Shakesville

WHIG-Gate

As I’ve noted previously, I believe that the Plame affair and the Downing Street Memos are both key components in a larger pattern of behavior by the Bush administration, its allies, and its operatives, to control and manipulate information to bolster their case for war in Iraq, and it appears as though Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may now be looking into possible conspiracy charges.

True Blue Liberal suggests that the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) may well be the origin of any possible conspiracy, and suggests that reporters being stonewalled by Scotty ought to start asking questions about the WHIG. Perhaps a good place to start would be asking whether it was an overt objective of the WHIG to put politics ahead of national security, and if not, why that very theme seems to keep popping up in places like the Downing Street Memos and the decision to compromise a CIA operative specializing in weapons proliferation to discredit a critic of the administration’s misuse of intelligence.

If you’re unfamiliar with the WHIG, here are some fast facts:

Formed August 2002 by Chief of Staff Andrew Card

Objectives were “to set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with Baghdad” and “to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities.”

Members met weekly in the Situation Room and included: Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Condi Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Mary Matalin, James R. Wilkinson, and Nicholas E. Calio.

As TBL notes:

The full list of WHIG members is very heavy with people with ZERO intelligence background but lots of experience in political spinning and dirty tricks.

Indeed.

Fox: Excuse us while we wallow in our own filth and slime, part two

John Gibson, FOX news slimeball, said that Karl Rove should be "given a medal" for outing Valerie Plame.

Video here.

Tip 'o the energy dome to Oliver Willis.

(Mama cross-post...here I go again..)

A Little Something Up My Sleeve...

Go here.

They Blew It. Again.

Yet another failure in Bush's war.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration yesterday came under more pressure to outline the number of American forces that may need to stay in Iraq over the next two years after the Pentagon failed to meet a 60-day deadline set by Congress to provide a detailed plan for training Iraqis and for likely US troop levels.

The report to Congress, due yesterday, was required under the $80 billion war spending legislation approved in May. It is intended to help answer one of the most pressing questions hanging over the American-led occupation: when the United States might be able to begin drawing down the estimated 140,000 forces in Iraq.

Yet another blown deadline; no work done and no results. If they were cartoonists, they'd be fired.

''I am deeply disappointed that the administration failed to comply with this initial . . . deadline," Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat and senior member of the Armed Services Committee, told Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld in a letter. ''It is long past due for the administration to provide Congress with meaningful information to evaluate our progress in Iraq."

The Pentagon yesterday maintained that it is still compiling the report, but did not say when it would be complete.

How about never? Does never work for you?

The war spending legislation, approved by both houses of Congress, stipulated that ''the administration must develop and provide to the Congress a more comprehensive set of performance indicators and measures of stability and security in Iraq than is currently available."

It calls for ''detailed descriptions" of how the Pentagon will measure the security environment, political stability, and economic progress and how it will assess the capabilities and readiness of Iraqi security forces, including military and police, to take over the mission now performed by US-led forces. The report must also include ''an assessment of US military requirements, including planned force rotations, through the end of calendar year 2006," according to the instructions from Congress. The Pentagon is providing updates to Congress every three months until Oct. 1, 2006.

This completely appalls me, but if I were a parent with a child in Iraq, I would be screaming for the blood of Bush and Rumsfeld. They rushed into war with no plan; they had no plans for how to handle their mess after the invasion, and now, under deadline, they still have not come up with a plan.

Parents of soldiers: The Bush Administration doesn't care about your child. They have concentrated more on a Social Security attack and Terry Schiavo than they ever have on the war. Bush couldn't be roused from his ranch for anything with this war, before or afterward, but he flew back to DC in the middle of the night for the feeding tube follies.

They have no plan, they haven't done a lick of work, and their attitude trumpets their complete lack of concern.

They got what they wanted. Now the rest of us can go piss up a rope.

Update: Greg over at The Talent Show has more.

(I am a cross-post, I am an anarchist...)

Bigger Than Rove?

Talking Points Memo (emphasis mine):

As Atrios rightly notes, the real scoop or hint in Murray Waas's blog post tonight is the suggestion that Fitzgerald is looking seriously at conspiracy or obstruction charges against Rove et al. and perhaps even Novak himself.

Here are two key passages ...

Federal investigators have been skeptical of Novak's assertions that he referred to Plame as a CIA "operative" due to his own error, instead of having been explicitly told that was the case by his sources, according to attorneys familiar with the criminal probe.

That skepticism has been one of several reasons that the special prosecutor has pressed so hard for the testimony of Time magazine's Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

...

Also of interest to investigators have been a series of telephone contacts between Novak and Rove, and other White House officials, in the days just after press reports first disclosed the existence of a federal criminal investigation as to who leaked Plame's identity. Investigators have been concerned that Novak and his sources might have conceived or co-ordinated a cover story to disguise the nature of their conversations. That concern was a reason-- although only one of many-- that led prosecutors to press for the testimony of Cooper and Miller, sources said.

They're right to be skeptical of Novak's mendacious claim…

Josh goes on to examine in some detail how Novak’s likely a friggin’ liar, which I frankly find difficult to believe, since he’s a world-renowned Douchebag of Liberty.

Ahem.

Anyway, Novak may be a shithead, but he isn’t stupid—he just hopes the rest of us are.

As for the flurry of phone calls, part of me has a hard time believing that Rove, Novak, and “other White House officials” would be so careless as to leave such an obvious trail of contact immediately after the announcement of a criminal investigation, but considering how much they’ve gotten away with on a global scale, I guess they weren’t too worried about covering their tracks on the basic Law & Order stuff. Heh.

Wacky Woodward on Jailbird Judy

Bob Woodward is an idiot:

Woodward…appeared on Larry King Live Monday night…

WOODWARD: … If the judge would permit it, I would go serve some of her jail time, because I think the principle is that important, and it should be underscored. It's not a casual idea that we have confidential sources. It is absolutely vital. And I'll bet there are all kinds of reporters out there, if we could divvy up this four-month jail sentence -- I suspect the judge would not permit that, but if he would, I'll be first in line. It's that important to our business.

And this book and Watergate demonstrated, the daily reporting in any newspaper or on CNN illustrates that. And what are you going to do? Are you going to interview all of the public relations people, all of the spokespeople, and that's it? No one else can talk? Imagine, you know, the varnished pablum that would come out.

Yeah, I can only imagine the garbage that could be produced by reporters who rely on spinmasters. It would probably be worse than pablum—some might even say propaganda.

GOP Talking Points on Rove

Raw Story’s got a copy of GOP talking points on Rove's role in the Plame leak, circulated by the Republican National Committee to "DC Talkers" in Washington. Their cunning strategy is to try to discredit Joe Wilson. Too bad it doesn’t matter if Joe Wilson were a sociopathic, machete-wielding, two-headed baboon with a leather fetish. What matters is that his wife was an undercover CIA operative, information that was not (and should not have been) part of the public record until Rove opened his yap.

Meanwhile, Crooks and Liars has the video of Terry Moran grilling Scott McClellan about the talking points being issued, and astutely notes that the specifics of the information contained therein necessitate them having come from Rove himself. Seeing as how he continues to retain his job at the White House, Scotty’s line about how they can’t answer any questions while there’s an (everyone, say it with me!) ongoing investigation seems a little, ahem, bullshittish.

Think Progress has the transcript here.

I think my favorite bit from Scotty has to be this (emphasis mine):

I appreciate you all — I know you all want to get to the bottom of this. I want to get to the bottom of it. The president has said no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than he does. We want to see it come to a successful conclusion.

He’s said that, has he? Even Scotty seems to be subconsciously suggesting that what his boss says and what he actually believes are usually two entirely different things.

Tune in tomorrow to see Scotty collapse into a weeping, thumb-sucking heap and be immediately replaced with the Official Investigatitron 3000.

Bravo, Kerry

I didn't think I'd have reason to say that again.

Crooks and Liars has the video.

From the Wayback Machine

Wow, I’d totally forgotten about this (via MyDD):

Karl Rove and Novak: They've Talked Before

Rove fired from Bush Sr's '92 campaign over leak to Novak. Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 re-election campaign of Bush Sr. for allegedly leaking a negative story about Bush loyalist/fundraiser Robert Mosbacher to Novak. Novak's piece described a meeting organized by then-Senator Phil Gramm at which Mosbacher was relieved of his duties as state campaign manager because "the president's re-election effort in Texas has been a bust." Rove was fired after Mosbacher fingered him as Novak's source.

Rove was the "only one with a motive to leak": Mosbacher says: "I said Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go." The motive in question? Mosbacher had given Rove only a quarter of the $1 million spent on direct mail contracts for the 92 campaign; Rove, who in 1988 had the entire direct mail contract, therefore had an axe to grind with Mosbacher. Novak's column stated: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher."

Mosbacher still says Rove did it: Although Novak and Rove continue to deny Rove was the source of the leak, Mosbacher recently stated "I still believe he did it."

(Sources: "Karl and Bob: a leaky history," Houston Chronicle, Nov. 7, 2003, ; "Genius," Texas Monthly, March 2003, p. 82; "Why Are These Men Laughing," Esquire, January 2003)

Leaky McLeakerson just keeps dripping all over the place. Funny how SpongeBob Novak is always there to soak up the puddle.

Integrity

On display as usual from our fair leader:

The White House is suddenly facing damaging evidence that it misled the public by insisting for two years that presidential adviser Karl Rove wasn't involved in leaking the identity of a female CIA officer.

President Bush, at an Oval Office photo opportunity Tuesday, was asked directly whether he would fire Rove — in keeping with a pledge in June, 2004, to dismiss any leakers in the case. The president did not respond.

Which doesn’t seem at all like the President knows his little Turd Blossom is guilty as sin but will continue to protect him anyway. Nope. Not in the slightest.

Funny Stuff

Via Gordon at Alternate Brain, a rant from Maddox about blogging. It doesn’t matter how much you love blogging; this is totally hilarious. I used to read this site years ago, and forgot all about it. There’s tons of funny shit there, although don’t bother if you’re easily offended (not that anyone who is easily offended is likely to be hanging around here); he’s like The Rude Pundit on steroids.

This reminded me of another of my favorite funny sites, Dean and Nigel Blend In. They’re two English guys who carry around a bag of costume props and snap photos of each other next to unsuspecting people with whom they conspire to “blend in.” The pictures themselves are hilarious, but the captions are enough to end you with laughter. Again, not for those who are easily offended (although I should note, the distinctive British sense of humor left most of the people in these photos highly amused and pleased at their pseudo-celebrity when the site became hugely popular a few years ago).

Gross

Remember the Weekly Reader? Sure you do. And if you were a total nerdling like I was, it was something you looked forward to each week as you eagerly anticipated cutting-edge exposés on camping and leaf collecting, not to mention some kickass puzzles. I can only imagine how excited I might have been for the chance to meet one of the editors.

An editor for the publishing company that puts out the venerable Weekly Reader newspaper for schoolchildren was arrested for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor on the Internet.

Noel Neff, an editor at Stamford, Conn.-based Weekly Reader Corp., was arrested Saturday in a mall parking lot, where he had arranged a meeting with a minor for sex, authorities told the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham.

Eugh. Wonder if he’s a Republican?

Priceless

TBogg, on how the Right’s great outrage of Hillary Clinton comparing George Bush to Alfred E. Neuman is nothing but stale comedy to the Left:

Hell. Tom Tomorrow was on this a long time ago.

Then there was The Nation.

Both of those were from 2000.

Wait till they find out we compare him to a monkey.

Swinging in the Breeze

Scott McClellan has passed the point of no return. The press no longer attaches any credibility to his words. And if as McClellan says, he speaks for the White House, then the White House has no credibility on Rove, on Plame, on Wilson, on yellowcake, on Downing Street, on the run up to the war in Iraq and the lies that got us there. It all attaches the McClellan first, it attaches to Rove, and it attaches to Bush. What is it? It is hubris, the political rope by which once mighty men hang themselves and then hang around too long for people to see. Cut those bodies down please. You are frightening my children.

Go read the rest. It’s good.

Regrettable Quotes

“There are some who feel like that if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they're talking about, if that's the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring them on.”

-- President George Bush, July 2, 2003

"Our military is confronting the terrorists, along with our allies, in Iraq and Afghanistan so that innocent civilians will not have to confront terrorist violence in Washington or London or anywhere else in the world."

-- Vice President Dick Cheney, September 17, 2003

“If the terrorists leave us alone in Iraq, fine, he said. But if they come and get us, even better. Far more advantageous to fight terror using trained soldiers in Iraq than trying to defend civilians in New York or London.”

-- Andrew Sullivan, September 6, 2003

“[W]e are defending the peace by taking the fight to the enemy -- confronting them overseas so we do not have to confront them here at home.”

-- White House Fact Sheet, “Three Years of Progress in the War on Terror,” September 11, 2004

----------------

Q: Wilson now believes that the person who did this was Karl Rove... Did Karl Rove tell that...

A: I haven't heard that. That's just totally ridiculous. But we've already addressed this issue. If I could find out who anonymous people were, I would. I just said, it's totally ridiculous.

Q: But did Karl Rove do it?

A: I said, it's totally ridiculous.

-- Scott McClellan, answering questions about Rove's involvement in the Plame leak, Sept. 16, 2003

Q: You said this morning, quote, "The president knows that Karl Rove wasn't involved." How does he know that?

A: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. ... I've said that it's not true. ... And I have spoken with Karl Rove.

-- Scott McClellan, Sept. 29, 2003

Q: Earlier this week you told us that neither Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams nor Lewis Libby disclosed any classified information with regard to the leak. I wondered if you could tell us more specifically whether any of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands.

-- Scott McClellan, Oct. 10, 2003

Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action.

-- President George Bush, Sept. 30, 2003

Tinfoil Hattery?

I’m really loathe to post this, because it almost seems too crazy to contemplate, but it’s also too coincidental to ignore.

Via Alternate Brain, London Underground Bombing 'Exercises' Took Place at Same Time as Real Attack:

A consultancy agency with government and police connections was running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the exact same times and locations as happened in real life on the morning of July 7th.

On a BBC Radio 5 interview that aired on the evening of the 7th, the host interviewed Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor Consultants, which bills itself as a 'crisis management' advice company, better known to you and I as a PR firm.

Peter Power was a former Scotland Yard official, working at one time with the Anti Terrorist Branch.

Power told the host that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as happened in real life.

The transcript is as follows.

POWER: At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now.

HOST: To get this quite straight, you were running an exercise to see how you would cope with this and it happened while you were running the exercise?

POWER: Precisely, and it was about half past nine this morning, we planned this for a company and for obvious reasons I don't want to reveal their name but they're listening and they'll know it. And we had a room full of crisis managers for the first time they'd met and so within five minutes we made a pretty rapid decision that this is the real one and so we went through the correct drills of activating crisis management procedures to jump from slow time to quick time thinking and so on.

Click here to listen to the relevant part of the interview.

Considering that Mr. Power, formerly of Scotland Yard, didn’t seem too alarmed about this (aside from noting the hairs on his neck standing up), I might well have dismissed it. Except…there’s this:

In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. But the cause wasn't terrorism — it was to be a simulated accident.

Officials at the Chantilly, Virginia-based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure.

[…]

An announcement for an upcoming homeland security conference in Chicago first noted the exercise.
In a promotion for speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of NRO's strategic gaming division, the announcement says, "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day."

If it’s not obvious, that refers to September 11, 2001.

In no way do I intend to suggest that either the US government or the UK government orchestrated either of these bombings, but something isn’t right. Once is a very odd coincidence indeed. Twice is, well, unbelievable, in its very literal sense.

My stomach hurts.

Froomkin Goes to Town

Plame, By Any Other Name, by Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post: Your one-stop shopping for everything Rove.

Read it.

(Via Democratic Underground.)

Big Brass Alliance Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that we’re up to almost 700 member blogs in the Big Brass Alliance. Very exciting! We’ve still got new members joining every day. Go here to sign up.

And for existing members, make sure you’re submitting your stories to become a part of the BBA main page story index. It’s all automated, thanks to Charlie, and The Heretik is still doing blogswarm round-ups, so be sure to send him links to your posts, too.

And for those of you interested in seeing what members of the Big Brass Alliance are writing about, check out the BBA main page!

Can't. Stop. Laughing.

Best description of Scotty's performance at the press conference, from Atrios:

Scotty sure does look like he swallowed poop.

LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!

Gulp.

See Scott Dance

See Scott squirm.

See Scott wriggle.

Laugh and laugh and laugh.

Coming soon from the author of See Scott Dance...an amazing tale of triumph over crippling apathy, See the Media Do Its Job.*

------------

* See the Media Be Useless Turds may be substituted as required, though the author and publisher sincerely hope that such substitution will not be necessary.