White House fiction over source of Plame name; assertions before grand jury at odds with DSM

Via RawStory, Hardball is reporting details on the White House defense strategy.

It appears there's conflicting testimony between Powell and the White House defense.

Powell says the White House specifically requested the information from the State Department.

The White House asserts the information came from the reporter.

Sure, whatever.

* * *

Cheney's role in intimidating people about the runup to the War in Iraq, doesn't even touch on the Downing Street Memo . . . yet.

Maybe I missed it, but it seems like the Downing Street Memo is the next round of plays for Fitzgerald. The trick: Get the players to commit to a line of "facts," then dump the memos on the table to show they're lying.

The DSM was part of a larger strategy to justify the war, intimidate the naysayers, and discredit those who had information contradictory to the President. There's written evidence of what was actually done; and these actions do not match the, "Oh, we didn't do anything"-nonsense about Plame's identity.

* * *

I'm just amazed how long this had dragged on: More than 1,000 days.

I made the quote about "Beware the leader" in 2002 [?, I'm thinking mid to late summer; not sure], and here we are in 2005: Iraq's in shambles, the American constitution has been trashed; the budget is exploding; the abuses have occurred in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo; countless people have been intimidated or had their careers trashed because they wanted to do what was right.

That's alot of "mindlessness fascism" to have boiled over since I wrote the quote. If people like Sibel and Ambassador Wilson weren't there, was this nation prepared to mindlessly go along with this people?

Yes, the chorus of abusive arrogant people in JTTF continue to impose discipline on those who dare to think independently. There are special agents under Non Official Cover inside the United States working in various "open source positions" who are muzzled.

If anything, the world needs to offer them a place to vent, and get free of all this non-sense. They've been under incredible pressure for the last three years [Actually 4 years since the 9-11 non-sense started. Who knows: Take it back to 2000 with the election.]

They've got four years of built up insanity. That can mind-numbingly insane to deal with.

* * *

I hope there is more information that swings the RNC leadership in the House Judiciary Committee to see what's really gone on, and these guys have done things that warrant impeachment.

I hope the list keeps piling up, and my fellow Republicans wake up from this insanity and dream-state their in. I think they need some rude awakenings.

Maybe the new Gitmo photographs will do it. It's all part of the same corrupt regime that beat war drums to justify lawlessness both at home and abroad.

* * *

Here is the telling statement, QUOTE:

the Valerie Plame information came from the press to them, not the other way around. One problem: Some people at the State Department (including Colin Powell) may have testified that the White House specifically requested information about Plame ENDQUOTE

* * *

Why is the White House "suddenly finding an interest" in the name it supposedly "didn't know about"?

This is too much of a stretch. One version of the defense implies that the White House "had no clue" and "made no request" and "had no understanding"; yet, this contradicts what Rove said: He specifically made a notation of the events.

Thus, because the inconsistent testimony by both Rove and the White House defense, we first conclude Rove and the White House defense are without merit.

Moreover, given the tasking memoranda from the State Department and Powell's testimony, we conclude the White House defense and Rove's credibility are destroyed. Based soley on information and belief, we conclude Rove is most likely going to be charged with obstruction of justice and perjury.

* * *

Why is Rove saying "He can't remember important details of who he talked to", but now the White House is clear that the details came from a reporter?

You either do remember or you don't. If it's probative for court, then it's sufficient clarity to warrant remembering. The shifting ability to remember is a negative against Rove.

* * *

Rove has given conflicting testimony on whether the conversations were memorable, or significant. One one hand the White House wants us to believe that the information came from the reporter.

However, if this is true, why would Rove go out of his way to write an e-mail about "what was going on with the source of Plame's name," but not have simply ignored it?

You would have thought that "if the Plame name wasn't on the radar," Rover wouldn't have gone out of his way to make an e-mail memo.

It's far more likely the memo was a effort to cover his tracks; and the "discussion about the name" was a fishing trip to see whether the reporter was running with the story/smear or not.