[From Google Reader] Eric Boehlert: Why is Woodward Still Spinning the Ford Pardon?

Update 10/29/07

clipped from news.aol.com

Ford’s Secrets Revealed in New Book

WASHINGTON (Oct. 29) — Former President Gerald Ford suggested to a reporter in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney should be dumped from the Republican ticket, according to a new book to be published Tuesday.
Ford preferred former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani because he feared Cheney had become a “liability” to President Bush , according to the book’s author.
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Update 6/11/07

The Real History of Gerald Ford, Watergate, and the CIA

World War II had just ended, successfully. In fact, it was the last successful (large-scale) war the United States has ever waged, and no small portion of that was due to the actions of the officers of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), led by William “Wild Bill” Donovan. The US’s first formally-constituted covert action unit was staffed by so many sons and daughters of the establishment that OSS was said to stand for “Oh So Social.”

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1/5/07
Perhaps no major media figure has played a bigger role in rehabilitating Gerald Ford’s image by polishing the pardon and turning it into a sweeping, heroic act than The Washington Post’s best-selling author, Bob Woodward. The problem though, is that Woodward isn’t always honest about the pardon that he insists was so “gutsy.” Which raises the question, why is Woodward so eager to create not only an aura of goodwill around the former Republican president, but an aura of heroic independence? Read the full Media Matters column here. …

Source: http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/~r/huffingtonpost/raw_feed/~3//why-is-woodward-still-spi_b_37890.html

Is Cheney Truly Our Acting President? (Updated)

clipped from www.usnews.com

Cheney’s Guy

He’s barely known outside Washington’s corridors of power, but David Addington is the most powerful man you’ve never heard of. Here’s why:

One week after the September 11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush briefly turned his gaze away from the unfolding crisis to an important but far less pressing moment in the nation’s history. The president signed legislation creating a commission to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court ruling desegregating public schools. In a brief statement, Bush invited the various educational groups listed in the legislation to suggest the names of potential commissioners and also urged members of Congress to weigh in, as a “matter of comity.” But in a little-noted aside, Bush said that any such suggestions would be just that–because under the appointments clause of the Constitution, it was his job, and his alone, to make those kinds of decisions.

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The Biggest Cheney Mystery

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, October 16, 2007; 1:53 PM

Just what is the relationship like between President Bush and Vice President Cheney? Behind closed doors, who defers to whom?

PBS’s “Frontline” documentary series tonight chronicles Cheney’s relentless, secretive and smashingly successful quest to expand executive power. While the Oval Office is traditionally the center of power, New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer notes on the show, “The strange thing about this administration is all of the most crucial decisions seem to be taking place in the vice president’s office, or even the vice president’s counsel’s office.”

In an interview for a Fox News special about Cheney that aired over the weekend, Bush insisted that he’s the decider — but even kindly disposed Fox News reporter Brett Baier noted that Bush was unusually vague in describing his relationship with the vice president.

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BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Saudi decision puts focus on law chief (updated)

Update 9/17/07
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a12_1190043216
Update 7/19/07
Haven’t Read…..

A “safe haven” for al-Qaida in Pakistan

A conversation with Buzzy Krongard, the executive director of the CIA from 2001 to 2004, about the new National Intelligence Estimate and al-Qaida’s resurgence in Pakistan.

Tuesday saw the release of declassified “key judgments” of the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a consensus analysis by the U.S. Intelligence Community of a given situation on which it is asked to report. The conclusions of this latest NIE were not unexpected, but neither were they uncontroversial, or calming. “Greatly increased worldwide counterterrorism efforts over the past five years have constrained the ability of al-Qa’ida to attack the US Homeland again,” the report says, adding that “the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability, including … operational lieutenants, and its top leadership … As a result, we judge that the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment.”

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Update 7/15/07

Diplomatic clash looms with US over BAE arms sale investigation

· UK asked to hand over secret payments evidence
· Refusal could endanger sharing of intelligence

A potential diplomatic collision with the US is looming over the corruption allegations against the arms company BAE. The department of justice in Washington has formally demanded that Britain hand over all evidence of secret payments the company made to members of the Saudi royal family to secure huge arms deals.

The department has taken over the corruption investigation after British prosecutors were forced by the then prime minister, Tony Blair, to halt it late last year on alleged grounds of national security.

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Update 7/14/07

The BAE Axis into Riggs Bank, Carlyle and Bush

“Our investigation is now bringing to light a nexus of action and an institutional interlock between Riggs Bank, the host of the BAE slush funds; the Bush-family-tied CARLYLE GROUP, which is the U.S.-based corporate partner of BAE; and the Bush networks in government”

Our investigation is now bringing to light a nexus of action and an institutional interlock between Riggs Bank, the host of the BAE slush funds; the Bush-family-tied CARLYLE GROUP, which is the U.S.-based corporate partner of BAE; and the Bush networks in government.

Beese, who committed suicide earlier this year, began his career with ALEXANDER BROWN in 1978, directly after graduating from Rollins College in Florida, where he had befriended Dubya’s brother Marvin. Beese evidently became the protege of Alexander Brown’s chief executive A.B. “BUZZY” KRONGARD, and by 1987, at the age of 30, Beese had become a principal of the Brown firm.

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Update 7/5/07

The BAE Axis into Riggs, Carlyle and Bush

July 4, 2007 (LPAC)–Covert billions that the British poured into
American bank accounts of former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar
bin-Sultan, originating with the BAE Systems-Saudi Arabia
Al-Yamamah deal went through Washington DC-based Riggs Bank, as
recent headline coverage in the British press on the BAE scandal
has revealed. Our investigation is now bringing to light a nexus
of action and an institutional interlock between Riggs Bank, the
host of the BAE slush funds; the Bush-family-tied Carlyle Group,
which is the U.S.-based corporate partner of BAE; and the Bush
networks in government.

blog it

Update 6/30/07

Bandar Bush, The Black Ops Bagman

Wrap the project up as the Al-Yamamah contract to sell jet fighters from near-bankrupt UK defense company BAe (formerly British Aerospace) to Saudi Arabia with kickbacks to accounts of Bandar for spending on black ops worldwide. Then give BAe lots of Pentagon contracts to fund the process.
Old CIA hands like Bush 41 and Robert Gates had a problem in the early 1980s. Congress had outlawed CIA funded deathsquads, assassinations, false flag operations and other methods beloved of black ops specialists.

Voila! You can start funding Saddam, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, the Nicaraguan Contras and other pet projects with no fingerprints!

blog it

Update 6/26/07

The Mother Of All Scandals By Eric Margolis

Anyone who wants to understand what really goes on in the Mideast should have a look at the scandal that erupted earlier this month over the outsized character of Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia.

blog it

US Justice Dept. to probe BAE-Saudi deal

London: The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation of Britain’s BAE Systems Plc over the defence firm’s compliance with anti-corruption laws, including its dealings with Saudi Arabia.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office dropped an inquiry into the firm’s dealings with Saudi Arabia in December last year after Prime Minister Tony Blair said it would harm national security and relations with the Gulf kingdom.

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Update 6/24/07

clipped from mathaba.net

Will BAE Scandal of Century Bring Down Cheney?

None of the British media have touched upon the full magnitude of the scandal

by Jeffrey Steinberg
(LPAC) – With the U.S. Department of Justice now confirmed to be investigating money laundering and bribery by the British aerospace giant, BAE Systems, Congress and the American people must make certain that the investigation does not turn into one more Bush-Cheney-Gonzales coverup. The issue on the table is far bigger than the alleged $2 billion in bribes that BAE Systems paid out to former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, through the now defunct Washington, D.C. based Riggs Bank.
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Update 6/15/07

Former judge has most to lose from review

On the face of it, BAE’s independent ethics panel looks like a copybook
corporate whitewash.

Britain’s biggest defence company, battered as it is by allegations of
widespread corruption, has finally taken the matter of reputation into its
own hands. Yesterday it formally appointed Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief
Justice, to examine its standards of behaviour.

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Tony Blair’s glib dismissal

An editorial in today’s New York Times rebukes Tony Blair’s decision to halt investigations into BAE’s secret payments over arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Wondering if the prime minister “seems determined to use his final weeks in office to show how far he has strayed from the pledges of clean government that helped sweep him to power a decade ago,” the NYT’s leader writers conclude:

Mr Blair ought to understand, even if the princes don’t, that avoiding embarrassment to powerful friends and allies is not a legitimate reason to quash a corruption investigation.

More on the Guardian’s BAE investigation can be found here.

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Update 6/12/07

Saudi prince says allegations in newspaper zenith of fabrication

Riyadh: Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, facing accusations he personally received £1 billion (Dh7.4 billion) under a British arms deal, said yesterday the funds were transfers between official Saudi bank accounts.

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Update 6/11/07

Questions over secret bank transfers

· £13m allegedly paid to firm linked to lobbyist
· Family says payments not connected to Saudi deal

The arms company BAE Systems used a secret payments system to transfer more than £13m to a company linked to David Hart, the controversial former Conservative defence adviser, according to legal sources.

He has acted as a lobbyist both for Britain’s biggest arms company and also for the giant military manufacturer Boeing in the US.

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Update 6/8/07

Attorney-general knew of BAE and the £1bn. Then concealed it

Goldsmith hid secret money transfers from international anti-corruption organisation

The Guardian

British investigators were ordered by the attorney-general Lord Goldsmith to conceal from international anti-bribery watchdogs the existence of payments totalling more than £1bn to a Saudi prince, the Guardian can disclose.

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Update 6/7/07

Saudi Prince Allegedly Made $2B in 1985 Arms Deal

Media Reports Revive Questions Surrounding $80B Deal Between U.K., Saudi Arabia

LONDON, June 7 — Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the kingdom’s former ambassador to the United States, pocketed about $2 billion in secret payments as part of a $80 billion arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia first signed in 1985, British media reported Thursday.

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The Bandar/Blair Bribery Scandal Blows Up Big Time!

Few rulers are as corrupt and venal as the Saudi royals. These fat little dumplings need lots and lots of money aside from the mountain of gold they get from their oil wells. Today, the bribery scandal concerning Bandar, the SA ambassador who fled Washington last spring, and Tony Blair, the corrupt little poodle leading Britain, has burst back into the front page news via the BBC’s latest report on this evolving scandal. I start from earlier stories of this and move forwards to today’s news to show how this scandal evolved.

Several things happened from 1969 to 1980: the Saudi King launched an oil boycott of nations supporting Israel in its attack on Egypt and Jordan. This hurt the US economy greatly as oil prices shot through the roof and the smoldering inflation caused by the Vietnam war burst into flame, nearly destroying our economy.

blog it

Update 12/17
Fraud chief: this is Saudi blackmail
12/15/2006
By Jon Silverman Legal affairs analyst Lord Goldsmith Lord Goldsmith said the decision was taken by the SFO

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

5 minute Audio Link Podcast taped form BBC Newsnight

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Saudi decision puts focus on law chief (updated)

Update 9/17/07
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a12_1190043216
Update 7/19/07
Haven’t Read…..

A “safe haven” for al-Qaida in Pakistan

A conversation with Buzzy Krongard, the executive director of the CIA from 2001 to 2004, about the new National Intelligence Estimate and al-Qaida’s resurgence in Pakistan.

Tuesday saw the release of declassified “key judgments” of the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a consensus analysis by the U.S. Intelligence Community of a given situation on which it is asked to report. The conclusions of this latest NIE were not unexpected, but neither were they uncontroversial, or calming. “Greatly increased worldwide counterterrorism efforts over the past five years have constrained the ability of al-Qa’ida to attack the US Homeland again,” the report says, adding that “the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability, including … operational lieutenants, and its top leadership … As a result, we judge that the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment.”

blog it

Update 7/15/07

Diplomatic clash looms with US over BAE arms sale investigation

· UK asked to hand over secret payments evidence
· Refusal could endanger sharing of intelligence

A potential diplomatic collision with the US is looming over the corruption allegations against the arms company BAE. The department of justice in Washington has formally demanded that Britain hand over all evidence of secret payments the company made to members of the Saudi royal family to secure huge arms deals.

The department has taken over the corruption investigation after British prosecutors were forced by the then prime minister, Tony Blair, to halt it late last year on alleged grounds of national security.

blog it

Update 7/14/07

The BAE Axis into Riggs Bank, Carlyle and Bush

“Our investigation is now bringing to light a nexus of action and an institutional interlock between Riggs Bank, the host of the BAE slush funds; the Bush-family-tied CARLYLE GROUP, which is the U.S.-based corporate partner of BAE; and the Bush networks in government”

Our investigation is now bringing to light a nexus of action and an institutional interlock between Riggs Bank, the host of the BAE slush funds; the Bush-family-tied CARLYLE GROUP, which is the U.S.-based corporate partner of BAE; and the Bush networks in government.

Beese, who committed suicide earlier this year, began his career with ALEXANDER BROWN in 1978, directly after graduating from Rollins College in Florida, where he had befriended Dubya’s brother Marvin. Beese evidently became the protege of Alexander Brown’s chief executive A.B. “BUZZY” KRONGARD, and by 1987, at the age of 30, Beese had become a principal of the Brown firm.

blog it

Update 7/5/07

The BAE Axis into Riggs, Carlyle and Bush

July 4, 2007 (LPAC)–Covert billions that the British poured into
American bank accounts of former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar
bin-Sultan, originating with the BAE Systems-Saudi Arabia
Al-Yamamah deal went through Washington DC-based Riggs Bank, as
recent headline coverage in the British press on the BAE scandal
has revealed. Our investigation is now bringing to light a nexus
of action and an institutional interlock between Riggs Bank, the
host of the BAE slush funds; the Bush-family-tied Carlyle Group,
which is the U.S.-based corporate partner of BAE; and the Bush
networks in government.

blog it

Update 6/30/07

Bandar Bush, The Black Ops Bagman

Wrap the project up as the Al-Yamamah contract to sell jet fighters from near-bankrupt UK defense company BAe (formerly British Aerospace) to Saudi Arabia with kickbacks to accounts of Bandar for spending on black ops worldwide. Then give BAe lots of Pentagon contracts to fund the process.
Old CIA hands like Bush 41 and Robert Gates had a problem in the early 1980s. Congress had outlawed CIA funded deathsquads, assassinations, false flag operations and other methods beloved of black ops specialists.

Voila! You can start funding Saddam, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, the Nicaraguan Contras and other pet projects with no fingerprints!

blog it

Update 6/26/07

The Mother Of All Scandals By Eric Margolis

Anyone who wants to understand what really goes on in the Mideast should have a look at the scandal that erupted earlier this month over the outsized character of Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia.

blog it

US Justice Dept. to probe BAE-Saudi deal

London: The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation of Britain’s BAE Systems Plc over the defence firm’s compliance with anti-corruption laws, including its dealings with Saudi Arabia.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office dropped an inquiry into the firm’s dealings with Saudi Arabia in December last year after Prime Minister Tony Blair said it would harm national security and relations with the Gulf kingdom.

blog it

Update 6/24/07

clipped from mathaba.net

Will BAE Scandal of Century Bring Down Cheney?

None of the British media have touched upon the full magnitude of the scandal

by Jeffrey Steinberg
(LPAC) – With the U.S. Department of Justice now confirmed to be investigating money laundering and bribery by the British aerospace giant, BAE Systems, Congress and the American people must make certain that the investigation does not turn into one more Bush-Cheney-Gonzales coverup. The issue on the table is far bigger than the alleged $2 billion in bribes that BAE Systems paid out to former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, through the now defunct Washington, D.C. based Riggs Bank.
blog it

Update 6/15/07

Former judge has most to lose from review

On the face of it, BAE’s independent ethics panel looks like a copybook
corporate whitewash.

Britain’s biggest defence company, battered as it is by allegations of
widespread corruption, has finally taken the matter of reputation into its
own hands. Yesterday it formally appointed Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief
Justice, to examine its standards of behaviour.

blog it

Tony Blair’s glib dismissal

An editorial in today’s New York Times rebukes Tony Blair’s decision to halt investigations into BAE’s secret payments over arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Wondering if the prime minister “seems determined to use his final weeks in office to show how far he has strayed from the pledges of clean government that helped sweep him to power a decade ago,” the NYT’s leader writers conclude:

Mr Blair ought to understand, even if the princes don’t, that avoiding embarrassment to powerful friends and allies is not a legitimate reason to quash a corruption investigation.

More on the Guardian’s BAE investigation can be found here.

blog it

Update 6/12/07

Saudi prince says allegations in newspaper zenith of fabrication

Riyadh: Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, facing accusations he personally received £1 billion (Dh7.4 billion) under a British arms deal, said yesterday the funds were transfers between official Saudi bank accounts.

blog it

Update 6/11/07

Questions over secret bank transfers

· £13m allegedly paid to firm linked to lobbyist
· Family says payments not connected to Saudi deal

The arms company BAE Systems used a secret payments system to transfer more than £13m to a company linked to David Hart, the controversial former Conservative defence adviser, according to legal sources.

He has acted as a lobbyist both for Britain’s biggest arms company and also for the giant military manufacturer Boeing in the US.

blog it

Update 6/8/07

Attorney-general knew of BAE and the £1bn. Then concealed it

Goldsmith hid secret money transfers from international anti-corruption organisation

The Guardian

British investigators were ordered by the attorney-general Lord Goldsmith to conceal from international anti-bribery watchdogs the existence of payments totalling more than £1bn to a Saudi prince, the Guardian can disclose.

blog it

Update 6/7/07

Saudi Prince Allegedly Made $2B in 1985 Arms Deal

Media Reports Revive Questions Surrounding $80B Deal Between U.K., Saudi Arabia

LONDON, June 7 — Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the kingdom’s former ambassador to the United States, pocketed about $2 billion in secret payments as part of a $80 billion arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia first signed in 1985, British media reported Thursday.

blog it

The Bandar/Blair Bribery Scandal Blows Up Big Time!

Few rulers are as corrupt and venal as the Saudi royals. These fat little dumplings need lots and lots of money aside from the mountain of gold they get from their oil wells. Today, the bribery scandal concerning Bandar, the SA ambassador who fled Washington last spring, and Tony Blair, the corrupt little poodle leading Britain, has burst back into the front page news via the BBC’s latest report on this evolving scandal. I start from earlier stories of this and move forwards to today’s news to show how this scandal evolved.

Several things happened from 1969 to 1980: the Saudi King launched an oil boycott of nations supporting Israel in its attack on Egypt and Jordan. This hurt the US economy greatly as oil prices shot through the roof and the smoldering inflation caused by the Vietnam war burst into flame, nearly destroying our economy.

blog it

Update 12/17
Fraud chief: this is Saudi blackmail
12/15/2006
By Jon Silverman Legal affairs analyst Lord Goldsmith Lord Goldsmith said the decision was taken by the SFO

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

5 minute Audio Link Podcast taped form BBC Newsnight

Walter F. Mondale – Answering to No One – washingtonpost.com

Walter F. Mondale – Answering to No One – washingtonpost.com

By Walter F. Mondale

Sunday, July 29, 2007; Page B07

The Post’s recent series on Dick Cheney’s vice presidency certainly got my attention. Having held that office myself over a quarter-century ago, I have more than a passing interest in its evolution from the backwater of American politics to the second most powerful position in our government. Almost all of that evolution, under presidents and vice presidents of both parties, has been positive — until now. Under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it has gone seriously off track.

The Real Story Behind 9/11?

TBRNews.org

Blogger Thoughts: The following is posted here, not endorsed. Even if parts of the following are accurate, there are many more rich details to be uncovered.
———————————————————————————————————

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., July 25, 2007: “There is a veritable flood of silly stories about the ‘Real Reasons’ for the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001. Many of these are invented by people looking for attention but there are also a number that are deliberately created, and publicized, by the government itself. The reasons for this fictionalizing of a national tragedy? Because if the actual truth ever became public, there would be such an enormous, and unstoppable, outcry that the result could well be the destruction of the Bush administration with very probable criminal charges being brought against some its most important members.

In American and British intelligence agencies, at the higher levels, it is well-known that the Russians have long ago penetrated Israeli intelligence with many pseudo-“Jewish immigrant” plants. Since Israel and the United States have a very close working arrangement (Mossad agents are assigned to a physical presence in the CIA headquarters in Langley and regularly report back to Tel Aviv what goes on there at the very highest level) it is no surprise to those of us with long service in Washington, that what goes to Tel Aviv (like the vast outpouring of the most secret documents stolen by Pollard and sold by him to the Israeli intelligence organs) goes immediately to Moscow. Thanks to Pollard, whom Bush is “thinking about” pardoning, the Russians got the keys to all of the highest level American intelligence codes to include the Army, the Air Force, the NSA, the CIA and other agencies.

Given this background, let me progress to the crux of this report.

Vice President Dick Cheney runs the White House in some areas and he runs Bush with an iron hand. Cheney is interested in stopping, dead, the EPA’s attempt to control American industry and its production methods. Cheney is the instigator of the attack on Iraq. He wanted this attack so that the United States could have control over all Iraqi oil and serve as a US command center in the Middle East so as to be able to move militarily against any oil-producing Arab state that dared to contradict energy policies that he, Cheney approved of. A very staunch ally of Israel, Cheney also wanted a significant long-term American military presence in the Middle East to support and protect Israel from possible military actions from her neighbors.

To invade Iraq with public support, Cheney connived with the Israelis to foment an incident of significance aimed at the United States and executed on American territory. When the Israeli Mossad infiltrated Arab terrorist groups functioning inside the United States, they reported both to their own officials and, through them, to the CIA.

The Mossad knew in detail about the projected attacks on New York and Washington, passed this information to their people and, via the CIA, directly to Cheney. None of this was given to Bush, whom Cheney considers to be a ‘weak sister.”

When it became evident that the attack was to be forthcoming, Cheney quietly warned Attorney General Ashcroft, key members of his personal staff and key staffers at the Pentagon not to fly by commercial American aircraft between the end of August and the middle of September, 2001.

This inside information was certainly known to ‘Scooter’ Libby and was the primary reason Bush quickly commuted his sentence of imprisonment and, as we all know here, plans to give him a full pardon just as he is leaving office.

Bush, who knew nothing of all of this, went to his Texas ranch at Crawford for the month of August. Bush likes to go to go to Crawford so he can drink himself into a stupor without the danger of unwelcome observation. Without informing Bush of his specific knowledge, Cheney saw to it that Bush and his staff went to Florida for the main event, where they would be out of the way, and safe, while he hid in his famous bunker and planned to emerge as the Edward Stanton of his day, directing the government until Bush returned. Cheney planned to use his inside information to permit the attack to proceed and, if it was successful, use it as a tool to increase the Presidential power (and his own) and launch a military attack on oil-rich Iraq.

Cheney was completely successful in his goals .Over 3,000 people died directly as a result of deliberate silence, and in the intervening years, the death tolls have become immense. What has also become immense is the sum of money Cheney has made by forcing no-bid contracts for Halliburton on the government. Cheney has many stock options in this company, options he got when the stock was far lower in value than it is today after he deliberately inflated its value.

Now, let’s look at certain very important, and sourced, incidents leading up to the attack to see just what Cheney and his claque knew and when they knew it.

March 7, 2001 The Russian Permanent Mission at the United Nations secretly submits “an unprecedented detailed report” to the UN Security Council about bin Laden, his whereabouts, details of his al-Qaeda network, Afghan drug running, and Taliban connections in Pakistan. The report provides “a listing of all bin Laden’s bases, his government contacts and foreign advisors,” and enough information to potentially kill him. The US fails to act. Alex Standish, the editor of the highly respected Jane’s Intelligence Review, concludes that the attacks of 9/11 were less of an American intelligence failure and more the result of “a political decision not to act against bin Laden.” [Jane’s Intelligence Review 10/5/01]

On June 26, 2001, the CIA informed the White House that they had intercepted foreign intelligence traffic concerning possible al-Qaeda strikes in America on July 4.

June 2001 — German intelligence, the BND, warned the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.” [Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001.]

July 5, 2001, the CIA informed the President, through the office of the Vice President, that al-Qaeda attacks against American targets “were entirely possible” during the summer of that year.

June 2001: German intelligence warned the CIA, Britain’s MI6, and Israel’s Mossad that Middle Eastern terrorists were training for hijackings and targeting US and Israeli symbols. [Source: Fox News, 5/17/02]

June 28, 2001- National security advisor Condoleeza Rice said: “It is highly likely that a significant al-Qaeda, attack is in the near future, within several weeks.”

Late June 2001 White House National Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, gave a direct warning to the FAA to increase security measures in light of an impending terrorist attack. The FAA refuses to take such measures. [New Yorker 1/14/02]

July 26, 2001: Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines due to a threat assessment. [Source: CBS, 7/26/01] He later walked out of his office rather than answer questions about this. [Source: Associated Press, 5/16/02]

August 2001 — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian intelligence to again warn the U.S. government “in the strongest possible terms” of imminent attacks by suicide pilots on airports and government buildings. [Source: MS-NBC interview with Putin, September 15.,2001, Fox, September 17, 2001]

August 2001 At least six 9/11 hijackers, including all of those that boarded Flight 77, lived in Laurel, Maryland from about this time. They reportedly include Hani Hanjour, Majed Moqed, Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf Alhazmi and Salem Alhazmi Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta

August 4-30, 2001 President Bush spent most of August 2001 at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, nearly setting a record for the longest presidential vacation. While it was billed a “working vacation,” ABC reported Bush was doing “nothing much” aside from his regular daily intelligence briefings. [ABC 8/3/01;

August 8-23, 2001: Two high ranking Israeli Mossad agents came to Washington to warn the FBI and CIA that up to 200 terrorists had slipped into the US and were planning an imminent major assault in the US. Indications pointed to a highly visible target. [Sources: Telegraph, 9/16/01, Los Angeles Times, 9/16/01, Fox News, 5/17/02] The Mossad gave the CIA a list of terrorists. A major Israeli spy ring was hard on the heels of at least four members of the 9/11 hijackers, including lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. [Source: BBC, 10/2/01]

August 24, 2001, the head of the Israeli Mossad reported the imminence of an Arab attack against American targets and a similar report was made by the same agency on September 7, 2001.

August 28, 2001 Hijacker Atta was able to buy his flight ticket, despite being wanted by police for driving without a license and violating visa regulations. He should have been wanted for sabotaging a stalled aircraft as well “Four of the five members of the group that diverted American Airlines flight number 11 Mohammed Atta, Abdulaziz Al-Omari, Walid and Wahd Al-Shehri, as well as one of the five terrorists of United flight 175, Marwan Al-Shehhi , resided all at various times in Hollywood, Florida. Arab terrorists and suspected terror cells lived in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as in Miami and Hollywood, Florida from December 2000 to April 2001 in direct proximity to the Israeli spy cells.’

According to the report, the Mossad agents were interested in the leader of the terrorists, Mohammed Atta and his key accomplice, Marwan al-Shehi. Both lived in Hamburg before they settled in Hollywood, Florida in order to plan the attacks. A Mossad team was also operating in the same town. The leader, Hanan Serfati, had rented several dwellings. Everything indicates that the terrorists were constantly observed by the Israelis. The chief Israeli agent was staying right near the post office where the terrorists had a mailbox. The Mossad also had its sights on Atta’s accomplice Khalid al-Midhar, with whom the CIA was also familiar, but allowed to run free.

September 10, 2001: A particularly urgent warning was received the night before the attacks, causing some top Pentagon brass to suddenly cancel travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of “sudden security concerns ‘ . [Source: Newsweek September 12, 2001] “Why that same information was not available to the 266 people who died aboard the four hijacked commercial aircraft may become a hot topic on the Hill.” [Source: Newsweek, 9/13/01]

September 11, 2001, President George Bush flew with a significant number of his senior staff to Sarasota, Florida where he visited the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. In a well-covered media event, Bush attended a meeting of school children and read portions of a child’s book to them. When Airforce One took off with the President and his entourage safely on board, it headed west to carry the President away from the apparent target areas. While the President and his staff, like Vice President Cheney were safely ensconced in concrete bunkers

And from a personal perspective, my wife’s best friend in Washington knows Cheney’s wife, Lynn very well. She told my wife several times that in August of 2001, the Vice President told his wife, who was planning to take a trip later that month, that she had best not fly by commercial airlines “because we believe there will be a serious terrorist attack sometime between the end of August and the middle of September…” I heard this just after the attack and again about three weeks ago.

Is Cheney the real president of the United States?

He rarely speaks in public and closely guards his privacy. But there’s a growing consensus in America that it’s Dick Cheney who calls the shots at the White House, on everything from the war in Iraq to climate change policy.

Walter F. Mondale – Answering to No One – washingtonpost.com

Walter F. Mondale – Answering to No One – washingtonpost.com

By Walter F. Mondale

Sunday, July 29, 2007; Page B07

The Post’s recent series on Dick Cheney’s vice presidency certainly got my attention. Having held that office myself over a quarter-century ago, I have more than a passing interest in its evolution from the backwater of American politics to the second most powerful position in our government. Almost all of that evolution, under presidents and vice presidents of both parties, has been positive — until now. Under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it has gone seriously off track.

The Real Story Behind 9/11?

TBRNews.org

Blogger Thoughts: The following is posted here, not endorsed. Even if parts of the following are accurate, there are many more rich details to be uncovered.
———————————————————————————————————

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., July 25, 2007: “There is a veritable flood of silly stories about the ‘Real Reasons’ for the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001. Many of these are invented by people looking for attention but there are also a number that are deliberately created, and publicized, by the government itself. The reasons for this fictionalizing of a national tragedy? Because if the actual truth ever became public, there would be such an enormous, and unstoppable, outcry that the result could well be the destruction of the Bush administration with very probable criminal charges being brought against some its most important members.

In American and British intelligence agencies, at the higher levels, it is well-known that the Russians have long ago penetrated Israeli intelligence with many pseudo-“Jewish immigrant” plants. Since Israel and the United States have a very close working arrangement (Mossad agents are assigned to a physical presence in the CIA headquarters in Langley and regularly report back to Tel Aviv what goes on there at the very highest level) it is no surprise to those of us with long service in Washington, that what goes to Tel Aviv (like the vast outpouring of the most secret documents stolen by Pollard and sold by him to the Israeli intelligence organs) goes immediately to Moscow. Thanks to Pollard, whom Bush is “thinking about” pardoning, the Russians got the keys to all of the highest level American intelligence codes to include the Army, the Air Force, the NSA, the CIA and other agencies.

Given this background, let me progress to the crux of this report.

Vice President Dick Cheney runs the White House in some areas and he runs Bush with an iron hand. Cheney is interested in stopping, dead, the EPA’s attempt to control American industry and its production methods. Cheney is the instigator of the attack on Iraq. He wanted this attack so that the United States could have control over all Iraqi oil and serve as a US command center in the Middle East so as to be able to move militarily against any oil-producing Arab state that dared to contradict energy policies that he, Cheney approved of. A very staunch ally of Israel, Cheney also wanted a significant long-term American military presence in the Middle East to support and protect Israel from possible military actions from her neighbors.

To invade Iraq with public support, Cheney connived with the Israelis to foment an incident of significance aimed at the United States and executed on American territory. When the Israeli Mossad infiltrated Arab terrorist groups functioning inside the United States, they reported both to their own officials and, through them, to the CIA.

The Mossad knew in detail about the projected attacks on New York and Washington, passed this information to their people and, via the CIA, directly to Cheney. None of this was given to Bush, whom Cheney considers to be a ‘weak sister.”

When it became evident that the attack was to be forthcoming, Cheney quietly warned Attorney General Ashcroft, key members of his personal staff and key staffers at the Pentagon not to fly by commercial American aircraft between the end of August and the middle of September, 2001.

This inside information was certainly known to ‘Scooter’ Libby and was the primary reason Bush quickly commuted his sentence of imprisonment and, as we all know here, plans to give him a full pardon just as he is leaving office.

Bush, who knew nothing of all of this, went to his Texas ranch at Crawford for the month of August. Bush likes to go to go to Crawford so he can drink himself into a stupor without the danger of unwelcome observation. Without informing Bush of his specific knowledge, Cheney saw to it that Bush and his staff went to Florida for the main event, where they would be out of the way, and safe, while he hid in his famous bunker and planned to emerge as the Edward Stanton of his day, directing the government until Bush returned. Cheney planned to use his inside information to permit the attack to proceed and, if it was successful, use it as a tool to increase the Presidential power (and his own) and launch a military attack on oil-rich Iraq.

Cheney was completely successful in his goals .Over 3,000 people died directly as a result of deliberate silence, and in the intervening years, the death tolls have become immense. What has also become immense is the sum of money Cheney has made by forcing no-bid contracts for Halliburton on the government. Cheney has many stock options in this company, options he got when the stock was far lower in value than it is today after he deliberately inflated its value.

Now, let’s look at certain very important, and sourced, incidents leading up to the attack to see just what Cheney and his claque knew and when they knew it.

March 7, 2001 The Russian Permanent Mission at the United Nations secretly submits “an unprecedented detailed report” to the UN Security Council about bin Laden, his whereabouts, details of his al-Qaeda network, Afghan drug running, and Taliban connections in Pakistan. The report provides “a listing of all bin Laden’s bases, his government contacts and foreign advisors,” and enough information to potentially kill him. The US fails to act. Alex Standish, the editor of the highly respected Jane’s Intelligence Review, concludes that the attacks of 9/11 were less of an American intelligence failure and more the result of “a political decision not to act against bin Laden.” [Jane’s Intelligence Review 10/5/01]

On June 26, 2001, the CIA informed the White House that they had intercepted foreign intelligence traffic concerning possible al-Qaeda strikes in America on July 4.

June 2001 — German intelligence, the BND, warned the CIA and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.” [Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001.]

July 5, 2001, the CIA informed the President, through the office of the Vice President, that al-Qaeda attacks against American targets “were entirely possible” during the summer of that year.

June 2001: German intelligence warned the CIA, Britain’s MI6, and Israel’s Mossad that Middle Eastern terrorists were training for hijackings and targeting US and Israeli symbols. [Source: Fox News, 5/17/02]

June 28, 2001- National security advisor Condoleeza Rice said: “It is highly likely that a significant al-Qaeda, attack is in the near future, within several weeks.”

Late June 2001 White House National Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, gave a direct warning to the FAA to increase security measures in light of an impending terrorist attack. The FAA refuses to take such measures. [New Yorker 1/14/02]

July 26, 2001: Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines due to a threat assessment. [Source: CBS, 7/26/01] He later walked out of his office rather than answer questions about this. [Source: Associated Press, 5/16/02]

August 2001 — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian intelligence to again warn the U.S. government “in the strongest possible terms” of imminent attacks by suicide pilots on airports and government buildings. [Source: MS-NBC interview with Putin, September 15.,2001, Fox, September 17, 2001]

August 2001 At least six 9/11 hijackers, including all of those that boarded Flight 77, lived in Laurel, Maryland from about this time. They reportedly include Hani Hanjour, Majed Moqed, Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf Alhazmi and Salem Alhazmi Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta

August 4-30, 2001 President Bush spent most of August 2001 at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, nearly setting a record for the longest presidential vacation. While it was billed a “working vacation,” ABC reported Bush was doing “nothing much” aside from his regular daily intelligence briefings. [ABC 8/3/01;

August 8-23, 2001: Two high ranking Israeli Mossad agents came to Washington to warn the FBI and CIA that up to 200 terrorists had slipped into the US and were planning an imminent major assault in the US. Indications pointed to a highly visible target. [Sources: Telegraph, 9/16/01, Los Angeles Times, 9/16/01, Fox News, 5/17/02] The Mossad gave the CIA a list of terrorists. A major Israeli spy ring was hard on the heels of at least four members of the 9/11 hijackers, including lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. [Source: BBC, 10/2/01]

August 24, 2001, the head of the Israeli Mossad reported the imminence of an Arab attack against American targets and a similar report was made by the same agency on September 7, 2001.

August 28, 2001 Hijacker Atta was able to buy his flight ticket, despite being wanted by police for driving without a license and violating visa regulations. He should have been wanted for sabotaging a stalled aircraft as well “Four of the five members of the group that diverted American Airlines flight number 11 Mohammed Atta, Abdulaziz Al-Omari, Walid and Wahd Al-Shehri, as well as one of the five terrorists of United flight 175, Marwan Al-Shehhi , resided all at various times in Hollywood, Florida. Arab terrorists and suspected terror cells lived in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as in Miami and Hollywood, Florida from December 2000 to April 2001 in direct proximity to the Israeli spy cells.’

According to the report, the Mossad agents were interested in the leader of the terrorists, Mohammed Atta and his key accomplice, Marwan al-Shehi. Both lived in Hamburg before they settled in Hollywood, Florida in order to plan the attacks. A Mossad team was also operating in the same town. The leader, Hanan Serfati, had rented several dwellings. Everything indicates that the terrorists were constantly observed by the Israelis. The chief Israeli agent was staying right near the post office where the terrorists had a mailbox. The Mossad also had its sights on Atta’s accomplice Khalid al-Midhar, with whom the CIA was also familiar, but allowed to run free.

September 10, 2001: A particularly urgent warning was received the night before the attacks, causing some top Pentagon brass to suddenly cancel travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of “sudden security concerns ‘ . [Source: Newsweek September 12, 2001] “Why that same information was not available to the 266 people who died aboard the four hijacked commercial aircraft may become a hot topic on the Hill.” [Source: Newsweek, 9/13/01]

September 11, 2001, President George Bush flew with a significant number of his senior staff to Sarasota, Florida where he visited the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. In a well-covered media event, Bush attended a meeting of school children and read portions of a child’s book to them. When Airforce One took off with the President and his entourage safely on board, it headed west to carry the President away from the apparent target areas. While the President and his staff, like Vice President Cheney were safely ensconced in concrete bunkers

And from a personal perspective, my wife’s best friend in Washington knows Cheney’s wife, Lynn very well. She told my wife several times that in August of 2001, the Vice President told his wife, who was planning to take a trip later that month, that she had best not fly by commercial airlines “because we believe there will be a serious terrorist attack sometime between the end of August and the middle of September…” I heard this just after the attack and again about three weeks ago.

Is Cheney the real president of the United States?

He rarely speaks in public and closely guards his privacy. But there’s a growing consensus in America that it’s Dick Cheney who calls the shots at the White House, on everything from the war in Iraq to climate change policy.

Reagon, Sun Myung Moon, Hatch, Boren, Tenet…. (Updated)

Update 7/8/07

Real Washington Whispers

1. Michael Bloomberg is running for President: Bloomberg recently had lunch with David Boren, former Senator and a Democrat from Oklahoma. Bloomberg told Boren he is running for President. This will split the vote of Democrats and Independents and will boost the chance that Fred Thompson will be the next President. A well plugged in Republican friend of mine is betting that the final slate of candidates will be Hillary, Thompson, and Bloomberg. Thompson will reap the reward for Bloomberg’s third party candidacy.

  blog it

Update 5/31/07

clipped from www.newsmax.com

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh to Endorse Rudy Giuliani

Louis Freeh, FBI director during the Democratic administration of former President Bill Clinton, is endorsing Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008.

The endorsement could provide a big boost to the former New York City mayor, who already gets high marks on the issues of security and terrorism, the New York Daily News reports.

“Any endorsement that lets Rudy talk about fighting crime and terrorism is good for him, said GOP consultant Dan Schnur.

blog it

Update 5/30/07

How About Them Apples Vicky Toensing?

Victoria Toensing, Cliff May, Byron York and the other rightwing apologists who have long insisted that Valerie Plame Wilson was not undercover have some “splaining” to do. Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s latest filing in the Scooter Libby case leaves no doubt about Valerie Wilson’s status–she was covert and undercover and served overseas. Thanks to a heads up from McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay, followed in short order by a note from John Amato at Crooks and Liars, I got my hands on the Fitzgerald filing. [Update: David Corn posted the first piece on this Friday night. He needs to do more self-promotion.] Man, the rightwing stooges are getting their collective asses handed to them on all fronts (e.g., a bird shits on Bush, Wolfowitz gets bounced from the World Bank, and rightwing bloggers, Flopping Aces and Charles Johnson in particular, were exposed making fraudulent claims). As Jackie Gleason used to say, “how sweet it is!”

blog it

clipped from thinkprogress.org

The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney’s lawyer says logs for Cheney’s residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory are subject to the Presidential Records Act.

The Justice Department filed the letter Friday in a lawsuit by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visited Cheney at his official residence.

The newly disclosed letter about visitors to Cheney’s residence is accompanied by an 18-page Secret Service document revealing the agency’s long-standing practice has been to destroy printed daily access lists of visitors to the residence.

Separately, the agency says it has given Cheney’s office handwritten logs of who visits him at his personal residence.

“A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states.”

blog it

Plame was ‘covert’ agent at time of name leak

WASHINGTON – An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame’s employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was “covert” when her name became public in July 2003.

blog it

Update 5/29/07

Right Wing World’s Plame Fantasy

Senators Bond, Hatch, and Burr have sent the rightwing nuts into a frenzy with their comments challenging the truthfulness of Valerie Wilson in one of the appendices to the latest report from the Senate Intelligence Committee on pre-war Intelligence about post-war Iraq. If dumb is forever then the three intrepid Senators are guaranteed eternal life. Bond can be excused because, like Bill “Bolangles” Robinson, “he drinks a bit”. Orin Hatch’s failing mental faculties are probably the result of his dotage–he has become more shrill with each passing year. And Senator Burr? Okay, just plain dumb.

blog it

5/25/07

clipped from wonkette.com

Reagan Diary: ‘Let’s Bust Rev. Moon Out of Prison For New Year’s!’

Uhh … why was Orrin Hatch (famous Mormon) going to bat for Rev. Sun Myung Moon (infamous nut who thinks he’s God)? Because everybody is basically a Scientologist!

blog it

Related: Let’s Review

clipped from hatch.senate.gov

HATCH COMMENTS ON TENET RESIGNATION

“I have just learned of Director Tenet’s resignation. George did not discuss this with me prior to his announcement, so I know no details of his decision, and accept his reasons.

“I have known George Tenet for a long time, since he was a staff member on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in the 1980s, rising to staff director under David Boren. I supported his nomination to Director of Central Intelligence in 1997.

“I know from working with him as DCI that George Tenet was one of the first people in Washington to take seriously the threat of Al-Qaeda. During his tenure, we were attacked, and we responded, and the CIA led in many of our initial responses. When the dust settles, I think people will recognize the many contributions George Tenet made to the war on terror. I understand why the President had confidence in him.”

blog it

Important Link at this Blog:

Tenet’s Ties to Boren: The Only Warm Evidence Trail to Truth

Other Background info:

(with detail shown here why Clinton looks pretty awful if you believe the official story of 9/11)

The New Republic Online

GEORGE TENET UNDERMINES THE CIA.

The Operator

But Tenet faced a more daunting task in charming an indifferent White House. Clinton had ignored Woolsey and Deutch and had initially paid little attention to Tenet, asking for occasional memos but not seeing the CIA chief in person–and, in relationships with the White House, face time is everything. But Tenet finally got his chance to demonstrate usefulness to the president. After the Al Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Embassies in East Africa in August 1998, he was called to the White House to help plan how and where the Clinton administration should retaliate. Tenet was determined to win the access that had been denied him and his predecessors. And he did–but in a way that provides an unsettling preview of what would happen four years later in the debate over WMD in Iraq.

blog it

Reagan, Sun Myung Moon, Hatch, Boren, Tenet…. (Updated)

Update 7/8/07

Real Washington Whispers

1. Michael Bloomberg is running for President: Bloomberg recently had lunch with David Boren, former Senator and a Democrat from Oklahoma. Bloomberg told Boren he is running for President. This will split the vote of Democrats and Independents and will boost the chance that Fred Thompson will be the next President. A well plugged in Republican friend of mine is betting that the final slate of candidates will be Hillary, Thompson, and Bloomberg. Thompson will reap the reward for Bloomberg’s third party candidacy.

blog it

Update 5/31/07

clipped from www.newsmax.com

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh to Endorse Rudy Giuliani

Louis Freeh, FBI director during the Democratic administration of former President Bill Clinton, is endorsing Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008.

The endorsement could provide a big boost to the former New York City mayor, who already gets high marks on the issues of security and terrorism, the New York Daily News reports.

“Any endorsement that lets Rudy talk about fighting crime and terrorism is good for him, said GOP consultant Dan Schnur.

blog it

Update 5/30/07

How About Them Apples Vicky Toensing?

Victoria Toensing, Cliff May, Byron York and the other rightwing apologists who have long insisted that Valerie Plame Wilson was not undercover have some “splaining” to do. Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s latest filing in the Scooter Libby case leaves no doubt about Valerie Wilson’s status–she was covert and undercover and served overseas. Thanks to a heads up from McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay, followed in short order by a note from John Amato at Crooks and Liars, I got my hands on the Fitzgerald filing. [Update: David Corn posted the first piece on this Friday night. He needs to do more self-promotion.] Man, the rightwing stooges are getting their collective asses handed to them on all fronts (e.g., a bird shits on Bush, Wolfowitz gets bounced from the World Bank, and rightwing bloggers, Flopping Aces and Charles Johnson in particular, were exposed making fraudulent claims). As Jackie Gleason used to say, “how sweet it is!”

blog it

clipped from thinkprogress.org

The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney’s lawyer says logs for Cheney’s residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory are subject to the Presidential Records Act.

The Justice Department filed the letter Friday in a lawsuit by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visited Cheney at his official residence.

The newly disclosed letter about visitors to Cheney’s residence is accompanied by an 18-page Secret Service document revealing the agency’s long-standing practice has been to destroy printed daily access lists of visitors to the residence.

Separately, the agency says it has given Cheney’s office handwritten logs of who visits him at his personal residence.

“A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states.”

blog it

Plame was ‘covert’ agent at time of name leak

WASHINGTON – An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame’s employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was “covert” when her name became public in July 2003.

blog it

Update 5/29/07

Right Wing World’s Plame Fantasy

Senators Bond, Hatch, and Burr have sent the rightwing nuts into a frenzy with their comments challenging the truthfulness of Valerie Wilson in one of the appendices to the latest report from the Senate Intelligence Committee on pre-war Intelligence about post-war Iraq. If dumb is forever then the three intrepid Senators are guaranteed eternal life. Bond can be excused because, like Bill “Bolangles” Robinson, “he drinks a bit”. Orin Hatch’s failing mental faculties are probably the result of his dotage–he has become more shrill with each passing year. And Senator Burr? Okay, just plain dumb.

blog it

5/25/07

clipped from wonkette.com

Reagan Diary: ‘Let’s Bust Rev. Moon Out of Prison For New Year’s!’

Uhh … why was Orrin Hatch (famous Mormon) going to bat for Rev. Sun Myung Moon (infamous nut who thinks he’s God)? Because everybody is basically a Scientologist!

blog it

Related: Let’s Review

clipped from hatch.senate.gov

HATCH COMMENTS ON TENET RESIGNATION

“I have just learned of Director Tenet’s resignation. George did not discuss this with me prior to his announcement, so I know no details of his decision, and accept his reasons.

“I have known George Tenet for a long time, since he was a staff member on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in the 1980s, rising to staff director under David Boren. I supported his nomination to Director of Central Intelligence in 1997.

“I know from working with him as DCI that George Tenet was one of the first people in Washington to take seriously the threat of Al-Qaeda. During his tenure, we were attacked, and we responded, and the CIA led in many of our initial responses. When the dust settles, I think people will recognize the many contributions George Tenet made to the war on terror. I understand why the President had confidence in him.”

blog it

Important Link at this Blog:

Tenet’s Ties to Boren: The Only Warm Evidence Trail to Truth

Other Background info:

(with detail shown here why Clinton looks pretty awful if you believe the official story of 9/11)

The New Republic Online

GEORGE TENET UNDERMINES THE CIA.

The Operator

But Tenet faced a more daunting task in charming an indifferent White House. Clinton had ignored Woolsey and Deutch and had initially paid little attention to Tenet, asking for occasional memos but not seeing the CIA chief in person–and, in relationships with the White House, face time is everything. But Tenet finally got his chance to demonstrate usefulness to the president. After the Al Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Embassies in East Africa in August 1998, he was called to the White House to help plan how and where the Clinton administration should retaliate. Tenet was determined to win the access that had been denied him and his predecessors. And he did–but in a way that provides an unsettling preview of what would happen four years later in the debate over WMD in Iraq.

blog it