NYT: Plame investigation expands - Did WH officials lie?

[swag]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/politics/02LEAK.html

Excerpt:

Prosecutors investigating whether someone in the Bush administration improperly disclosed the identity of a C.I.A. officer have expanded their inquiry to examine whether White House officials lied to investigators or mishandled classified information related to the case, lawyers involved in the case and government officials say.

In looking at violations beyond the original focus of the inquiry, which centered on a rarely used statute that makes it a felony to disclose the identity of an undercover intelligence officer intentionally, prosecutors have widened the range of conduct under scrutiny and for the first time raised the possibility of bringing charges peripheral to the leak itself.

The expansion of the inquiry's scope comes at a time when prosecutors, after a hiatus of about a month, appear to be preparing to seek additional testimony before a federal grand jury, lawyers with clients in the case said. It is not clear whether the renewed grand jury activity represents a concluding session or a prelude to an indictment.

The broadened scope is a potentially significant development that represents exactly what allies of the Bush White House feared when Attorney General John Ashcroft removed himself from the case last December and turned it over to Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago.

. . .

[aquart]

1. Yes. Next question.

Here's another. Can you name any instance when BushCo officials did NOT lie?

[The Zanti Regent]

9. No

Will they be held accountable?

No.

Will they get away with it?

Yes.

[David Dunham]

2. We need an indictment for this to stick.

[grytpype]

3. You can count on indictments.

If they are going into peripheral investigations, there is something really there and the Special Counsel means business.

[David Dunham]

5. I hope you are right.

[The Magistrate]

10. Mr. Fitzgerald, Sir

Has an excellent reputation: although a Republican himself, he is the man who brought down the Republican Party in Illinois over rampant coruption in state government, that led to several deaths due to the issue of truckers' liscences to un-qualified applicants who paid in the re-election funds.

"Treason doth never prosper, what's the Reason? Why, when it prosper, Sir, none dare call it Treason!"

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[0007]

14. Peripheral investigations meaning exactly what?

The outter edge of the eye of the White House?

[NMLobo]

4. Get A Rope!

:evilgrin:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

16. I'm betting that there will be several indictments involving more....

...than one staffer, and possibly spreading upward.

[wabeewoman]

6. Worry?

"Republican lawyers worried that the leak case, in the hands of an aggressive prosecutor, might grow into an unwieldy, time-consuming and politically charged inquiry, like the sprawling independent counsel inquiries of the 1990's, which distracted and damaged the Clinton administration."

We can only hope!

[MidwestTransplant]

11. Yes but in this case, nothing serious could have happend

in the 90's a President got a BJ in the oval office.

[grytpype]

7. WE ARE IN WATERGATE TERRITORY HERE!

Yeah! Let's see how long Bush can hang on!!!!!

[The Magistrate]

8. This Is One Of Those Questions That Contains Its Own Answer

Of course they lied, loud and often....

"Desperate men do deperate things, and stupid men do stupid things. We are in for a desperately stupid summer."

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[grytpype]

12. Woooo! GET THIS!

From the article:

Mr. Fitzgerald is said to be investigating whether the disclosure of Ms. Plame's identity came after someone discovered her name among classified documents circulating at the upper echelons of the White House. It could be a crime to disclose information from such a document, although such violations are rarely prosecuted.

Holy Haldeman, Batman! The UPPER ESCHELONS OF THE WHITE HOUSE! How UPPER, that is the question!

[Virginian]

13. That arrangement with the 9/11 commission can't apply here?

The agreement with the 9/11 commission about no other witnesses testifying isn't going to spill over to this is it?
They've just got too many people asking too many questions of too many White House Staff. How are they ever going to keep their stories straight?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. No, the agreement with the 911 commission has nothing to do...

...with the investigation into the Plame Affair. Additionally, the two investigations are being run separately, with no overlap.

If I were on the White House staff, I would be more worried about not giving a consistent story to each of the investigations.

[Cooley Hurd]

17. Hi Swag

As per LBN rules:

When posting articles, please use the published title of the article as the title of the discussion thread.

Please feel free to repost with the title of the article in the subject line.

Thanks! :hi: