Agitprop: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Propaganda

Plamegate Agonistes

Valerie Plame Wilson - I was a covert agent.
Henry Waxman (D-CA) - "Ms. Wilson was covert."
General Michael Hayden (CIA Director) - Yep, she was covert.
Victoria Toensing (wingnut extraordinaire, to testify shortly) - NO SHE WASN'T!

The wingnuts aren't gonna be happy now that this talking point is gone. 

MORE:  Thinkprogress lists a few of those who need to apologize to Ms. Plame:

Washington Post editorial: “The trial has provided…no evidence that she was, in fact, covert.” [Washingotn Post, 3/7/07]

Mort Kondracke: “I frankly don’t think since Valerie Plame was not a covert officer that there was a crime here.” [Fox, 3/9/07]

Sean Hannity: “She did not meet the criteria, in any way, shape, matter or form as a covert agent.” [Fox, 3/6/07]

Robert Novak: “No evidence that she was a covert agent was ever presented to the jury.” [Fox, 3/6/07]

Brit Hume: “Whether the woman was covert, Valerie Plame was covert within the meaning of the law, remains at this point, still unclear. Unlikely she was.” [Fox, 3/6/07]

Victoria Toensing: “Plame was not covert. She worked at CIA headquarters and had not been stationed abroad within five years of the date of Novak’s column.” [Washington Post, 2/18/07]

Idiots ...

What Was Plame Working On?

Steve Clemons stated on NPR this morning that, later today, Raw Story would reveal what Valerie Plame had been working on at the CIA and why her outing by Dick "Dead Eye" Cheney and crew made a difference. Guess what? She was working on Iran nuclear intelligence. Which, um, we could some of ...

UPDATE: Here's the story - turns out the Repugs did "significant damage" to our intelligence capabilities by outing Plame.

tags: dick cheney iran valerie plame impeach bush plamegate scooter libby

Scooter's Frog March

Can Rove's Day of Reckoning (see photo) Be Far Behind?

Today is the day. Scooter will be arraigned in federal court.

In a related story, the Dear Leader's approval rating has slipped to 35% - well behind Clinton at this point in his presidency (57%), but closing in on our favorite unindicted co-conspirator (27%).

MORE: Scotty the Lying Bushtool still ducking pre-war intel questions; finds a way to blame Clinton. And word is, Rove could lose his security clearance for leaking. Alrighty then. And Majikthise asks exactly why Rove still does have his security clearance here.

tags: plamegate scooter libby impeach bush karl rove

Bolton's Baaaack

Bolton's Chief of Staff Gave Information on Plame to Libby,
Lawyers Involved in Leak Case Say

Libby Asked Bolton for Plame Info [via Raw Story]

The 22-page indictment posted on Fitzgerald's website Friday says that on May 29, 2003 Libby "asked an Under Secretary of State ('Under Secretary') for information concerning the unnamed ambassador's travel to Niger to investigate claims about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium yellowcake. The Under Secretary thereafter directed the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research to prepare a report concerning the ambassador and his trip. The Under Secretary provided Libby with interim oral reports in late May and early June 2003, and advised Libby that Wilson was the former ambassador who took the trip."

News reports have identified the Undersecretary as Marc Grossman. This is technically correct, in that he is the one who had received the June 10, 2003 classified Intelligence and Research memo for Libby about Wilson's Niger trip, in addition to information about Plame's covert CIA status and her relationship to Wilson.

But the attorneys said that two former Libby aides, John Hannah and David Wurmser, told the special prosecutor that Libby had actually first contacted Bolton to dig up the information. Wurmser, who worked as a Middle Eastern affairs aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was on loan from Bolton's office.

Both Wurmser and Hannah have been cooperating with Fitzgerald's probe for some time, the lawyers said.

In addition, sources say that the memo was written on Libby's behest as part of a work-up order orchestrated out of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which operated out of the Cheney's office and was chaired by Special Advisor to President Bush, Karl Rove.

tags: plamegate john bolton impeach bush scooter libby

Son of "Libby Indicted"

RAW STORY, Breaking: Bolton Grossman eyed as indictment reveals State Dept aided Libby; Sources confirm State Dept., NSC officials made deal with Fitzgerald... Soon...

BOLTON! This could take out BOLTON!

For one brief shining moment ... then Raw Story issued the correction. Think Progress says it was Grossman.

MORE ON ROVE: “This investigation is not yet over,” one of the lawyers in the case said. “You must keep in mind that people like Mr. Rove are still under investigation. Rather than securing an indictment on perjury charges against Mr. Rove Mr. Fitzgerald strongly believes he can convince the grand jury that he broke other laws.”

MORE: Lawyers: Fitzgerald believes he can get Rove on more serious charges...

TPM points out that they knew Plame was undercover. It's right in the indictment. Find a hint regarding Scooter's upcoming defense in The Disenchanted Forest.

tags: plamegate john bolton impeach bush

Fitzmas Day Is Here

Prosecutor's Press Conference at 2 p.m. EST

UPDATE: Leak Probe Details to be Released at Noon
[via Wonkette]

The rumors are flying. Rove's and Libby's replacements are teed-up. Scooter will be indicted, say the sources, but Rove will not and the investigation will continue into his activities. No word on Sith Lord Cheney's fate despite the fact that he and Scooter withheld documents from a Senate panel investigating Iraq intelligence failures.

Will Rove resign even if he's not indicted? Will the Dark Lord abdicate to spend more time with his hideous family? Will the fact that George Takei (Sulu of Star Trek fame) came out be completely buried by Plamegate news? Will Novakula come clean? The comments section is open.

Oh, and what is the Dear Leader doing on Fitzmas Day? Talking up his War on Terror™ in Norfolk, Virginia to a hand-selected crowd! It's good to be the king.

tags: plamegate scooter death watch impeach bush patrick fitzgerald dick cheney george takei

Treason

He stole one election, and possibly two. He's had a hand in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. He's decimated the Bill of Rights. He has torn down most of the wall between church and state. He lied to get us into an unwinnable war. He's given money to his cronies, and jobs too. He is an atavistic, petulant little man who uses religion to further his own ends. He is a member of a political family that has done more damage to this country than Nixon ever did. He and his family must pay the ultimate price. He must be impeached, and they must be banished to the political desert to wander for all eternity. None of them can ever be permitted to rise again.

We beat them like shit-eating dogs. They came, they failed, and now we will gnaw on their skulls. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, eh? Right! Fuck those people! Death to the Weird! We will march on a road of bones!

Hunter S. Thompson

UPDATE on UPDATE - no indictments today, probably tomorrow, Fitz to extend grand jury? Probe to continue?

UPDATE from HelenWheels: "Wheeeee! from KOS:Update [2005-10-26 14:17:29 by Hunter]: Richard Sale now reports: An hour ago I was contacted by a U.S. government official close to the Fitzgerald case. This person told me that there WILL be indictments announced later this afternoon, and the Special Prosecutor will hold a press conference tomorrow."

MORE: Karena has info on the coming post-indictment Bush bullshit. Neil Shakespeare also has treason on his mind. Think Progress has more of the Dear Leader's crap here. View more of the Dear Leader's handiwork at Night Bird's Fountain.

tags: impeach bush george bush plamegate

And Awaaaayyyy We Go!

Note to Neocons: DO NOT FORGET TO TURN OFF THE LIGHTS ON YOUR WAY OUT!

Nothing Wednesday, Now We Wait For Thursday [read Sic Semper Tyrannis]

[via The Washington Note]

UPDATE: Oct. 26, 2005. Grand jury calls it a day. From the AP: “The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer’s identity met for three hours Wednesday with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and adjourned for the day without announcing any action…There was no word on whether Fitzgerald planned to make any announcement or whether the grand jury planned to meet again.”

Indictments Coming Tomorrow; Targets Received Letters Today

An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN: [ed:"uber-insider?"]

1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.
2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.
3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.
4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

The shoe is dropping.
More soon.
hat tip: actor212

ALSO: Scotty the Lying Bushtool Throws Rove and Scooter to Wolves. See also: Cheney and Crew Go Boom!

tags: plamegate valerie plame impeach bush patrick fitzgerald

A Fitzmas Carol

Fitzmas Eve Approacheth!

Leave Your Greetings in the Comments Section

Fitzgerald was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to progressives, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city of D.C. knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. He had no further intercourse with Republicans, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Fitzmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Saint Patrick observed, God bless Us, Every One!

tags: valerie plame plamegate patrick fitzgerald

Click here for a look at a White Fitzmas.

Perjury OK Says TX Senator Hutchinson

Helmet-Haired Repug Says "No Problem"!

Yup, she said it:

I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.

Let's see: Clinton lied about, um, sex. Rove, Libby, and the rest of the WHIG crowd lied so that the Dear Leader could start a war that has killed thousands, kept lying to the press and the public, and almost certainly lied to Fitzgerald. Oops - their bad!

Crooks & Liars has more, as does Media Matters.

tags: rove death watch scooter death watch kay bailey hutchinson karl rove scooter libby

Cheney to Fitzgerald: "Bring It On!"

Think Progress reports this morning that Dear [Vice] Leader and Sith Lord Richard "Darth" Cheney is directly in special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's gunsight. Darth Cheney was interviewd back in the spring, but it hasn't been clear until recently that he might go down with Rove, Scooter, and the rest.

In a related story, Wilson and Plame may file a civil lawsuit again Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al. once the criminal probe is complete. This suit is possible due to precedents set by the Dark Side in their pursuit of Bill Clinton for skirt chasing. Sweet!

Here at Agitprop, we have started a DeLay Death Watch and a Rove & Scooter Death Watch. Can Cheney be far behind? Well, it takes a pretty big subpoena to bring down a Sith Lord. Just ask Luke.

Agit tip to HelenWheels for the graphic. The Heretik has more coverage.

tags: dick cheney valerie plame plamegate