British troops had run up the Tigris and Euphrates and found Iraq drowning in weapons grade biological and chemical agents and found whole vaults full of documents relating to how Saddam was supplying al Qaida, no one would have cared about a little sloppiness in writing the 2003 SOTU. It would have been dismissed as human error.

However, this was not the only thing wrong with the regime's case for war. In fact, they managed to get everything wrong. That is more remarkable than getting everything right. Not one pre-war claim about the threat posed by Saddam to the west has panned out.

Wilson's story isn't a problem in itself, it is a problem because it draws attention to how the Bush leaguers said they "knew" so much about Saddam's biochemical arsenal and his ties to terrorists and got it all wrong. Were these guys even looking for facts? or just talking points?

The wise men of the White House are not so wise. Instead of attacking Wilson's message, the important thing, they attacked Wilson and his wife with lies, innuendo and character assassination. Instead of setting the facts straight or allowing Tenet's mea culpa to stand, they tried to make Wilson's mission look like a souse-sponsored junket. They unmasked Mrs. Wilson so that they could make that claim. It is a weak argument in any case. Mr. Wilson, who served as acting ambassador to Iraq during the run up to the 1991 war, is the former ambassador to Niger and a recognized expert in the workings of the African uranium mining industry; he was a well qualified candidate for the mission, but no one will learn that from Ken Mehlman's discredited talking points.

The messenger is not important. For two years, Mr. Bush has told us that he was in the dark as to who had the information and that the leaker would be "dealt with." Now we learn that Bush authorized the leak of the NIE.

There is an important message in this: Bush is a liar.

and that was their problem and why they had to attack the messenger. As per Waas' article the other day, they were in the grip of fear. That they would be found out and lose in '04. All that power! No longer there for them and their buddies. So they became magicians and tried to distract the eyes of the American with that Playboy Joe Wilson whose wife had to get him a job.

They couldn't tell the truth and that was their problem and why they had to attack the messenger.

It's worse than the election of '04. The stakes are multiple impeachments (yes, I advocate that) and the spectacle of disgraced American leaders on trial for war crimes (yes, I'm for that, too).

on or about July 7, 2003, Libby had lunch with the then White House Press Secretary and advised that individual that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, noting such information was not widely known.

How they lie! When this issue was on the MSM daily, their whole defense that no one outed Valerie Plame was that 'everyone knew'. No wonder Fitzgerald sent out FBI agents to interview her neighbors. The whole rightwing propaganda machine from talk radio to the blogosphere, insisted on this, that her job was known 'all over DC'.

If the MSM had any honor and research skills, they would now retract that lie, and inform the people that it was intentional, but we now have evidence that at the time she was outed, the information was 'not widely known'.

Regarding Ari Fleischer ~ just one interesting note. I remember when Jeff Gannon was outed as a fake reporter, among the information uncovered was that he had attended a fairwell party for Ari Fleischer.

I'd still like to know where Jeff got the information about the memo he mentioned in his interview with Joe Wilson. When he was visited by the FBI he said he 'read it in the paper'. But the first mention of that 'memo' in the press was in Oct. of that year. Yet, last year on his own blog, he claims the interview with Wilson, was in Sept. of the same year.

It appears that Mr. Libby views the truth as relative ..... not widely known, widely known .... guess the Constitution grants the president the authority to make what is secret well know, and to make the truth into lies. It sounds like hard work.

seriously. it's all starting to take shape now, I think.

Le Carre and Furst should be reading the contributions of H2O man and all the others who've been following this scandal infintely more closely than the worthless M$M. Thanks to all who are making this available to those with an interest in what really happened.

is there a compendium of threads to which one may refer....

merge ? Pat Lang of DIA has called this Iranian op 'good work' which he admires as a professional spook. What does this make BushCo ? Traitors comes to mind readily. Censoring Bush isn't really anywhere near what needs to take place, but what will the R's give (they control congress ya know).

He is at the intersection of Plame and the neocon/AIPAC spy scandals.

also there may be some in the DU Research Forum, I have most of them memorized, some them bookmarked, and some keep popping as links within links as part of threads within threads.

Yes H2O Man is the deal on this subject, but there are several other DU'ers that are outstanding on this subject as well, especially with the amount of research they have contributed.

I believe in team work, and consider myself part of a group effort. My blog has a number of my contributions from the past 15 months on Plame.

The quiet men are always the most dangerous. He's been pretty quiet lately. I wonder what tales he's spinning and where he's been.

...they both have style. Fitzgerald's is rhetorical and quite powerful, Ari's is that of an accomplished front man and schmoozer. These lines from the Fitzgerald filing are simply wonderful:

"There is no precedent for a fact witness to be called to testify about the expected testimony
of another fact witness ­ much less precedent that an intention to do so entitles a defendant to
additional discovery. Putting aside defendant's failure to explain how loyalty to Mr. Armitage or
to the State Department could rise to the level of causing Mr. Grossman to invent conversations with
defendant and testify to them under oath, defendant has provided no connection between the
requested materials and Messrs. Grossman, Armitage or Powell, and no basis for concluding that the
materials would aid him in preparing to establishing bias on the part of Mr. Grossman."

This is a first rate mind at work. I'll stand corrected since I'm non expert on this issue or the law, but as i read it, Fitz pretty much destroys their entire request in these two (2) sentences. Look at the second sentence...Max Weber would be proud. Fitz is quite brilliant and also angry, IMHO. These is just devastating and indicates to me that defendant either does not know the law or that Fitz is really angry about something in a very focused way.

Ari's style is of the consummate PR guy. He breezes in, has that smile, and despite he somewhat odd appearance, handles himself with aplomb. I never believed a word he said but that's how I've always seen Bush. At least Ari is fairly intelligent and, unlike * or most of the other WH people, Ari is someone who, if I ran into him, would not cause me to vomit. Quite a compliment form me regarding an administration figure.

Based on how I saw Ari operate and you analysis, I think you're right, Ari didn't leak the name. I suspect that he was smart enough to check the law and also keep in mind that this was no 1000 year reich. People like Ari avoid jail by doing just enough to keep their jobs and move up but not so much that they do time.

Great read in the OP and the responses.

Fitzgerald is a pleasure to watch (or to read), because of his style. Unlike the many who think they understand communication -- and clowns like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly come to mind -- he does not need to raise his voice, or rant and rave. He is almost poetic .... and those two sentences you so accurately note, destroys the other side. And guys like Tate and Jeffress are very, very talented, while Teddy Wells is brilliant. So I see Fitzgerald as being an artist, in some ways like the young Muhammad Ali was when he was coming into his prime in 1966 ....

I also think of the fascinating exchange that occured between Marshall McLuhan and John Lennon, regarding the power of words to convey meaning. McLuhan started, in an effort to show himself as John's superior, by saying, "Language is a form of organized stutter. Literally, you chop your sounds up into bits in order to talk. Now, when you sing, you don't stutter, so singing is a way of stretching language into long, harmonious patterns and cycles. How do you think about language in songs?"

Lennon responded, "Language and song, to me, apart from being pure vibrations, is just like trying to describe a dream. And because we don't have telepathy, we try and describe the dream to each other, we verify to each other, what we know, what we believe to be inside each other. And the stuttering is right -- because we can't say it. No matter how you say it, it's never how you want to say it."

McLuhan waved goodbye, and said, "These portals have been honored by your presence," as he left.

I think we're honored to be witness to Mr. Fitzgerald's efforts. He communicates on a higher level, and that has resulted in some fellows like Mr. Libby stuttering .... and others, like Mr. Rove, learning to sing.

That's a great exchange. I had not seen it before. Good for McLuhan for honoring a peer (at least;).

I've thought from the start that Fitzgerald was, to paraphrase Mae West, a big guy from a big city doing business in a small town. Actually Fitz is from two big cities, NYC and Chicago. He shows up in DC and the Post and the rest talk about the "strange ways" of DC etc. Do you think Fitz cared one bit? I seriously doubt it. He knows who he is, he's the guy who gets the guys who nobody thinks can be gotten. He's the top gun...but he doesn't flaunt it, in fact, he works against that image.

Now the "Sally Quinn" Washington DC exceptionalism theory ("we're so special, so superior") is finished. Fitz is blowing through the power structure here, while jailing major crooks in Chicago (is Daley next?). He's doing it with thorough, crushing legal logic and he's cross fertilizing. I see the Plame investigation as a classic "mob" investigation. You target a lower level guy who knows the story, pound on him for a while, and get him to spill the beans. In this case, Fitz didn't need a back room (nor would he use one), he got Libby to spill the beans in his legal strategy. This is almost to amazing, and at the same time, funny for words.

You must enjoy studying and writing about this so much. It's really one of the great stories of our time and our country: good versus evil;meritocracy versus ordained and bought power; law versus cannibalism; intellect versus cleverness.

:kick:

great thread.