Juicio Brennan

To no ones surprise, Harriet backs out.

Update (10-27-2005 9:47): The National Review has obtained a copy of her resignation letter.

Update (10-27-2005 9:58): President Bush just stated that he believed Miers would not be confirmed unless senators were given classified information. He failed to mention her suspensions from the bar and her stolen money from Texas, the fact that conservatives are running a $250,000 ad campaign against her, and that even Republican senators found the answers on her written questionaire “insulting“.
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One of the current right smear tactics to discredit the pending indictments on the White House administration is that leaks happen all the time and they are not really a big deal. First, there is no evidence showing CIA operatives are outted “all the time”, nor at all without repercussion. Second, Former U.S. Senator Gary Hart illustrates why they enacted the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act (via Atrios):

In the early 1970s, in part as a result of the radicalization of individuals and groups over the Vietnam War, a former CIA employee named Philip Agee wrote a book revealing the identities of several dozen CIA employees, many under deep cover and some including agency station chiefs in foreign capitals.

…

Richard Welch, a brilliant Harvard-educated classicist, had been stationed in Greece as CIA station chief only a few months before he was murdered, by a radical Greek terrorist organization called the 17th of November, in the doorway of his house in Athens on Dec. 23, 1975. Had Agee not divulged his name, there is every reason to believe that Welch would be alive today after decades of loyal service to his country.

Largely as a result of Agee’s perfidy and Welch’s unnecessary death, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) of 1982 was enacted, making it a felony to knowingly divulge the identity of a covert CIA operative. It carries penalties of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for each offense. There are those who dismiss the crime by saying, “Oh, Wilson only had a desk job.” That is not a defense under this felony statute. It is for the CIA, not Karl Rove or Robert Novak, to determine who requires identity protection and who does not.

…

There is one final irony to this story. On Christmas Eve in 1975, I got a call at my home from the director of the CIA, William Colby. He asked if I would intervene with the White House to obtain presidential approval to have Welch buried at Arlington National Cemetery, a hero fallen in service to his country. I quickly called President Ford’s chief of staff on Colby’s behalf and made the request. Within two hours, the president had agreed to sign the order permitting Welch to be buried at Arlington.

The chief of staff’s name was Richard Cheney.

Emphasis mine.

Update (10-26-2005 15:29): Correction from Gary Hart:

I incorrectly stated above that Philip Agee included the name of Richard Welch in his book naming CIA operatives. That statement was inaccurate. Mr. Agee did not identify Richard Welch, but other sources did. Nevertheless, the Agee book and subsequent Agee actions did contribute substantially to the passage of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. I apologize to Mr. Agee for this incorrect assertion.

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At his first court appearance today, DeLay’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, claimed that the judge assigned to the case should be disqualified. A central part of DeGuerin’s claim was that the Texas judge, Bob Perkins, had donated in the past to MoveOn.org, which is selling t-shirts with DeLay’s mug shot on them.

The catch: MoveOn is not selling any t-shirt with DeLay’s mug shot.

You can check out the site for yourself. This is just another dirty tactic DeLay is using to pollute the jury pool in Texas.

But that’s not all. His supporters have actually been running television advertisements that smear the District Attorney, Ronnie Earle. You can watch the ad called ‘Bad Ronnie, Bad’ at the Free Enterprise Fund’s website (scroll down once you get there).

Luckily, there are groups fighting against this smear campaign. The Public Campaign Action Fund just launched their own commercial discussing DeLay’s actions that got him indicted. You can watch the video at Clean Up Congress. (via Sector 7G)

For more information and video of today’s hearing, check out ThinkProgress.

God, politics is dirty. Or, maybe, it’s just the politicians…
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I wonder why he might do that…

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From Dan Simpson, retired U.S. ambassador, at the Post-Gazette:

As I suspected six months ago, U.S. military and Bush administration civilian officials confirmed last week that U.S. forces have invaded Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian forces.

An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the number of Americans — if any — who have died in Syria so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who by the way insist on remaining faceless and nameless.

The New York Times is calling this a “shadow struggle” and compares it to Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The truly frightening part is that Secretary Rice has made it clear that the White House believes the Iraq War Resolution could allow for a war with Syria. In other words, Bush would not have to approach congress before starting another war.

I would like to know where he plans to get the troops since Rice also admitted that we could be in Iraq for another ten years.
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Things are heating up for Cheney as a second one of his aides, John Hannah, began cooperating with Fitzgerald after he was identified by witnesses as a co-conspirator in the leak, according to The Raw Story. Does this remind anyone of All the Presidents Men?

In related pressing news, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff (2002-2005), is claiming that ”a secretive cabal running American foreign policy is undermining American democracy.” Who is that cabal, you might ask? Cheney and Rumsfeld.

That’s right. Cheney and Rumsfeld have been making “critical” international decisions without the knowledge or participation of other administrators in the White House.

You can watch the video at the New American Foundation and read about it at Salon.

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