So What's Next?
Let's get one thing out of the way immediately and correct something once and for all. Patrick Fitzgerald is NOT done. Patrick Fitzgerald DOES NOT have to re-convene a new grand jury. There is always a grand jury sitting in Washington DC. All he has to do is request one of them to take a look at anything he finds and you could tell by his demeaner today during his press conference he is far from finished. Karl Rove may be breathing a sigh of relief (at least to the public), but he better not get too cocky it is my feeling that Patrick isn't finished with him yet.
My guess is he also has Dick Cheney in his sights and will eventually nail him. This very telling part of the indictment says it allOn or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.The CPD is NOT part of the intelligence branch of the CIA it is that part of the CIA that makes up the Clandestine Service. It is the front-line source of clandestine information on critical international developments, from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to military and political issues.In other words this is where "spies" work. This is where Valerie Plame Wilson worked. Does anyone seriously believe that the VP of the United States wouldn't be aware of this? Let's dispel another "talking point" the right-wing is going to come out with. Fitzgerald's investigation was a flop because he didn't indict anyone on the original charge covering the release of classified information. Well how the hell could he? As he said in a more poite way than I will here. He couldn't get to that point in the investigation mainly because of the lying and cover-up done by Libby. And also we cannot forget the stalling done by that self-proclaimed martyr for the first amendment Judy Miller. Fitzgerald said as much today. If it were not for Libby's lies, and the side trip to the Supreme Court to satisfy Millers' ego he would be holding his press conference a year earlier. As I said at the begining of this post. This grand jury may be finished its' work, but there is always a GJ sitting all he has to do is bring his findings to them and request them to take it over. There could still be many more indictments down the pike and Cheney could very well be one of them. Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and counterterrorism official at the State Department, summed it up best on the blog No Quarter A careful reading of the indictment shows beyond a reasonable doubt that there was an organized effort in the White House to go after Joe and Valerie Wilson. At a minimum, Vice President Cheney was witting of this effort.It should also be noted that Larry Johnson trained and worked with Valerie Plame Wilson when both were undercover at the CIA. |