Saturday, October 29, 2005
On the First Day of Fitzmas
From the Q&A section after Fitzgerald's announcement yesterday (not from an official transcript, but from Americablog.com):
Q: This began as a leak, yet no one was charged with leaking, is it finished?

Fitzgerald: It's not over. But the substantial work is concluded. Grand jury won't be continued. But we'll keep a grand jury open to consider other matters. In this case, the damage was done to all of us. Why was this info going out? Was the damage intended? I can't tell you Scooter's motives - it prevents us from finding out why this leak happened. Compromising national security information is a very serious mater, and the need to get to the bottom is extremely important - anyone who would go into a grand jury and lie and impede the investigation has committed a serious crime. If what we allege in the indictment is true, he is charged with a very very serious crime.

It appears that "Fitzmas" will most likely come in multiple phases, and it is also quite likely that this WILL roll-over somehow into an investigation of the case made by this administration to go to war. A case significantly based on fears that Saddam had, or was attempting to acquire, WMD's. This was not the only part of the case made for going to war, mind you, but it was the primary reason, and the single claim which invoked the greatest need for immediacy. This is the piece that tipped whatever balance there was in support for going to war with Iraq when we did, specifically why we couldn't wait any longer for weapons inspectors to complete their jobs.

Let's take a look at what Dick, Condi, George, and Ari were all saying at the time, and let us not narrowly focus on the just the nuclear threat:

Dick Cheney, Sept 8, 2002, in an interview with Tim Russert of Meet the Press (from, 2002 transcripts from Meet the Press are no longer available on-line):
"But we do know, with absolute certainty, that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon."

Condoleezza Rice, Sept 9, 2002, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer (from):
"We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought -- maybe six months from a crude nuclear device."

"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

George W Bush, Sept 12, 2002, in Address to the UN (from):
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."

Ari Fleisher, Dec 2, 2002 (from):
"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world."

So the threat was imminent, and as best members of this administration could tell, the intelligence used to "sell" the case for war was well researched and reliable, right? Wrong.

The following relates specifically to the case presented by Colin Powell to the UN.

Colin Powell, May 16, 2004, to Tim Russert on Meet the Press - this was just after a member of Powell's staff, by the name of Emily, attempted to abruptly end the interview (from, about 1/3rd of the way down the page):
"I'm very concerned. When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me. We studied it carefully; we looked at the sourcing in the case of the mobile trucks and trains. There was multiple sourcing for that. Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate. And so I'm deeply disappointed. But I'm also comfortable that at the time that I made the presentation, it reflected the collective judgment, the sound judgment of the intelligence community. But it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that, I am disappointed and I regret it"

Ok, but he didn't exactly spell it out for us, he's a loyal soldier. Let's see what Powell's Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson has to say about the intelligence used. From the CNN documentary "Dead Wrong" (from):
"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

(continued later in the article)
"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it," Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."

Icing: The downing street memos.

How will this affect the President himself? Currently, Bush sits at about 39% approval, depending on the poll. So I ask, how low can he go? How effective will he be at these new depths? Is it still too early to start talking about impeachment, or the initiation of the process, a Resolution of Inquiry?

It's never too early to talk, talking is great, I've been talking for months, and the talking will grow increasingly louder relative to Republican loses in the 2006 mid-terms. God forbid they lose the House or the Senate, it would pretty much be a forgone conclusion.

Just for fun, lets look at the order Presidential succession.

#3 in the order of Presidential succession is Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who himself has his own potential investigation to worry about (see).

#4 in the order of Presidential succession is the President pro tempore of the Senate (Vice Presidents back-up in the Senate) Ted Stevens of Alaska, who recently threatened to resign if Congress cut his "Bridges to Nowhere", from the recent transportation bill, to clear up funds for Katrina reconstruction (see). Truly an honorable man, who I'm sure has no skeletons in his closet.

And just in case you're curious, the #5 is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Talk about a clusterfuck of corruption.

Bush, absolutely must spin his way out of this, and cutting the neo-cons loose may his only chance. As the bobble-heads have been suggesting, we are quite likely on the verge of a post-Iran-Contra-Reaganesc reshuffling within the White House. That or impeachment.

THIS RIDE HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN. How long will Bush be able to hold on?
posted by MindSquash the Brain Worm @ 10:49 AM  
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