NYT: State Dept. Memo Gets Scrutiny in Leak Inquiry (Powell/Fleischer?)

[Bluebear]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/politics/16memo.html?ei=5094&en=73e6600ab118b6c9&hp=&ex=1121486400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, July 15 - Prosecutors in the C.I.A. leak case have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat came to be dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission and the role of his wife, a C.I.A. officer, in the trip, people who have been officially briefed on the case said.

Investigators in the case have been trying to learn whether officials at the White House and elsewhere in the administration learned of the C.I.A. officer's identity from the memorandum. They are seeking to determine if any officials then passed the name along to journalists and if officials were truthful in testifying about whether they had read the memorandum, the people who have been briefed said, asking not to be named because the special prosecutor heading the investigation had requested that no one discuss the case.

The memo was sent to Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, just before or as he traveled with President Bush and other senior officials to Africa starting on July 7, 2003, when the White House was scrambling to defend itself from a blast of criticism a few days earlier from the former diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson IV, current and former government officials said....


The special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has sought to determine how much Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman at the time of the leak, knew about the State Department memo. Lawyers involved in the case said Mr. Fitzgerald asked a number of questions about Mr. Fleischer's role. Mr. Fleischer was with Mr. Bush and much of the senior White House staff in Africa when Mr. Powell, who was also with them, received the memo. A spokeswoman for Mr. Powell said he was out of the country and could not comment on the memo. Mr. Fleischer said in an e-mail message this week that he would not comment on the case.

[Bluebear]

1. All these no comments! Heh heh heh

[FreedomAngel82]

8. Sometimes as the old saying goes

silence is golden.

[Scout1071]

2. Rut-roh.

Air Force One calls/emails/transmissions are going to be crucial.

I'm beginning to think the real whistleblower may very well have been Powell after all.

[Bluebear]

3. You think?

I do know he went from Presidential material to goat-fall-guy. Maybe he WAS the whistleblower!

[Bluebear]

4. Do they log/record AF1 transmissions?

[Zen Democrat]

5. You betcha!

[laureloak]

10. Well, wouldn't that be convenient.

If it turns out that it was Ari and Powell, Bush will walk away from this smelling like a rose. A Rovian rose.

[me b zola]

13. There is no such thing as a "rovian rose"

only rovian horseshit.

and no, this misAdministration is not going to come out unscathed.


I'm ready for inditements and shame :popcorn: :beer: :smoke:

[laureloak]

14. But the ones that will be taking the blame are already

out of the Administration and it would be easy for Bush to claim that this is part of the reason why they're gone. That way he'll look like a saviour to the little old ladies that believe in him.

[me b zola]

18. Re: "The ones that will be taking the blame"

All indications point to Fitz investigating the larger conspiracy, and I believe that includes current members of the Executive branch and the Cabinet. Scooter Libby, the person most likely to be the other source, remains as Cheney's COS.

Here's a link to a great post about security clearance. Within the thread there are posts about how military people regard the seriousness of security clearance and why this makes it improbable that Gen. Powell was the source of Ms. Plame's identity.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4115589&mesg_id=4115589

What is coming out in the news now is a lot of speculation of who may have done what. No one really knows the meat of Fitz's investigation and who & what he is targeting. Most of what is coming out in the press is spin from the WH. I believe that they are in trouble and they are grasping at straws to keep even their strongest supporters from demanding that the entire cabal be removed. That is how serious this is. That is how high up this matter goes.

[hedda_foil]

6. Holeee Cow! NYT does some real reporting for a change.

This is one hell of an article. We've got dueling leaks here, guys!

[Straight Shooter]

7. I do not think it is Powell.

He's too military, and he's too intelligent. He's a SOB for propagating the lies which led us to war, but I think he would draw the line at outing an agent. Treason isn't his modus operandi, nor is nasty backstabbing.

Powell would be much higher in the government if he would stoop as low as the others in this administration. Although I must say, he was pretty damn low the day of his dog-and-pony show in front of the U.N.

edit oops and oops

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Never know

Powell maybe have been. I do not know. I used to have respect for Powell but then I did some googling on him. He's not quite as innocent as people would like to believe. But since he is a military man maybe he didn't. He knows how valuable the CIA is I'm sure. I don't think he's that stupid, but I'm waiting to see what Fitzgerald finds. This is qutie a show! :popcorn:

[Straight Shooter]

12. Oh, I don't think Powell is innocent, not by a long shot.

I'm just thinking that his military mindset would prevent him from outing an agent.

But like you said, you never know ;)

[laureloak]

17. I read somewhere that Powell was walking around the

plane with the memo in his hand. Someone could have read it and passed the information on. Everybody on that plane was responsible for keeping that memo secret, IMO. They should share the guilt. Something tells me this is unfolding just as Rove planned.

It's my guess that Powell & Ari both resigned because they knew how the classified information was going to be used. Now they are convenient fall guys.

[FormerRepublican]

11. Naw...

...they're just trying to get the White House off the hook by making people who have already left look guilty.

If Powell were the leak, he would have lawyered up when he was questioned by the Grand Jury. He didn't. That speaks of innocence, IMO.

Bush and Cheney DID lawyer up. Notice in this article it says 'Lawyers with clients in the case' which means Bush, Cheney and Rove.

Ari Fleischer was questioned repeatedly because he was with everyone who is now lawyered up - Fitzgerald wants to pin down who the leak was by grilling Fleischer about what he saw and heard.

Fleischer isn't the leak or he would have lawyered up, too.

My bet is on Bush, Cheney, Rove.

I'd also bet that everyone who heard about how serious this was and who wasn't involved, jumped ship to avoid what's about to hit the fan.

[laureloak]

15. Exactly. You raise excellent points. n/t

[ChiDem]

16. POWELL ?

Novak said we would be surprised.