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GRAND JURY WILL SOON ISSUE EXPLOSIVE INDICTMENTS
by
Wayne Madsen
© Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.
[In “Coup d’Etat” (FTW, June 8, 2004), Mike Ruppert showed that Valerie Plame was no ordinary CIA employee; her work was part of at least one productive and well-established information gathering operation. The administration’s schoolyard bully approach to management – sending Joe Wilson to Niger for confirmation of a fake story, then punishing him for bringing back the truth – has brought them the contempt of the only organization in the government whose hand is always free; its impunity almost limitless; its memory long. Thirty years ago Richard Nixon was sacrificed for many reasons, not least of which was his hubristic competition with the CIA. When he set up his own intelligence operation in the basement of the White House, he stirred the wrath of Dick Helms, who took a dim view of the reluctant challenger. With their Office of Special Plans, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have signed up for the same pissing contest that Nixon lost. Though the administration’s boy at Langley has stepped down (along with his second in command), the agency has fangs and claws beyond the reach of such personnel decisions from Human Resources.
The ironies of this drama continue to proliferate. Here’s one: Nixon’s homegrown spy coven was called “The Plumbers,” because its primary responsibility was to stop leaks. But Dubya finds himself spending an hour and ten minutes in the hot seat (next to his personal lawyer) because his people created a leak – the felonious kind.
Dick Cheney is the President of the Senate, on whose hallowed floor he has just told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to “fuck off.” This regime is losing control of itself. The supra-governmental long-term plans that illegally drove them into office gave them a false sense of invulnerability. The money powers that make American presidencies had anointed Cheney and crew to run the country, so they could break as many rules, careers, laws, and heads as they chose – so long as they delivered the right number of barrels-per-day at the right price. They can’t. Having profligately wasted their political capital on torture, budgetary pork, and tax cuts, they have almost nothing left now that they’ve failed their sponsors.
In this latest report on the unfolding Plame investigation, Wayne Madsen shows what a long list of CIA people and projects have been compromised by the leak. John “Karl Rove” Doe and John “Dick Cheney” Doe seem to have no idea what kind of hibernating grizzly bear they’ve been jabbing at. They’ll find out now, because it just woke up. –JAH]
June 25, 2004 1600 PDT (FTW) – Washington, DC. Well-placed U.S. government sources have revealed that the secret grand jury, led by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, will soon issue explosive indictments in the criminal investigation of who leaked the name of Valerie E. Plame, a CIA clandestine agent and wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson, to members of the media. On June 24, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald interviewed President Bush at the White House for 70 minutes, an indication that Fitzgerald's investigation is nearing completion and that indictments may be imminent. Bush was seated with his recently-hired criminal defense attorney, Jim Sharp, during the interview.
U.S. intelligence sources have also said that Fitzgerald's investigation has gone far beyond the mere leaking of Plame's name, itself a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, but has expanded to look into the exposure of Plame's colleagues who worked under the cover of a CIA firm called Brewster, Jennings & Associates. The "brass plate" CIA proprietary had offices in Boston and Washington, DC. Active since 1994, Brewster-Jennings was instrumental in tracking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and had agents or correspondents in a number of countries including Iraq, North Korea, Belarus, Russia, South Africa, Iran, Israel, China, Pakistan, Congo (Kinshasa), India, Taiwan, Libya, Syria, Serbia, and Malaysia. By releasing Valerie Plame’s name, other agents' non-official covers were blown and the lives of U.S. operatives within foreign governments and businesses may have been placed in danger. Therefore, Fitzgerald's investigation has reportedly been expanded to include the issue of whether members of the staffs of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, Cheney and Bush themselves, the National Security Council, and the Departments of Defense and State, may have violated more serious espionage laws.
In July 2003, the covert operations of Plame and her Brewster-Jennings colleagues were rolled up as a result of the White House leak to columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. Observers believe the White House was retaliating for the report by Wilson that the administration was incorrect when it stated that Iraq was shopping for "yellow cake" uranium in Niger. On behalf of the CIA, Wilson visited Niger prior to the Iraq war and determined that the administration's evidence was based on erroneous information and falsified documents.
The special prosecutor has been focusing on Bush, Cheney, presidential counselor Karl Rove, Cheney's chief of staff Lewis I. ("Scooter") Libby, Cheney assistants David Wurmser and John Hannah, and National Security Council officials Elliott Abrams and Stephen Hadley.
Recently, CIA Director George Tenet and Plame's ultimate boss, Deputy Director of Operations James Pavitt, suddenly resigned within hours of one another. Intelligence sources have said the two have been cooperating with Fitzgerald's investigation of the Plame/Brewster-Jennings leak and the damage to U.S. clandestine operations which globally track the flow of WMDs.
Sensitive CIA operations that were compromised by the leak included companies, government officials, and individuals associated with the nuclear smuggling network of Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In addition, the identities of U.S. national and foreign agents working within the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, North Korea's nuclear laboratory in Yongbyon, Pakistan's Kahuta uranium enrichment plant, banks and export companies in Dubai, Islamabad, Moscow, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, and Kiev, and Kuala Lumpur, and government agencies in Libya, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Iran were severely compromised. The CIA has reportedly given Fitzgerald highly classified details on the damage done to the CIA's WMD tracking network.
According to Department of Justice insiders, the length of Fitzgerald's 70 minute interview of Bush was significant. Only one other prosecutor's interview of a sitting president lasted as long, that of Iran-contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's questioning of the late Ronald Reagan. However, in that case, Walsh concluded after the interview that Reagan actually did not know what had transpired in his administration with respect to the scandal. Today’s officials may not be so fortunate.
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