According to the NYT,
somebody got ahold of notes from a "previously undisclosed
conversation" between Scooter and the Veep on June 12, 2003 that
"appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury
that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson,
from journalists, the lawyers said."
The notes, taken by Mr.
Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in
the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s
husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s
handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the
war.
Lawyers said the notes show that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms.
Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was
made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated
column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.
(snip)
It
would not be illegal for either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby, both of whom
are presumably cleared to know the government’s deepest secrets, to
discuss a C.I.A. officer or her link to a critic of the administration.
But any effort by Mr. Libby to steer investigators away from his
conversation with Mr. Cheney could be considered by Patrick J.
Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, to be an illegal effort to
impede the inquiry.
(snip)
But the notes, now in Mr.
Fitzgerald’s possession, also indicate that Mr. Libby first heard about
Ms. Wilson — who is also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame — from
Mr. Cheney. That apparent discrepancy in his testimony suggests why
prosecutors are weighing false statement charges against him in what
they interpret as an effort by Mr. Libby to protect Mr. Cheney from
scrutiny, the lawyers said. (my emphasis)
(snip)
Mr.
Cheney was interviewed under oath by Mr. Fitzgerald last year. It is
not known what the vice president told Mr. Fitzgerald about the
conversation with Mr. Libby or when Mr. Fitzgerald first learned of it.
"So those must've materialized recently. Where did they come? And when?
Is Scooter trying to play "Let's Make a Deal?" And is the fact that
they were leaked to the press -- with all their damning implications
for Cheney -- an indication that Scooter is no longer willing to fall
on a sword for his boss?"
I
can't see Fitz getting libby's notes from anyone BUT Libby...and he
must be in deep, deep shit to provide notes that undercut his own
testimony.
...Just fantasizing for a minute: imagine if Fitz had been in charge of
the 9/11 Commission -- can you imagine how the heads would've rolled?
Kindasleezy wouldn't have gotten away with all her pretty little lies;
Cheney and Bush would not have been allowed to testify together like
the fuckin' ventriloquist and his overstuffed dummy, and maybe, just
maybe, someone would have been declared criminally negligent and
punished accordingly, and the families of the victims would have had
some sense of justice served.
Imagine: after two years of dragging lies and half-truths out of these
miserable suckers, he can now sit back and enjoy a steady stream of
primo grade evidence just dropping in his lap, tying all the loose ends
together and wrapping his case up like a great fitzmas gift. Man, if Fitz just could sit still for another month, he wouldn't have
anything left to do except mop the blood off the White House floor.
This could be me. This could be you. In the Amerika that is Now.... Fred Bieling
Daniel Goetz is a stop-lossed soldier whose tour in Iraq was supposed to end seven months ago. ("Stop-loss" means a soldier can
still be retained in a unit's tour of duty even if his/her enlistment
time is up.) Via Tattered Coat,
we learn that he's been blogging to vent his frustrations; yet in spite
of the fact that he's taken great care to play by the rules of being a
military blogger, he will no longer be posting on his blog due to some
extra attention he received last week.
He
went on to express his concern on his own blog that this widespread
attention might cause some ire with the military censors. What's
brilliant of him is to end his blog tenure with this bit of is the Orwellian language -- he even titles the post "Double Plus Ungood".
The rules, to my knowledge, have nothing to say about disagreeing with
policy in general or expressing frustration with a rotten
situation. This appears to be exactly the reason that Daniel was
silenced. He
disagreed with a policy, and was forced to publicly admit to a position
he had previously been opposed to. This dramatic of a shift indicates
the intent of the government to control private thoughts or personally
held beliefs, which they cannot do. This is only a move by them to
maintain public support for the war by silencing the opposition to it.
If you read his previous posts, it is apparent this had nothing to do
with operational security.
Censor Senseless? Post on Friday, October 14, 2005
Operation Truth has published my story as their Veteran of the Week
profile. I am excited and nervous for the extra attention this will
attract. Excited because the army is trying very hard to muffle the
cries of battered soldiers, abused by the system they are sworn to
protect. Each time our story is heard by someone new, the country comes
that much closer to understanding what is happening to us in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
I'm also nervous, though. Every time I add a new
writing to my site, I ask myself if I've gone too far. I have a pretty
good grasp on what constitutes a violation of the laws I am bound to;
in specific, I am very familiar with the sections of the Uniform Code
of Military Justice that strips every servicemember of his or her First
Amendment rights. Unfortunately, the laws are purposely vague; designed
to muzzle even those of us who tread with caution.
My stateside
housemate, Ben, has unfortunately made himself into an icon of military
censorship. He has written on subjects that violate neither operations
security nor military law. He has, however, incurred the wrath of his
commander nonetheless. Although Ben acquiesced and removed the
offending material, he went on to write - much more eloquently than I
could - about the experience. More can be read at his site, Doce Meses de Soledad ("twelve months of solitude").
If
you are visiting this site because you were linked from the Operation
Truth website, you can respond to my biography by commenting on the
post below (entitled "A Brief History of Mine"). I also encourage you
to sift through some of the archives. Most of my writing is just me
whining about how much I hate the army; but I have linked to several
which I find to be the most entertaining of my work.
Club Fed is the best of satire. In it, a persuasive argument is made for the benefit of being deployed to Iraq. Baath Time is a light-hearted entry about how glad I was to move into a toilet. In Black Hole, I explain my frustrations over the seemingly inexhaustible waste of tax dollars here in Iraq. Remember Petey
is a story about a school (in a way); it might be about something else
completely, but I would be forbidden to say so if it were. I'm not much
of one to tell war stories, but Crude Reaction is the tale of one of my adventures on the streets of Baghdad.
For more fact and fiction from the banks of the Tigris, browse through the archives. Also, don't forget to check out Holly's site,
and those that are linked to the right; the ones linked beneath the
title "friends" are all especially good reading. Finally, at the bottom
of this page, there is a disclaimer; please read it before you seek or threaten legal action against me.
Double Plus Ungood Posted on Saturday, October 22, 2005
I thank all of you
who have been so supportive recently. I have never before received so
much positive feedback, and it was very heart-warming to know that so
many people out there care. Having said that, it breaks my heart to say
that this will be my last post on this blog. I wish I could just stop
there, but I can not. The following also needs to be said:
For
the record, I am officially a supporter of the administration and of
her policies. I am a proponent for the war against terror and I believe
in the mission in Iraq. I understand my role in that mission, and I
accept it. I understand that I signed the contract which makes stop
loss legal, and I retract any statements I made in the past that
contradict this one. Furthermore, I have the utmost confidence in the
leadership of my chain of command, including (but not limited to) the
president George Bush and the honorable secretary of defense Rumsfeld.
If I have ever written anything on this site or on others that lead the
reader to believe otherwise, please consider this a full and complete
retraction.
I
apologize for any misunderstandings that might understandably arise
from this. Should you continue to have questions, please feel free to
contact me through e-mail. I promise to respond personally to each, but it may take some time; my internet access has become restricted.
Goetz's "full and complete" retraction - which at first reads like the
painful scene in Cool Hand Luke in which Paul Newman breaks down,
pleading for beatings to stop and claiming he's "got his mind right" -
is totally undercut and undone by the headline of yesterday's same
retractive post: Double Plus Ungood.
One pictures military censors standing over Goetz's shoulder as he
types, shaking their heads and shrugging, completely oblivious of this:
"Double-Plus Un Good - (another NewSpeak term from 1984). In NewSpeak, there is no word for bad or evil, there is only ungood. Modifiers are also ambiguous. One uses the modifier plus for emphasis, so plus ungood means especially ungood. The most emphatic modifier is double-plus, so double-plus ungood is the worst thing you can say about something.
Hard not to suspect Goetz's mind - from the military point of view, of course - is still not quite "right."
Maxim, of all magazines, has an article this month (Nov 05) called
"No End in Sight." It is the first time this publication has truly
delved into the dark side of the soldiers experience. In the past,
Maxim has treated the whole war thing like a video game. What this new
article makes clear is that being a soldier in Iraq should not be
confused with playing SOCOM 3: Navy SEALs Edition.
In a nutshell, the article says that if you serve in Iraq, you might
get killed. If you don't get killed, you'll get maimed. If you don't
get maimed, you'll get injured. If you don't get injured, you'll get
PTSD and commit suicide. If you don't get PTSD, you won't get a job
when you get out and you will be 4 to 6 years behind your high school
buddies financially. If you need any help with any of your problems,
the government won't help.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a good soldier, warned us about the military
industrial complex. Welcome to the nightmare. Cross the corporation,
you get fired. Cross the military, you get muzzled. Either way, you
belong to the machine. I salute all the brave men & women who
continue to assert their right to their voice, to their own ideas, to
their own opinions. Where else is the battle for democratic principles
won, but in the mind?
According to the 
