With the August doldrums here and attack advertisements funded by a wealthy Bush backer reaching new lows, it would be easy to forget several percolating investigations that might bubble up in coming months. Here are just a few pots worth watching closely:
Two "senior administration officials," according to columnist Robert Novak, the right wing mouthpiece. Subpoenas by independent prosecutor Peter Fitzgerald periodically surface. The most often suggested culprits are in the White House, and all it would take to end the speculation is for President Bush to order everyone on his staff to sign a waiver freeing the journalist to whom they spoke from previous commitments to confidentiality. It hasn't happened -- and won't -- but I suspect Fitzgerald will get to the bottom of this one. The White House hopes it's after the election. But remember the context -- this was political retribution of a particularly vicious sort done to damage a career diplomat who criticized the Bush Administration.
While Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, a unit of the company appears to have paid a significant bribe to influence a $5 billion contract with Nigeria. The Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a French magistrate (due to the involvement of a French company as well) are all actively investigating, and the magistrate has even suggested he may request testimony from Cheney directly.
While Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the company provided a variety of services to the Iranian state oil company. The Justice Department is investigating whether these activities were illegal. Under sanctions first imposed after the Iranian hostage crisis and then tightened by President Reagan, Halliburton itself could clearly not provide these services without paying significant fines. But the company argues that a Caymans Island shell subsidiary did all the work, and that foreign corporations are not subject to the law. Prior to becoming Vice President, Mr. Cheney frequently complained that the Iran sanctions damaged American businesses.
One of President Bush's primary legislative goals was to pass a new Medicare drug benefit, and after a rough legislative struggle, the President succeeded in passing a budget-busting measure that would primarily benefit drug companies rather than seniors. One of the opponents of the measure, a Republican representative from Michigan, stated publicly that Republican leaders offered $100,000 in campaign contributions to his son's effort to succeed him in Congress, and that members taunted him that if he did not change his vote, his son's campaign would fail. As it turns out, Representative Smith stuck to his guns, voted no, and his son was defeated by another Republican in a primary battle. Message sent? The FBI and the House Ethics Committee are investigating these strong-arm tactics.
Former Bush and Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi has been accused of informing Iran that the United States had broken its code used for secret diplomatic messages, and was able to monitor confidential information. This disclosure represents an enormous loss to U.S. intelligence. While Chalabi denies the charge, the FBI and the CIA are investigating who inside the Administration had access to the closely guarded secret and was in a position to pass it on to Chalabi. This is a potentially explosive matter, but has gotten very little attention and little has surfaced from the investigations. Indeed, the recent Iraqi arrest warrant for Chalabi on the charge of forgery, ironically issued while he was vacationing in Iran (!), has overshadowed the intelligence investigation. Since Chalabi was a favorite of the once-dominant neoconservatives in the Bush Administration, this could embarrass quite a few people.
The former head of the Republican Party in New Hampshire and the head of GOP Marketplace, a leading GOP telemarketing firm, have pleaded guilty to Federal charges of jamming the phone lines of organizations attempting to call voters to remind them to vote on Election Day, 2002. It is disgusting to see voter suppression rear its ugly head in a time of declining voter participation. At least in this case some modest justice was done, but perhaps the plea bargains were made to protect a bigger fish. According to prosecutors of the case, the phone calls were made at the urging of an unnamed "major official of a national political organization." The Manchester Guardian, in covering the story, indicates that the official in question "has a major role in the Bush Cheney campaign." Sounds like President Bush should ask his own campaign officials to fess up or resign.
Of these, only the Valerie Plame story has gotten significant coverage in the mainstream press. One can only hope that the New York Times and Washington Post, who have issued mea culpas for their disastrously weak journalism in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, are a bit more persistent with these stories.
Copyright © 2004 Working Assets.|
Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
bubbling o (Score: 1) |
| One can only hope that the New York Times and
Washington Post, who have issued mea culpas for their disastrously weak
journalism in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, are a bit
more persistent with these stories. Let's hope they'll also be a bit more persistent with the "Bamagate" story, Dubya's blow off of his National Guard obligation. Please Lord, please, couldn't we have just one major media player start to show some teeth? |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| What about Seymour Hersch's allegations that he has seen videos of imprisoned children being raped and otherwise abused by American military forces? That would certainly be a big scandal if further reporting were done on it. |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| # Who Outed CIA Agent Valerie Plume? ****This is more serious than "Monicagate"! Where the f*ck is the media? Where is the outrage? Is the Injustice Department stalling until after Nov.2nd? Guess we will never know if we leave it up to the LAPDOG media and the forever forgiving silent Democrats that have failed to make this a major issue so far!****
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| Even though I was sure my capacity to feel
disbelief at anything connected with this administration had been
exceeded long ago, the fact that the Valerie Plame affair has been
effectively sidelined still makes me dizzy. Here was a clear act of
treason committed (according to the very journalist who aided and
abetted it) by two senior White House officials, and yet nobody has
been prosecuted for it. Hey, freepers - don't you care about treason
any more? Hey Poppa Bush, don't you care about people breaking the very
law you were so keen to get in place??? Remember how they were all over
John Walker Lindh's ass? how outraged they were that an American would
fight for the Taliban? Why aren't they a million times more outraged
that administration officials DELIBERATELY OUTED AN UNDERCOVER CIA
PERSON????? I don't understand this country, I truly don't. I live here, but I don't know what the fuck is going on in the Bush supporters' heads. I mean, can't you still be a staunch Republican and at the same time deplore what happened to Plame and cry for a speedy investigation and resolution of the affair? Or do you have to think that even treason is okay as long as it's done in the name of keeping Dubya in power? How can you talk about patriotism and not be howling in outrage at this act that betrays America? |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| Who needs all these silly investigations? Lets remember Laci Peterson is dead, Michael Jackson is being Prosecuted and NBA hunk Kobe Bryant may have poked a fan turned opportunist
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| Looky looky at what I found buried deep inside
the Washington Posts web site today : Reelection Tactic By Alan Cooperman Wednesday, August 18, 2004; Ten teachers of Christian ethics at leading seminaries and universities have written a letter to President Bush criticizing his campaign's outreach to churches, particularly its effort to gather church membership directories. The Aug. 12 letter asked Bush to "repudiate the actions of your re-election campaign, which violated a fundamental principle of our democracy." It also urged both presidential candidates to "respect the integrity of all houses of worship." The letter's signers included evangelical Christians who teach at generally conservative institutions, such as the Rev. George G. Hunter III of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and Richard V. Pierard of Gordon College in Massachusetts. Other signers included the Revs. Paul Raushenbush of Princeton University, Walter B. Shurden of Mercer University in Georgia, James M. Dunn of Wake Forest Divinity School in North Carolina and Ronald B. Flowers of Texas Christian University. Read more : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9533-2004Aug17.html |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| I suppose they feel their tax exemption slipping away..... |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| Who in the administration recently outed the
Pakistani's al Qaeda mole? Between the Plame affair and outing the al Qaeda mole just to dispel the "rumors" that their latest orange-alert was not politically motivated, I'd say this administration clearly CAN NOT BE TRUSTED with national security: They're too busy playing politics with it. Those who live by the sword... Now if only we had a news media that would report such chimp chicanery and connect the dots for the moron-Americans. |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
bubbling on the back burner (Score: 1) |
| Ain't none of these so-called scandals gonna
amount to anythin. They shouldn't even be called scandals because
they've been 99% ignored. And don't expect that US attorney so-called
"working" on the Plame case to do nuthin. Remember: he works
for Asshole. Ferget it. Welcome to FA - Fascist America, where the junta can get away with anything. |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| HEAR! HEAR! LISTEN TO OUR FRIEND BURNER TELL IT
LIKE IT I S!! IF A DEMOCRAT SCREWS HIS SECRETARY: IMPEACHMENT! IF A REPUBLICAN LEADS US IN A PHONY WAR, well, hrrumph, you have to understand the complexities, ect., etc., .... |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| No semen no story. The DE-PRESS only cares if it's a sex scandal and then only if it's a Democratic sex scandal. How much coverage did newt gringrich's serial philandering get or Arnold Swartn's gropping? etc etc etc..... |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
bubbling on the back burner (Score: 1) |
| Here was a clear act of treason committed
(according to the very journalist who aided and abetted it) by two
senior White House officials, and yet nobody has been prosecuted for it.
Hey, freepers - don't you care about treason any more? Hey Poppa Bush,
don't you care about people breaking the very law you were so keen to
get in place??? Remember how they were all over John Walker Lindh's ass?
how outraged they were that an American would fight for the Taliban? Why
aren't they a million times more outraged that administration officials
DELIBERATELY OUTED AN UNDERCOVER CIA PERSON????? And, let's face it: suppose Plume was an undercover CIA agent posted in Europe and her job was to try to infiltrate the French automotive industry, in order to learn fancy French automotive secrets, or some such stuff. Would outing her still be treason? Yep. But the sad and frightening reality is that Plume was an undercover CIA agent and her ultra-top-secret mission was to PREVENT THE FURTHER SPREAD (WORLDWIDE) OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, ESPECIALLY TO NON-STATE GROUPS (i.e, that typically means terrorist organizations). So not only did this administration commit treasonous acts, they committed an act that undermined one of the critical goals of ANY administration: the defense of, and security of the U.S. and it's citizens. After all, since Plume was burned, it's safe to say that all of her contacts worldwide have either been burned/executed/gone into hiding. And, any operations that were still in progress most likely have been stopped. That certainly helps our national security how? So now, the U.S. intelligence community has less (and less reliable) information about how/when/where terrorist groups might possibly try to obtain a WMD. Less intelligence means we don't know as much. Not knowing makes our country less safe. So, to sum up, when this administration says anything about anything that refers to them "making us safer", you can relax, knowing it's just a bunch of bullshit lies. And while I would dearly love to see Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfield, Powell all tried for treason and then executed via firing squad, I'll not hold my breath. |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| "So not only did this administration commit
treasonous acts, they committed an act that undermined one of the
critical goals of ANY administration: the defense of, and security of
the U.S. and it's citizens. After all, since Plume was burned, it's safe
to say that all of her contacts worldwide have either been
burned/executed/gone into hiding." And so, how did you think they would move the WMD from Texas to beneath the sands of Iraq with some irritating bitch peering over the transome? |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| HunkeredDown has hit the nail on the head. I used to think Colin Powell had the integrity to call on his closest military buddies and execute (literally) a coup d'etat at the 11th hour, but clearly this cocksucker has gone over to the dark side. May he enjoy a bullet through his head as well. My idea of an October surprise would be an indictment of Bushco. for the Flame debacle. Then maybe we can all enjoy a public hanging. Sadly, not bloody likely. |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| How about this one. Martha Stewart goes to jail
for $50,000 worth of insider trading, while Karl Icahn makes
$250,000,000 and does not even get investigated for insider trading. Does anyone else smell a rat, here, in the selective prosecution, the selective investigation, and the apparently coordinated use of the FDA, the Justive Dept., the SEC, and the corporate press to greatly enrich a corporate raider while throwing a big Democratic supporter in jail (Martha Stewart) and harassing another big Democratic supporter (Sam Waksal, founder of ImClone). Is justice for sale by this administration? Icahn could have paid some healthy kickbacks, out of his $250,000,000 profit. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040429-030613-1823r.htm Financier Icahn makes killing on ImClone |
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Re: Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals
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| Judith Miller and the Times received subpoenas
today... miss white-wash moves to quash All of this is very interesting, actually... in light of the potential damage to public interests involved in the outing of Palame, I really am in a first amendment quandry. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitution, but frankly is now subservient to corporate interests. It is rarely exercised these days. The fact that this involves potential damage to (re)public(an) interests has me hungry to see these reporters spill their guts with a smile on their face; still i haven't concluded whether that puts us on a slippery slope. the hell with it. i have figured it out. Endangering national interests by allowing this current regime to make a mockery of the constitution and democracy trumps in this instance allegience to the first amendment, which doesn't mean crap to 99% of the newspapers and reporters out there anyway. throw them all in jail. esspecially Bob Novak. shoot, i'd commit a felony just to stare across the table at him in pinstripes at breakfast. pass the gruel, bobby. howdja sleep last nite? listentothelion |