BREAKING: HADLEY TOLD ROVE

[Halliburton]

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_firedoglake_archive.html#113444202322179723

and apparently Whora O'donnell and Vandehei didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal.

:wow:

[Straight Shooter]

1. Give it up for me, then, because I have consistently named that snake!

:evilgrin:

[Catherine Vincent]

2. There you go again...

[xultar]

3. So, what does that mean?

[Canuckistanian]

5. That means that the story went outside the VP's office

We're talking Hadley here, the deputy National Security advisor, under Condi Rice (not to say she was involved).

This makes the Plame outing more widespread in the WH.

And that's HUGH!!!!

[Zen Democrat]

4. This disclosure was run past like old news.

Must be old news to the Washington journalists. Makes you wonder how long they've been sitting on it.

[Halliburton]

9. vandehei has become a luskin tool

at least whora was skeptical about luskin's explanation while vandehei seems to strongly believe that it's the truth! I wonder if vandehei goes out and has drinks with luskin

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/12/12.html#a6286

[Supersedeas]

44. vande has gone the way of woodward and novak

[mcctatas]

6. Totally off topic...

but I used to date one of Vandeheis friends, and every time that asshat is on TV I just picture him puking off the balcony on prom nite:rofl:

[ReadTomPaine]

25. LOL!

[Independent_Liberal]

7. Kick!

[acmavm]

8. Okay, I keep following the bouncing ball on the names of all the players,

I'm just having a terrible time figuring out what the point of the game is. What, pray tell, is it they're trying to nail KKKarl on? Obstruction? Perjury? Conspiracy? What?

Because if it wasn't wrong for all these people to be talking about Ms. Plame, and if it wasn't wrong to discuss what she did for a living, what or where is the criminal action?

Or am I back to square one and the point is how they diddled Fitzpatrick around when he was trying to figure out what was going on when Novakula wrote his column.

Bottom line, I don't care I guess. I just wish it were a capital offense.

[electropop]

35. It _was_ wrong for them to talk about Plame-Wilson to reporters.

They violated the terms of their security clearances, which is illegal. They also violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. These violations are somewhat harder to prove in court than the coverup which they engaged in after the initial crimes, so Fitz seems to be taking the strategy of getting them for the lies and obstruction. Whatever it takes, I say.

[bunny planet]

10. I know, I didn't see it but I've been reading over at fdl.

Wanna bet Vanderhei denies it tomorrow and says he mispoke.

Kick this for the morning crowd.
I don't think he mispoke, I think he slipped up and took a little (big) leak on the teevee.

[Bumblebee]

11. I remember a number of stories before Libby's indictment about

how Hadley was telling his friends he was worried that he would be indicted, so I was wondering what happened to it ...

[Quixote1818]

12. You are absolutely right. Larry Johnson said he heard Hadley expected

to be indicted! When it was just Libby I was left totally scratching my head because I was sure Hadley was going to be nailed.

[Bumblebee]

13. Well, let's hope the "conspiracy" part of it all is yet to come...

[Patsy Stone]

14. Aw, c'mon bunny...

Whadaya mean you don't think he misspoke? :rofl:

So, this seems bad, huh? Even if Hadley spilled, and KKKarl knew that and fessed up in GJ appearance #??, and everyone involved had the clearance (Clarence) to discuss it, it's still beginnin' to look a lot like conspiracy.

Merry Fitzmas. I wonder if Fitz will go forward after this week? Maybe he'll wait for the holidays to be over and it'll be a race to see which comes first: KKKarl's indictment, or the SOTU. :)

[bleever]

51. Instead of one night of presents, maybe we'll get

eight crazy nights.

:)

So drink your gin and tonica...



ed: punc.

[Patsy Stone]

60. And

smoke your marajuanica!

To me, Fitz is an honorary member of the tribe. L'chaim!

:hi:

[bleever]

63. What I wouldn't give for eight crazy nights.

:)

[Garbo 2004]

43. On the nose you are. He claims he "mispoke" and meant Libby.

But even this I think is another one of those instances where the media's known for some time and just oh neglected to mention it to the public.

Rover's been claiming he heard the Plame info from reporters he can't remember and was just passing on info that was already in public circulation.

So will VanderHei issue another "oops I mispoke again" when the significance of his "correction" becomes clear?

[doublethink]

15. Quick someone send this link to Fritz's office .....

so he can subpoena VandeHei on his comments here ...... :bounce:

[Garbo 2004]

16. Interesting way to just mention it in passing. Rather like Woodward

claims he got his info, just offhand, no big deal. (Perhaps because VandeHei's known this for so long without reporting it that he forgot it was like actually news to the public?)

VandeHei : "We still don't know exactly where Karl Rove originally learned about Valerie Plame, that's still one of the mysteries. We know one of them he had heard it from was Hadley as sort of just chatter inside the office, but he had learned it earlier from some other place and we still don't know where that is."

[Terre]

18. That's what I'm thinking

Perhaps because VandeHei's known this for so long without reporting it that he forgot it was like actually news to the public?

I agree. I don't think he thought that he was saying anything that wasn't already known. 'Course VandeHei has been very lacksidasical lately in his reporting, almost like "no big deal".

[H2O Man]

27. I had the feeling

that JV said that without thinking. I am not sure that either his paper, or (MS)NBC was inclined to want to go on the record with that. When Raw Story identified Hadley as Woodward's source last month, other media sources were willing to take the line suggested by the administration .... that no one knew for sure (while flashing a picture of Sick Armitage to hint that they did know).

One of the things that I would suggest, in response to those who think it is evidence that the scandal reached farther than the VP's office .... is that the VP was running the WHIG, which included Hadley .... and more, Cheney and his band of neocons had people like Hadley in several other departments to try to make sure that potential weak links like Rice and Powell were on a short leash.

It is interesting to watch Matthews and Shuster. Both know the truth, and are clearly wanting to push it farther than MSNBC will allow them to. But I think that before the end of this month, they are going to reveal more than the general public knows, about the extent of corruption in the neocon circle.

[mod mom]

28. Rice a weak link? I thought she marched lockstep?

[H2O Man]

36. While she certainly has become

one of the boys, her background differed from the core neocons. The neocons had felt betrayed by Bush1's failure to take Saddam out; Rice was a Bush family associate. She had only one significant spat with Hadley, when it came out that he had been told (3 times) by Tenet that the yellow cake information was weak (Rice blamed Tenet first, Hadley second). Her goal was to protect Bush.

I do not intend this to imply that Rice --or Powell-- was any less responsible for the criminal activities associated with the lies that led to war in Iraq. In fact, they knew better, and their betrayal of the nation is as great as anyone else's.

[mod mom]

48. Thanks for the explanation.

[leftchick]

52. Tweety's interview of WHIG woman Hughes was vomit inducing

I was waiting for something big and was very disappointed. he let her yammer on and on with all of the BS. :(

[H2O Man]

54. He works for (MS)NBC ....

It's interesting to think that Libby called Russert to complain about Matthew's coverage of the Niger yellow cake controversy, and later told the FBI and grand jury that this was when Russert told him that everyone knew about Plame. Safe to say that the White House has been unhappy with Matthew's recent reporting. Because of where he works, Matthews is limited in what he can do. I often compare CNN and MSNBC to Burger King and McDonalds. I think we have to expect that they are going to be selling the public a lot of imitation hamburgers. But, overall, Matthews has provided a higher quality of Plame scandal coverage than any other tv show.

[leftchick]

57. I agree with what you have said about the good coverage by matthews

I also think he is indeed forced to have WH mouthpieces aka: traitors like Hughes on to mitigate bush disasters. It is just infuriating to see him swing from devil's advocate to smarmy bush sycophant in one show. He leaves me dizzy and dismayed. I do keep watching though don't I? Thanks to you H2OMan. :)

[H2O Man]

58. Also

you might enjoy the essay on Hadley that is on GD now. "Me" posted it from my blog.

[bleever]

53. Have you posted any thoughts on John Hannah, and the fact

that he has both been promoted within the VP's office, AND is cooperating with Fitz?

My only thought so far is that, as in all cases, this administration keeps all potential witnesses of fact close, through continued employment and even promotion. Even Michael Brown got an extention on his contract after the very public drubbing he took over Katrina.

[H2O Man]

55. I had done

a long essay on Cheney a day or two ago, then one on Hadley today. I think Hannah will be among the next couple I do. I may look back from threads from about 15 months ago, for some things I said about Hannah then.

[bleever]

56. Gracias.

I'll catch up on your Hadley thread.

My favorite line from the Cheney post was about how principle is fine until it interferes with winning.

[H2O Man]

59. What is pathetic

is that is "real" in his mind.

[bleever]

62. Which goes to the core of his ethos:

Being in the government ("public service"), is not about defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States, and honoring the contribution to humankind that constitutional democracy embodies, but about learning the system, and learning how to use it to the advantage of his own ideology and material interests, even when that conflicts with and contravenes what is healthy for the form of government that he is treating as a casino in which he has learned to count cards.

Sounds like treason to me.

[sofa king]

17. I'll tell you why I'm interested in Hadley.

It's because Hadley, it would appear, was the interface between the Iran-Contra team of Michael Ledeen and Manucher Ghorbanifar on the one hand, and the CIA and the President on the other. Hadley is the impeachment-in-two-moves a lot of us have been hoping to see roll over. Here's how it works:

* The PNAC, through its old Iran-Contra contacts, started nosing around in Italy, trying to cook up fake justification for the Iraq war.

* This pissed off George Tenet, who warned Hadley to pull Ledeen off the case. Hadley promised he would. And in typical White House fashion, he didn't.

* Tenet blocked the first attempt to include the false Niger intelligence in the President's October, 2002 speech.

* Hadly intervened to have that false intelligence reinserted for the President's State of the Union Address.

* When the intel came out to be bullshit, Rove and Libby wrote George Tenet's admission of responsibility for Hadley's insertion. But Tenet reputedly reported this, and other White House attempts to manipulate the CIA, to the Senate.

* Then, when Joe Wilson came forward, the White House Iraq Group, which included Rove, Libby, and now Hadley, burned Valerie Wilson.

So what I see is this: the White House Iraq Group cooked up its own fake intelligence to justify the war, got it inserted into the State of the Union Address, set up the CIA for the fallout, and burned the CIA's nuclear proliferation team when it began to look as if the CIA was going to buck up. Mr. Hadley is the one guy behind all of that.

But more than that, the President has only Hadley to hide behind for giving false information to Congress while performing his Constitutional duty of reporting the State of the Union. He either knew, or was too stupid to know, either of which should be an impeachable offense in a non-criminally-corrupt Congress.

If the Republicans can't steal the '06 mid-terms, we could wind up with both the President and the Vice President being impeached, before they can issue pardons and before they can destroy all the evidence. And we may yet see these criminals jailed for their numerous crimes. It's an outside chance, but it's that very long shot upon which our democracy rests.

[grasswire]

20. good post, thanks

One bright note is that both Vanderhei and Norah said they believe we'll know about Rove in December.

[leveymg]

22. We need a source for the Hadley role as Ledeen's WHIG sponsor

As far as I am aware, there is Vince Cannistraro and Larry Johnson's statements that Mike Ledeen managed the Niger Yellowcake forgeries. Beyond that, there's a lot of murk. I've seen a lot of restatements that Hadley took responsibility for reinserting the 16 deadly words into Bush's SOTU address, and that he expects to be indicted, but have missed the source for that.

Why Hadley? He hardly seems the take-charge type. Hard to believe he did anything without orders from the Vice President and/or the National Security Advisor.

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. Yes, Hadley took responsiblity on July 23, 2003

Bush aide admits fault on Iraq try for uranium

Deputy security adviser failed to remove disputed claim from State of Union

July 23, 2003

WASHINGTON - Stephen J. Hadley, President Bush's deputy national security adviser, became yesterday the second senior administration official to admit fault in allowing a disputed claim about Iraq's quest for nuclear weapons material to be included this year in Bush's State of the Union speech.

Hadley's admission was triggered by the discovery of memos showing that the CIA twice cautioned the White House, about three months before the speech, against asserting that Iraq recently tried to buy uranium in Africa. The CIA said it had doubts about the evidence for that assertion.

Hadley ranks just below Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. But Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, absolved Rice of blame yesterday, calling Hadley "the most senior person in the White House in charge of vetting," or approving, the content of presidential speeches on national security.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.uranium23jul23,0,5767493.story?coll=bal-iraq-headlines

[leveymg]

26. Has anyone seen a credible ID of the link between Ledeen and WHIG?

Or, is Hadley going to be the fall guy for that, too? In the past, who in the current BushCo circle has been closest to Ledeen?

FYI: Ledeen was reportedly involved with Ghorbanifar in arranging the 1980 Iran-Contra meetings with the Iranians in Paris and Madrid. Ledeen and Ghorbanifar were then part of G.H.W. Bush's crew of ex-CIA GOP functionaries and the Israeli and Iranian wings of the Rightist international network that was bankrolled by the Saudis. Ledeen is now running Iranian separatist movements out of AEI.

[DoYouEverWonder]

40. Wasn't Ledeen Rove's foreign policy advisor

after Bush first took office? That would be a direct connection to the WHIGS if that is true.

[leveymg]

41. CSJ is the best source I've found to confirm the Rove-Ledeen relationship

Okay, that's good enough for me. The yellow-cake forgery would appear to have been a Rove-inspired operation, overseen by the OSP crew (Feith, Wurmser and convicted OSP-AIPAC conspirator Larry Franklin - perhaps, carried out by old Iran-Contra CIA hands Dewey Clarridge and Allen Wolf) with an assist by the foreign allied agency's Mike Ledeen and some of his old P-2 friends in Italian intelligence and maybe printed by an Iraqi exile forgery shop. Hadley is now certainly the designated fall-guy.

http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/specials/neocon/?s=entg2

Michael Ledeen


Seen by many as one of the most radical neoconservatives, Mr. Ledeen is said to frequently advise George W. Bush's top adviser Karl Rove on foreign policy matters. He is one of the strongest voices calling for regime change in Iran. In 2001, Ledeen co-founded the Coalition for Democracy in Iran. He served as Secretary of State Alexander Haig's adviser during the Reagan administration. Ledeen is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works closely with Richard Perle. he is also a member of the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs' advisory board and one of its founding organizers. He was Rome correspondent for the New Republic magazine from 1975-1977, and founding editor of the Washington Quarterly. Ledeen also wrote "The War Against the Terror Masters," which advocates regime change in Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.



William Kristol


Son of "godfather" of neoconservatism Irving Kristol, Bill Kristol is currently chairman of the Project for a New American Century, which he co-founded with leading neoconservative writer Robert Kagan. He is also editor of the influential Weekly Standard. Like other neoconservatives Frank Gaffney Jr. and Elliott Abrams, Kristol worked for hawkish Democratic Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson. But by 1976, he became a Republican. he served as chief of staff to Education Secretary William Bennett during the Reagan administration and chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle during the George H. W. Bush presidency. Kristol continuously called for Saddam Hussein's ouster since the 1991 Gulf War. With the like-minded Lawrence Kaplan, Kristol co-wrote "The War Over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission." He is on the board of advisers of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, established as a counterterrorist think tank after 9/11.



Frank Gaffney Jr.


Mr. Gaffney is the founder, president, and CEO of the influential Washington think tank Center for Security Policy, whose mission is "to promote world peace through American strength." In 1987, President Reagan nominated Gaffney to be assistant secretary of defense for international security policy. he earlier served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under then-Assistant Secretary Richard Perle. In the late 1970s, Gaffney served as a defense and foreign policy adviser to Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson. He is columnist for the Washington Times and a contributor to Defense News and Investor's Business Daily. He is a contributing editor to National Review Online, WolrdNetDaily.com and JewishWorldReview.com. Gaffney is also one of 25 mostly neoconservative co-signers of the Project for a New American Century's Statement of Principles.

[leveymg]

50. Found this very comprehensive chronology at BellaCiao.org

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=7256

Goes into quite a lot of detail about exactly who forged the documents and Ledeen's role in stovepiping them to WHIG. A must read.

I still want to know who authorized the trip that OSP staff members Franklin and Harold Rhode took to Rome in December 2001, where by other reports they met with Ledeen and Ghorbanifar. Also, if I were an AUSA, I would want to see all the telephone records of the above and who they talked to at the time and shortly after at the OSP, WH and OVP. Betya Wurmser (who has reportedly rolled over for Fitz) and Rove's number appear repeatedly.

[mod mom]

29. Perhaps this is why there is talk of cheney stepping down. They will

replace him with another loyalist to see that pardons can be issued.

[Stephanie]

32. Don't forget Hadley personally traveled to Italy to meet with SISMI chief

I believe he's responsible for the forgery itself. Now that's a high crime!

From Josh Marshall:

In early 2002 Hadley was tasked with shutting down the unauthorized meetings Harold Rhode, Larry Franklin and Michael Ledeen were holding with Iraqi and Iranian exiles, and Italian intelligence figures including the head of SISMI, Nicolo Pollari, in Rome in late 2001.

On September 9th, 2002, Hadley met with Pollari in Washington. According to the Italian daily La Repubblica Pollari was there to press the details of the Niger-uranium story. The NSC has now confirmed that the meeting took place but claims it was a brief meeting and that no one present remembers the yellowcake story coming up.

In other words, it's a quite hazy denial if it's even a denial at all.

Less than a month later Hadley and others at the NSC tried but failed to get the Niger story into President Bush's October 7th WMD speech in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Days later copies of the forgeries surfaced in Rome.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006904.php

[Gregorian]

37. Thank you for that post.

These people are their own parodies.

I want to say that in terms of Americans being in control, I have been in these forums every single day for the last few years. And yet Hadley is just now coming onto my radar screen. This is what these forums are all about.

[hiaasenrocks]

19. I still think this is going all the way to Cheney. n/t

[Stephanie]

33. I agree with you

I want to know who Miller's original source was - I bet it was Dick.

I think Dick bought that nice MD estate for himself because he expects to be indicted or at least forced to resign.

[Festivito]

21. Must be why he was on the political Sunday talk shows.

Get him out there, seen, so he can say whatever needed, then off to court for the gambit.

[DemReadingDU]

24. Hadley: It is what it is

Hadley has never denied anything, always says: It is what it is

[DemonFighterLives]

30. These Bimbos should be called to testify

Too many reporters appear to have too much information. Poor Georgie, all the while has been looking high and low for answers.
The Rovian plot was to spread it out all over the place to try to mislead Fitz.
The only thing Rove didn't count on is that Fitz is smarter than him and the net is getting tighter.

[newyawker99]

31. kick

:kick:

[Jim__]

34. This seems huge!

Rove did essentially the same thing that Libby did. He heard the story from WH sources, then swore he heard it from a journalist. Add to that, his "forgetting" about his conversation with Cooper; and the call from Cooper somehow not getting logged.

I gotta believe Karl's getting indicted - hopefully for Christmas.

[peace_on_earth]

38. There's a correction up now...double check firedoglake...

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/

[Norquist Nemesis]

39. Ah!!! It was Libby, and who did Libby get the info from???

Cheney!

[Garbo 2004]

42. Cheney and other folks as well. Libby had multiple sources within the

Administration as per the indictment. If recollection serves, he already knew before Cheney told him.

[SoCalDem]

45. Remember the 9-11 hearings????

Remember the testimony from CIA people about how ODD they thought it was that Cheney & Scooter were at the CIA almost evry freaking day???

I know that Cheney is actually running the country, but as VP, he would not technically do stuff like that "on his own". he was either told to do it to bolster *²'s war plans, or he did it on his own and then told junior what to say.. There's NO WAY that *² is "out of the loop" on this whole thing..

people are getting caught up in the intrique and who knew what and who told who..

The facts are :

The CIA was infiltrated by the president & his men to formulate a phony excuse to get thousands of people killed, and to enrich oil men..

In for a penny, in for a pound.. they ALL knew.. It was a plan..

Wilson was supposed to "bolster" their idea.. he did not.. they thought they could play fast and loose with him.. he got pissed, so they all fell on him like hungry hyenas..

They threatened him by exposing his wife, but even then he would not play their game..

They deserve to be brought down.. all of them./.

[Garbo 2004]

46. Sure it was all a scam, but Wilson's 2002 report wasn't a problem at the

time or later. Wilson's going public with it in 2003 was the problem for them.

Wilson was the third person we know of to investigate the Niger claim in Niger and say it was bunk. (Other gov't officials had said it was bunk prior to Wilson's trip without going to Niger.) The US Ambassador to Niger and a General looked into in Niger and said it was baloney before Wilson went to Niger in February 2002. Wilson never said anything about it to anyone in the media until months after the 2003 State of the Union. And didn't go public himself until months after "mission accomplished."

Just to make clear it wasn't Wilson's 2002 report that was the problem. Wilson was a problem only when he started talking to the media about it "anonymously" in Spring 2003.

[Patsy Stone]

64. Almost

But:

They didn't infiltrate the CIA, they circumvented the CIA. By setting up the OSP, they made their own friendly, edited intelligence.

I don't think Cheney sent Wilson. I think Cheney was asking only because it might be something that could help or hurt his push for war. I actually think when Cheney was going to the CIA, he was pissing them off by constantly asking for new information. Regardless, the rest of your statements about Wilson are correct.

My best guesses and .02.

[SoCalDem]

65. I think Dick figured Wilson was "one of theirs"

since he had worked in previous republican admins, and was a 'career' guy..They had not counted on the fact that he had integrity..

[Halliburton]

47. freudian slip?

[No Exit]

66. Vandehei: "Never mind."

[robbedvoter]

49. Hadley= the tool who took the fall for "16 words" when Tenant refused

Later, he was the first to go out and attack Richard Clarke - and soon after got his position.
Funny how all this crimes took place right under our own eyes.

[radio4progressives]

61. Raw Story....

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Fitzgerald_seen_to_press_for_Rove_1213.html


Fitzgerald was long suspicious Rove had hidden evidence; Not swayed by last minute testimony, lawyers say

Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovna


A few weeks after he took over the investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in early 2004, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had already become suspicious that Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney’s then-chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby were hindering his investigation.

(snip)

Fitzgerald was concerned that Rove had hidden or destroyed evidence, lawyers close to the case tell RAW STORY. His suspicions may have been right: an email he sent to then Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in early July 2003later proved Rove had spoken to Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper about Plame—a fact that Rove omitted when he was first interviewed by the FBI.

Whether or not Fitzgerald knew in late January or early February 2004 about the existence of the email Rove sent to Hadley remains unknown. The email did not show up during a search ordered by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales in 2003. Gonzales enjoined all White House staff to turn over any communication about Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Iraq war who accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar Iraq intelligence. Gonzales’ request came 12 hours after senior White House officials had been told of the pending investigation.

Hadley did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Calls placed to the National Security Council were dropped by press office aides.

(snip)

full text:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Fitzgerald_seen_to_press_for_Rove_1213.html