Posted on 07/23/2005 5:11:36 AM PDT by AliVeritas
WASHINGTON — The special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation has shifted his focus from determining whether White House officials violated a law against exposing undercover agents to determining whether evidence exists to bring perjury or obstruction of justice charges, according to people briefed in recent days on the inquiry's status.
Differences have arisen in witnesses' statements to federal agents and a grand jury about how the name of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent, was leaked to the press two years ago.
According to lawyers familiar with the case, investigators are comparing statements by two top White House aides, Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, with testimony from reporters who have acknowledged talking to the officials.
Although no one has suggested that the investigation into who leaked Plame's name has been shelved, the intensity of the inquiry into possible perjury charges has increased, according to one lawyer familiar with events who spoke on condition that he not be identified.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, and his team have made no decision on whether to seek indictments.
The investigation focused initially on whether administration officials illegally leaked the identity of Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, in a campaign to discredit Wilson after he wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times criticizing the Bush administration's grounds for going to war in Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"He became more forthcoming in subsequent months, eventually saying that a small group of disgruntled retired C.I.A. clandestine operators had banded together in the late summer of last year and drafted the fraudulent documents themselves.”
Wonder if this is this the same small group of disgruntled retired CIA operatives that sent the letter recently re outing agents.
lol. Methinks your hunch might just be riiiight on Target. I also wanna know more about the disgruntled "retired" anti-Bush Military High Mucka's. Were these in on this fraud too?
Dunno. Think the press usually gets about half the story and gets it half WRONG. After the press grinds whatever axe they care to grind, the issues involved are about as recognizable as a 5th generation copy of a video tape.
And, surely, nobody thinks the need to show accountability has stopped any of the UK press.
Do we really NEED front-page articles in the New York times about the CIA's airline operating out of South Carolina???
Is the SOB still disbarred?
Hey, don't go off now, trying to make sense.
Don't we all know that the media knows everything and is never wrong?
Miller s not married to Cooper.
Cooper's wife is Mandy Grunwald; media consultant and campaign advisor to both Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Care to bet he even exists ?
Turns to purjury? How about REturns to speculation about purjury. A year ago we know there was no crime committed.
Betcha old man Grunwald had a slew of sources. He died in Feb 2005. (When did Deepthroat come out?)
According to the rats, perjury and obstruction of justice aren't crimes, so I don't know what the big deal is.
(And this even assumes that perjury and obstruction of justice occurred, which is not yet in evidence.)
I screwed up: I know this. Thanks for correcting my post.
Betcha old man Grunwald had a slew of sources. He died in Feb 2005. (When did Deepthroat come out?)
Good eye. Good catch. And Oliver stone arrested for DUI and drugs just before Deep Throat came out. Always been curious about that.
You have to keep in the back of your mind how close Mandy and Hillary are. Hillary gave Mandy a baby shower in 1998 at the Whitehouse.
There seems to be whole lot of "OOOPS!" goin on there. ;)
Ahhh, as the worms turn....and turn....and turn some more...ain't it amazing how somehow or another I smell a Clinton Rat in this manure?
Yes, "whoa" is correct. Evidence indicates that Wilson may have participated in a forgery plot by left-wing CIA insiders including his wife.
The scheme, if revealed, could become known as an effort to "set up" the President of the United States by laying the foundation for an election year accusation that he "lied us into war".
The probability of this is enhanced by the fact that Joe Wilson conspired with his wife to arrange the African junket where he was to drink "sweet mint tea" and come back to write in the New York Times that "Bush lied", such assertion being made shortly after Wilson began advising John Kerry for President, Inc.
Kind of scary, eh?
Mandy was not working in the White House when Andrea Mitchell received her unsolicited telephone call from "a White House source," informing her of Plame's employment in the CIA, according to Mitchell herself.
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