Wayne Madsen Report January 31,2007
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January 31, 2007 -- WMR spoke to a leading law scholar about the significance of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald granting former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer use immunity rather than transactional immunity. Transactional immunity protects an individual from prosecution for anything involving the planning and carrying out of a crime, i,e., transactional immunity protects the witness from any prosecution brought about relating to transactions to which they gave testimony. Use immunity, on the other hand, lifts the Fifth Amendment protections of self-incrimination by replacing that privilege with an assurance that neither compelled testimony nor any fruits of it can be used against the witness. It was use immunity that gave Oliver North and John Poindexter "get out of jail free" cards for their roles in the Iran-Contra scandal.
It is still too early to determine how Fleischer's use immunity will affect the case against Libby, however, the criminal conspiracy by senior White House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, is incrementally being laid bare every day. This Cheney-Libby memo is a significant smoking gun against both Cheney and Libby in their roles in exposing Plame. With prosecution and defense agreeing that Cheney was at the center of the criminal conspiracy to disclose the name of a covert CIA agent and her covert front company, there is still much doubt about Cheney appearing as a witness. If he refuses, expect interlocutory appeals from Cheney's attorneys to the pro-administration U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia and a possible Supreme Court showdown.
All evidence in Libby trial points to Cheney as kingpin in outing of CIA agent.
Yesterday's testimonies, including those of Cheney's Counsel, David Addington, and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, painted a picture of the close relationship between the Bush White House and the corporate media. Addington's December 16, 2003 memo to a number of White House staffers, including Lewis Libby (Chief of Staff), Catherine Martin (Assistant to the Vice President for Public Affairs, Neil Patel (Assistant to the Vice President and Staff Secretary), Victoria Nuland (Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs [the present U.S. Representative to NATO and the wife of Project for the New American Century co-founder Robert Kagan]), and Debra Heiden, Executive Assistant to the Vice President.
The Addington memo asks for the preservation of all documents between these staffers and specified members of the media, an indication that there was a concerted effort by the certain White House employees to spread Valerie Plame Wilson's covert status to a multitude of media members, including White House Press Corps member and male prostitute Jeff Gannon and his right-wing funded Talon News. Forty-one members of the media and media entities (which would include unnamed producers and editors) were identified in the Addington memo, clear evidence of the scope of the White House program to out Plame to the media.
Number one on the list of 41 is Robert Novak, the first person who wrote about Plame and her Brewster Jennings covert CIA business counter-proliferation team. It should also be noted that Libby was the longtime attorney for fugitive American-Israeli smuggler and crime boss Marc Rich (Reich), who was pardoned by Bill Clinton. Rich has been a major asset for the Mossad and has violated embargoes against Iran during the same time George H. W. Bush was illegally shipping arms to Iran before the 1980 election to embarrass President Jimmy Carter.
The list of media members and entities identified in the Addington memo is as follows:
1. Robert Novak [Chicago Sun Times syndicated columnist]
2. Crossfire [CNN]
3. Capital Gang [CNN]
4. Chicago Sun-Times (owned by Lord Conrad Black's and Richard Perle's Hollinger Corporation. Black was indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald for securities fraud).
5. Knut Royce (Newday)
6. Timothy Phelps (Newsday)
7. Newsday
8. Walter Pincus [Washington Post]
9. Richard Leiby [Washington Post]
10. Mike Allen [Washington Post]
11. Dana Priest [Washington Post]
12. Glenn Kessler [Washington Post, Kessler is also named in the indictments of America Israel Public Affair Committee (AIPAC) officials Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman who are charged with receiving classified information from convicted Israeli spy Larry Franklin. Kessler's July 21, 2004 meeting with Rosen and Weissman, in which all three joked about “not getting in trouble" over the passing of the classified information, was taped by the FBI].
13. Washington Post
14. Matthew Cooper (Time) [married to Many Grunwald, longtime consultant to Hillary Clinton]
15. John Dickerson (Time)
16. Massimo Calabresi (Time)
17. Michael Duffy (Time)
18. James Carney (Time) (married to ABC News senior correspondent Clair Shipman)
19. Time magazine
20. Evan Thomas (Newsweek)
21. Newsweek
22. Andrea Mitchell (NBC News) [married to Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan]
23. Meet the Press (NBC)
24. Chris Matthews (MS-NBC, NBC) [married to Washington ABC Channel 7 Albritton Communications anchor Kathleen Matthews]
25. Hardball (MSNBC)
26. MSNBC
27. Tim Russert (NBC, married to Maureen Orth of Vanity Fair)
28. Campbell Brown (NBC, married to Dan Senor, then Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in occupied Iraq)
29. NBC (owned by defense contractor General Electric)
30. Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) [married to Sheryl WuDunn, New York Times editor]
31. David Sanger (New York Times)
32. Judith Miller (New York Times)
33. New York Times
34. Greg Hitt (Wall Street Journal)
35. Paul Gigot (Wall Street Journal)
36. Wall Street Journal
37. John Solomon (Associated Press)
38. Associated Press
39. USA Today
40. Jeff Gannon (proprietor of HotMilitaryStuds.com and other gay escort websites operated by Bedrock Corp). ("Yabba Dabba Doo!")
41. Talon News (owned by Republican activist group GOPUSA run by Bobby Eberle).
January 31, 2007 -- WMR spoke to a leading law scholar about the significance of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald granting former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer use immunity rather than transactional immunity. Transactional immunity protects an individual from prosecution for anything involving the planning and carrying out of a crime, i,e., transactional immunity protects the witness from any prosecution brought about relating to transactions to which they gave testimony. Use immunity, on the other hand, lifts the Fifth Amendment protections of self-incrimination by replacing that privilege with an assurance that neither compelled testimony nor any fruits of it can be used against the witness. It was use immunity that gave Oliver North and John Poindexter "get out of jail free" cards for their roles in the Iran-Contra scandal.
It is still too early to determine how Fleischer's use immunity will affect the case against Libby, however, the criminal conspiracy by senior White House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, is incrementally being laid bare every day. This Cheney-Libby memo is a significant smoking gun against both Cheney and Libby in their roles in exposing Plame. With prosecution and defense agreeing that Cheney was at the center of the criminal conspiracy to disclose the name of a covert CIA agent and her covert front company, there is still much doubt about Cheney appearing as a witness. If he refuses, expect interlocutory appeals from Cheney's attorneys to the pro-administration U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia and a possible Supreme Court showdown.
All evidence in Libby trial points to Cheney as kingpin in outing of CIA agent.
Yesterday's testimonies, including those of Cheney's Counsel, David Addington, and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, painted a picture of the close relationship between the Bush White House and the corporate media. Addington's December 16, 2003 memo to a number of White House staffers, including Lewis Libby (Chief of Staff), Catherine Martin (Assistant to the Vice President for Public Affairs, Neil Patel (Assistant to the Vice President and Staff Secretary), Victoria Nuland (Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs [the present U.S. Representative to NATO and the wife of Project for the New American Century co-founder Robert Kagan]), and Debra Heiden, Executive Assistant to the Vice President.
The Addington memo asks for the preservation of all documents between these staffers and specified members of the media, an indication that there was a concerted effort by the certain White House employees to spread Valerie Plame Wilson's covert status to a multitude of media members, including White House Press Corps member and male prostitute Jeff Gannon and his right-wing funded Talon News. Forty-one members of the media and media entities (which would include unnamed producers and editors) were identified in the Addington memo, clear evidence of the scope of the White House program to out Plame to the media.
Number one on the list of 41 is Robert Novak, the first person who wrote about Plame and her Brewster Jennings covert CIA business counter-proliferation team. It should also be noted that Libby was the longtime attorney for fugitive American-Israeli smuggler and crime boss Marc Rich (Reich), who was pardoned by Bill Clinton. Rich has been a major asset for the Mossad and has violated embargoes against Iran during the same time George H. W. Bush was illegally shipping arms to Iran before the 1980 election to embarrass President Jimmy Carter.
The list of media members and entities identified in the Addington memo is as follows:
1. Robert Novak [Chicago Sun Times syndicated columnist]
2. Crossfire [CNN]
3. Capital Gang [CNN]
4. Chicago Sun-Times (owned by Lord Conrad Black's and Richard Perle's Hollinger Corporation. Black was indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald for securities fraud).
5. Knut Royce (Newday)
6. Timothy Phelps (Newsday)
7. Newsday
8. Walter Pincus [Washington Post]
9. Richard Leiby [Washington Post]
10. Mike Allen [Washington Post]
11. Dana Priest [Washington Post]
12. Glenn Kessler [Washington Post, Kessler is also named in the indictments of America Israel Public Affair Committee (AIPAC) officials Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman who are charged with receiving classified information from convicted Israeli spy Larry Franklin. Kessler's July 21, 2004 meeting with Rosen and Weissman, in which all three joked about “not getting in trouble" over the passing of the classified information, was taped by the FBI].
13. Washington Post
14. Matthew Cooper (Time) [married to Many Grunwald, longtime consultant to Hillary Clinton]
15. John Dickerson (Time)
16. Massimo Calabresi (Time)
17. Michael Duffy (Time)
18. James Carney (Time) (married to ABC News senior correspondent Clair Shipman)
19. Time magazine
20. Evan Thomas (Newsweek)
21. Newsweek
22. Andrea Mitchell (NBC News) [married to Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan]
23. Meet the Press (NBC)
24. Chris Matthews (MS-NBC, NBC) [married to Washington ABC Channel 7 Albritton Communications anchor Kathleen Matthews]
25. Hardball (MSNBC)
26. MSNBC
27. Tim Russert (NBC, married to Maureen Orth of Vanity Fair)
28. Campbell Brown (NBC, married to Dan Senor, then Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in occupied Iraq)
29. NBC (owned by defense contractor General Electric)
30. Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) [married to Sheryl WuDunn, New York Times editor]
31. David Sanger (New York Times)
32. Judith Miller (New York Times)
33. New York Times
34. Greg Hitt (Wall Street Journal)
35. Paul Gigot (Wall Street Journal)
36. Wall Street Journal
37. John Solomon (Associated Press)
38. Associated Press
39. USA Today
40. Jeff Gannon (proprietor of HotMilitaryStuds.com and other gay escort websites operated by Bedrock Corp). ("Yabba Dabba Doo!")
41. Talon News (owned by Republican activist group GOPUSA run by Bobby Eberle).
posted by Tapir's Rants at 8:20 PM
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