Over the last 48 hours or so, the newest front of attack by the Republican Attack Dogs on behalf of the Bush Administration has become quite clear.
To defend against the indefensible leaking of the identify of a covert CIA operative in the TreasonGate affair, it is now clear that the Rightwing has begun an offensive to try and attack the CIA in order to define them as a “rogue agency” who was out to get the Bushies from the get-go.
The insinuation has been made quite clear over the last few days with coordinated lock-step efforts via newspapers, blogs, talk radio and congressional action to attempt to discredit the CIA. The latest strategy is now seen dropping unsupported accusations across the media spectrum to the effect that the intelligence agency’s assignment of Ambassador Joseph Wilson to look into the now-discredited Iraq/Niger/uranium claims were all part of a long-term insidious scheme to try and discredit the Bush Administration.
Yesterday, I wrote about Carol Platt Liebau’s recent efforts at HuffPo to fight back on behalf of the Bushies by attacking the CIA’s motives in both sending Wilson on the mission and in releasing the information that they had requested a DoJ investigation into the outting of his wife Valerie’s identify as a covert CIA op.
Liebau did little more in a blog item yesterday at HuffPo, titled “A ‘Rogue Agency'” than copy and paste directly from an op/ed by Deborah Orin on these matters from the Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post.
My reply to Liebau’s article has yet to be posted on HuffPo. I’ll update this item with the link once it’s posted over there.
Today, Liebau is at it again. This time, she copies and pastes from an article from the wingnut Powerline blog, with further questions about the CIA’s motives for the Wilson assignment and the recent information revealed by Washington Post concerning secret CIA prisons overseas.
Meanwhile, both talk radio and congress has also joined in the rightwing fatwa against the CIA.
Editor & Publisher is reporting today that Senator Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have requested a congressional inquiry into “the leaking of classified information” which led to the article about secret al-Qaeda prisons run by the CIA in Europe. RAW STORY has obtained the actual letter requesting the inquiry by Frist and Hastert.
This morning, Rush Limbaugh continued the lockstepped new front in the war to salvage the Bush Administration by spending the first several hours of his radio show blasting the CIA for the exact same issues discussed by Liebau, Orin, Powerline Blog, Frist and Hastert.
He also let slip that “you won’t be hearing George W. Bush speak about this directly,” as if to indicate that this is “a war” to be carried out by Bush’s advocates in the media so that Bush himself can remain above “the fray” while his sycophants carry out his dirty work for him.
What the effectiveness of this new P.R. effort will be remains to be seen. But when the wingnuts all get together and march from the same page of the same rulebook, the propoganda effect on the nation has proven to be very effective. Unfortunately, the Left simply doesn’t have the same kind of organized media network that the Right does in order to effectively and quickly rebut such a coordinated all-out attack.
But at least you now know about it. Make no mistake: The effort to fight back by directly attacking the messengers — in this case, the CIA (along with those of us who dare point out what really occurred in the TreasonGate matter) has now become very clear. It will be yet another phony war. This time, the CIA vs The Bush Administration.
UPDATE: Inquiry into who leaked info on secret prisons may bite Republicans in the ass. Trent Lott reports that it was a leak by a Republican after a meeting held recently with Dick Cheney and Republican Senators. Says Lott, “He was up here last week and talked up here in that room right there in a roomful of nothing but senators and every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper.” RAW STORY has more…
The losers are so obvious and transparent now!!!!
Thats right, losers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These morons need to all be rounded up and thrown in jail and then the traitors taken out.
>:-)
Doug E.
So.. anyone still not clear on where this all ends?
These … things… these sullied poor exucses for living matter.. won’t stop until they suck all the life out of everything they can. They bring the stench of death and rot and villany to everything they do. They must be put down, and soon.. lest we lose what little ability to recover that we do have.
Revolution is on the way.. it needs to happen to cleans and purge our system, and to discourage those that would be quick to remount the offensive on decency and truth.
Mark my words.. if they steal another set of elections, this country will implode .. soon..
Brad–Please post the link and could it be, at least partly, that this concerted, coordinated attack on the CIA is an attempt to distract from the video and information contained in this link? Horrors which hopefully will become widely know.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/fallujah/
There is no way they can win any kind of war against the CIA. If they had listened in the first place, they would not now be going down in flames. These Republicans are monumentally stupid.
{The comment occupying this space has been deleted due to the poster’s flagrant and repeated flaunting of the very few rules of this blog. WP}
Can’t help myself, just had to do this. A bit of inspiration from those blathering the talking points on tv today, and reading troll stuff all over, I wrote a little troll song for them today.
Of course, if you don’t approve this, Brad, you can remove it:
The Troll Song or When our heroes have gone wrong!
Twang, fiddle, whang! Hmmmmmmm!
(Verse 1:)
When our heroes have gone wrong,
you’ll hear us sing our lying song.
There we are in their defense, you see!
We think you trust us, right there on your tv!
But, we’re so bad we can’t stop there,
for George, you’ll see us everywhere!
Wherever you’re looking,
you’ll find us cooking
up our brew for you!
(Chorus:)
Hmmmmm!!! Drink on without delay!
Hmmmmm!!! We’ll we back another day!
Hmmmmm!!! So, Libby got et up by his bear!
Hmmmmm!!! We Rove along without a care!
(Verse 2:)
When we get depressed, we light up joints
and repeat White House talking points
You thought we’re done, …but, we’re not yet!
Check out us trolls on the internet!
(Repeat Chorus)
(Verse 3:)
While you went out to have a snack.
You missed the big news about PNAC
A sorry story without a doubt,
Without them we have no clout!
Without a conscience there’s no regret!
You’ll hear more of us, on this you can bet!
(Repeat Chorus)
Twang diddly twang twang, twang, twang! spronnng! klunk!
Its time for the democrats to go on the offensive on the broader issue of national security. Republicans have long be able to claim this as their strength. Now we have the ability to show the country that they CAN NOT BE TRUSTED WITH OUR NATIONAL SECURITY.
the trial will be delicious. the MSM and the CIA going down. and libby walks. thanks you left loonies for demanding this!!
oh, and since you are so patriotic and worried about "national security leaks" i am SURE you will be right out there DEMANDING a spec prosecutor re: the leak involving the CIA camps in eastern europe, right? i mean if you have an intellectual honesty and integrity? right? right?
(crickets)
golly jeepers, THAT is a lot more important to national security than a mother of 5-year old twins who hasnt worked overseas in 6 years, who everyne knew was agency and not a noc? right? right? lets get the special prosecutor fired up.
the problem with living inside a fantasy created in your minds is, that eventually, even with all the MSM orwellian spin and rewriting of history, the truth, the facts will eventually come out, and then, and then….look where you are? but please please please keep up your lunacy, so we can complete this trivia question: what do the whigs, the free soilers, the know-nothings, and the democrats have in common?
{ed note: Comment by Jimmo removed due to repeated, flagrant violation of BRAD BLOG commenting rules.}
…Dan Andrews said on 11/8/2005 @ 1:24pm PT…
Its time for the democrats to go on the offensive on the broader issue of national security. Republicans have long be able to claim this as their strength. Now we have the ability to show the country that they CAN NOT BE TRUSTED WITH OUR NATIONAL SECURITY.
=========================
now, THAT was funny. wonder why military families vote 75% rep? wonder why that is. THEY dont live in your fantasy, thats why. dream away. the less in touch you are with reality, the easier it is for us. thank you thank you thank you, little dillusional one. nitey nite.
and vallely will bring in the veracity of the journalists who all knew the name at the time, even though they have said they learned it from the scootster!! oh man, incredible. they the dems stepo in it again! they just cant shoot straight, that bunch. good thing they dont run national security. ahem. can you see mr greenspans wife up there being asked about her 2003 statement that "everyone knew plame was agancy"? , and then valely, and all the otehrs now creeping out of the woodwork finally telling the truth (that everyoine knew) and then matt cooper saying "uh, no, i uh, never heard that. i dont know what ms mitchel is talking about. when mr libby told me it was the first i ever ever heard it, honest". bwaaahhaahahahahaha.
What’s the matter? Singing hot and heavy here. Copied and pasted everywhere! (twang, twang) Please notice that Fred thinks it’s night time. woops? Don’t ya have windows in your office, or are you just always in the dark?
Absolutely amazing.. These wing-nuts come right out of the woodwork at the first sign of "something tasty" for them to spew, yet it’s all unsubstantiated? Too damn funny..
Oh, and if the General had SECRUITY CLEARANCES, then the claim against Wilson would be moot too.. hmm? Not that the claims are substantiated.. And not like this guy is "under oath", not that you care, it helps distract from the crimes you are hiding from, right?
I’m not even going to bother trying to address the deluge of bullshit that just slammed the ‘net… Way too much crap flying around now from way to many idiots..
Torture camps are wrong. If you support them, you are not a true patriot, period, ever. You’re a hate-filled tiny little piece of shit desperately clinging on to the delusion that you are some how important (and better than other people). I’ll never cease to be amazed at how truely and deeply pathetic some human beings can be, and ironically, most of the shittiest people in this country are "repubilcan" and/or "conservative".. I guess with the rantings of the trolls today, we see just how shitty they are as human beings.. If you weren’t so busy trying to shit down my back and tell me it’s sunshine, I’d probably pitty you.
Sorry to point this out to you brainless right wing gasbags, but it looks like your bigot daddy Trent Lott just went on CNN and pointed the finger of blame on this squarely into the GOP membership in the Senate. So bite on that you looooosers!!
Republicans ued to just LOOK stupid. Now they have revealed themselves to actually BE stoooopid!!
:hehe:
Hmmm . . I wonder if Cheney will testify before or after the Wilsons :doze:
Fred, and whatever other name(s) that person is going by, is just another one of the brainwashed masses that for some unkown reason feels it is thier civic duty to hand over thier freedom to the radical right. A true old school Republican would not be so happy about the current state of our once proud government. For the record, I don’t care who gives out classified security information, they should be taken out and hung from the nearest oak tree. I mean it. That goes for R’s D’s and every flavor in between. You see, what Fred seems to be happy about is that some D may get it, and Fred seems to think that means that Libby didn’t do anything wrong. Wrong. Regardless of who let out the private prison story (provided it was classified, nobody really knows yet now do they?), the Bush administration still has some reckoning of thier own comming. Fred, don’t get too happy about anything in all of this. There may be plenty of crap comming down on both sides of the isle, and I for one want to see all the corrupt scum go. I don’t care what party or what state they are from. I love freedom, and hate all that gets in its way. That means the Bush adminst.. I mean Bush regime and all of the PatriotAct loving Fascists who are currently running amok in DC, all the while draggin us all down the sewer with them. Wake up Fred, and all Fred’s of the world. If you stay hypnotized for too much longer, and you’ll wake up in a country you don’t recognize; one in which all of our freedom is gone.
Hey look at that, its the BULLSHIT SQUAD back claiming their useless shit about the CIA again!!!!
I heard they got kicked out of church already for being openly racist against blacks
>8-)
By the way morons, the MSM is not only not liberal it is a freaking joke of immense proportions. It is corporate paid garbage and does not represent anyone. And the CIA have Bush, Libby and the Rove squad’s nuts in a VICE.
So it should be interesting to watch how that turns out on the final squeeze……..Rove’s already set to be fired and probably indicted, and you losers squirm because you’re next to fall into nothing.
*Yawn*
Doug E.
When a person "leaks" information providing proof of unlawful activity (of either the domestic or international variety) it is appropriately called "whistleblowing" and it must remain protected speech if our government institutions are to be accountable to the people they represent. From what I understand, the activities that Valerie Plame was involved in was defensive in nature — trying to identify WMD threats to our population created by the illegal activities of others.
Vallely has an interesting bio…
Who is Vallely really?
I FINALLY learned how to link, I think.
Wasn’t Libby indicted for lying to the grand jury? He has not been indicated as the leaker,he was just lying under oath. I don’t think Vallely statements can help him with that.
I heard that Bush has fallen below 30% approval, but can’t find anything about it on the web. Has anyone seen this anywhere?
Got the bullshit wipers up and running on my monitor now!
The Company has done a mess of dastardly deeds for the Bush administration. They know where the bodies are buried. They possess gigabytes of dirty little secrets. The company has a long memory and are to be messed with at the messers’ peril. Destabilising governments is a Company specialty. The wingnut fatwa on the CIA will result in a spot of well timed blowback for the Neocon WHIGs and their their media mullahs. All it takes is for one outraged Company man or woman to quietly leak damaging documentation, posting on the web anonymously, so that even a cub reporter could join the dots. We may not have to wait for the Wilson civil suit to see the mendacious warmongers vilified by their own people and drummed out of D.C. Good people don’t enjoy being taken for fools. The polls show plainly that rusted-on Bush supporters are falling away with truth’s WD-40. Mister War President and his gang of WHIG neocons are politically dead. Trouble for them and America, is that zealotry and greed prevents them from knowing it. The prospect of cold turkey when hooked on the drug of absolute power, elicits military-industrial strength DENIAL. Meantime, we all suffer by association. The sea of global goodwill post 9/11 has completely evaporated.
And Mister War President brays, that in Iraq, death needs more time for what it kills to grow in.
Well, we’ve already discussed the idea that when they go down the idiots will cling together and fight like a cornered wildcat. If they weren’t so borg-like they could split off the Bush bunch and let them sink by themselves. But, if the Senate Repubs and the corporate-media Repubs all want to cling to Bush then let ’em all sink together.
Wayne Madsen has reported a curious story which may relate. He says former Peruvian president Fujimori (sp), who has been in exile in Japan, flew to Atlanta (US) then Mexico then Chile, where he was summarily arrested. He might be returned to Peru for trial on outstanding indictments. This was at the same time Bushy was in Argentina fending off a swarm of rioters. Curiously, Madsen suggests the CIA might’ve been involved because nobody knew Fujimori was going to make this trip and they might’ve informed the Chileans, so they could nab him. Supposedly Fujimori was returning to Peru secretly to set up a political party, hoping to return to power. Madsen also argues that if he’s put on trial then a lot of Bush famiy shenanigans might well come out. So, if the CIA is involved it looks like an international war between the Bush mafia and the CIA. Who’s gonna win?
OT: In California Arnold Schwarzenegger went to the polls and they told him he couldn’t vote because he already had. Seems some voting machine tricksters are still up to their pranks.
Fred #8
All I can say is Republican leaked info on CIA jails
I guess it’s time to cue the background crickets . . . Chirp – Chirp – Chirp . . Hello??? . . fellow Republicans? . . are you there? . . . chirp – chirp – chirp . . How do you respond to this? chirp – chirp – chirp . .
BTW – I’m no liberal . . but I sure ain’t no supporter of these so-called Republicans.
Jo #19 — Only indictment thus far in Fitzgerald’s investigation, "Scooter" Libby, was charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury in the case. He could face up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines if convicted on all five counts.
Maj. Gen. (Ret. Army 1991) Paul Vallely, Fox News consultant, said, according to his recollection, Wilson was rather open about his wife working at the CIA. Vallely was the first President of the National Psychological Operations Association. It is startling to see a photograph of him, and be so heavily reminded of the Swiftboat Veterans attack squad. Did we ever find out where their funding came from?
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTT
As usual the bushit is piling up. Cool 911 video of the twin towers disintegrating like only a controlled demolition falls. Watch the bushit administration go down the same way and expect 35% of voting Americans taking place in a survey conducted by the same fcknuts to disapprove.
Does it bother anyone that FEMA has given new contracts for Hurricane Katrina to Titan, a defense contractor? Do you know what their skills are? Read here:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/1...tanic-mistake/
Tenet told Bush the evidence of WMD was "a slam dunk." Bush invaded Iraq because of such WMD, at least in part because he believed Tenet’s analysis. Tenet was boss of the C.I.A. at the time.
Bush then said, "Congress saw the same intelligence I saw." Ergo, if invading Iraq was wrong, Congress is equally to blame along with Bush.
Now, we’re told the C.I.A. has been trying all along to discredit the Bush administration? But not to discredit Congress, too? They’ve been lying all along to make Bush alone look bad? Why did it take 2-1/2 years to figure this out? Is the G.O.P. now admitting the whole thing was a fraud?
Who’s in charge of the executive branch…the C.I.A.? Or is Bush the boss, with the C.I.A. reporting to him?
This is an eleventh hour public relations scheme, a desperate attempt to save face. Nothing less. It’s like Rumsfeld saying that soldiers have been torturing prisoners as part of a scheme to discredit the Pentagon. What poppycock these people deal!
Yay #18 GWN! Your link works!
This is fun LOL! — From firedoglake.blogspot.com —
I Spy – It’s All Over Now
[snip] Without Queen Rove to spoon feed them their talking points, the wingnut borg have ceded control of the tom-toms to the tin foil hat brigade. Dig it: Joe Wilson was a French spy. No, really ……. [snip]
[snip] … And now Sean Hannity is dragging out some old GOP war horse named General Paul Vallely, noteworthy only for a conspicuous silence on the matter up until now, to claim that Joe Wilson was jabbering to him about how his wife worked for the CIA in the spring of 2002 while they were both in the green room at Fox News.
Never mind that Joe Wilson never appeared on Fox News until July 2002. Vallely has now changed his story to accommodate this discrepancy. Apparently this is supposed to make him more plausible, since if his intent was to lie he would’ve checked his dates first.
They may have to run the one about how an inconsistent story makes it more plausible past me a few times before it starts to make sense. The only salient commentary I found on the whole situation came from the comments at Tom Maguire’s: "One thing’s for damn sure: this Plame/Wilson leak thingy is way too complicated for Sean Hannity to understand."
[**MORE**]
Lots more links from the Fire Dog Lake site — and remember to check out Digby’s Hullabaloo for even more!
Amazing to me that all this is happening in the last 48 hours, the same time frame as the Fallujah video is being broadcast by the Italian press. Another Rove scheme. I can tell when the buttons are being pushed, all of a sudden this blog is over run by trolls, touting some garbage that has nothing to do with anything. The neos start ranting and raging to keep their base focused. The more that is revealed, the louder they squeal. Watch them, see them squirm, lets enjoy the show.
Fussflash #21..good post.
This is why Republicans/rightwingers/conservatives/religious freaks hate the courts. The courts are the only place someone who’s not a member of the above has a fair hearing with no propoganda. This is why they have been trying forever to stack the courts, so there will be NO PLACE to have a fair trial. This is why they hate what’s going on with Fitzgerald. Fitzgerals and the courts are right, but the rightwingers think they are above the law. Treason is OK if it’s them doing it, and the courts shouldn’t be allowed to say what’s right and wrong, or what’s against the law. The Rightwingers should dictate law, not the courts.
Excellent work here, Brad.
Of course, the NeoCons have been replacing loyal career patriots at the CIA with their hack appointees for some time, which has created a huge internal rift within the agency itself. Wayne Madsen Report has plenty on this.
But one thing is clear: as more and more whistleblowers come forward, the NeoCons simply will not be able to control the media. And that will be the day they are done.
Trolls are so funny…Sing along, It’s all Bill Clinton’s fault, it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. There, don’t you little freepers feel better now ???????
"Democrats cleaned up big in off-year elections from New Jersey to California, sinking the candidate who embraced President Bush in the final days of the Virginia governor’s campaign. They also turned back all four of GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s efforts to reshape state government. " (link here).
Excellent piece, Brad. Just differ on one point — I think it is a real war between the CIA and the administration, it’s just that BushCo is the aggressor doing the attacking. Turning the CIA into a pliant tool instead of a source of real intelligence has always been at the forefront of its goals, and now it’s just discrediting it as well.
The bushitler Lie-Machine has no shame!!! NO INTEGRITY … hellooo wingnuts! Goebbels — Leo Strauss – Soviet Russia — Ooooo.
Check it out:
WHITE HOUSE ALTERS TRANSCRIPT – VIDEO PROVES IT!!
From Think Progress:
That’s Not Accurate: White House Alters Transcript of Press Briefing
There is a brewing controversy about what exactly was said at the White House press conference on October 31. Everyone agrees NBC’s David Gregory said this:
Q Whether there’s a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.
Congressional Quarterly and FNS both transcribed Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s answer as “That’s accurate.” The White House transcript lists McClellan’s answer as “I don’t think that’s accurate.”
We’ve isolated the clip so you can judge for yourself (See video at the LINK provided above)
This from a reader at Talking Points Memo.
[QUOTE]
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.co.../006956.phpTPM Reader TF checks in …
I don’t think anyone has mentioned this but didn’t Trent Lott himself continue to leak classified information in his comments off camera to CNN today?
If he was in that Republican only Senator’s meeting with Cheney last week and then confirms today that what was in the Dana Priest article last week was classified and discussed behind closed doors with Cheney, the CONFIRMATION of classified information has occurred.
As I recall from the whole Rove / Libby issues even the confirmation of classified information is a violation. Lott has basically confirmed today the off the books CIA prisons are real and that he got a classified briefing from Cheney. He basically confirmed the entire Wapo article, which I believe might be a violation itself! [/QUOTE]
Mr. Lott was not on a floor of the of the Congress when he made his declaration. He is culpable to the exposure of state secrets.
Haha! The current moniker for Mr. Trent is "Sir Leaks-a-Lott" — too funny!