We lost momentum .... what happened....Ambass. CIA wife & task force.....

A month ago I thought all hell was going to break loose which two legitimate stories.

1) The Whitehouse outing of Ambassador Wilson's wife as a CIA Agent

2) The 2001 Cheney Energy Task Force which showed maps of IRAQ before the 911 "linch pin".

What happened? Where is the press ...an investigation...etc..?

:grr:

"Some Democrats in Congress suggest Enron benefited from its ties with senior Bush administration officials. They are pressing for information on contacts between the company and the administration, and any administration actions that might have benefited Enron.

The administration has said that Cheney or his energy task force aides met with Enron executives six times last year and that Enron's financial situation was never discussed during those sessions.

In June, the vice president spoke to an Indian political opposition leader about the issue of a multimillion dollar debt that India owed Enron, administration officials said. The conversation was brief, and no one at the energy company had asked Cheney to raise the issue, they said. "


http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/27/enron/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A report issued Wednesday by a Democratic congressman critical of the White House for not releasing records of the closed-door meetings of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force said "there are at least 17 policies in the White House energy plan that were advocated by Enron or that benefited Enron."

"The range of policies in the White House energy plan that would help Enron is enormous," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, wrote in a letter to Cheney asking him again to release information about White House contacts with Enron and other energy companies while the plan was being formulated.

"This creates an unfortunate appearance that a large contributor received special access and obtained extraordinarily favorable results in the White House energy plan," Waxman wrote.

A spokeswoman for Cheney dismissed the Waxman report as "election-year maneuvering."

The Waxman report noted that Enron executives met with members of the task force six times, including one meeting between Cheney and Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay. "

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/16/enron.waxman/

A key task-force meeting, sources tell Time, was held by Cheney in the White House on May 3. Among attendees were two lobbyists for electric utilities: former Montana Governor and now G.O.P.chairman Marc Racicot and former G.O.P.chairman Haley Barbour. Two weeks later, Cheney's report gave the lobbyists much of what they wanted, including a re-evaluation of a costly clean-air rule, called the new-source review, which requires new pollution controls when power plants are expanded. While he was lobbying for these energy interests, Barbour was also raising at least $250,000 for a May 21 G.O.P.gala honoring President Bush. The group of utilities Barbour was representing, led by Southern Co., gave $150,000 to the event. The night before the gala, Cheney held a glitzy reception at the vice-presidential mansion for hundreds of the fete's sponsors and longtime party donors.

Another company that had entree to the Cheney task force was Peabody Energy, a coal behemoth whose holding company and top officer have given nearly $200,000 to the President and his party since Bush took office, including $25,000 for the May gala. Sources say Peabody chairman Irl Engelhardt and other energy executives met in March with two task-force members, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Bush economic adviser Larry Lindsey. Cheney's group also heard in March from officials from the nuclear-energy industry—whose trade association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, contributed $100,000 to the Bush event. Both coal and nuclear power got major endorsements in the task-force report. "

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,198862,00.html

Heavily Censored Energy Department Papers Show Industry is the Real Author of Administration's Energy Task Force Report

NRDC Will Seek Full Disclosure in Court Today
WASHINGTON (March 27, 2002) -- Despite being heavily censored, the thousands of Department of Energy documents released under court order this week confirm the intimate, secretive relationship between huge, politically connected corporations and the White House energy task force.

That's the finding of legal experts at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), which is reviewing more than 11,000 pages released late Monday night under an order from a U.S. District Court judge here.

Among the more significant revelations unearthed from the heavily redacted documents, NRDC lawyers found:

A March 20, 2001 email from the American Petroleum Institute to an Energy Department official provided a draft Executive Order on energy. Two months later, President Bush issued Executive Order 13211, which is nearly identical in structure and impact to the API draft, and nearly verbatim in a key section.


In March 2001, a Southern Company lobbyist emailed a DOE official suggesting "another issue" for inclusion in the energy plan: so-called reform of the Clean Air Act and related enforcement actions. The suggestion was incorporated into the energy plan, launching the Administration's controversial effort to weaken the Clean Air Act and retreat from high-profile enforcement actions against the nation's largest polluters, including the Southern Company.
NRDC requested the documents 11 months ago under the Freedom of Information Act, and filed a lawsuit to get the documents after all administrative efforts were rebuffed by the administration. NRDC is represented in its lawsuit by the Washington, D.C. law firm of Meyer and Glitzenstein.

"Big energy companies all but held the pencil for the White House task force as government officials wrote a plan calling for billions of dollars in corporate subsidies, and the wholesale elimination of key health and environmental safeguards," said John H. Adams, NRDC president.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/020327.asp

If Energy firms held the "pencil" ...which firms drew the maps of Iraq?

...and now we know what happens when the free press becomes just another special interest courting the WH for favors.

It is nearly two years ago, but almost nothing is clear. Ordinary people have to make their own hypotheses, which is called "foolish conspiracy!!!" by the media.
The publication of the Congressional Report aroused some discussion, but not much, as it seems to me. On DU there are few posts concerning this report or the whole 9/11 complex.
Will the 9/11 investigation never leave internet forums or closed congressional sessions, apart from some heavily redacted material? Will it never receive real interest of the media?
In Germany last week a new book was published by Andreas von Bülow, a former federal minister. Yesterday Der Spiegel "reviewed" the book. It was a really really bad polemic that called the content absurdity, idiocy, phantasy and so on, but did not manage to prove these global reproaches. But it is typical for the German press. Spiegel asserts he does "investigative journalism", but if someone asks critical questions in a certain area, Der Spiegel avoids to ask questions and ridicules those who aks them. Really sad.

It is nearly two years ago, but almost nothing is clear. Ordinary people have to make their own hypotheses, which is called "foolish conspiracy!!!" by the media.
The publication of the Congressional Report aroused some discussion, but not much, as it seems to me. On DU there are few posts concerning this report or the whole 9/11 complex.
Will the 9/11 investigation never leave internet forums or closed congressional sessions, apart from some heavily redacted material? Will it never receive real interest of the media?
In Germany last week a new book was published by Andreas von Bülow, a former federal minister. Yesterday Der Spiegel "reviewed" the book. It was a really really bad polemic that called the content absurdity, idiocy, phantasy and so on, but did not manage to prove these global reproaches. But it is typical for the German press. Spiegel asserts he does "investigative journalism", but if someone asks critical questions in a certain area, Der Spiegel avoids to ask questions and ridicules those who aks them. Really sad.

contributed to taking the wind out of the sails at a crucial point. Will it be temporary? We have yet to see.

Look back to last summer's news, W* seemed on the ropes, the 'press'

seemed to be turning all thru june and july. Suddenly august arrived


and it became all Iraq all the time.

This is a Psyops Nation, media complicity letting off steam and

propping up the illusion of press credibility, at the same time

truth seeker's hopes are elevated and tremendous effort expended

to 'bring it all out' because it all is really connected.

As if by magic , the stories are dropped or overshadowed, hopes are

dashed. Our spirits are intentionally lifted in order to further

demoralize us.


'Reasonable' people will say that the media is just doing this for

money/ratings or affected by post 9/11 fear and war fever. But they

are either in denial or lying because the scandals are piled high

and virtually unreported since BEFORE 9/11

that, yeah its a blatant pattern.

These guys are good

they don fuck around

they know what, how, when to use the powers available to them

we still looking for the triggering mechanism

And so is the press. Your job, dear DUers, is to contact your elected representatives between now and Labor Day, and get your voices heard on any number of subjects.

For example, what about the unmasking of the CIA operative married to Joseph Wilson?

Did the United States go to war based on lies or cooked intelligence? Don't we owe it to the troops to send them into battle for only real threats, not trumped-up notions being sold like a new car line by this administration?

{And, if your elected representative is a Republican}: Why haven't you co-sponsored legislation to find out about the answers in the preceding paragraph? There are folks willing to take a look at this; or are the deaths of thousands of people and hundreds of our brave military men and women not a sufficient goad to find out?

This is the month that Representatives are often found at the State Fair and various county fairs. Find out where your Rep is going to be, and ask him or her what they think. Then tell them what you think. You can fumble away this opportunity, or you can seize it. Heat applied to Congress critters in August gets transferred to the Executive in September.

It works. Without Democratic control of any part of the Imperial Government or the Empire itself, no investigations can be called.

We are through the looking glass. Lies and truth have no practical meanings in the Empire anymore.

Orwell was right. He just got his title 17 years wrong.

That's what I did.

They can't ignore the input of their constituents - even if the media wants to change the subject.

It won't change any Republican minds, but it sure does keep the heat on...

what kind of leader "outs" a CIA agent?

Now is a really good time to contact your Congress critter. Most of them are in their home districts, and the more they hear from us now, the more likely they are to try to release some of that pressure when they get back to DC.

Catch 'em where you can: The US Postal Service is a good way, but so are state and county fairs, any town hall meetings they might be holding, and so on. Write a letter to the local editor. Congresspersons have staffs that scour the papers daily, and issues that show up in the LTTE get passed along.

Frame the question to fit your situation, but a good tactic (imo) is to base it on troop trust: Doesn't the government owe the truth to the men and women it's asking to fight and die? A decision based on bad intelligence or slanted intelligence will almost surely be a bad decision.

they wanted to talk about something else

Thanks for posting that - I've been wondering the same thing! Where's the outrage!

• PNAC makes a nifty plan to take over the ME, and installs a puppet chief exec who will do their bidding.
  
  
• Dick and his oil pals get together in spring 2001 to divvy up the Iraqi oil fields, way before 9/11, way before the "drumbeat for war." What did they know and when did they know it?
  
  
• Meanwhile PNAC creates it's own private intel agency at Defense to dream up imminent-threat evidence to justify the Iraq invasion.
  
  
• The Bush* admin receives many, many warning before 9/11, ignores them all, then does everything it can to prevent an investigation. When Congress does investigate, the WH censors the report.
  
  
• And then the wife of the whistleblower who calls them out on their biggest most outrageous lie, is outed by someone in the Whitehouse as a CIA agent.

This goes way beyond mere scandal.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92372,00.html
Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Detail Iraqi Oil Industry
Friday, July 18, 2003

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force appeared to have some interest in early 2001 in Iraq's oil industry, including which foreign companies were pursuing business there, according to documents released Friday by a private watchdog group.

Judicial Watch (search), a conservative legal group, obtained a batch of task force-related Commerce Department papers that included a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, terminals and pipelines as well as a list entitled "Foreign Suitors of Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."

The papers also included a detailed map of oil fields and pipelines in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates and a list of oil and gas development projects in those two countries.

The papers were dated early March 2001, about two months before the Cheney energy task force completed and announced its report on the administration's energy needs and future energy agenda.<more>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html
The spies who pushed for war
Julian Borger reports on the shadow rightwing intelligence network set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force
Thursday July 17, 2003
The Guardian

As the CIA director, George Tenet, arrived at the Senate yesterday to give secret testimony on the Niger uranium affair, it was becoming increasingly clear in Washington that the scandal was only a small, well-documented symptom of a complete breakdown in US intelligence that helped steer America into war.

It represents the Bush administration's second catastrophic intelligence failure. But the CIA and FBI's inability to prevent the September 11 attacks was largely due to internal institutional weaknesses.

This time the implications are far more damaging for the White House, which stands accused of politicising and contaminating its own source of intelligence.

According to former Bush officials, all defence and intelligence sources, senior administration figures created a shadow agency of Pentagon analysts staffed mainly by ideological amateurs to compete with the CIA and its military counterpart, the Defence Intelligence Agency. <more>


http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1004773,00.html
Don't blame September 11 on spy failures, says report
Gary Younge in New York
Thursday July 24, 2003
The Guardian

Nothing could have been done to stop the terrorist attacks on September 11 even though an FBI informant had contact with two of the suicide hijackers a year before they were carried out, according to a congressional report into intelligence lapses preceding the destruction of the twin towers, to be published today.

But despite objections from some senators a crucial 28 pages of the 900-page report, which criticises Saudi Arabia for its lack of interest in clamping down on Islamist extremists, has been removed from the final document.

Saudi Arabia was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers yet remains a close and important ally of America in the region. The omission of criticism of Saudi Arabia was condemned by the Democratic senator and presidential hopeful, Bob Graham, a former chairman of the joint house and Senate intelligence committee.

"I start from the premise that in a democracy, the people should know as much as the government knows unless there is a very compelling case that the information threatens American security interests," he said. <more>



http://www.nynewsday.com/news/ny-uscia0722,0,2289800.story?coll=nyc-topnews-short-navigation
Columnist Names CIA Iraq Operative
By Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce
Washington Bureau
July 21, 2003, 9:48 PM EDT

Washington -- The identity of an undercover CIA officer whose husband started the Iraq uranium intelligence controversy has been publicly revealed by a conservative Washington columnist citing "two senior administration officials."

Intelligence officials confirmed to Newsday Monday that Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson, works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity -- at least she was undercover until last week when she was named by columnist Robert Novak.

Wilson, while refusing to confirm his wife's employment, said the release to the press of her relationship to him and even her maiden name was an attempt to intimidate others like him from talking about Bush administration intelligence failures.

"It's a shot across the bow to these people, that if you talk we'll take your family and drag them through the mud as well," he said in an interview.<more>

and it will not boil over at once. This stuff goes far deeper than Watergate and with far more to lose. The press is also far more complacent.

It'll be a flood, but it takes time and lots of seepage.

congress on "recess".. sum-sum-sumerrrrtime"..:(


They knew if they could just hold on a little while, they would wiggle out of it..and they did.. The press complied just like they knew they would :(

Unless something big breaks soon...they will return in Sept with the "new product" and all this "stuff" will be just OLD NEWS :(:(

Nobody cares....this is such BS.