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These five could do it

Posted on | October 2, 2003 | No Comments

White House Looks to Manage Fallout Over C.I.A. Leak Inquiry

Still, one Republican with close ties to the administration said the White House was monitoring five Republicans in Congress, all of whom have an independent streak on foreign policy and intelligence matters: Senators John McCain of Arizona, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John W. Warner of Virginia, and Representative Porter J. Goss of Florida.

They could break ranks and tip the scale in favor of an independent investigation.

Category: Uncategorized

Media Storm Day 5: Justice Inquiry begins

Posted on | September 30, 2003 | No Comments

Washington Post:
Justice Launches Investigation Into Leak

Three weeks ago, intelligence officials said, the CIA returned to the Justice Department a standard 11-question form detailing the potential damage done by the release of the information. Officials said it may have been the first such report ever filed on the unauthorized disclosure of an operative’s name. Word of the Justice probe emerged over the weekend after the CIA briefed lawmakers on it last week.

Another journalist yesterday confirmed receiving a call from an administration official providing the same information about Wilson’s wife before the Novak column appeared on July 14 in The Post and other newspapers.

The journalist, who asked not to be identified because of possible legal ramifications, said that the information was provided as part of an effort to discredit Wilson, but that the CIA information was not treated as especially sensitive. “The official I spoke with thought this was a part of Wilson’s story that wasn’t known and cast doubt on his whole mission,” the person said, declining to identify the official he spoke with. “They thought Wilson was having a good ride and this was part of Wilson’s story.”

Washington Post:
Rarely Invoked Statute Could Play a Role

The statute includes three other elements necessary to obtain a conviction: that the disclosure was intentional, the accused knew the person being identified was a covert agent and the accused also knew that “the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States.”

The law says no person other than the one accused of leaking the information can be prosecuted, a provision that would protect journalists who report leaked classified information identifying a covert agent. But there is one exception to that protection.

The measure says people who engage in a “pattern of activities” intended to identify covert agents and who have “reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States” can be prosecuted. Smith said that language was aimed at the publishers of the Covert Action Information Bulletin and others who made it a practice to identify undercover CIA agents.

New York Times:
Justice Dept. Starts Inquiry on Leak of C.I.A. Officer’s Identity

LA Times:
Leak Accusation Stirs White House

It is a classic Washington whodunit, with speculation swirling around the Beltway on Monday over the identities of the “two senior administration officials” who passed the CIA officer’s name to conservative columnist Robert Novak.

But the time-honored game of guessing reporters’ sources has higher stakes in this case because it centers on the White House’s prewar claims about Iraq’s nuclear program, appears to have cost a CIA operative her clandestine career, and the culprits, if caught, could face up to 10 years in prison.

…

By some accounts, the administration approached a number of news organizations in July, dangling details on Wilson’s wife’s position at the agency. The Washington Post on Sunday quoted “an administration aide” as saying that six reporters received cold calls from administration officials.

The Post quoted Wilson as saying that NBC’s Andrea Mitchell got one of the calls. “I would not discuss sources,” Mitchell said when asked about that Monday.

But speaking on condition of anonymity, one top political and communications strategist close to the White House expressed skepticism that any senior White House officials leaked the information.

“It’s not how anybody leaks,” the strategist said. “You know us. We’re pros. If you want to leak, you call one reporter.”

Slate:
The Plame Game
By Jack Shafer

Given that the White House knows who the leakers are, I would surmise that the administration will staunch the damage—and still the scandal—by strongly encouraging the leakers to offer themselves up for sacrifice out of duty to President Bush. If I were Bush, I’d avoid anything that could be construed as a coverup and start rehearsing my address to the nation about how a tiny precancerous lesion has been removed from the face of the presidency.

…

The hidden bad news is that none of [the journalists] reported that the Plame information was being leaked by sources who wished to embarrass her and Wilson—which they could have legitimately done without burning their sources by name. In other words, they all protected the White House from its blunder.

Category: Politics, Uncategorized

U.S. troops uncover one of their biggest weapons caches in Saddam’s hometown

Posted on | September 27, 2003 | No Comments

But before you jump to conclusions, these are not WMD’s.

The cache turned up 23 Russian-made surface to air missiles, 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives, four rocket propelled grenade launchers and 115 rockets, a mortar and 40 mortar rounds, 1,300 blasting caps and 423 hand grenades

Conventional weapons.

U.S. troops uncover one of their biggest weapons caches in Saddam’s hometown

Category: Uncategorized

Why is Trent Lott fighting media deregulation?

Posted on | September 23, 2003 | No Comments

Salon has some possible answers.

“I believe there’s some payback” in the current media debate, says Miner. “A little bit of kicking the White House in the shins, getting back at Bush who helped pull the rug out from under him” last year.

Is it because he was asked to resign by the White House? Or because the reporters of these big media companies reported on his goof? Whatever the cause, the effect is preventing Big Media from gaining more market share.

Category: Politics, Uncategorized

Maybe it’ll be in the paperback

Posted on | September 23, 2003 | No Comments

More lies about liberal media bias. Someone tell Al Franken.

If any Hollywood figure is in the J. Lo category, it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since announcing for California governor with his pal Jay Leno, the Terminator has attracted a huge wave of media attention and a torrent of front-page stories (not to mention coveted chats with Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern).

So what was he doing recently with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly? Complaining about the Los Angeles Times and its supposed preference for Gov. Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante: “Have you ever seen how many times they put Davis on the cover and Bustamante on the cover and I’m on page 12 or page 20 or something like that?”

Arnold — shoved inside the paper? Not so, says Times Editor John Carroll, noting that Reuters had counted 64 front-page references to Davis, 61 for Schwarzenegger and 48 for Bustamante.

What’s more, Carroll says Schwarzenegger called him last month to say “he’d been reading the paper closely, that it had been fair and he appreciated it.” The call came a day after the Times ran a piece about his father’s Nazi past inside the paper but gave Page 1 play to financier Warren Buffett joining Schwarzenegger’s team.

Category: Politics, Uncategorized
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