Dick Cheney Controls Alberto Gonzales.

This Cheney stuff is astounding.
Senator Whitehouse has the documents.
He’s got the evidence that OVP has same powers as EOP.
That means Addington is reviewing DOJ cases. Addington, folks.

Ooh…..OVP allowed to follow the Libby trial from the inside…….


FROM: THE NEXT HURRAH:

AGAG's Just Given Cheney the Keys to the DOJ Kingdom

.............................

Then he goes on to review a memo that Gonzales himself signed, actually extending the structure Ashcroft set in place. And while Ashcroft's memo made several attempts to tamp down this structure, in key ways he opened it up, explicitly for the Fourth Branch. Whitehouse describes how the memo describes that the lines of communication open to the White House will "apply in parallel fashion in communications with the OVP." And then he points specifically to a paragraph at the end of the memo reiterating the communications open to OVP. Gonzales, typically, claims to have no idea how those items got into a memo he signed personally.

Whitehouse: What on earth business does the OVP wrt ongoing investigations at DOJ.

AGAG: Good question.

Whitehouse: Why is it here then. I'd like to know how that addition was made. Once again, final paragraph, set off by asterisks, that undermines everything set out in previous paragraphs. President, VP, then you add their Chiefs of Staff, Counsel to the President, or Vice President. Somebody took the trouble to write in Counsel to VP and give them access to ongoing investigations.

AGAG: I don't know if that has happened.

.........................

Lovely. Cheney--whose own Chief of Staff was indicted and convicted for impeding an ongoing investigation--now has usurped access to ongoing investigations, for himself, his Chief of Staff, and his Counsel, courtesy of AGAG. David Addington, the architect of the Unitary Executive, now gets to know what DOJ is doing with ongoing investigations. AGAG is doing marvelous work in DOJ.

more at:
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/

The gruesome little freak insect slithering in the corner!

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

but, we better save the letter until we're really, really sure....

Just for that silly piece of paper....

Thank God our leaders are more circumspect....

Love the British sense of humor...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,,2133359,00.html

contemptible, in his interview with Newsweek was it? I can't remember right now, Cheney said being VP was crummy,

so if he thinks being VP is crummy, this man has no love for his country or the laws or the Constitution. He is truly evil.

And I don't think many who heard it recognized the import of what he has discovered, yet.

I hope he will dig down and find out who inserted those words and allowed OVP access to DoJ investigations.

Spectacular!

She had never seen Whitehouse before and I told her to watch how
he leads a witness down a corridor and then POW!!!

He is fricking brilliant.

:)

Sheldon has been shining so far.

this matter. this time i called Leahy's office and also told his staff, asking for Whitehouse to be put in the lead role for any prosecution of G.

The Republican party needs to send the white haired men to Cheney to ask him to step down.

Hell, all the email probly passed through their servers.

damn it, send in the guys with the backwards-opening white jacket! "To the moon, Alice, to the moon!"

:boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring:

of just a few but he forgets people run the government and they will notwork for him...
thats whats going on all over

people want out

:sarcasm:

We once lived in a republic

important!!

:sarcasm:

fly

so cheney is cherry picking justice just like he did intel for Iraq.....

this is so evil

think about it....cheney-the ultimate deciderer of justice to prosecute or not....to drop lawsuits or not.....scary power

We are on a fruitful trail.

impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach,
impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, all work and no play, makes jack a dull boy, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hr8k8WHTzN0

could shock me any more...

Fitz can detail the involvement of the OVP during the Libby trial.

He just asked Gonzo it the DOJ would object to Fitz being called before the committe, not regarding the issue at hand though, but on the Plame/Libby/sentence commuting affair.

Gonzales was squirming like a worm on a hook.

:sarcasm: <-- Is this really needed?

AGAG somehow didn't know how that little bit got in there... Why don't I believe him?

:loveya: Sen. Whitehouse!

That's about all I'd believe.

He's such a liar.

You'd think he'd be better at it by now considering how long he's been with bush.

when he can't remember exactly what he did when, but then he comes up with an answer to one of their questions (about something else of course) and he nails a specific number. It was something like, "How many yadda, yadda, yadda were there..." Without hesitating, he answered, "26". That he knows, but he doesn't remember if he knew Comey was in charge. O-tay.

AGAG doesn't need to get any better at lying. He knows he's lying, the HJC knows he's lying, any American who actually sees this slime ball speaking knows he's lying. But he also knows he can do whatever he damn well pleases and say anything he feels like making up - plausible, or in this case, implausible because he's the president's little buddy and Cheney's henchman... untouchable.
Again, he knows it and we know it. He's not going ANYWHERE as long as we all (Congress, the American people(zzz))just go about being 'shocked'.

Yeah yeah, I know. They'll make a feeble attempt at slapping him with contempt charges, but who's going to prosecute him and drag his ass to prison where he (and his evil puppet master) belongs?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I can't decide if I want to puke or cry or both. I'm so disgusted.

:hi:

without impeachment???????

what media will report this????????keith??????????only keith?????????

how many Americans watch c-span in the middle of the summer????????

tell ya what..i live on a beach resort area..the BEACHES ARE PACKED ..AND ONLY I AM SITTING INSIDE WATCHING THIS where i live!!

SOOOO without impeachment who will ever know this ??????????

fly

oh and ps..i have a hubby pissed off that i have sat inside all day watching this!! and i am not sitting with him on the beach!

in the subcommittees. :cry:

I cant get it on the tube but cspan 3 today was great!!!

she's as incensed as I - but not addicted to the news as am I.

I come from watching CSPAN or DUing and tell some latest development and get the same thing we see in this thread - "so? you think anything will happen? ha!" followed by "the grass needs cutting" or equivalent.

as been taking part in the "investigations." That'd be Abramoff and Delay among others, wouldn't it? From the OP link:

Whitehouse: Part of what we try to do is prevent things from happening. Let me continue, what was staff of President has become staff of White House office and entire staff of OMB has been thrown in. So you come here today with, I think, highly diminished credibility, asserting you want to restore the DOJ, and yet, here, where there is something you could do about it, since our past discussion, nothing has been done. The memo that has your signature makes it worse. And we agree that this connection between WH and DOJ is the most troubling one for improper influence. How can we take you seriously about your promises about cleaning up the mess you've made.

AGAG: I have directed my staff to try to understand the genesis of the Ashcroft memo. We tried to understand the basis of the change. We have been looking at this issue. WRT this memo, I'd have to look at it,

I'd be concerned about inappropriate access to ongoing investigations."

No shit. But it's hard work trying to understand. Believe me, we're all having a hard time trying to understand this, Fredo.

How much more "turned on it's head" does the little creep want to make it!

He originated/signed the 'Ashcroft memo'....hence, AG knows what it said, why it was said....and then he sits there with some lame bs about how his 'staff' or he "has to look at it!

AGAG: I have directed my staff to try to understand the genesis of the Ashcroft memo. We tried to understand the basis of the change. We have been looking at this issue. WRT this memo, I'd have to look at it,
----------
Genesis
Main Entry: gen·e·sis
Pronunciation: 'je-n&-s&s
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural gen·e·ses /-"sEz/
Etymology: Latin, from Greek, from gignesthai to be born -- more at KIN
: the origin or coming into being of something <the genesis of a new political movement>
----------

Well, Gonzo signed it, so either the 'genesis' (origin) is from Gonzo or it's from ?????.....and if an Attorney General signed such an important memo as this.....he'd KNOW the origin.

These people are PATHETIC! But, we are MORE PATHETIC if we don't DO SOMETHING about their wantonness.

"oversight" hearings are supposed to actually influence. They are not just a witchhunt, they are also advice. They are the board of directors telling the CEO, CIO, COO that they are not doing the job.

He gets royally chastised, goes off and dithers, comes back and talks about pursuing child predators and such to imply he should not be having to waste his time here, and when asked about progress on the prior issues says 'i asked my staff to look into it." Pretty much code for "go shit in your hat, I'm untouchable"

He's no longer a right-wing corrupt criminal politician douchebag. He's the Antichrist. :yoiks:

K&R

this is the very last comment as of 6:30 pm PT at the last hurrah link above.


biggerbox | July 24, 2007 at 16:39

PJ-
Although Lam has been removed- the case against Wilkes/Foggo and Wilkes/Michael is progressing. The US Atty who is now "acting" USA in San Diego - Karen Hewitt- seems not to be a political appointee AFAIK. And the same Prosecutors are working on the case. However, there seem to be a certain air of secrecy about certain aspects of the case that may or may not be justified.

The UT published the Feb 2007 interviews with Cunningham on Wed. Cunningham did a lot of co-operating in this interview although he may not have earlier. But the prosecution wanted the document kept secret. Today the paper revealed where the reporters got ahold of the documents.

Granger, the attorney for defendant Michael, attached a copy of the FBI interviews along with his recent court filing. And he sent a copy to the UT's lawyers as a "professional courtesy" since they sent him their brief. USA Forge complained because Granger had not blacked out "personal information" but the Judge "took no action on it."

I read the interviews and couldn't really find a reason that they would be sealed. There did not seem to be anything classified in them. And originally Forge had told the judge they would release them, but then changed his mind, citing that the information needed to remain sealed. Perhaps someone in Washington DC changed his mind for him. This, and an earlier "leak" that gave the defense a flimsy grounds for acquittal seem to make me suspicious that somebody is tampering with the case.

Kontogiannis' personal info is available from other sources- so I'm still wondering about why this was sealed in the first place.

July 24, 2007
Cunningham, CIFA, and Cheney, a New Chronology

by emptywheel

In light of the news that Alberto Gonzales granted Cheney presidential powers to snoop into ongoing investigations in May 2006, I thought it was time to update my chronology of the CIFA side of the Cunningham scandal.

* September 2002, then Deputy Secretary of Defense for Counter-Intelligence Burtt establishes CIFA to oversee counterintelligence units of the armed services; consulting on the new agency was James King, recently retired director of National Imagery and Mapping Agency and MZM vice president
* Late 2002, Cunningham gets Mitchell Wade a data storage contract worth $6 million, of which $5.4 was profit
* January 2004, Cunningham adds $16.5 million to defense authorization for a "collaboration center" that appears to include business for Wade's company
* June 27, 2005, James King takes over MZM
* August 2005 Veritas announces takeover of MZM--will become Athena
* November 28, 2005, Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery
* November 30, 2005, USNORTHCOM JPEN deletes all TALON reports
* December 2005, Pincus reveals a CIFA database contains raw intelligence data on peace activists (and, presumably, Jesus' General)
* March 2006, prosecutors in the Cunningham case are reviewing CIFA contracts to MZM
* March 2006, Stephen Cambone announces an investigation of CIFA's contracting
* Goss implicated in Cunningham scandal
* May 4, 2006, Gonzales gives himself authority to "communicate directly ... regarding any matter within the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice" to the Vice President, his Counsel, and Chief of Staff
* May 5, 2006, Porter Goss resigns under allegations of ties to the Wilkes/Wade bribery ring
* May 11, 2006, Kyle Sampson emails
* May 2006, House Intelligence Committee (Peter Hoekstra's Committee) first moves to exercise oversight on CIFA (Hoekstra would eventually refuse to release the report on Cunningham)
* June 15, 2006, Commander USNORTHCOM signs order to terminate JPEN program
* August 2006, CIFA director David Burtt and deputy director Hefferon (who were instrumental in overriding staff complaints about Cunningham earmarks) resign

The point is this: the JPEN database disappeared just two days after Cunningham signed his plea agreement. Gonzales gave Cheney peeking rights into ongoing criminal investigations just as Goss and Foggo and MZM became targets. And all the earmarks that had supported the JPEN database dried up, just in time to close the program and hide the evidence of spying on Bush's enemies.

Think about it. This was a domestic spying program instituted under Rummy (and therefore Cheney) favorite Steven Cambone. If there are guardian angels for domestic spying programs in this administration, they are Cheney and Addington. And they got the ability to guard domestic spying a lot more closely just about the time it had to be dismantled for legal reasons.

And par for the course, Alberto Gonzales doesn't remember giving Cheney and Addington that power at all!

through the real estate deal David Safavian was working on. An Abramoff contributor was with White Oak Technologies, another firm in on the domestic spying. But, golly, the Abramoff scandal seems to have petered out. Hmmm. Here's a Harper's article on Noel Hillman, the prosecutor.

Noel Hillman and the Siegelman Case
Scott Horton
July 13, 2007

...

Hillman is a “loyal Bushie,” and a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, with whom he served in the New Jersey United States Attorney’s office. Hillman followed Chertoff to the DOJ’s Criminal Division in 2001, and was later selected by Chertoff to head the Public Integrity Section (PIN), one of the most sensitive, and also one of the most intrinsically political positions in the Department of Justice. Reduced to its essence, PIN decides who and what is corrupt in the American political landscape.

...

The fourth judge is Noel Hillman. Hillman was, through the core period in which this case was developed, the head of the Public Integrity Section (PIN) within the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. His unit had responsibility for the prosecution of elected and appointed public officials at all levels of government—state, federal and local. It also had responsibility for criminal action involving elections officials.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000509

Less than 12 hours from Gonzo's sad testimoney and news of the OVP inside the DOJ and investigations, the WH issued this:


WXIA-TV Airports Warned About Terror Dry Runs
ABC News - 3 hours ago
The bulletin said the a joint FBI-Homeland Security Department assessment found that terrorists have conducted probes, dry runs and dress rehearsals in ...
TSA to police: Look out for possible terrorist attack 'dry runs' CNN
US airport security alerted to possible terrorist dry-runs Hindu
Airports warned about terror dry runs New Hope Courier

Thanks, kpete!

Check out ThinkProgress.org for story. This is how they get to continue the reign of terror.

http://thinkprogress.org/

:shrug: I mean, really??

huh.............funny.

I would so love to smack that smirk off his face...

But I'll settle for a perp-walk.

http://judiciary.senate.gov/webcast/judiciary07242007-0930.ram