"Newly-released court orders show U.S. District Court Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan two weeks ago ordered Matt Cooper of Time magazine and Tim Russert of NBC to appear before a grand jury and tell whether they knew that White House sources provided the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media.
The Justice Department probe is trying to determine whether this information was provided knowingly, in violation of the law. Hogan's orders show that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald believes Cooper and Russert know the answer.
Cooper still refused to answer questions after Hogan's July 20 order, and on Aug. 6 Hogan held him in contempt of court and ordered that he go to jail. Cooper has been released on bond pending his emergency appeal to a federal appeals court. Hogan has ordered that Time pay a $1,000 fine for each day Cooper does not appear before the grand jury.
Sources close to the investigation said they believe Russert was not held in contempt Aug. 6 because he agreed to answer the questions after Hogan's July 20 ruling. "
So basically Russert saw Cooper get contempt and decided to fess up. Thing is, I know journalists are supposed to protect their sources, but this is treason. Revealing the identity of a CIA operative undercover is not just against the law, it's against the country. I'm glad that at least some press is being devoted to this trial. You had to dig to find anything when this actually happened. Y'know when Joe Wilson came out with that book debunking the Niger claims? Sounds like ancient history almost.
Another funny Russert comment, did anyone watch meet the press yesterday? Condileeza Rice is really slipping in her defense claims. I'm starting to think she isn't as good of a liar as I once thought. What kills me is that their still trying to defend the Iraq decision with the same bullshit.
"DR. RICE:Now, it is true that stockpiles have not been found in Iraq, but I think we've gone all the way over to the other side in assuming somehow that Saddam Hussein was not a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat. Of course he was. And people who--and intelligence services around the world, both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, the United Nations inspectors, knew that this was somebody who had the knowledge, the capability, the intent to make weapons of mass destruction, had used them before, refused to disclose them, was, of course, continuing to defy the international community.
Sooner or later, Tim, the international community had to mean what it said about Saddam Hussein. When it said that it could no longer tolerate his defiance and he had one last chance to disarm or be disarmed, he chose defiance. And the president fulfilled the obligation that he had given to the international community when he went to the U.N. in September of 2002 and said, "If he will not comply with his obligations, then he has to go."
MR. RUSSERT: But having not found the kind of stockpiles of chemical and biological and potential nuclear that we thought he had, you have no second thoughts that the war was not necessary?
DR. RICE: Absolutely not. Because Saddam Hussein had been a threat for 12 years, ever since he invaded Kuwait and set the Middle East on a course of instability. Somebody had to take care of Saddam Hussein and set the Middle East on a different course. This president is not confused about this point. He knows that this was the right thing to do. And now we have an opportunity--and let me just say, Tim, every sacrifice of an American soldier is felt deeply by us all, because this is a great sacrifice for the men and women in uniform, for their families and for the American people. But nothing of value is ever won without sacrifice. On September the 11th, we were brutally attacked by people who had an ideology of hatred so great that they, with a few people, threatened to try and bring down our way of life.
MR. RUSSERT: But there's no linkage between September 11 and Iraq?
DR. RICE: There is no linkage between the plot of September 11 and Saddam Hussein's regime that we see. But I think it would be wrong to say that there is no linkage between what happened to us on September 11 and the instability and lack of hope and lack of freedom in the Middle East. And Saddam Hussein's regime was one of the prime elements in that kind of Middle East. Now, we have a chance to build a different kind of Middle East."
They then chit chat about the president's brave decision to continue reading to the chilluns as opposed to informing the country that a few thousand people were just murdered.
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I think you're both right. Kerry had some good momentum just after the DNC, even though the media tried to stomp it "John Kerry didn't gain as much momentum as prior candidates after their conventions.."blah blah blah. He did the march across America thing, and that got some attention. Now it's all silliness and lame campaigning to chase Bush around the battle states. Did you hear while they were both in the same town that the police were so busy monitoring the candidates that 3 banks were robbed? I thought that was a good one. Anyhow, what Kerry needs now is loud repitition. He needs to speak up about all of the allegations going on. He needs to comment on the Plame case. He needs to go on record condemning them for releasing Kahn's name and allowing more than 5 Al-Queda cell members to get away from British Intelligence. He needs to continue to repeat the Dems messages like he did during that speech and the DNC. "We can do better" is a good slogan, not the best, but it's better than anything Dubya has.
But what do you guys think about this Kahn thing. Here's another example of how poorly the Bush administration handles intelligence as well as how lazy our press is to stay on the story. In addition to this, Bush named his new CIA director today, what do you guys think about Porter Goss?
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