Plenty to Swear About

[H2O Man]

"Furthermore, there is intense anger over the White House's revealing the identity of Plame, who may have been active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components. ... 'Only a very high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge that Plame was on the payroll' of the CIA, an intelligence source told me."
-- Joe Klein; Plenty to Swear About; TIME; 7-5-04

As I wait impatiently for the local book store to call to tell me that Valerie Plame's book has arrived, I've been reading through some of the old Plame Threads. I've always thought that series of threads was one of the high-points of DU. A heck of a lot of information was presented and there was some high-quality analysis in the threads.

I was just reading an old essay (The Waterman Paper), in which I suggested that when we considered what Mr. Klein reported in the larger context of the Plame scandal, that it seemed likely that VP Cheney and friends had a few reasons for exposing Ms. Plame's identity.

I just can't help but think of that June 10, 2003 memo from Carl Ford to Undersecretary Grossman, and especially this sentence: "Joe went to Niger in late 1999 in regard to Niger's uranium program, apparently with CIA support."

Gosh. What did VP Cheney know, and when did he know it? Too bad the House of Representatives wouldn't impeach Cheney, so that this could be cleared up.

Some days there's plenty to swear about.

[Annces]

1. Bad Day at Black Rock

The town has gone to hell. Spencer Tracy goes to a small town to give a metal to a Japanese father. But someone in the town had killed him because of war with Japan. Spencer barely makes it out alive.

They don't make good movies on moral character anymore.

Cheney takes down the Wilsons, but Congress does nothing.

[H2O Man]

3. I wish that

one of the talented Hollywood directors would make a good movie about the case. A quality documentary would be good, too.

[Annces]

13. Yes

I sometimes will watch an older movie, because they are so well made. In many of them, they will actually be like a good play, outlining human nature and how people act under pressure. Hollywood today is so full of fast pace and sex, but rarely good character studies.

[robertpaulsen]

30. Hopefully it will not be heavily redacted!

Plame film in works at Warner Bros.
Studio sets movie about CIA leak scandal
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Warner Bros. is developing a feature on the lives of Valerie Plame and Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the married couple drawn into a D.C. firestorm.

Plame's status as a CIA agent was revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit her husband after he wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The film is a co-production between Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Productions.

Jez and John Butterworth are writing the screenplay.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117960398.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

[H2O Man]

31. It would be

interesting to know what sources they are using for their screenplay, beyond Fair Game.

[robertpaulsen]

40. I wish I knew!

Looks like this is still in EARLY development stages. Wish I was higher up the Writer's Guild food chain to be able to find out and influence this project.

[Me.]

2. Even The Interview With Couric Made It Clear

the criminality that occurred with the Plame case. Showing them, Libby and all, skulking around. There is much to swear about in this situation not the least of which was *'s commutation of Scooter's sentence.From his setting up a shadow government right through to his calling for another war this man has not only been a disgrace but vice-criminal in chief. And while some say he is the master of the puppet, the enabler in chief is equally responsible. Taking Cheney out first is like removing a a crucial Jenga block.

[H2O Man]

5. Impeach Cheney.

It's the thing to do.

[mmonk]

4. Our system is broken. Too many elected are complicit

in this sorry chapter of American history. Maybe one day, all will be told.

[H2O Man]

6. It would take

having the grand jury investigation opened up. And there is only one way that will happen. That is one of the reasons I advocate impeaching VP Cheney.

[mmonk]

8. I'm with you on that.

I'm just so surprised our party doesn't have what it takes right now. I don't understand what is to be gained by letting our country down.

[Me.]

9. If Only.....

Congress would take up where Fitzgerald left off. He laid it all out for them, has hinted transparently...but Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy and the rest of the dwarfs ignore what the American people have been saying.

[leveymg]

19. Fitzgerald handed Congress everything it needs to Impeach Cheney, but so far, nothing.

What ARE they waiting for?

And, the Cheney hearings would develop everything they need to bring down Bush. What's the down-side?

I don't get it. Can someone explain this reluctance to investigate?

Is it AIPAC and their insane push to "fall forward" into Iran before November 2008? Also, the Saudis will do everything in their power to keep the U.S. tied up in Iraq to force a better settlement of the division of Iraq than the one they would get now. The Saudis recall the lesson of what happened to the Hashemite regime when Jordan was stuck with all those Palestinian refugees after the 1967 and 1973 wars. The Royal Family sees the Sunni Iraqis and an empowered Shia allied with Iran as probably the greatest longterm threat to their continued rule.

In the face of both AIPAC and the Saudis, Congress is paralyzed. That leaves the Pentagon the only buffer in the way of a much broader war - Bush-Cheney can't be counted on to keep things together.

[H2O Man]

23. The only explanation

is that they are consciously choosing not to honor the oath of office they took.

[leveymg]

24. No. There has to be a method behind this madness. See what I added to my question, above.

Then, try to answer it.

[H2O Man]

25. My answer

includes some general information that I know you know -- the Plame scandal and the Franklin?AIPAC espionage scandals both are closely related to the activities of the OSP. They involve preparations to re-draw the map of the Middle East. And the best chance of exposing these is to pick off the scab .... meaning impeach Cheney.

What you added to the post is, of course, correct.

[leveymg]

26. Then, the outcome will be that Congress does nothing, and just assumes the CYA position.

That's exactly what happened within the intelligence community before 9/11.

Our political paralysis is someone else's opportunity to redraw the map of the Middle East.

We can't be the only ones who realize that.

[TahitiNut]

29. One of the more popular reasons for inaction in D.C. is "more harm than good."

When a professional politician speaks of "harm" it's almost always a matter of perceptions and relationships. It's pretty clear that the tentacles of corruption run deep and long ... including 'strategic' foreign relations.

If there's anything that's clear regarding corporate influence in D.C. it's that those interests have, for over 100 years, exerted almost total control over our foreign relations. "Most favored nation" trading status, diplomatic relations, military intervention ... all reflect "American interests." That's a euphemism for corporate colonialism ... where we pressure the governments of other countries to establish and maintain a system of entitlements (privileges ensconced in law and enforced by that nation's law enforcement) for global corporations engaged in raping the resources and exploiting the labor forces of other nations in the pursuit of profit.

From United Fruit to Aramco to Unocal, almost without exception, the sole determinant of our "foreign relations" has been the coercion of other nations to establish and extend the economic predation of global corporations. Thus, we have "allies" that are totalitarian and "enemies" that are populist - usually on the "left." From China Incorporated to Saudi(sic) Arabia, we cozy up to regimes that butcher their own people and enrich the "leadership class" by selling out their nation's sovereign interests. At the same time, we marginalize and act to overthrow opposition regimes in countries like Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela.

In our foreign operations, the U.S. has NEVER adhered to the "rule of law." Peddle nukes to Pakistan? Sure - if there's a profit and the madman signs up to be an agent to global corporate interests.

Cheney and Co. have been the agents of such interests.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the CIA was almost totally re-targeted to "business intel." It's "nonproliferation" activities were NOT even-handed. But "allies" change to "enemies" and vice-versa. There's dirty laundry belonging to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. in the in the CIA.

Thus, exposing Cheney also unavoidably exposes a breadth and depth of corruption, involving other countries, that would be breathtaking in its scope, even if only a fraction were uncovered and made public.

A century of "covert" makes a BIG lump in the carpet.

[H2O Man]

32. Many people are

aware that it can be hard to get one doctor to speak openly about another's mistakes. There is a code of silence among police, as Frank Serpico found out. And lawyers are ususually loyal to the court. I think that the same type of "gentlemen's agreement" holds for Washington, DC.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

42. Excellent summary of foreign policy the last several decades.

Dayum, you are good!!! :applause:

[TahitiNut]

46. Well... it shouldn't be news to DU ... it's even at the ROOT of our (so-called) "immigration" issue

Let me make clear that I FAVOR legal immigration. Period!

I oppose "guest" workers, H1B visas, "undocumented" workers, and ALL manner of corporate exploitation and objectification of human beings. It's trafficking in human labor. ALL of these programs have the STENCH of Jim Crow attitudes where "those people" were welcome to cook the food and care for the children but (God forbid!) couldn't sit at the dining room table with us for dinner and (God forbid!) couldn't live next door.

It is this corporate attitude, manifest in a "foreign policy" that has propped up a "ruling elite" (with 'European blood') in Latin America and created a vast underclass of labor, that is being exploited. Our 'foreign policy' has NOT supported equity and democraccy in those countries. It has supported exploitation - banana republicanism is named after United Fruit!

Work is the activity of a community, just like barn-raising by the Amish or planting crops in a commune. The work of a democracy is participation in its economic system. I eschew the entitlement of 'owners' to live off the labors of others. I celebrate owner-operators and all those who mingle their blood, their sweat, and their tears equitably with others in the building of a community ... whether that be a commune in the woods or a nation.

When I see people looking at the plantation owners, not with disgust but with envy, I'm disgusted. It's like national service and the abolition of the draft. It seems clear to me that we weren't as much disgusted by those with privilege who didn't serve and escaped as we were envious and wanted a piece of the action for ourselves. I regard the self-centered rush to have "them" do the work and have "them" do the military service and have "them" go without health care as appalling, disgusting, widespread ... and the mindset spread by corporatism in this country.

Then ... when I attack the corruption of human objectification and public privilege ... I get called names. (Corrupt idiots!)

Sigh. I feel better now. :rant:

[spanone]

7. there are many things about the plame incident we will never know

but we DO know that a cia operative was OUTED by the white house....and we do know that scooter was convicted of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that reached into the highest levels of the Bush administration....and we know bu$h* set him free.

[Me.]

10. We Also Know

That Al Que-ada put death threats out against Cheney, Rove and Plame and she was the only one they wouldn't provide security for.

[H2O Man]

11. I'm looking forward

to picking that book up today. Wish they'd call.

[EstimatedProphet]

15. And unfortunately, it was all done well

It was done to enable Scooter to take the fall for the whole thing, and his sentence was commuted so he wouldn't sing. It sucks, but it was legal.

[H2O Man]

16. Not entirely accurate.

Mr. Fitzgerald did his part. That part is done. But there is more that congress could do. The choose not to.

[spanone]

17. there lies my frustration.....congress should have picked up where mr. fitzgerald left off

he laid it all out for them....

[EstimatedProphet]

18. I agree there are more things that could be done

It would be nice to see them done.

[H2O Man]

20. Oh. Okay.

I thought you were not in favor of impeaching Cheney.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. No, I'm in favor of publicly proving that Cheney should be impeached

Please quit misrepresenting my position.

[H2O Man]

22. That is exactly

what I'm saying your position is.

Now, please, tell me exactly how in your opinion the congress can access the information from the grand jury investigation that has to do with VP Cheney? Can you please represent your opinion, so that no one "misrepresents" it? Thanks!

[H2O Man]

27. ?

[EstimatedProphet]

34. Well, "In favor of not impeaching Cheney" means

IN FAVOR OF NOT IMPEACHING CHENEY!

Are you actually claiming that you don't know the difference between wanting to have hearings that get the administration crimes out in the open, and opposition to the whole process? Because that's what you're telling me I am saying. You either don't know the difference, or you're misrepresenting my position.

Again, let me state it clearly: I want to have investigations of the administration. It is my belief that those investigations will indicate that Bush/Cheney were directly responsible for crimes which have been committed in the last 6 1/2 years. However, I also believe that without the investigations, an impeachment proceeding will fail. I would rather have one that works. This is clearly, obviously, BLATANTLY not the same thing as being "not in favor of impeaching Cheney".

[H2O Man]

36. I asked a simple question.

If you don't know the answer, that's okay to admit.

How could Congress access the information from the grand jury investigation regarding VP Cheney, which was not made public during the Libby trial? That is a simple question. Can you answer it?

[Me.]

41. Whatever The Definition Of 'Is" Is n/t

[H2O Man]

44. There are several ways

of avoiding answering a question. Some attempts to camouflage are quite easy to see through.

[spanone]

12. kick up

[suffragette]

14. $%%*(&&$%^$%&&*(&*^&%^%#!!!

Guess my swearing there didn't contribute much to the thread, but it did make me feel better.
Rousing way to begin the day, much better than gritting my teeth and saying GRRR, which I've been doing all too often these last few years.

[H2O Man]

33. If it made

you feel better, it qualifies as a good contribution.

[suffragette]

39. That and McDermott being on board to impeach Cheney

Love the big MCD.

[robertpaulsen]

28. People like Cheney & Grossman walk between the raindrops.

Paraphrasing a quote from Jim Garrison about Clay Shaw in the movie JFK, it applies equally to these traitors. One may smile and smile and be a villain.

From the second edition of American Judas:

One man described as a pillar of the ATC that Edmonds has been able to talk about is Marc Grossman. http://sibeledmonds.blogspot.com/2006/09/doug-feith-richard-perle-and-marc.html The same Marc Grossman who told Scooter Libby on June 11 or 12, 2003, more than a month before Novak’s column, about Wilson’s wife working at the CIA. http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001046.php The same Marc Grossman mentioned in the 1st edition of American Judas who had a meeting that was reported on September 10, 2001, as “most important” with General Mahmoud Ahmad, who resigned from being Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief the following month in the wake of an investigation by Times of India, confirmed by the FBI, that he authorized ISI agent Omar Saeed Sheikh to wire transfer $100,000 in August 2001 to Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker of the 9/11 attacks. http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essaysaeed.html When questioned in April 2006 by director Mathieu Verboud for an interview that was later cut out of a documentary about Sibel Edmonds titled Kill the Messenger, Grossman claimed he didn’t know anything about Sibel Edmonds or Valerie Plame. This cannot be true, according to Edmonds, because Grossman was one of three officials – the other two, she says, are Richard Perle and Douglas Feith – who had been watched by both Valerie Plame's Brewster Jennings & Associates CIA team, and by the major FBI investigation of organized crime and governmental corruption on which she herself was working until being terminated in April 2002. http://sibeledmonds.blogspot.com/2006/09/doug-feith-richard-perle-and-marc.html

Now that yet another motivation for Cheney to blow Plame’s cover has been revealed, the role that Turkey plays in this game of “many dark actors” appears much larger. Edmonds has researched this extensively and wrote about it in a two part article in November 2006 titled The Hijacking of a Nation. To quote: “Turkey played a major role in Pakistan and Libya's illicit activities in obtaining nuclear technologies. In June 2004, Stephen Fidler, a reporter for Financial Times reported that in 2003, Turkish centrifuge motors and converters destined for Libya's nuclear weapons program turned up in Tripoli aboard a ship that had sailed from Dubai. One of those detained individuals in this incident, a 'respected and successful' Turkish Businessman, Selim Alguadis, was cited in a public report from the Malaysian inspector-general of police into the Malaysian end of a Pakistani-led clandestine network that supplied Libya, Iran and North Korea with nuclear weapons technologies, designs and expertise. According to the report, "he supplied these materials to Libya." Mr. Alguadis also confessed that he had on several occasions met A Q Khan, the disgraced Pakistani scientist who has admitted transmitting nuclear expertise to the three countries”. http://www.counterpunch.org/edmonds11292006.html

One more dot to connect: is Dick Cheney directly affiliated with any of the “semi-legitimate organizations” in this international criminal conspiracy? While only a thorough binding investigation with subpoena power can determine this, the gagged former FBI translator has left a trail of breadcrumbs pointing investigators in the appropriate direction. Again from The Hijacking of a Nation, 'ATC is joined in the creation of the New EuroAsia by the American Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (AACC). AACC's Honorary Council of Advisors just happens to have General Scowcroft and the following persons of significance: Henry Kissinger and James Baker III. Former Council members include Dick Cheney and Richard Armitage, and Board of Trustee members include media-overkill subject Richard Perle of AEI, and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas.' http://www.counterpunch.org/edmonds11292006.html

Interesting that Cheney is listed as having resigned from the AACC in November 2000. As though leaving the organization a month before the Supreme Court selected him to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency could cover up the fact that this American Judas has made more money selling the security of his country out for the greater profits of drugs, money laundering, arms sales and international terrorism than the 30 pieces of silver the Biblical Judas sold his friend Jesus Christ out for. This is a story that cannot be swept under the rug. It is a huge story, sometimes daunting, but it must be told, and those who are in the best position to tell it must no longer be silenced by a government that claims to be of the people, for the people and by the people. We, the people, hunger for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The outline of the truth has been mapped in this paper, but there are many more pieces of the puzzle to discover. It’s important to remember that no matter how many stories are listed here, it is still just one story. But to get the whole story, we must have a whole investigation. Nothing in our lifetime could be more important, because there is no greater endeavor than establishing justice. It’s what our Founding Fathers listed first in the Constitution for their priorities of forming “a more perfect union”. We owe it to them, and ourselves, to see the truth through to the end.

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2007/03/american-judas-2nd-edition-investigate.html

[H2O Man]

35. Thank you.

I was pleased to see SLAD had posted "AmericanJudas" on DU:GD. It's important for DUers to read, or reread, it now.

[spanone]

37. H2O Man, question. why did ms. pelosi take impeachment off the table?

was she trying to unite the congress?

had impeachment been brought up and she refused to be a part of it?

did pressure from the media cause her to make her statement?

one of the few things i agree with our president over, is that nothing should be taken off the table when negotiating.

i'd be curious to hear your insights on this.

thank you

[H2O Man]

43. My understanding

is that she has two reasons: first, she did not want to appear to be promoting herself; and second, she is promoting other interests, specifically hoping for a democrat in the White House and larger majorities in congress.

The person who told me this is connected in Washington, and is a solid democrat. That person believes that Speaker Pelosi is sincere. But that she is simply wrong on her failure to confront the president on the war, and in her approach to the impeachment issue.

Also, as I noted previously, the congressman's aide at the teach-in on impeachment had said Pelosi not only isn't for impeachment, but is discouraging those in the House who are.

[spanone]

45. thank you

i never questioned her sincerity for a moment, it's her tactics that i have questioned. when confronted with a 'cheney', i think she made a horrific tactical error. once 'it' was off the table, there was no threat of punishment and by the time (hopefully) a democrat wins the white house, so much damage will have already been done.

[Blue_Tires]

38. very true n/t

[DemReadingDU]

47. Outing a CIA agent, by our own government,

is treason. Where is the outrage of all Americans?

@@??##$$**%%++&&