Bam!!! CIA Scores Direct Hit on the Unitary Executive!
At least that’s what I take from this quote:
In the e-mail version of the Politico Playbook this morning, Mike Allen quotes “a senior administration official” lamenting that “they should have burned the NIE and kept the tapes.” The official was referring to the administration’s debacles with the intelligence community since the new NIE on Iran was released and the CIA revealed that it had destroyed videotaped interrogations.
In the month of December, CIA 2, Dick Cheney 0.
I always figured blaming the IC for the Iraq propaganda runup would be repaid in full. Piss off the soup Nazi and “No more soup for you!”
Is this the first mistake they have admitted?
Was Plame the only agent compromised? Was the last two decades of intell personell shake up helpful to them in doing their job. The intell community like so many branches of government split on many issues like torture vs interogation or foriegn policy. Do the intel cowboys drive the traditional career intell staff bugf—? Is it hair raising to live on the razors edge with no one guarding your back? Is Bush a Muffkin loose cannon filled with high explosives? Does a bear live in the woods?
How can a country as heavily armed and dangerous as the USA not put a leach on the madd dog?
Dick Cheney is a fool. He pissed off people (the CIA) who are specficallt trained in using iformation to bring down governmennts. ANd worse, he fucked with Jim COmey, a guyI would NEVER want mad at me.
Cheney’s a classic shark. He’s not particularly bright or talented, but he compensates by cheating and cutting ethical corners (to put it mildly) so he can build up a big enough pile of dough to shield him from the effects of his own actions.
This is obvious in his approach to his health. He’s been having heart attacks since his late thirties, but he hasn’t done diddly to improve his lifestyle; he thinks he can buy his way out of trouble healthwise just as he tries to do in every other aspect of his life.
“He’s been dying of that same heart attack for twenty years!”
Agreed. In light of this, it will be interesting what intel leak comes next…
The language of the quote has that ED sufferer’s ring to it and, as of
now, institutional insubordination at CIA and the military are the only
effective opposition we have… which makes it all the more likely that
Israel will act “unilaterally” and force the US to respond, it is all they have left.
Bigbrother: Plame almost certainly wasn’t the only agent compromised. For one thing, she wasn’t just a NOC, she was in charge of the very CIA network of operatives tasked with investigating whether Saddam still had usable WMD from the stockpiles Reagan and Rumsfeld gave him in the 1980s and early ’90s. When she was outed, that entire network was destroyed, and any Iraqis or other field workers who were known to have dealt with her were probably killed by insurgents.
Outing CIA agents cost lives.
Waterboarding saves lives?
Recommend that George Mitchell be appointed as Special Prosecutor to
nail these fuckers…
PW
So far, it has worked. WHich upsets me no end
So…how does this CIA/DEA activitiy together with the rendition/torture stories all tie in:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..933/420107
Just beautiful, Contra-Cocaine redux, where’s Ollie?
Bck in the 60’s and 70’s (as I read in the press) when CIA was doing something fishy, they often used disreputatble service providers. Guys who know how to smuggle, would be very useful if you are trying to do these flight quietly.
Same old, same old…this is what’s goin’ on again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..38;search=
Wow.
I wonder if Porter Goss is a little worried…didn’t he make a lot of enemies among the career professionals at CIA (the ones that didn’t resign)? And remind me: what was the reason for his hasty departure from the spook house?
Great line — Spook House
Best quote from FDL yesterday, “Torture is on Bush like fly-paper”
lhp @ 10: Time wounds all heels.
FINALLY: Senate Judiciary votes 12-7 to hold Rove, Bolten in contempt
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap…..ntempt.php
“The House’s contempt citations name Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, who also refused to testify.”
They got Harriet too.
Do they have to have a simple majority or 60 votes?
Tell me again, why Specter postponed the vote, a week ago?
He still thinks he’s the Majority…drumming up votes to stop the truth from ever coming out.
Probably to think real hard (and real slow) about whether he wanted to vote for it or not. But frankyly, I’d rather wait and have Haggis and Grassley than have it be a party line vote.
Excellent. But don’t discount the ability of Hanoi Harry Reid to screw this up for the full floor vote. DiFi will be helping him all the way.
Yes, we need a full-court press on every single Dem and on leaners.
I am wondering whether this is a broadside against the unitary executive theory, in general, trying to breach the compartmentalization and firewalling of plausible deniability. A week ago this might not have had a chance; in the wake of the NIE and the missing tapes, it stands a better chance of working. Could be why it was delayed, gives Specter cover now that he can point to fresher examples of the misdeeds of the White House including its SAO’s.
The boo-birds always talk about this as a futile activity– but during Watergate, didn’t they ask for “expedited review” or some such?
No wonder the Republican meme about Democrats being weak on defense gets such traction. Its the first three words that the public remembers:
* Democrats are afraid (that if they vote to cut off funding for the war they will look weak on defense)
* Democrats are afraid (that if they vote for contempt citations, the proceedings will be tied up in court for the remainder of Bush’s term in office.)
* Democrats are afraid (that if they start impeachment proceedings, they don’t have the votes to succeed.)
etc. etc.
So what does the public remember?
Democrats are afraid
When is the last time you’ve read the words “Republicans are afraid” anywhere in the MSM?
Bob in HI
does anybody remember Republican Nemesis
This was a very nice discussion of the brand marketing that republicans have used for years and reactionary marketing to pull the rug out.
I have a post comming up sometime today about what the fearful Dems (and all of us) can to vanquish Boagarts in th eCloset or Monsters under the Bed (like the Unitary executive or Deadeye Dick)
“I have a post comming up sometime today about what the fearful Dems (and all of us) can to vanquish Boagarts in th eCloset or Monsters under the Bed (like the Unitary executive or Deadeye Dick)”
Good! I’ll look forward to that!
Bob in HI
Rayne @ 18: Do you have some smelling salts? I just passed out from shock.
Follow the money:
http://www.whale.to/b/rivers.html
Breaking news…
Bush on the Mitchell Report: “I can only assure you, once again, that I have never used performance enhancing drugs and, for proof, I offer you my performance.”
lhp @ 13, ls @ 11: I just finished reading Enter the Past Tense, a memoir of a guy who was recruited out of the NROTC program at Purdue his freshman year to become a CIA contract assassin. He hit 18 people over the course of 30 years while in deep cover in a variety of jobs (federal gov, education and private sector), as well as an entrepreneurial venture or two. His first hits, in the 1972-1973 time frame while ostensibly traveling the Hippie Trail to India and back, were on drug movers in Kabul and Istanbul who had apparently had some relationship with the agency but had in some way gone off the reservation.
Fascinating. I think he was on CSPAN’s book TV.
Durbin asking Condi if those in the rendition program were filmed or recorded:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/durbin-rice/
LS @ 26: He was on BookTV about 3 weeks ago IIRC. That’s where I learned about the book.
there is a “cia b”, an organization put together by cheney just to make up whatever he wanted to make up, you MUST read this;
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0213-28.htm
snippet below but I am amazed I had never heard about this till yesterday
and I have always prided myself on at least having a clue as to what is really going on, it is not acceptable someone like me never heard these facts
and I am among many, there are SO many more progressives, SO many more people that THINK the president and cheney lied us into war
this article PROVES the point and we really need to get this viral, EVERYONE should know this story and cheney, bush and rumsfeld need to be embarrassed with it
seems to me right up the alley of scarecrow and I am hoping you guys can get this viral.
snippet below;
In 1972, President Richard Nixon returned from the Soviet Union with a treaty worked out by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the beginning of a process Kissinger called “détente.” On June 1, 1972, Nixon gave a speech in which he said:
“Last Friday, in Moscow, we witnessed the beginning of the end of that era which began in 1945. With this step, we have enhanced the security of both nations. We have begun to reduce the level of fear, by reducing the causes of fear—for our two peoples, and for all peoples in the world.”
But Nixon left amid scandal and Ford came in, and Ford’s Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) and Chief of Staff (Dick Cheney) believed it was intolerable that Americans might no longer be bound by fear. Without fear, how could Americans be manipulated? And how could billions of dollars taken as taxes from average working people be transferred to the companies that Rumsfeld and Cheney – and their cronies – would soon work for and/or run?
Rumsfeld and Cheney began a concerted effort – first secretly and then openly – to undermine Nixon’s treaty for peace and to rebuild the state of fear.
They did it by claiming that the Soviets had a new secret weapon of mass destruction that the president didn’t know about, that the CIA didn’t know about, that nobody knew about but them. It was a nuclear submarine technology that was undetectable by current American technology. And, they said, because of this and related-undetectable-technology weapons, the US must redirect billions of dollars away from domestic programs and instead give the money to defense contractors for whom these two men would one day work or have businesses relationships with.
The CIA strongly disagreed, calling Rumsfeld’s position a “complete fiction” and pointing out that the Soviet Union was disintegrating from within, could barely afford to feed their own people, and would collapse within a decade or two if simply left alone.
As Dr. Anne Cahn, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1977 to 1980, told the BBC’s Adam Curtis for his documentary “The Power of Nightmares”:
“They couldn’t say that the Soviets had acoustic means of picking up American submarines, because they couldn’t find it. So they said, well maybe they have a non-acoustic means of making our submarine fleet vulnerable. But there was no evidence that they had a non-acoustic system. They’re saying, ‘we can’t find evidence that they’re doing it the way that everyone thinks they’re doing it, so they must be doing it a different way. We don’t know what that different way is, but they must be doing it.’
“INTERVIEWER (off-camera): Even though there was no evidence.
“CAHN: Even though there was no evidence.
“INTERVIEWER: So they’re saying there, that the fact that the weapon doesn’t exist…
“CAHN: Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It just means that we haven’t found it.”
But Rumsfeld and Cheney wanted Americans to believe there was something nefarious going on, something we should be very afraid of. To this end, they convinced President Ford to appoint a commission including their old friend Paul Wolfowitz to prove that the Soviets were up to no good.
Wolfowitz’s group, known as “Team B,” came to the conclusion that the Soviets had developed several terrifying new weapons of mass destruction, featuring a nuclear-armed submarine fleet that used a sonar system that didn’t depend on sound and was, thus, undetectable with our current technology. It could – within a matter of months – be off the coast of New York City with a nuclear warhead.
Was this the inspiration for the Hunt for Red October?
it would seem to me it was
but there it is, that’s what cheney and rumsfeld do
they don’t want peace and they invent threats when peace is at hand so there won’t be peace
I am amazed that story wasn’t splashed all over the internet when we were running up to the war in Iraq
I am amazed I did not know that story till last week
I think that story needs to be revisited as if it was just broken yesterday
I must be getting old, but knowledge of this story has been around an awful long time; and I recall it being discussed by those suspicious of the Cheney/Rummy/Feith custom intel shop at, and prior to, Iraq invasion. These words from your comment at 31 just about sum up the historical credibility and level of rationality of the Cheney led neocon’s intelligence positions and propaganda:
As you now know, they rinsed and repeated for Iraq, and were well on their way to doing so with Iran with the “They must have WMD/Nukes because we can’t find them; they are further advanced and double dangerous if they can secrete them so we can detect no evidence”. Of note, that is the Israeli/neocon meme being used as we speak to push back against the latest NIE.
“Team B” of course is what Rumsfeld and Cheney set up in 2001, with Doug Feith in charge, in an office in the Pentagon. They browbeat Team A into giving them all the raw intelligence– every Curve Ball nut job that came in over the transom at night– and they did their own cherry-picking. Of course it was never “intelligence” work– it was all Spin-doctoring gussied up as intelligence. They’d do the same thing as currently passes for “balanced” news– any nut job gets equal weight against professional evaluation of evidence, and reported as if equal in merit.
Bob in HI
Cheney and the radical neocon enablers are not done yet but their control and influence is definetly trending downward. Amen to that. May more serious career folks in government grow a pair and continue to expose the fraud at every turn.
but just look at what they’ve done, they’ve ruined our integrity for generations
there are actually Americans now who think it’s fine and dandy to torture, they’ve turned the common man into accepting fascists and fascism and they’ve created a generation of defeatist enablers
But those that think torture is okay, are very much in the minority. Somehow, the MSM and the repukes keep acting like they are in the majority. It boggles the mind, but they are not.
the mere fact that they are discussing it as if there should be a debate
that’s what’s demoralizing to me, they they act like it’s even debatable
this is what they do, they create the image of a dialog to give the illusion that there is opinion
and when people think there is an opinion involved it gives them license to accept the unacceptable
Exactly. They play the fear card over and over and over…and some play into it…but, it’s getting old for most people, I believe.
That is why they need some new “juice”…to drum up the fear for real again…so they can stay in control…even so, I still believe most people are suspicious enough to not buy it hook, line, and sinker, again…
I keep saying this;
does anyone actually believe they are amassing this power for hillary?
for a democrat?
and no, they haven’t “deluded themselves” like they did in the midterm elections, they know as a fact they are not likely to win the presidential election
so I ask you again, does anyone think they are amassing this power for hillary?
no, they are not
I believe there is going to be another “event”, or they have the elections rigged one way or another
they will possibly suspend congress, the constitution, elections
pakistan was a trial balloon of course
I say fasten seat belts
I wouldn’t be suprised. The climate has changed. It would be hard to pull off. Don’t fear.
I agree. Maybe that is partially why some of this CIA stuff is coming out now, because I’m sure they don’t want a continuation of these bozos. There are good people in the CIA, and we know they don’t like Dickaroony.
I have zero doubt that their agenda from…forever…has been a complete and permanent takeover of the country. They are not there yet though, and I think they will fail or have already failed to adequately execute their agenda…once again. Good thing they are getting older!!
Edwards, for one, keeps saying Neocons, Neocons, Neocons, and I’m really glad he’s using it. The word and its connotation really need to make it into the average American household as a “negative”; and in that sense, I think that has happened. It has a slight mental association with Neonazi…and, in fact,…that is exactly what they are. Perhaps, the message needs to be refined into that context…rather than associating “skinheads” with Neonazi…the true definition of Neocon and its direct association with fascism, needs to be made more concrete and used often. Afterall, that is what the truth really is.
The only way it gets sorted out in the long run is if our better values in government and public policy stand.
Are Germans today regarded as a genocidal people? No, They are not. The path back will be difficult and not without thorny obstacles. I think we’ll get there.
Beware the “false flag” ruse possibly upcoming in the wake of the NIE. Israel starts some shit with Iran, which then prompts the retaliatory strike providing “justification” for Bu’ush joining the fray in “defense of our ally.”
Agree. So, if we think they are capable of a false flag operation, why won’t people acknowledge that they probably already did a biggy…I just don’t get that.
You’ll see a (limited) coup if that happens; Cheney will be removed from office. Meanwhile, Congress will pass a resolution in support of Israel.
“The most insidious of traitors…” Joe Wilson, I believe said that, I may be wrong.
It was Bush Sr.
Of course it was, thanks for reminding me…it is a profound truth, and coming from Senior’s mouth, it makes it all the more obvious, since he plays “good cop” to his son…yet, they are all the same…what is black is white, etc.
Criminals.
Impeach.
The neo cons have made an art form of trying to make a target prove a negative is false. Against Saddam it was just because Blix didn’t find anything didn’t mean they don’t have it. Its been part of the playbook for years.
That’s right. When the CIA didn’t find conclusive evidence of Iraq WMD, Feith’s office in DOD recycled discredited and discarded scraps of Intel and used it to make the case for war. When the WMD failed to materialize north, south, east and west of wherever BushCo blames the intelligence community.
I wonder what happened to the tapes of the torture of John Walker Linde (The American Taliban)? Not holding my breath waiting for them to surface.
Neofascist is more like it.
In regards to public and media acceptance of torture, remember that our culture has been pre-conditioned for this for years. A lot of action movies, tv shows (24, anyone?), etc present torture as effective and morally justified. This goes way back, so that many Americans grew up with these assumptions about torture and have not had to adjust their attitudes a bit since it became official government policy. Remember also that we have tolerated torture since forever in our prisons, jails, and holding cells.
Rove, Miers and Bolten
If they talk, Bush and Cheney are Toast for Obstruction of Justice over Torture, Domestic Surveillance, PIN, Siegelman, the Sex Slave Island, Tillman, Firing the USAs, Outing a National Security Assett, Lying US into War on an Innocent Nation, Ruining Worldwide Trust in the Dollar, etc, etc.
If they don’t talk, We should Impeach for Blocking Criminal Investigations.
Why won’t the Dems take a stand on this…and Lead with Moral Courage?
If they talk. This is a test for our new AG. Will buck the WH and persue the contempt charges?
Nice summary…
Moral courage or ONE person (like Fitz, Comey, etc) to step up…
They already did and did their part, it’s our job now
the democrats are like the blacksox, they are blowing the game and doing it on purpose
it is mind boggling to me pelosi is not doing something about this administration, I am so disilusioned
I keep asking why isn’t Pelosi et al doing something about this administration? What’s threatening enough to not lead on impeachment?
The Blue Dogs will not follow that lead, too many of them are Repugs
in blue suits.
I can only believe the nsa is holding something over her head
Hmmm…I wonder what that could be…I’m guessing W knows all about it…
worst case scenario it could even be a threat of some sort, personal or regional…possibly national
something like;
you want elections?…no impeachment…you want congress to remain in session?…no impeachment
man, think of the possibilities
are they THAT depraved?
She lives in a district that has been central to some domestic concerns…
I agree…
Scant consolation, but here’s Rep. Robert Wexler calling for impeachment hearings: http://www.boomantribune.com/s…../7715/5005
“Moral courage or ONE person (like Fitz, Comey, etc) to step up
They already did and did their part, it’s our job now”
See your point but I must agree to disagree.
Without the testimony of Radomski, the Steroid Report may have died
a slow death.
All I’m saying is if Fitzy or Comey know that Bush/Cheney lied, I think they should come forward…
Maybe they don’t know, and maybe I’m wrong, but all evidence leads to the
White House and VEEP…
What makes you think they haven’t? just cause it’s not in the press?
We recently found out that PatFitz already (and w/o press coverage) turned over a bunch of his investigative file to Waxman.
WHen Comey testifed about the hopstial scene it was obvious that Schumer already knew the story. How many other stories do you think have been told in staff interviews?
Just because it has not come out in the public sphere, does not mean that they did not speak up tothe proper authorities (Congress). If Congress refuses to act, ….?
They have no way of know if they will impede the covert part of a Congressional investigation by running to the press if they get impatient waiting for Congress to act publicly. COgressional investigations are not ALL about public hearings
LHP – You give me hope! Thanks!
ditto
I guess I’m short on hope.
My mother used to tell me, Jack, “Live in hope, and die in despair”
Anonymous quote- Hope is a fine breakfast, but makes a poor supper.
Speaking of “neocons”, Vanity Fair has an article about their multiple genocidal partition plans for the Middle East, “Lines in the Sand” (print only, no link), in which Dennis Ross, David Fromkin, Pollack and someone else discuss, in a soothing pseudo-academic tone, the “natural divisions” of the region, complete with a map that unnervingly echoes that crazy Ralph Peters one: http://www.oilempire.us/new-map.html
Now the Italian CIA debacle is getting in on this stuff for real:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..mar-tapes/
Tangentially OT, but did anyone see this diary on the crashed CIA plane over at Kos yesterday?
I’m sort of an airplane nut, and I’ve always been fascinated at the way the airplane geeks (spotters) have been tracking the planes involved in rendition flights. Then one of them turns up crashed in Mexico with 6 tons on Bolivian Pixie Dust on board!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…../19210/608
randiego
Any idea if that’s the one that Cannonfire has been tracking?
yes, it looks like it. Here’s a 9/29/07 entry at Cannonfire:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com…..stery.html
Googling the Tail Number (N987SA), you’ll find the airplane spotters various entries on the internet. Just another reason to love the internet.
Paging Ollie North!
Amazing…talk about history revisiting itself…
It never stopped, it just went underground for a while in the go go 90s,
hosted itself in the phalanx of righty think tanks, then staffed the
Dub Administration and picked up exactly where they left off… same crew
with some newbies like Condi for billboards.
Agreed. SO journalist Gary Webb had help committing suicide in 2004?
What with the total lack of support from the MSM and his own paper,and
anomalies surrounding the suicide finding, it is possible he had some
assistance in his untimely death. Conspiracy theory is the usual pejorative
rejoinder, but there are interests, in the Madisonian sense, that operate
in our politics, not always overtly. Remember in 1963 the Mafia was a myth
as was much we know about the “national security state” and it’s arrangements and allies.
those of you that haven’t read the link in my first post, you really have to read that but here it is in a nut shell
nixon brokered an incredible peace threaty with the russians.
rumsfeld and cheney were LIVID and thought that would undermine power here in the states if there was no fear
so they INVENTED a new fear, INSISTED it was more dangerous then anything we’ve seen
the cia said unequivicably
BULL CRAP
but cheney and rumsfeld had their “cia b” that gave us the fear they needed
that is what happened in Iraq ladies and gentlemen
it’s what cheney does everytime he goes on teevee too, he’s still at it and I am just amazed he’s not called on it
democrats need to call him on that story and just plain call him a liar, a war monguer, a war profiteer and a liar
and site his record of same
For timeline –
On September 13, 2004 the Fourth Circuit ruled that the defense had to have some access to captured terrorist suspects.
On March 21, 2005 the Supreme Court left the Fourth Circuit ruling intact.
The torture tapes were destroyed after this ruling, possibly in November.
http://antiestablishmentariani…..ppeal.html
Mary – Is this our regular Mary under a new screen name due to connectivity problems; or a new Mary?
April 30, 2005: Comey resignation announced.
Hmmm.
Republicans deeply concerned about “unitary executive” Bruce Fein …
Ray McGoverns latest on the torture spin
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2…..s-really-%
e2%80%9cbetter-than-that%e2%80%9d/#comment-81341
Are Americans better than that?
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/12/13/are-americans-really-%e2%80%9cbetter-than-that%e2%80%9d/#comment-81341
New mary. I am known as mo2 or motheroftwo on other sites, but FDL requires 4-character ids. My name is Mary. Age 38, in Oregon.
Well, welcome then.
welcome.
FYI, Did you know that if someone has your zip code, gender and birthdate, they KNOW who you are?
Torture, for it’s Practitioners and Enablers, is the Ebola of the Human Mind.
Party Loyalty won’t stand long when The Bush Taint gets close enough to touch them.
It’s the same way with Snakes. Most people are okay with them – until, that is, they get too close.
Your term is so apt:
As you say:
Also for its victims, of course.
OT – did anyone pick up on this cia-agent-reveals-highly-classified at balkinization
The first comment is right on in my mind. The Cheneyites think Jack Bauer of 24 is real hero( Scalia !!! ). The media are already saying the guy did the torture, like Jack, and he doesn’t actually admit to anything.
Yeah. Privacy is not an issue any more. What can an individual do about it? After some of the stuff I have typed on this here net, … But thank you for trying to help me protect myself from my own stupidity. I work in electronic security so I should know better. Dang!
The wheels grind slowly, but they do grind.
FINALLY some SANITY
BOY, military, cia, ag’s, all pushing back against these despots
AND WHERE IS PELOSI?
anyway, more snippet
YAYYYYY!!!!!!
some sanity
Their little authoritarian world is shhhhhrinnkkkinggggg…..
So now the repub candidates are turning the troops against them! Why do they hate our troops?
Thursday, March 4, 2004 – Ashcroft hospitalized
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 – Card and Gonzales pile on ailing Ashcroft at the hospital
November 11, 2004 – Bush nominated Gonzales to replace Ashcroft
February 3, 2005 – US Senate confimed Gonzales 60-36, signaling that Congress will not interfere with Bush’s reign of terror
April 20, 2005 – Comey announced resignation as Deputy US Attorney, number 2 under Gonzales.
Hmmm @ 100, do you see another motive for Comey’s resignation other than simply because he saw the Gonzales confirmation as proof that he would find no support in Congress for challenges to illegal wiretapping, removal of habeaus corpus rights and torture?
I hadn’t noticed the SCOTUS resolution to the access-to-prisoners issue before (thanks to you for that, I agree it belongs in the timeline). Maybe once Comey saw that defense atty’s were going to get that, the torture cat would inevitably be let out of the bag eventually, and as a result, he’d be toast.
I just had another sorta OT thought. What if the (much later) re-appearance of the destroyed interrogation recordings happened because they were transmitted over the internet, and The Program scooped them up?
Hmmm.
On more time, this time with the two above dates included. This looks like maybe Comey stuck around until after the Supreme Court had upheld the Fourth Circuit Court just to be sure that there was a check and balance on military tribunals.
Thursday, March 4, 2004 – Ashcroft hospitalized
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 – Card and Gonzales pile on ailing Ashcroft at the hospital
On September 13, 2004 the Fourth Circuit ruled that the defense had to have some access to captured terrorist suspects.
November 11, 2004 – Bush nominated Gonzales to replace Ashcroft
February 3, 2005 – US Senate confimed Gonzales 60-36, signaling that Congress will not interfere with Bush’s reign of terror
On March 21, 2005 the Supreme Court left the Fourth Circuit ruling intact.
April 20, 2005 – Comey announced resignation as Deputy US Attorney, number 2 under Gonzales.
Marcy has a new pixie dust post upstairs
emptywheel:
This is completely off-topic, but I thought you might be interested in the Kirchner-Venezuela-Miami case:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02063.html
Can anyone tell me why U.S. prosecutors have any part in the matter?
Whoo boy Brendan, that case is a bizarre piece of work eh? Appears from the WaPo article that we are ginning up a case of money laundering and influencing foreign elections as to Antoinini and the four coming to talk to him and using the fact that they came here to talk to him as an “overt act” under a conspiracy theory. This, if true, is totally bogus; but you know our fearless leaders never miss an opportunity to screw with Hugo Chavez. And make total asses of themselves and our country. That is my best guess anyway…..