Fitz: "It is hard to disprove White House efforts to 'punish' Wilson"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

April 11, 2006
White House Memo
With One Filing, Prosecutor Puts Bush in Spotlight
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, April 10 — From the early days of the C.I.A. leak investigation in 2003, the Bush White House has insisted there was no effort to discredit Joseph C. Wilson IV, the man who emerged as the most damaging critic of the administration's case that Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons.

But now White House officials, and specifically President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, have been pitched back into the center of the nearly three-year controversy, this time because of a prosecutor's court filing in the case that asserts there was "a strong desire by many, including multiple people in the White House," to undermine Mr. Wilson.

The new assertions by the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, have put administration officials on the spot in a way they have not been for months, as attention in the leak case seems to be shifting away from the White House to the pretrial procedural skirmishing in the perjury and obstruction charges against Mr. Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr.

Mr. Fitzgerald's filing talks not of an effort to level with Americans but of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." It concludes, "It is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to 'punish Wilson.' " With more filings expected from Mr. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor's work has the potential to keep the focus on Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney at a time when the president is struggling with his lowest approval ratings since he took office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/washington/11leak.html?ei=5065&en=bfc9f24ecf86e6b3&ex=1145419200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

[Finder]

1. Clearly, this was Abuse of Power. n/t

[Jim__]

2. Go Fitz!

Of all the scandals threatening this admin, I think the Plame leak has the most potential to topple the regime. Fitz is the right man to be pursuing it.

[Me.]

3. Tomorrow's Filings Should Help

"With more filings expected from Mr. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor's work has the potential to keep the focus on Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney at a time when the president is struggling with his lowest approval ratings since he took office"

[kentuck]

4. If Mr Bush "de-classified" the information.....?

then would that not clear Dick Cheney?

[EVDebs]

5. Jan 2004 David Kay :The statement, "We were almost all wrong,"

Transcript: David Kay at Senate hearing

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 Posted: 7:29 PM EST (0029 GMT)

Former top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay addresses the Senate Armed Services Committee.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/01/28/kay.transcript/

They all say 'they believed' there were WMDs, therefor they existed. Pretzel logic when you see that others in the intelligence community adamantly disbelieved there were WMDs present. And if you did express doubts you were punished.

David Kay, BTW, had his personal data stolen from SAIC where he worked after his ISG work was done:

""David Kay, who was chief weapons inspector in Iraq after nearly a decade as an executive at SAIC, said he has devoted more than a dozen hours to shutting down accounts and safeguarding his finances. He said the successful theft of personal data, by thieves who smashed windows to gain access, does not speak well of a company that is devoted to keeping the government's secrets secure.""

Break-In At SAIC Risks ID Theft
Computers Held Personal Data on Employee-Owners
by Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17506-2005Feb11.html