Free Republic

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [Andy McCarthy] You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also...

Justice Department (through Solicitor General Elena Kagan) urges Supreme Court not to hear appeal from former CIA officer Valerie Plame, after lower courts threw out her lawsuit claiming damages from alleged scheme to invade her privacy by exposing her as a CIA employee. Plame’s exposure led to conviction of Cheney aide Lewis Libby on obstruction of justice charges. -- Josh Gerstein (3:31 p.m.)

The incoming Obama administration should launch a criminal investigation of Bush administration officials to see whether they broke the law in the name of national security, a House Democratic report said Tuesday. President-elect Barack Obama has been more cautious on the issue and has not endorsed such a recommendation. Along with the criminal probe, the report called for a Sept. 11-style commission with subpoena power, to gather facts and make recommendations on preventing misuse of power, according to the report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee. The report covers Bush administration policies that Democrats have protested for...

<p>A state district judge Monday ordered officials in an East Texas county to preserve a 1-inch-long piece of hair that was key evidence almost two decades ago in a capital murder case.</p> <p>An anti-death penalty group wants to know whether Claude Jones was wrongly executed in December 2000. Jones was the last of a record 40 inmates executed in Texas that year and the last of 152 inmates put to death during George W. Bush's time as governor.</p>

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame's lawsuit against members of the Bush administration in the CIA leak scandal.

ABC Wonders: Is Libby ‘Above the Law?’; Glosses Over Clinton Pardon Posted by Scott Whitlock on July 3, 2007 - 11:25. On Tuesday’s "Good Morning America," the ABC program featured two segments on President Bush’s commutation of Dick Cheney aide Lewis Libby. Substitute co-host David Muir opened the program by wondering, "This morning, above the law?" and GMA glossed over Bill Clinton's infamous pardon of Marc Rich. Instead, various anchors found time to twice highlight Senator Dick Durbin’s comment that "even Paris Hilton had to go to jail." Although reporter David Kerley's segment did feature a quote from Republican strategist...

Statement of Hillary Clinton on Libby Commutation Senator Clinton issued the following statement on President Bush’s decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby: "Today's decision is yet another example that this Administration simply considers itself above the law. This case arose from the Administration's politicization of national security intelligence and its efforts to punish those who spoke out against its policies. Four years into the Iraq war, Americans are still living with the consequences of this White House's efforts to quell dissent. This commutation sends the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- For years he was known as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to President Bush. On Wednesday, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby became federal inmate No. 28301-016. Libby, who was convicted in March of lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity, faces 2 1/2 years in prison.

Either the concept of "special prosecutor" needs to be done away with once and for all, or we need to agree that in cases where one is appointed trials should be separated from investigations in terms of both personnel and geography. *** The Libby case reflects poorly on both the inquisitor and the judge and has resulted in a true and literal miscarriage of justice. The prosecutor investigated until he had helped generate a crime where none was before. The judge excluded witnesses and evidence until the "crime" reached a mass where a DC jury could legitimately seem to find...

Reported on Fox.

WASHINGTON -- In a rare rebuke of a public official by name, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee has issued a scathing report blasting former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV. The report claims Wilson mislead the public and the intelligence committee about his trip to Niger in 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium in Africa. Best know as the husband of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, Ambassador Wilson was catapulted to the limelight after he published an Op-Ed in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, that accused the Bush administration...

June 4, 2007 issue - The United States Department of Justice has not always been above politics. John F. Kennedy, after all, appointed his brother and consigliere Robert to be attorney general. But the Justice Department is supposed to stand for the rule of law—to be the enforcer of the laws of the United States, not the place presidents go to get around the law. Independence is an important tradition in the columned limestone building on Constitution Avenue. It is worth remembering that before Richard Nixon could find someone at the Justice Department willing to fire the Watergate special prosecutor...

A federal judge approved an immunity deal Friday allowing former Justice Department aide Monica Goodling to testify before Congress about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Goodling, who served as the department's White House liaison, has refused to discuss the firings without a guarantee that she will not be prosecuted. Congress agreed to the deal, Justice Department investigators reluctantly agreed not to oppose it and U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan gave it final approval Friday. "Monica Goodling may not refuse to testify," Hogan began his brief order, which said that Goodling could not be prosecuted for anything other than perjury...

Valerie Plame's Book on Libby Case May Be Blocked by CIA March 07, 2007 SOURCE:Editor & Publisher When Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted in the CIA leak case, Valerie Plame Wilson "wept when she heard the news," her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson said. She called him at a restaurant and said, "four out of five guilty!" Wilson gave his first TV interview on MSNBC's Countdown. He said that he and his wife will "both sleep more easily tonight." Plame, the former CIA agent who outing was at the center of the case, is now having trouble getting her book...

Breaking on MSNBC

CIA leak jury's notes suggest confusion By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago Juror notes in the CIA leak case suggest some jury room confusion about what exactly former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is accused of doing. After completing their ninth day of deliberations without a verdict Monday, jurors passed U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton three questions. All related to what Libby told the FBI regarding his 2003 telephone conversation with Time magazine's Matt Cooper about CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby is accused of lying about what he told Cooper. Cooper says Libby confirmed...

Judge: Defense Misled Court About Libby Feb 14 2:13 PM US/Eastern By MATT APUZZO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense attorneys misled the court into thinking that former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby would testify in his CIA leak trial, a federal judge said Wednesday, as he blocked Libby from using some classified evidence in the case. Libby is accused of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity. His attorneys have said for months in court papers that Libby would testify that he had important national security issues on his...

On a tape played at his trial Tuesday Lewis "Scooter" Libby told investigators he thought President Bush authorized him to give a reporter information about CIA agent Valerie Plame. "If the president tells you to talk about a document, it's declassified," Libby told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on March 24, 2003, during testimony before a grand jury that would eventually indict Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby is charged with lying to investigators trying to find out who leaked Plame's identity as a CIA operative. Her identity was revealed after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, alleged in...

An FBI agent acknowledged Monday that some of her testimony could not be backed up by notes, an admission that attorneys for former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby seized on in an effort to undercut perjury and obstruction charges. Agent Deborah Bond testified last week that, in his FBI interview Libby adamantly denied discussing a CIA operative's identity with White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Under cross-examination Monday, however, Bond conceded that FBI notes contain no record of such a denial. Rather, they say he may have discussed it but couldn't recall. “Adamantly might not be the perfect word,”...

Audio recordings of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's secret grand jury testimony will be released publicly after they are presented at his trial, the judge at Libby's trial ruled Monday. In a victory for the news media, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he had little choice but to make them public under the law as applied in the federal court system in Washington, D.C, even though he has concerns about releasing the recordings while the case is under way. Libby is charged with perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in an indictment that focuses in...

Fleischer: Plame came up over lunch By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday that then-colleague I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told him over lunch that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA. Fleischer said the conversation happened June 7, 2003, days before Libby told investigators he was surprised to learn about the CIA operative from a reporter. That discrepancy is at the heart of Libby's perjury and obstruction trial. Fleischer, who was the chief White House spokesman for the first 2 1/2 years of President Bush's...

Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff who is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, claims he doesn’t remember, or mis-remembers, some of the conversations he had with reporters concerning the former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson. That, Libby says, accounts for the differences between his testimony about talks with journalists like Tim Russert and Matthew Cooper and the accounts of Russert and Cooper themselves. -snip-

The Head of The Columbia Journalism School... [John Podhoretz] ...gets really quite a lot of facts wrong in this one partial paragraph from this week's New Yorker: "[T]he White House dispatched former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger, in February of 2002, to find proof that the country had shipped yellowcake uranium to Iraq. Wilson not only came up empty-handed; he said so publicly, in a Times Op-Ed piece that he published five months later. The Administration then went on another search for evidence—the kind that could be used to discredit Wilson—and began disseminating it, off the record, to a few...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald pushed back Thursday against defense attorneys who have been weeding Bush administration critics out of the jury pool in the perjury trial of former White House aide "Scooter" Libby.

WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on the first witness in the CIA leak case Thursday, dissecting an expert witness until she acknowledged errors and misstatements in her research. Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, hoped the hearing would persuade a judge to let him call a memory expert at his obstruction and perjury trial in January. At the outset of the procedural hearing, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton indicated that he was not inclined to allow a memory expert to testify at the trial. Still, he allowed Libby's lawyers to present a...

Things have actually been going a bit better in Iraq these days.  Fewer American soldiers are dying and the Iraqis are slowly taking on more power and responsibilities.  This presents a quandary for the media.  You see, as part of their Bush-bashing template, they need to continue to push the war in Iraq as an un-winnable failure.  The Democrats are counting on failure in Iraq to carry them to victory this fall. That's right...the Democrats are actually invested in American failure in Iraq.  They need more American troop deaths to put them over the top at the polls in November. ...

The Fitzpatrick Plame investigation has spurred the New York Times into examining how their reporters conduct themselves. Apparently, the Gray Lady wants her staff to act more like terrorists and drug dealers. Reporters are being told to delete emails, destroy notes, and use disposable cell phones in order to stymie future investigations.

(Ignoring the blather on Immigration and Impeachment, I proceeded to the Idiotorial remarks on the CIA leak postscript from the Houston Comical - weegee): -------------------- With the latest developments in the CIA leak case, some Bush apologists insist that it's time for a correction or contrition from those of us who spoke out about the White House's involvement. At least as far as my commentary has gone, I see no required rollback. Bush has not taken the "appropriate action" that he promised in October 2003, as Karl Rove remains on the White House payroll. Disclosure that Richard L. Armitage, when...

<p>WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.</p>

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the source who revealed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in 2003, touching off a federal investigation, two sources familiar with Armitage's role tell CNN. The sources said Armitage revealed Plame's role at the CIA almost inadvertently in a casual conversation with Novak, and it is not clear if he knew her identity was classified at the time. Armitage was not indicted by the federal grand jury that investigated the disclosure of Plame's name to Novak and other journalists. Deliberately revealing the identify...

As Rush Limbaugh often says, good economic news when Republicans are in office depresses the liberals. As proof of this, I present this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Is anyone worried about how falling oil prices will impact the election?" Yes, the DUmmies are WORRIED about good economic times. Not only that, you will see them also worrying about the low unemployment rate and the strong economy in general. Such good news for America is BAD NEWS for the DUmmies. So let us now watch the DUmmies admit they hate seeing gas prices decline in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of...

AND so we learn it was former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage - Australia's best friend in the US - not the Bush White House who was the first to out Valerie Plame as a CIA employee. With this knowledge is demolished yet another left-liberal fantasy about George W. Bush. The ironies of the situation are endless, exquisite and, for some, extremely painful. Ms Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former US diplomat who went to Niger before the Iraq war to examine allegations that Iraq had sought uranium there. From Mr Wilson's own account, his...

by Mark Finkelstein July 5, 2006 Merely because someone has just died doesn't mean you can't use the article announcing his death to take a swipe at President Bush. If you're the Associated Press, that is. In this article, published only minutes after Lay's death, the AP somehow found it pertinent , after only three short paragraphs announcing the death, to report that Lay was "nicknamed 'Kenny Boy' by President Bush." The MSM has gotten more mileage than a Prius coasting downhill out of W's 'heck of a job, Brownie' to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown in the wake of Katrina....

Susan Estrich just summed-up the Left's attitude toward today's NY Times' publishing top secret info on the Justice Department's bank record monitoring of terrorists' financing: 'The US Constitution absolutely protects a reporter's and a paper's right to publish top secret military information.' Further: 'One of the reasons Bush is low in the polls is that the president has lost the respect of the press.' This is the party that plans to retake Congress. Utterly clueless and angry enough to destroy us for spite.

June 13, 2006, 6:44 a.m. No Indictment of Rove in CIA-Leak CaseProsecutor Patrick Fitzgerald makes a decision. By Byron York Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has informed top White House adviser Karl Rove that Rove will not face indictment in the CIA-leak investigation, National Review Online has learned. The word came yesterday, when Fitzgerald told Rove lawyer Robert Luskin that he, Fitzgerald, did not plan to seek charges against Rove. This morning, Luskin released a brief statement:  On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove. In deference to...

A week after proclaiming that Karl Rove has already been indicted on charges of perjury and lying to federal investigators, Truthout has issued a rather inscrutable partial apology. "The time has now come. . . to issue a partial apology to our readership for this story," Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash said in a post on the site Friday. "While we paid very careful attention to the sourcing on this story, we erred in getting too far out in front of the news cycle. In moving as quickly as we did, we caused more confusion than clarity. And that was...

Several media organizations agreed yesterday to let a federal judge overseeing the trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby review reporters' notebooks and other materials related to their work in the CIA leak case. The New York Times and Time magazine said at a court hearing that they will turn over the materials to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton this week so he can decide whether they must be shown to Libby's defense team. (snip) The two publications, plus NBC, had filed motions seeking to quash subpoenas filed by Libby's attorneys on the grounds that the...

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs that will show how often convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with Bush administration officials — and with whom he met. U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn last Tuesday approved an agreement between the Secret Service and Judicial Watch, a public interest group, that requires the agency to produce records of Abramoff's visits from Jan. 1, 2001, to the present. Judicial Watch filed suit in February after the Secret Service failed to respond to its request under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Abramoff, who represented Indian...

On the popular Fox network television series 24, the first half of the long and violent day of covert operative Jack Bauer has been spent hunting down the Chechen terrorists who where trying to unleash nerve gas on Los Angeles. The terrorists had earlier tried to assassinate the Russian president during his meeting with U.S. President Charles Logan in Los Angels to formalize a new antiterrorism alliance. Then it was revealed, in a story line that has taken many twists and turns, that President Logan is the real villain behind the day's events. So Bauer is now trying to foment...

Sweetness and Light has noticed that the press has quoted two former counterterrorism experts in defense of Mary McCarthy but omitted one interesting detail, which may or may not be relevant. Here's ABC News report quoting the first expert, Ray McGovern to the effect that McCarthy had a higher duty to "defend the constitution". To supporters, McCarthy is a woman of conviction who exposed actions she believed were against the law."This a matter of principle," said Ray McGovern, a former fellow CIA analyst, "where she said my oath, my promise not to reveal secrets is superceded by my oath to...

The original mega-thread: CIA Fires Officer For Leaking Classified Information to Media I think this is as big as rathergate.   Dana Priest's Pulitzer has just turned to dust. Not only that,  the Pulitzer's are finally dust themselves...it is up to us and others to find out, because  the Drive-By Media will ignore the story. Let's Play Connect the Dots Let’s connect some dots in the Mary McCarthy CIA leak tale, shall we? (Hat tip: WordWarp).Mary McCarthy leaks the secret CIA prisons story to Dana Priest, in what may have been a sting operation.Mary McCarthy and Joe Wilson served at the...

Contrary to published reports, a State Department memorandum at the center of the investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, appears to offer no particular indication that Ms. Plame's role at the agency was classified or covert. The memo, drafted by the then head of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and addressed to the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, was carried aboard Air Force One as President Bush departed for Africa in July 2003. A declassified version of the document was obtained by The New York Sun on Saturday. [SNIP]...

WASHINGTON, April 7 — That President Bush authorized an aide to disclose classified intelligence on Iraqi weapons, as asserted in court papers, comes as no shock to official Washington. The leaking of secrets has long been a favored tool of policy debate, political combat and diplomatic one-upmanship. "We've had leaking of this kind since the administration of George Washington," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.

March 02, 2006 Katrina Tape Transcripts Show Media Hack Job For those who want to see the transcripts themselves of the video conferences, the New York Times has them for the August 28th and August 29th briefings. The transcript for the 29th makes one garbled mention of the levees around New Orleans (page 6). After making the point that the storm surge would cause the greatest devastation in the Gulfport area of Mississippi, going as high as 21 feet, Max Mayfield then turns to New Orleans: MAX MAYFIELD: ... The rest of the track we have 10 to 15 feet,...

Ed Asner: 'Hannity's next ... just like we went after Limbaugh' Posted: October 10, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com In the news this week are several reports of an exchange between syndicated talk-show host Mike Gallagher and actor-turned-leftist-poster-child Edward Asner. The account goes like this: Mike Gallagher approached Asner at a recent cocktail party promoting the new film "Elf" in which Asner stars as Santa Claus. As Gallagher introduced himself, Asner asked his profession. When Gallagher replied "radio talk-show host," Asner replied, "I love going toe-to-toe with you guys.'' ''I know,'' Gallagher replied. ''I've heard you on Sean Hannity's show.'' ''Hannity's...

Just A Few Years Back, Dems Were Warning About WMDs In IraqDEM OFFICIALS HAVE WARNED ABOUT WMDs IN IRAQ FOR YEARS Former President Bill Clinton:President Clinton: "We Have To Defend Our Future From These Predators Of The 21st Century. They Feed On The Free Flow Of Information And Technology. They Actually Take Advantage Of The Freer Movement Of People, Information And Ideas. And They Will Be All The More Lethal If We Allow Them To Build Arsenals Of Nuclear, Chemical And Biological Weapons And The Missiles To Deliver Them. We Simply Cannot Allow That To Happen. There Is No More...

Although Fitzgerald has so far drawn a tight circle around Libby that may leave President George W. Bush's longtime alter ego, Karl Rove, bloodied but secure, the United States v. I. Lewis Libby has already reopened old wounds about why the U.S. went to war in the first place. In an unprecedented and awkward fashion, the case pits government officials against the reporters who cover them. And Fitzgerald's indictment sets the stage for either a trial next spring or a plea bargain that almost certainly would mean jail time for Libby. That possibility has already been discussed: a source close...

Per Fox News...

It is heartening to read and hear the collective "mea culpa" from some of the nation's news media regarding the inaccurate reporting of rape, pillage, and murder in New Orleans in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The encouraging part of this sorry incident is that a great national outrage did not precede the cleansing confession.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather said Monday that there is a climate of fear running through newsrooms stronger than he has ever seen in his more than four-decade career. Rather famously tangled with President Nixon and his aides during the Watergate years while Rather was a hard-charging White House correspondent. Addressing the Fordham University School of Law in Manhattan, occasionally forcing back tears, he said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism...