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"They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors."
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| DaveSZ |
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"We need more human intelligence. That means we need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country. Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors."
- George H.W. Bush, April 16, 1999, Dedication Speech, George Bush Center for Intelligence
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http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artm...icle_4629.shtml
Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
By Staff and Wire Reports
Jun 3, 2004, 05:28
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Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq.
Their damning testimony has prompted Bush to contact an outside lawyer for legal advice because evidence increasingly points to his involvement in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
The move suggests the president anticipates being questioned by prosecutors. Sources say grand jury witnesses have implicated the President and his top advisor, Karl Rove.
White House spokesmen, however, dismiss the hiring of outside counsel as a routine precaution.
"The president has made it very clear he wants everyone to cooperate fully with the investigation and that would include himself," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday night.
He confirmed that Bush had contacted Washington attorney Jim Sharp. "In the event the president needs his advice, I expect he probably would retain him," McClellan said. There is no indication Bush has been questioned yet.
A federal grand jury has questioned numerous White House and administration officials to learn who leaked the name of CIA operative Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the news media. Wilson has charged that officials made the disclosure in an effort to discredit him.
Bush has been an outspoken critics of leaks, saying they can be very damaging, but he has expressed doubts that the government's investigation will pinpoint who was responsible. While Bush has said he welcomed the leak investigation, it has been an awkward development for a president who promised to bring integrity and leadership to the White House after years of Republican criticism and investigations of the Clinton administration.
Even though he has a White House counsel, Bush is dependent on outside lawyers for private matters. A memo distributed to the staff last year reminded officials that the counsel's office works solely for the president in his official capacity and is not a private attorney for anyone.
Democrats seized on the news to criticize the president.
"It speaks for itself that the president initially claimed he wanted to get to the bottom of this, but now he's suddenly retained a lawyer," said Jano Cabrera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "Bush shouldn't drag the country through grand juries and legal maneuvering. President Bush should come forward with what he knows and come clean with the American people."
Plame was first identified by syndicated columnist and TV commentator Novak in a column last July. Novak said his information came from administration sources.
Wilson has said he believes his wife's name was leaked because of his criticism of Bush administration claims that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger, which Wilson investigated for the CIA and found to be untrue.
Disclosure of an undercover officer's identity can be a federal crime. The grand jury has heard from witnesses and combed through thousands of pages of documents turned over by the White House, but returned no indictments.
The probe is being handled by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, appointed after Attorney General John Ashcroft stepped aside from case because of his political ties to the White House.
Wilson has suggested in a book that the leaker was Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney. But Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth," gave no conclusive evidence for the claim.
The White House denied the claim and accused Wilson of seeking to bolster the campaign of Democrat John Kerry, for whom he has acted as a foreign policy adviser.
Wilson also said it's possible the leak came from Elliott Abrams, a figure in the Reagan administration Iran-Contra affair and now a member of Bush's National Security Council. And Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, may have circulated information about Wilson and Plame "in administration and neoconservative circles" even if Rove was not himself the leaker, Wilson wrote.
Another possibility is that two lower-level officials in Cheney's office - John Hannah or David Wurmser - leaked Plame's identity at the behest of higher-ups "to keep their fingerprints off the crime," Wilson speculated.
Sources within the investigation say evidence points to Rove approving release of the leak. They add that their investigation suggests the President knew about Rove's actions but took no action to stop release of Plame's name.
© Copyright 2004 by Capitol Hill Blue |
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| DaveSZ |
I'm not so familiar with Capitiol Hill Blue, though it seems to be a fairly balanced publication (liberal and conservative).
We'll see if some of the other media outlets pick up this story.
-edit
This actually looks much like the AP story with the top half chopped off.:conf: |
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| Yoepus |
I thought the demos were against the Patriot Act and all its "violations" of the constitution.
But the second Bush hires a lawyer for a crmie which he hasn't even been accused of, they throw that piece of paper right out and take a few cheap political shots.
Good job guys, you'll win this one with your integrity  |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Yoepus
I thought the demos were against the Patriot Act and all its "violations" of the constitution.
But the second Bush hires a lawyer for a crmie which he hasn't even been accused of, they throw that piece of paper right out and take a few cheap political shots.
Good job guys, you'll win this one with your integrity |
Just to clarify, there are a number of Conservatives who aren't too crazy about some parts of the Patriot Act as well. |
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| Yoepus |
| quote: | Originally posted by MisterOpus1
Just to clarify, there are a number of Conservatives who aren't too crazy about some parts of the Patriot Act as well. |
Yea but that doesn't change the fact these Democrats are hypocrites. |
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| emander |
| Aren't democrats like also rans these days? :p |
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| DaveSZ |
George Tenet resigns:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlate...4165864,00.html
George Tenet Resigns As Director of CIA
Friday June 4, 2004 1:46 AM
AP Photo WXS203
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director George Tenet, battered by Sept. 11 fallout and criticism of Iraq intelligence mistakes, said Thursday he would soon resign in a jarring announcement that threw open a key position at a critical time in the war against terrorism.
Tenet, a Democratic appointee whose close relationship to President Bush has helped him survive the intelligence failures, said he was leaving for personal reasons. But some in Congress questioned whether he had been pushed out.
Bush said Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, would temporarily lead America's spy agency during a period in which Iraq remains unstable and U.S. officials worry terrorists might strike in hopes of influencing the November elections.
In a speech to CIA employees, an emotional Tenet said, ``It was a personal decision and had only one basis in fact: the well-being of my wonderful family, nothing more and nothing less.''
Tenet, 51, spent an hour with Bush at the White House Wednesday night, informing him of his decision to leave his post as head of the CIA and director of the 14 other agencies that comprise the intelligence community.
In a hurriedly arranged announcement Thursday before leaving on a trip to Europe, Bush said, ``I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people.''
A White House official said the president told his staff he did not want anyone speculating that Tenet was leaving for anything other than personal reasons. ``If (Tenet) wants to expand on that further, then we will leave it to him to do so,'' Bush spokesman Scott McClellan later said.
Tenet, a gregarious man described by some as a political animal, is the second-longest serving Central Intelligence director and just the second to continue to serve when a new administration came in. He briefed Bush at the White House almost daily.
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who befriended Tenet while serving on the House Intelligence Committee, said he talked to Tenet Thursday afternoon and Tenet told him the president asked him to stay.
It seemed unlikely that Bush would send a nomination to the Senate before the fall - for what could be a bitter confirmation fight given controversies over recent intelligence failures - rather than wait until after the election, should he win.
Among names mentioned as a possible successor are House Intelligence Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose spokeswoman discounted the speculation.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., remarked on Tenet's timing - with the nation on alert for an attack and with the presidential election approaching.
``I can't remember any resignation that has struck me as more startling than this one,'' she said. ``I suspect there is going to be more of a story to tell than just personal reasons.''
Lawmakers including Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., were pushing for Goss, a former CIA officer who questioned Thursday morning whether the intelligence community is too susceptible to misinformation and deception.
McLaughlin, who is nicknamed ``Merlin'' and is considered close to Tenet, will take over the agency when Tenet steps down in mid-July, on the seven-year anniversary of his swearing in.
The head of the agency's clandestine service, James Pavitt, will also announce his retirement Friday - a decision the 31-year CIA veteran made several weeks ago, before he knew of Tenet's decision, a CIA official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He is expected to be replaced by Stephen Kappes, a 23-year veteran.
On Tenet's watch, the CIA helped capture key al-Qaida leaders including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, as well as fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He also oversaw a significant increase in the number of covert officers in training and came forward with an aggressive plan to go after al-Qaida in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, winning favor with Bush.
But Tenet and his agency were strongly criticized for failing to predict and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. And al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden remains at large.
In May, a panel investigating the attacks criticized the CIA for failing to fully appreciate the threat posed by al-Qaida before the terrorist hijackings. Tenet said the intelligence-gathering flaws would take five years to correct.
Tenet also has been under criticism for intelligence failures in the U.S.-led war against Iraq, specifically wrong assessments about weapons of mass destruction.
In a February speech, Tenet conceded that the intelligence community may have overestimated Iraq's weapons programs, but he defended his analysts. ``They never said there was an imminent threat,'' Tenet said.
The CIA has been angered over recent allegations that Defense Department civilians may have given highly classified information on Iran to an Iraqi politician and former Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi. After the resignation, Chalabi, lashed out at Tenet, accusing him of being personally responsible for spreading the allegations.
Agency officials also still are upset over last summer's leak of a covert CIA operative's name. Bush said Wednesday he was considering hiring a private attorney to give him legal advice in a grand jury investigation into that leak.
More criticism of Tenet may be coming soon as various intelligence investigations conclude, including a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Iraq weapons mistakes. ``It's a very stinging report of failure inside the CIA,'' Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a committee member, said recently.
Tenet had considered leaving before. In 1998, he told his first boss, President Clinton, he would resign if Clinton pardoned convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, a former naval intelligence officer who gave top-secret documents to Israel.
Officials close to Tenet say he also thought about resigning last summer, but decided to stay on. Some believed he had wanted to see through bin Laden's capture.
Since the intelligence failures on the Iraq war, congressional aides have said that Tenet's capital among some key lawmakers - Republicans and Democrats alike - had dwindled.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the intelligence community had to be held accountable for its failings.
``Simply put, I think the community is somewhat in denial over the full extent ... of the shortcoming of its work on Iraq and also on 9/11,'' Roberts said Thursday morning before learning of Tenet's decision. ``We need fresh thinking within the community, especially within the Congress,'' Roberts said.
Former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said he believed Tenet had been pushed out.
``I think the president feels he's in enough trouble that he's got to begin to cast some of the blame for the morass that we are in in Iraq to somebody else,'' said Turner, a retired Navy admiral. |
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| arctic |
George Bush centre for intelligence? Oxymoron overload! :nervous:
Sorry, couldn't resist. |
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| occrider |
| quote: | Originally posted by arctic
George Bush centre for intelligence? Oxymoron overload! :nervous:
Sorry, couldn't resist. |
Heh that would be George H.W. Bush Center for Intelligence. That most certainly makes more sense than a G. W. Bush center for intelligence. |
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| arctic |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Heh that would be George H.W. Bush Center for Intelligence. That most certainly makes more sense than a G. W. Bush center for intelligence. |
/me slaps auto-spell checker. Stupid thing keeps 'correcting' words that don't need correcting. :whip:
As for the 'intelligence' issue, it's still called the George Bush Center for Intelligence - so it's still an oxymoron. :p |
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| DaveSZ |
| quote: | Originally posted by arctic
George Bush centre for intelligence? Oxymoron overload! :nervous:
Sorry, couldn't resist. |
G HW Bush is the old man.
He believes in separation of church and state, the importance of internationalism, reading, and speaking in semi complete sentences.
He's alright. |
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| arctic |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveSZ
G HW Bush is the old man. |
I addressed that in my previous post. It's still called the George Bush Center for intelligence dagnammit! It's still an oxymoron! :p
| quote: | | He believes in separation of church and state |
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." -- George Bush snr.
| quote: | | the importance of internationalism, reading, and speaking in semi complete sentences. |
This I agree with. :p
This I'm 50/50 on. He's better than his son, but he's still a republican and a social conservative - so I'm still somewhat lukewarm when it comes to my opinion of him. |
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