Investigation Into Ashcroft's Role In CIA Leak ...
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Pacifica Radio - Aug 18, 2005
http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/050818.html
... latest in the investigation into who within the Bush administration outed CIA operative Valerie ... with Karl Rove who was being questioned over the leak by the FBI ...
Conyers Calls For Investigation Into Ascroft's Role In CIA Leak Case
Media Culpa: Should The New York Times and Time Magazine Have Exposed Karl Rove's Role in the Outing of Valerie Plame?
Conflict of Interest? Roberts' Interviews with White House Officials Prior to Gitmo Ruling Raise Questions About Impartiality
Conyers Calls For Investigation Into Ascroft's Role In CIA Leak Case
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is calling for an investigation into the role of former Attorney General John Ashcroft in the outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. Conyers' call comes after a new report by investigative journalist Murray Waas that a special prosecutor was appointed in the case in large part because FBI investigators had begun to specifically question the veracity of accounts provided to them by Karl Rove. We speak with Conyers and Waas.
We begin today looking at the latest in the investigation into who within the Bush administration outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Congressman John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is calling for an investigation into former Attorney General John Ashcroft's role in the case.
Ashcroft initially refused to recuse himself from the investigation despite his longtime association with Karl Rove who was being questioned over the leak by the FBI. At the time, Ashcroft was being personally briefed about the investigation. Conyers described this as a "stunning ethical breach that cries out for an immediate investigation."
Conyers' call comes after a new report by investigative journalist Murray Waas that Justice Department officials decided to appoint a special prosecutor in large part because investigators had begun to specifically question the veracity of accounts provided to them by Karl Rove.
When first questioned by the FBI, Rove failed to tell investigators that he had talked to Time reporter Matthew Cooper about Wilson's wife. In addition, Rove claims that he learned of Valerie Plame's identity during a conversation with a journalist. But according to Waas, Rove was unable to recall virtually anything to investigators about the circumstances about that conversation including who the journalist was or whether it took part in person or on the phone.
* Rep. John Conyers, a longtime Congressmember from Detroit. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
* Murray Waas, veteran investigative journalist who writes for a number of publications. Among them, American Prospect magazine and Salon.com. He has broken a number of stories on the saga of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. He maintains a blog at http://WhateverAlready.blogspot.com
Media Culpa: Should The New York Times and Time Magazine Have Exposed Karl Rove's Role in the Outing of Valerie Plame?
In an article in Vanity Fair, columnist Michael Wolff criticizes those in the mainstream media - particularly Time Magazine and The New York Times - who knew of Karl Rove's role in the outing of Valerie Plame, but refused to expose him. We host a debate with Wolff and investigative journalist Murray Waas.
In an article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, columnist Michael Wolff criticizes those in the mainstream media - particularly Time Magazine and The New York Times - who knew of Karl Rove's role in the outing of Valerie Plame, but refused to expose him.
In the article titled, "All Roads Lead to Rove," Wolff writes that if the news media had revealed Rove was their source, "it might, reasonably, have presaged the defeat of the president, might have even - to be slightly melodramatic - altered the course of the war in Iraq."
* Michael Wolff, columnist for Vanity Fair. His most recent article is titled "All Roads Lead to Rove."
* Murray Waas, veteran investigative journalist who writes for a number of publications. Among them, American Prospect magazine and Salon.com. He has broken a number of stories on the saga of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. He maintains a blog at WhateverAlready.blogspot.com.
Conflict of Interest? Roberts' Interviews with White House Officials Prior to Gitmo Ruling Raise Questions About Impartiality
New details have emerged concerning the timing of John Roberts' interviews for his Supreme Court post with senior Bush administration officials which call into question his impartiality in a crucial case concerning military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. We speak with Georgetown University law professor David Luban and Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
We turn now to the latest on Supreme Court nominee Judge John Roberts. Roberts received a "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association on Wednesday, clearing another hurdle in his path to the nation's highest court.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it was "regrettable" the ABA did not review Roberts' documents that have been provided to the Senate.
Leahy on Tuesday said the documents "paint a picture of John Roberts as an eager and aggressive advocate of policies that are deeply tinged with the ideology of the far right wing of his party then and now." A huge volume of papers relating to Roberts' work as a lawyer in the Reagan administration in the 1980s is scheduled to be released today.
In another Roberts development, new details are emerging over a potentially serious conflict of interest. Since 2003, Roberts served on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
As we reported previously, Roberts was part of a three-judge panel that handed President Bush an important victory the week before he announced Roberts' nomination to the bench. The appeals court ruled in the Hamdan V. Rumsfeld case that the military tribunals of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could proceed. The decision also found that Bush could deny terrorism captives prisoner-of-war status as outlined by the Geneva Conventions.
Well, new details have emerged concerning the timing of Roberts' interviews for the Supreme Court post with senior Bush administration officials which call into question his impartiality in the Hamdan case. Roberts" answers to a Senate questionnaire reveal that he met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales six days before hearing oral arguments. The Hamdan case was argued on behalf of the administration by a top Gonzales deputy, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kiesler.
In addition to Gonzales, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney, the vice president's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby, White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, Bush's top political strategist, Karl Rove and White House legal council Harriet Miers. And, on the day the ruling was issued in favor of the administration, Bush himself conducted the final job interview with Roberts.
Salon.com describes it like this: "Imagine that you're a party to a lawsuit. Now imagine that, once the case is over and you've lost, you find out that the judge who ruled against you was interviewing for a job with your opponent at the same time he was presiding over your case. Would you feel, just maybe, that the judge had a conflict of interest? And how would you feel knowing that the judge got the job he was seeking -- and that the job was a lifetime appointment as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court?"
* David Luban, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He co-wrote an article for online magazine Slate titled 'Improper Advances; Talking Dream Jobs with the Judge out of Court'.
* Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359. Our website is www.democracynow.org. Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards, Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu, Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/050818.html
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The leak of a CIA operative's name has
also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, ...
APFN LEAKGATE INFO AND LINKS:
- The Judith Miller/Valerie Plame theory... — Fri Aug 19 19:28
- More Fitzgerald, Rove, and Plame news... — Fri Aug 19 19:49
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