"not known as a partisan gunslinger" -- Fleitz would fit that bill. If Fleitz became ultra-radioactive because of indictment, how much radiation burns would *B*O*L*T*O*N* get?

Larry Wilkerson commenting on Fred Fleitz, "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man."

You know that has got to hurt! :o) Yet, if it's true, maybe Fitzgerald is taking a closer look at his former boss, John Bolton. Is it possible that Bolton might have slipped poor Fumblin' Fred some classified info and suggested that it would be just fine to share it with Big Time?

"The name of the caller? No one is sure. But these sources said that the call defintely came from the State Department office of John Bolton, then the arms control chief of the department.

These same sources alleged that two employees of Bolton, David Wurmser, a virullent pro-war hawk, first told Libby that Valerie Plame had sent Wilson to Niger to attempt to discredit the administration's line on Iraq's nuclear weapons programs."

is col. patrick lang onto something? or is it just a smoke screen to protect dirty cheney:

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/

Check out Richard Sale's new article at Sic Semper Tyrannis referencing Fleitz.

Wilkerson was referring to Feith.

You know that has got to hurt! :o) Yet, if it's true, maybe Fitzgerald is taking a closer look at his former boss, John Bolton. Is it possible that Bolton might have slipped poor Fumblin' Fred some classified info and suggested that it would be just fine to share it with Big Time?

if Fleitz was Novaks source, its obvious that Fitzgerald is going after Libby because Fleitz would have fessed up to Bolton once Novak's column came out, and Bolton would have gone to Libby to find out what to do.

And its pretty obvious that Fleitz (or in fact, whoever Novak fingered as his source) was told to keep his mouth shut when the FBI came calling --- that it would all blow over. Bushco probably thought that Novak got the message loud and clear when Bush talked about how well reporters protect their sources...

but Novak co-operated with Fitzgerald, and the whole house of cards is gonna come tumbling down now....

"Wilkerson was referring to Feith."

Thank-you. You're right. My apologies to Mr. Fleitz.

Regarding the comment above, I thought Wilkerson was talking about Doug Feith, not Fleitz. TWO different people...Both neo-con thugs. But different people...

---

Question... I have a question...

I just heard someone bring up a good point on one of the talk shows... Why, if someone is getting indicted tomorrow, have they not resigned yet? This person said no sitting cabinet member has been indicted for many many years. I think the key word there is sitting... I have no clue if this is acurate or not, but I think it is a good question. Dont you think Libby would have resigned already?

neither Rove or Libby is a Cabinet member per se. They are high-level White House staffers, not Department heads.

Have y'all seen this?

"Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, overruling advice from some White House political staffers and lawyers, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.

Among the White House materials withheld from the committee were Libby-authored passages in drafts of a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered to the United Nations in February 2003 to argue the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq, according to congressional and administration sources. The withheld documents also included intelligence data that Cheney's office -- and Libby in particular -- pushed to be included in Powell's speech, the sources said."

The new information that Cheney and Libby blocked information to the Senate Intelligence Committee further underscores the central role played by the vice president's office in trying to blunt criticism that the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence data to make the case to go to war."

http://tinyurl.com/a89wm

We do not know ANYTHING
But we know that the NATIONAL JOURNAL is reporting tonight that Cheney and Libby withheld key documents from investigators.
That, to me, is telling...

http://www.schmuckraker.com/

So they indict a minor official called Fleitz, whom NOBODY has ever heard of, Rove gets off, and the whole thing blows over. That doesn't smell like victory to me.

"So they indict a minor official called Fleitz.."

But, from what we've heard, Fitzgerald uses the little guys to catch the big guys. Why would Fleitz take the fall when he may well know where all the bodies are buried?

My guess is that Fleitz (just like Novak) spills his guts. His wife would insist on it.

My Fleitz speculations:

Wonder what Fleitz read on the State computer linked to CIA raw intelligence? Intelligence by/about Plame, by/about Wilson, urnanium, Niger?

Wonder what Fleitz saw in Bolton's NSA intercepts with American citizen and corporate names? American links to Niger/uranium/Italian intelligence?

Fleitz as middleman is believable given Washington connections. His 2002 book (Fiascoes of the 1990s - Causes, Solutions, and US Interests) carried reviews by: Jeane Kirkpatrick,Georgetown; Charles Lichenstein, Heritage Foundation; Richard Staar, Hoover Institution; Rep Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD); The International History Review; Political Science Quarterly; US Army War College Quarterly; National Review

x Station Chief CIA re Cheney Conspiracy charges last night

Robert’s Magazine

October 16, 2005
FLEITZ TO BOLTON TO NOVAK?....I've always thought that the single most mysterious issue in the Valerie Plame case is...."Valerie Plame." Reporters never refer to a woman by her maiden name if she normally goes by her married name, yet for some reason Robert Novak's July 14 column specifically referred to Joe Wilson's wife as Valerie Plame, not Valerie Wilson. Why?

As I've mentioned before, Novak has vaguely implied that the name "Valerie Plame" was available in public records, and indeed it was. This doesn't explain why Novak would use her maiden name, but it's a possible explanation for where it came from.

Until now. Because it turns out that Judith Miller was also provided with Valerie Wilson's maiden name, but in her case she misspelled it as "Valerie Flame." Obviously Miller didn't get a misspelled name from Who's Who, nor did she get it from Joe Wilson's internet bio, despite John Podhoretz's heroic effort to suggest that "the type on that bio was incredibly small" and Miller might not have been able to make it out.

So if not Who's Who, how about that State Department memo that got passed around on Air Force One shortly before Novak wrote his column? No dice. Walter Pincus reports that it referred to her as Valerie Wilson (in a paragraph specifically marked "(S)" for secret, mind you).

What's more, the (admittedly sketchy) evidence so far indicates that Scooter Libby and Karl Rove both referred to her as "Wilson's wife," not as Valerie Plame. So where did "Valerie Plame" come from, and why did Novak and Miller think it was worth writing down?

One thing we know is that Valerie Wilson used her maiden name only inside the CIA. This suggests a CIA source, and Jeralyn Merritt reminds us that this was Novak's original story too, though he later backtracked on it.

But who in the CIA? Laura Rozen resurrects the name of Frederick Fleitz as the most likely suspect. Fleitz didn't just work at the CIA, he worked at WINPAC, a bureau within the CIA that analyzed WMD. And what did Scooter Libby tell Miller on July 8 about Joe Wilson? "Wife works at Winpac." That's pretty specific information.

So how did this information get from Fleitz to both Novak and Miller? As Arianna Huffington told us last month, Fleitz was actually working two jobs at the time all this was going on, and his second job was acting chief of staff for John Bolton. Yes, the same John Bolton who is, apparently, a pretty close friend of Judith Miller's. Novak seems to be pretty friendly toward Bolton as well, acting as practically a one-man cheering squad for him during his ill-fated confirmation hearings this year.

So: Fleitz to Bolton to Novak & Miller? Granted, this is free form speculation, but it answers the otherwise mysterious question of why Robert Novak and Judith Miller were interested in Valerie Wilson's maiden name. It was because their source specifically told them that was the name she used on Agency business, and Novak, at least, decided that was therefore the name he wanted to publicize. Stout fellow.

It might be just a rumor, but it's a good one. We all have been ruminating about the Republican rat John Bolton and just how he could have escaped this web. After all, nothing having to do with foreign policy intrigue escapes this creepy neocon. But Fleitz, now that would go under the Happy Birthday, Bob Haldeman category (today is his birthday), along with Scooter. In other words, let the lackies carry the load, while the boss stays above things... until it all hits the fan. That said, for my money, I'm still looking at Stephen "water carrier for Condi the incompetent" Hadley. But Fleitz is a worthy one to keep in mind. He sure fits the description in news reports of being out of the White House realm.

Only question and maybe I am missing missing (ok, maybe a lot), but according to the Hotline List from last week (http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2005/10/the_f_list.html#more) NEITHER Bolton, nor Fleitz were even questioned. If Fitzgerald was going to indict him, wouldn't he have at least been on the list?

One fact has always stuck way out of the SFRC Bolton transcript file. Fleitz is described as counter intelligence--working at WINPAC. Thus Fleitz might well have known Mrs. Wilson's line of work. By the way Fleitz, according to transcripts, though acting in a policy function had direct access to raw intelligence while at State--and if said intelligence wasn't available at State he would trot on over to the Agency to retrieve it--so he and the boys could mangle it. Wurmser worked at Bolton's office--with Fleitz-- and is another one of the set of neocon staffers who invented the Iraq wmd story.
007

one of America's top journalists called me to ask what I knew about Fleitz. He said rumors were swirling everywhere and that a "really wild rumor" was that Bob Woodward had a piece appearing in tomorrow's Washington Post focusing on Fleitz.

Would that top journalist be employed at the NYT, Steve?

Woodward just joked about the 'bombshell' rumors on Larry King, tracing them back to the Times' lead reporter on the case. No, he says, he doesn't have a bombshell, and that even Len Downie called him to ask about it.

Woodward is on Larry King right now saying that no column/article coming out in the Post by him tomorrow, blogs are wrong as to any Plame/Fitz scoop coming from him.

"and is another one of the set of neocon staffers who invented the Iraq wmd story."

No that was Bill Clinton that invented the WMD story, well before Bolten

Ok, well... I am starting to think that maybe nothing is going to happen. I keep on saying to myself, why isnt anything happening, and the only thing I can come up with is that, nothing is GOING to happen.... I hope it does, but at this point.....??

The "Hotline List" is a list of people KNOWN to have been interviewed. But Fitzgerald has never publicized any such list --- its just what is known from publicly available sources.

And if Fleitz (and Bolton) were cooperating with the investigation, and Fitzgerald was working on the premise that there was a cover-up, not disclosing that Fleitz had turned states evidence would be the best way to expose the coverup in action.

It would also explain why Novak won't talk -- he's cooperating with Fitzgerald by not disclosing that the prosecutor knows that there is an ongoing coverup....

The great thing about living under the Bush administration is that there are no limits-- there isn't a rumor, a fantasy, a scenario, anything we might imagine that is outside the realm of the possible.

Mr. Clemons,

I am sorry about your car accident. I hope you recover well. I still think the UN sucks, though.

Sincerely,

Robert Morrow

Drudge - NOW. Looks like I'm getting off.

Steve, when you posted your hot tip about indictments a couple of days ago, I commented that if Libby is the only one indicted and on a few comments, it would be seen as a "gotcha" exercise by the American public and a failure in Washington (look it up). If the NYT is right, that's what it's gonna look like - a big waste of time.

More grist for the mill
http://tinyurl.com/dhlwu

State told Libby of agent's identity
State Department phone call gave key aide name of CIA officer
By Richard Sale, Intelligence Correspondent

"A State Department phone call, not Vice President Cheney, revealed to I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, the identity of the CIA operative at the heart of the current CIA leak investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, according to former senior and serving U.S. intelligence officials.

An October 25 account in The New York Times, alleged that Libby first learned of the agent's real name weeks before her identity became public in 2003 during a June 12 conversation between Cheney and Libby.

According to the Times account, Cheney told Libby the covert name of the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. diplomat who had publicly alleged that the administration had mishandled of intelligence relating to Iraq's nuclear weapons programs.

But several former and serving U.S. intelligence officials strongly disputed this. "That is simply not accurate," a very former senior CIA official told this repoter. "Libby's notes on this are misleading and inaccurate or both."

This source, supported by three others, alleged that it was a telephone call from the Department of State that first gave Libby the name of Plame.

The name of the caller? No one is sure. But these sources said that the call defintely came from the State Department office of John Bolton, then the arms control chief of the department.

These same sources alleged that two employees of Bolton, David Wurmser, a virullent pro-war hawk, first told Libby that Valerie Plame had sent Wilson to Niger to attempt to discredit the administration's line on Iraq's nuclear weapons programs.

These same intelligence sources alleged that Wurmser, as Bolton's special assistant, got his knowledge of Plame's classified identity from a colleague in his office, Frederick Fleitz, a CIA officer detailed to Bolton's office from the agency who worked in the CIA's Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center (WINIPAC.)

"We do not know yet which of the two called," the former very senior intelligence official said.

"We are almost positive the outing of Plame came from State," said another former senior U.S. intelligence officiel.

But he and others insisted that Fleitz had knowledge of Plame and her cover. Fleitz, still at the State Department, is on leave and could not be reached for comment.

Wurmser did not return calls.

Wurmser is an interesting character, the author of the 1996 paper, "Clean
Break," commissioned by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that called for the destruction of then Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat, the toppling of Saddam by the United States, and launchingof a preemptive war agasinst Syria after Saddam had fallen, among other items.

In the fall of 2003, Wurmser moved from State to the Old Executive Office Building where he worked directly under Libby and Cheney, several sources said.

Before taking his job at State, Wurmser had worked in the secret Pentagon intelligence unit, created by Assisant Secretary of Defense for Policy, Doug Feith, which was tasked with establishing links between Saddam and Al Qaida, a thesis which has since been entirely discredited, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

According to federal law enforcement officials, Wurmser had cooperated with the Fitzgerald probe, as has another Libby aide, John Hannah, as UPI reported in February 2004.

According to these same sources, Cheney still remains at the center of the probe. "The effort is to show that Cheney orchestrated the White House attempts to discredit Wilson," said one.

He added that Libby "has real problems with questions about obstruction of justice."

In the meantime, although indictments are expected Friday, there has been such a flurry of last minute plea bargains, including talks last night between Fitzgerald and Robert Luskin, attorney for Karl Rove , that announcements have been delayed.

And still could be.According to sources close to the probe, Rove refused any plea. The outcome of talks with Libby are not yet known, these sources said.

The purpose of Fitzgerald's pressure at this point is to enable him "to get at as many senior White House officials as he can," a federal law enforcement official said.

But whatever happens, Fitzgerald is in for the long haul, say these sources. He has obtained new office space across the street from his present New York Avenue office and is expected to empanel a new grand jury. The current one expires on Friday.

The target? The tale of the Niger forgeries and how they got into President Bush's State of the Union address, said several intelligence and law enforcement sources."

So we're back to Fitzgerald leasing new office space?

It strikes me as odd that absolutely no one is talking about the possibility that Fitzgerald might hand up indictments on the leak, rather than just on ancillary crimes arising from the investigation. So far as I know, there's been nothing at all to suggest that he gave up on that and at least some indirect evidence -- David Tatel's concurring opinion in the appeals court dismissal of Miller's and Cooper's contempt appeals, for instance --to suggest he didn't.

Tom Engelhardt ran an item a while back in which former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega debunked the notion that it's near impossible to bring charges under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. So long as I'm on the unsubstantiated rumor page, I'm predicting that Fitzgerald will indict at least one person on that charge.

The information generally known about Valorie only scratches the surface.

An assumption can be made with a basis in truth. Assumptions or 'rumors' can turn into a national security leaks. But it's only the tip of an iceberg.

The intelligence leak does not prove or dis-prove a larger conspiracy for war. Prove of a forgery might.

We'll not have dug any deeper by 2 p.m. Fitzgerald has more work to do.

The administration is banking on Libby's resignation to make the issue go away.

Be careful recommending Richard Sales' atricles. He (or his "sources") have been off at least twice this week. That being said, we can wait and see if his latest reporting carries water this time.