by TChris

The military charged eleven soldiers with abusing detainees in Iraq. Only limited details have been released.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the charges against the 11 troops, who served in the Baghdad area but were not otherwise identified, were filed Wednesday after another soldier complained about the alleged assaults.

"None of the insurgents required medical treatment for injuries related to the alleged assault," the statement added. "Only one of the suspected terrorists remains in custody of coalition forces at this time."

[I wrote this on July 16 and just found it in "draft" status, meaning I didn't hit the "publish" button. For the Rove Gate obsessed, it may have another dot or two.]

I think this UPI article by Richard Sale from February 5, 2004 is right on the money.

Federal law enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said.

According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned. Hannah and Libby did not return calls.

The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah "that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time," as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law enforcement official said.
....On June 12, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus revealed that an unnamed diplomat had "given a negative report" on the claim and then on July 6, as the Bush administration was widely accused of manipulating intelligence to get American public opinion behind a war with Iraq, Wilson published an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post, in which he accused the Bush administration of "misrepresenting the facts," asking, "What else are they lying about?"

In a blow to the Constitution but giving a win to the Bush Administration, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver, can be tried by military tribunal at Guantanamo. The opinion is here.(pdf.)

The decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reversed a lower court's ruling that abruptly halted the first war crimes trials conducted by the United States since the aftermath of World War II. The appeals judges said the Bush administration's plan to try some detainees before military commissions did not violate the Constitution, international law or American military law.

One of his lawyers says,

"Today's ruling... "places absolute trust in the president, unchecked by the Constitution, statutes of Congress and longstanding treaties ratified by the Senate of the United States."

Leaks from Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation are coming faster and faster. Now we know that Valerie Wilson's identity as a CIA Agent and the wife of Joseph Wilson was revealed in a June 10, 2003 State Department memo and that Colin Powell had it with him on Air Force One on the July 7 - 12, 2003 Bush trip to Africa - and was seen walking up and down the aisles of the Air Force One with it.

The memo was dated June 10, 2003, nearly four weeks before Mr. Wilson wrote an Op-Ed article for The New York Times in which he recounted his mission and accused the administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq. The memo was written for Marc Grossman, then the under secretary of state for political affairs, and it referred explicitly to Valerie Wilson as Mr. Wilson's wife, according to a government official who reread the memo on Friday.

Here's the catch: It didn't mention Valerie Plame, it mentioned Valerie Wilson. Novak's article mentioned Valerie Plame.

The AP article detailing Rove's e-mail to Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley I just wrote about also has this piece of information:

Rove sent the e-mail shortly before leaving the White House early for a family vacation that weekend, already aware that another journalist he had talked with, syndicated columnist Robert Novak, was planning an article about Plame and Wilson.

Rove also knew that then-CIA Director George Tenet planned later that same day to issue a dramatic statement that took responsibility for some bad Iraq intelligence but that also called into question.

Rove spoke to Novak on July 8 and Cooper on July 11. Tenet's statement was released July 11. Bush left for Africa on July 7, 2003 and returned on July 12. [typo in year corrected]

Fitzgerald supboenaed the telephone records of Air Force One between July 7 and 12 - the period of the Africa trip. So clearly, Rove wasn't on the trip or the plane - and it's not Rove's conversations while he was on board Air Force One that Fitzgerald was after.

Rove's supporters are continuing their leak campaign to support his lack of wrongdoing in the Valerie Plame investigation. The latest leak is the involves an e-mail Rove wrote then Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley after Rove spoke with Cooper.

The July 11, 2003, e-mail between Rove and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is the first showing an intelligence official knew Rove had talked to Matthew Cooper just days before the Time magazine reporter wrote an article identifying Valerie Plame as a CIA officer.

"I didn't take the bait," Rove wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press, recounting how Cooper tried to question him about whether President Bush had been hurt by the new allegations. The White House turned the e-mail over to prosecutors, and Rove testified to a grand jury about it last year.

Another item of interest in the article is Robert Luskin's statement:

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said his client answered all the questions prosecutors asked during three grand jury appearances, never invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or the president's executive privilege guaranteeing confidential advice from aides.

Murray Waas has just posted another Rove scoop. I agree with his ultimate conclusion:

In the meantime, however, what has propelled the investigation -- and led to the extraordinary jailing of the Times’ Judith Miller -- has been the strong belief by federal investigators that Rove, Novak, and others may have misled them and the public, and that one or more of the participants may have devised a cover story with others to avoid public or legal culpability.

I'm glad to see Waas stay on the subject of Fitzgerald's investigation. I think that those who are fixating on trying to figure out whether reporters told Rove or Rove told reporters about Plame's status are falling for the Republican talking points.

Whether Karl Rove was only a "confirming source" or learned about Plame from reporters is immaterial to Fitzgerald at this point. He's known what Karl Rove and other White House officials have said since 2003 when grand jury investigators interviewed them and through their grand jury testimony.

The fact that Fitzgerald told the Judge early this month that Judith Miller's testimony was essential to the successful conclusion of the investigation indicates that this investigation has moved far past the stage of who outed Valerie Plame and whether she was or was not a covert operative and on to whether White House officials and/or reporters lied in their initial interviews with grand jury investigators or during their grand jury testimony - and whether there was an attempted cover-up that would amount to a conspiracy to obstruct justice.

by TChris

Comparing the allegations of wrongdoing by Karl Rove to the prosecution of Jonathan Randel, John Dean offers this analysis of laws that Rove (and/or others in the White House) may have violated.

by TChris

It's bad enough that a state offers "Choose Life" license plates without offering a "Choose Choice" alternative, thus signaling state support for a particular religious point of view. It's even worse when the state supports faith-based adoption services by providing them with money from the sale of "Choose Life" license plates, thus intertwining the state with religion. But it's outrageous that a state gives money to an organization that discriminates on the basis of religion.

The Mississippi office of Bethany Christian Services (an organization that has 75 offices in 30 states) rejects Catholic couples who apply for adoption because Catholic doctrine, in the agency's view, conflicts with the agency's "Statement of Faith."

"It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith," Bethany's state director Karen Stewart wrote. "Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant's time, money and emotional energy."

Catholic couples are religiously unfit to adopt? Is that the official line of the State of Mississippi? Why has Mississippi chosen to support an anti-Catholic agency?

Rep. Henry Waxman has released this fact sheet (pdf)today on Karl Rove's non-disclosure agreement with the White House. In it, Rep. Waxman writes:

The nondisclosure agreement signed by White House officials such as Mr. Rove states: “I will never divulge classified information to anyone” who is not authorized to receive it.

THE PROHIBITION AGAINST “CONFIRMING” CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

Mr. Rove, through his attorney, has raised the implication that there is a distinction between releasing classified information to someone not authorized to receive it and confirming classified information from someone not authorized to have it. In fact, there is no such distinction under the nondisclosure agreement Mr. Rove signed.

Update: Craig Crawford also believes Fitzgerald has new leakers from within his camp to investigate. Evan at Alternet highlights my theory.

***************
Original Post 6:35 am

Karl Rove's loyalists are promoting a new version of the Valerie Plame leak to the New York Times. Now, they say, Novak called Rove on July 8 and told him about Valerie Plame, and Rove merely said, "I heard that too.."

How dumb do they think we are?

Mr. Rove has told investigators that he learned from the columnist the name of the C.I.A. officer, who was referred to by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, and the circumstances in which her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, traveled to Africa to investigate possible uranium sales to Iraq, the person said.

After hearing Mr. Novak's account, the person who has been briefed on the matter said, Mr. Rove told the columnist: "I heard that, too." The previously undisclosed telephone conversation, which took place on July 8, 2003, was initiated by Mr. Novak, the person who has been briefed on the matter said. The person who provided the information about Mr. Rove's conversation with Mr. Novak declined to be identified, citing requests by Mr. Fitzgerald that no one discuss the case. The person discussed the matter in the belief that Mr. Rove was truthful in saying he did not disclose Ms. Wilson's identity.

Then, there's this:

by TChris

Remember Justice Sunday? Religious extremists who believe they have a God-given right to select the next Supreme Court Justice plan a sequel: Justice Sunday II.

[The event] will focus on "the court's hostility toward religion and Christianity in particular," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and the principal organizer of the event. Its subtitle is a prayer said each time the court meets: "God save the United States and this Honorable Court."

The claim that the Supreme Court is hostile to religion is a bizarre misperception of reality. In truth, the extreme religious right is hostile to the Constitution, which protects us all from governmental interference with, or advocacy for, particular religious beliefs.