The new animation by Mark Fiore is on the Internet; here.
Its subject is various scandals in the Republican party in the USA. Like the scandals around Tom DeLay and Bill Frist; and the Valerie Plame-Iraq “WMD” scandal around Karl Rove and Lewis Libby (Libby update, January 2007: here).
Another Fiore animation on Libby:here.
Libby and Scientology: here.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2005/10/06/usa-republican-party-scandals-mark-fiore-animation/trackback/
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Sep | Nov » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
Get free blog up and running in minutes with Blogsome | Theme designs available here
“hapi22″ hapi22@earthlink.net
Date: Tue May 16, 2006 8:56am(PDT)
Subject: *Karl and George’s not-so-excellent adventure*
Karl Rove was out pandering and pimping again yesterday.
————————————————————————
*Karl and George’s not-so-excellent adventure*
These days, everything the White House does smacks of desperate
improvisation — from Rove’s odd stint as economy-booster in the face of
possible indictment to his boss’s risky lurch to the right on
immigration.
by Walter Shapiro
Salon.com
May 16, 2006
>
Read this at: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/05/16/bush/
Comment by Administrator — May 17, 2006 @ 5:10 pm
Cheney’s Key Role in Leak Case Detailed
Posted by: “Jack” miscStonecutter@earthlink.net bongo_fury2004
Sat Jan 27, 2007 5:44 am (PST)
Cheney’s Key Role in Leak Case Detailed
A former aide testifies in Libby’s trial that the vice president
directed the effort to discredit a CIA agent’s husband.
by Richard B. Schmitt
Los Angeles Times
Friday, January 26, 2007
WASHINGTON — In the first such account from Vice President Dick Cheney’s
inner circle, a former aide testified Thursday that Cheney personally
directed the effort to discredit an administration critic by having
calls made to reporters in 2003.
Cheney dictated detailed “talking points” for his chief of staff, I.
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and others on how they could impugn the critic’s
credibility, said Catherine J. Martin, who was the vice president’s top
press aide at the time.
Libby is on trial on charges of obstructing an investigation into how
the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, became public. The
government says her identity emerged in conversations Libby had with
several reporters. It is illegal to knowingly divulge the name of a CIA
employee.
Plame’s name came up in the conversations because she is the wife of
former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, the critic whom the administration was
trying to attack after he publicly raised questions about the
intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Martin, who is now deputy White House director of communications for
policy and planning, testified as a prosecution witness on the third day
of Libby’s trial. She became the third witness to testify that they had
told Libby of Plame’s identity well before Libby spoke with the reporters.
That contradicts Libby’s statement that he learned of Plame’s identity
from one of the reporters, Tim Russert of NBC News. Libby is charged
with lying to federal agents looking into the leak of Plame’s name.
The events unfolded after a New York Times columnist reported in May
2003 that an unnamed diplomat had been sent to Niger the previous year
to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from
Africa, and found that the reports were wrong. President Bush’s State of
the Union speech in January 2003 contained the uranium assertion.
Libby learned that the unnamed diplomat was Wilson, a former ambassador.
Cheney’s active role in the campaign to undermine Wilson has been known,
but Martin’s testimony was the first inside account of the
administration’s attempts to manage the affair.
Martin said she learned that Plame worked for the CIA after Libby
directed her to call the agency to get more information about Wilson’s
trip to Niger. Martin said she quickly reported the information about
Plame to Libby and Cheney.
She described details of a White House media strategy, designed at the
highest levels, that sought to rebut charges that Bush had misled the
public in his January 2003 speech.
Martin said Cheney’s talking points disputed Wilson’s allegation that
Cheney had authorized the trip to Niger. They also included information
from a secret National Intelligence Estimate.
The vice president ordered press aides to start tracking press coverage
closely, while Libby was directed to contact reporters. At one point,
the vice president gave a note card to Libby with information to give to
a Time magazine reporter covering the case, while Cheney and Libby were
returning on Air Force Two from the christening of an aircraft carrier.
Martin also described how she discussed with Libby media “options” to
rebut Wilson that included a strategic “leak” to a handful of reporters.
But Martin said that neither Cheney nor Libby had suggested that the
identity of Plame be divulged as part of the game plan. She said that
she had no knowledge of either actually doing so.
“I recall the vice president telling me to keep track of this story, and
keep track of the commentators who were continuing to write on this
story and talk about us,” Martin testified. “We were paying attention to
‘Hardball With Chris Matthews’ because he had been talking about it a lot.”
She described the reaction inside the administration as questions began
to be raised, starting in May 2003. The New York Times column said the
administration had engaged in a “campaign of wholesale deceit” and
suggested that Cheney was directly involved.
Martin said Libby asked her to call the then-chief public affairs
officer at the CIA, William Harlow, to find out about the trip by Wilson.
“So I was saying, ‘Who sent him? Who is this guy?’ ” Martin testified.
“I remember Bill Harlow saying his name was Joe Wilson, he was a charge
in Baghdad, and his wife works over here.”
Martin said she promptly went to see Cheney and Libby with the news.
Wilson published an op-ed column in the New York Times on July 6, 2003,
describing his trip. The same day, he aired his concerns on the NBC
program “Meet the Press.” Almost immediately, Martin said she was
huddling again with Cheney about how to respond to a surge in press
inquires.
“He dictated to me what he wanted to say,” Martin said.
The detailed response covered eight points, including a reference to a
sensitive intelligence-community assessment. Martin testified that she
was “not sure if I could use that point” because she believed at the
time that the report was classified.
Later, she said, she discussed with Cheney and Libby how she had learned
from Harlow that two network reporters were writing stories about the
case, and how Cheney ordered Libby to call them personally, including
one call that Libby made from his private anteroom outside of Cheney’s
office.
“I was aggravated that Scooter was calling the reporters and that I
wasn’t,” Martin said.
The trial is expected to resume Monday with testimony from former White
House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
Leak case timeline
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick
Cheney, is being tried on five counts related to the leak of CIA
operative Valerie Plame’s name in 2003. Some important events in the case:
2003:
• Jan. 28: President Bush says in his State of the Union address: “The
British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
• May 6: New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof reports that a
former ambassador, whom he does not name, had been sent to Niger in 2002
to investigate the uranium report. The column says the former envoy
reported to the CIA and State Department well before Bush’s speech that
the uranium story was unequivocally wrong and was based on forged documents.
• May 29: Libby asks Marc Grossman, an undersecretary of State, for
information about the ambassador’s travel to Niger. Grossman later tells
Libby that Joseph C. Wilson IV is the former ambassador.
• June 11 or 12: Grossman tells Libby that Wilson’s wife works at the
CIA and that State Department personnel are saying Wilson’s wife was
involved in planning the trip. A senior CIA officer gives him similar
information.
• June 12: Cheney advises Libby that Wilson’s wife works at the CIA.
• June 14: Libby meets with a CIA briefer and discusses “Joe Wilson”
and his wife, “Valerie Wilson.”
• June 23: Libby meets with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. He
tells Miller that Wilson’s wife might work at a bureau of the CIA.
• July 6: The New York Times publishes an opinion piece by Wilson
titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” and he appears on NBC’s “Meet the
Press.” Wilson said he doubted Iraq had obtained uranium from Niger
recently and thought Cheney’s office was told of the results of his trip.
• July 7: Libby meets with then-White House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer. Libby notes that Wilson’s wife works at the CIA and that the
information is not widely known.
• July 8: Libby meets with Miller again and tells her that he believes
Wilson’s wife works for the CIA.
• July 12: Libby speaks to Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper and confirms
to him that he has heard that Wilson’s wife was involved in sending
Wilson on the trip. Libby also speaks to Miller and discusses Wilson’s
wife and says that she works at the CIA.
• July 14: Syndicated columnist Robert Novak reports that Wilson’s wife
is a CIA operative on weapons of mass destruction and that two senior
administration officials, whom Novak does not name, said she suggested
sending her husband to Niger to investigate the uranium story.
• Sept. 26: A criminal investigation is authorized to determine who
leaked Plame’s identity to reporters. Disclosing the identity of CIA
operatives is illegal.
• Oct. 14 and Nov. 26: Libby is interviewed by FBI agents.
• Dec. 30: U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Chicago is named to head
the leak investigation.
2004:
• January: A grand jury begins investigating possible violations of
federal criminal laws.
• March 5 and March 24: Libby testifies before the grand jury.
2005:
• Oct. 28: Libby is indicted on five counts: obstruction of justice and
two counts each of false statement and perjury.
2006:
• Sept. 7: Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage admits
he leaked Plame’s identity to Novak and to Bob Woodward of the
Washington Post. Armitage says he did not realize Plame’s job was
covert. Woodward taped his June 13, 2003, interview with Armitage.
Comment by Administrator — January 27, 2007 @ 3:30 pm