OCT 28: More Tech Woes—Sorry Blog is late

JUST IN FROM CNN: INDICTMENT SOUGHT FOR LIBBY…ROVE WRIGGES

THIS JUST IN: ONE DOWN…

CNN: “President Bush “reluctantly” accepts Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’s request to withdraw her nomination.”

COUNTDOWN TO INDICTMENTS?
MILLER TO LEAVE TIMES?
RESPONSE TO SHOW THE WAR/TELL THE TRUTH CAMPAIGN

Tick Tock. The countdown continues as the grand jury in the CIA leak case adjourned without announcing any indictments. Is Today the Day? Trick or Treat?

The NY Times reports:

” Patrick J. Fitzgerald talked with the district judge in the case as the White House fretted in the expectation of possible indictments

The LA Times:

”Prosecutor investigating the leak of a CIA officer’s identity meets with grand jury as panel’s expiration nears.

The Washington Post:

”The prosecutor in the CIA leak case was preparing to outline possible charges before the federal grand jury as early as today, even as the FBI conducted last-minute interviews in the high-profile investigation, according to people familiar with the case.

Those are the news updates but there is an emotional dimension to the story and the sense of anticipation that it has roused. Reader Larry Geller writes from Hawaii to describe his personal reaction:

”With all the disappointment and often despair over the war, elections, destruction of the environment and the safety net, and well, over almost everything–I have to admit to enjoying a short smirk this morning as I read that the grand jury adjourned for the day without word on indictments.

“The smirk came while thinking that perhaps Bush/Chaney/Rove/Libby might for the first time be a bit uncomfortable, might have a bit of trouble sleeping tonight.

“It’s hard to find anything to smirk about these days, this will have to do for the moment.

Alternet is offering a new compilation of stories on the affair:

THE FITZGERALD INVESTIGATION READER

http://www.alternet.org/story/27404

HOME ALONE

Sidney Blumenthal who served in the Clinton White House and survived its many scandals writes in Salon:

”Oct. 27, 2005 | There is no one left to rescue the Republican Party from George W. Bush. He is home alone. The Republican-establishment wise men whose words were once quiet commands are shouting unheeded warnings. The Republican leaders of Congress are distracted and obsessed with their own crises of corruption.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/09/30/GOP_corruption/index.html

“Suspended House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is under indictment for criminal campaign practices while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider stock trading in his family-owned Hospital Corporation of America. The only revolt brewing in the Senate is on the right against President Bush’s nomination of his White House legal counsel, Harriet Miers, to the Supreme Court; some Republican senators fear her potential for secret liberal heresy despite the president’s protestations of her conservative purity.

“On Aug. 7, 1974, three Republican leaders of Congress made a fateful journey down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Sen. Barry Goldwater, tribune of the conservative movement; Sen. Hugh Scott, the stalwart minority leader from Pennsylvania; and Rep. John Rhodes, the minority leader in the House, informed President Richard Nixon that as a result of the Watergate scandals he must resign the presidency in the interest of the country and the Republican
Party.

Two days later, Nixon quit”…

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/10/27/bush_fall/print.html

RE: HARRIET MIERS

See Mark Fiore’s latest:
www.markfiore.com

ANOTHER SCANDAL IMPLODES

We have all been reading charges about the UN role in the oil for food program in Iraq. Now the UN is fighting back with info on who really profited:

U.N. to Detail Kickbacks Paid for Iraq’s Oil

More than 4,500 companies took part in the oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.

NY TIMES.COM

JUDY MILLER GOING FROM SHERO TO ZERO

The Wall Street Journal reports:

”New York Times reporter Judith Miller has begun discussing her future employment options with the newspaper, including the possibility of a severance package, a lawyer familiar with the matter, said yesterday.

“The discussion about her future comes several days after the public rupture of the relationship between the Times and Ms. Miller, a 28-year veteran of the paper. Both the editor and the publisher of the Times have expressed regret for their unequivocal support for Ms. Miller when she spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the unmasking of a Central Intelligence Agency operative.

“The negotiations began with a face-to-face meeting Monday morning between Ms. Miller and the publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., said the lawyer familiar with the situation. A spokeswoman for the New York Times declined to comment. Ms. Miller didn’t return calls.”

WHY THE CHARGES MATTER

Several pundits have suggested that no crime has been committed in the CIA leak case. Former Senator Gary Hart begs to differ in a Denver Post Guest Commentary

”It is now fashionable among columnists supporting the Bush administration, New York Times journalist Judith Miller, Robert Novak and the increasing network of senior administration officials implicated in the Valerie Plame Wilson outing to say, “So what? Where’s the crime?”

The federal statute making it a criminal penalty to knowingly divulge the identity of anyone working undercover for the Central Intelligence Agency was not enacted in a vacuum. In the early 1970s, in part as a result of the radicalization of individuals and groups over the Vietnam War, a former CIA employee named Philip Agee wrote a book revealing the identities of several dozen CIA employees, many under deep cover and some including agency station chiefs in foreign capitals.”

DenverPost.com

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_10_23_atrios_archive.html#11303411625527071

David Sirota reports: “NPR’s Damning Story on Senate Democrats & Iraq”

”NPR’s David Welna interviewed me today on how Democratic Senators who voted for the Iraq War and who do not say that vote was a mistake have hurt the party’s ability to craft any sort of coherent message on national security. Welna’s piece is extremely hard hitting. He gets some Democratic Senators on record who voted for the war to admit admit it was a mistake - these Senators have a lot of guts and should be applauded. Welna also catches on tape two Democratic Senators - Hillary Clinton and Herb Kohl - refusing to answer any questions about the war. That’s depressing. And he gets Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) continuing to defend their vote, cowering in the face of the fear of being attacked as somehow “weak” on security. That’s worse than sad - its a tragedy. Listen to the story here - it is damning.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4974297


Ahmad Chalabi timeline:

http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/003773.html