WH Strategy to delay special prosecutor

White House shell game. Who do you trust? That depends on the day of the week.

Just don't ask to see the calendar. The White House knows there is a problem. CIA agents outside their immediate control have the necessary information to show the President was aware of information about war crimes, but failed to act.

Note carefully the change in tone coming from the White House. Immediately in the wake of 9-11, the President and Secretary of Defense first called for Tenet.

The experts within the community were those who knew what was going on with AlQueda.

Following 9-11, the President was briefed daily on developments. The agents who were most knowledgeable of the enemy commanded great respect.

Suddenly after the election their political capital is gone. These agents are no longer to be trusted.

What has changed? The White House simply knows that in the vacuum of "not having a CIA IG report to point to" it's open hunting season on those agents who are best positioned to contradict the President.

The White House strategy at this point is to smear those agents they had previously recognized as experts. Despite those repetitive briefings on the threats, there was not a peep from the White House.

All this time, yet why wasn't something said earlier; and why should we believe now, three years after 9-11, that the "real problem" is with the CIA?

These agents know where the evidence is located that will link the White House to war crimes.

But it doesn't stop there. The Congressional Committees overseeing DoD, the Inspector Generals, and the other cast of characters in this mess, also have some explaining to do.

That's why the confirmation hearings and oversight are going to be illusory. The Senate knows if it digs too deep, the problem simply won't stick to the President. But also the individual Senators for failing to act despite being in a position to do something about it: Shut down funding, hearings, and those very thorough Senate staffer visits.

The President and Vice President hope to prevent the NSA and CIA from giving information received from overseas sources to the FBI and Special Counsel.

It remains to be seen whether the FBI can move faster than the White House; and whether the FBI allies in foreign intelligence and law enforcement can reveal this information before the White House blocks them.