Raimondo :
I wouldn't be surprised if the govt drops the whole matterHorton:
I don't like secret trials... but why is that gag orders and State Secrets privilege is perfectly fine for Sibel Edmonds... but when you're talking about Israeli spies turning over documents about the debate inside the USG about when/whether to bomb iran...Raimondo:
... this is part of a bigger investigation, and they have all kinds of information on other people (the DoJ and the investigators) - so I wouldn't be surprised if the govt comes back with more indictments of a far wider range of people. Like, why did Doug Feith resign suddenly? What was that about? He was a key neoconservative, head of the Defense Dept Policy section... Larry Franklin worked for him... and there's a whole group of people who have been implicated in various stories... and there's been an investigation, the whole chalabi thing, chalabi and iran, espionage... so all kinds of stuff is going to come out.Horton:
OK - well if the DoJ is going to take their ball and go home, do you have any hope for Henry Waxman and the Dems in Congress getting to the bottom of any of these things?Raimondo:
No - it's all going to come from the people in the DoJ and law enforcement who are saying "Look - why are the israelis allowed to get away with this? Is this a matter of policy? What's going on here?"Horton:
Well, it's a faction fight within the Establishment, too, isn't it?Raimondo:
Well - it's the people who's job it is to protect America's national security interests, here in America, protecting American soil against foreign invasion, basically. So, they're seeing this espionage going on and they want to put a stop to it, and other people in the government don't, apparently. All of this stuff is going to come out - or maybe not, if the govt just goes home... But I think that the law enforcement professionals will fight back with more indictments
interesting... I think Raimondo is probably close with his suggestion that it's the law enforcement folks who are pushing the case - which probably explains how the case came about in the first place (although it doesn't explain how they've been able to keep it so limited, nor why we didn't see the same thing in Sibel's ATC case).
One problem that the Law Enforcement folks will have is described by Elizabeth De La Vega the other day:
"For cases involving public figures, the US Attorney's Manual requires that "appropriate officials, including the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, the associate attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the attorney general" be advised of the initiation of any case "in which public figures or entities are subjects of the investigation." Bottom line? The attorney general is notified immediately, not just when charges are brought in a public corruption case, but when the file is opened and every time that any activity, even procedural, occurs in the case."That means that Abu Gonzo et al knows EVERY step the L.E. folks make, in real time - which means the L.E. folks will have to play it very smart.
Like I've said, I'll be writing a whole lot about this case, because it is essentially Sibel's case. As Raimondo says, there are a whole bunch of other indictments that the L.E. folks can pull the trigger on at any time... interesting times.
3 comments:
"why we didn't see the same thing in Sibel's ATC case"
Here's one theory Luke- State Dept. successfully made the argument to DOJ that an exposure of Turkey's illegal activities could result in the Islamic Parties taking over Turkey completely and turning Turkey into a fundamentalist state, whereas Israel is more stable politically and the most that would happen from the scandal is Israel would look bad.
I am increasingly of the mind that Bush does not want this case to go forward, but if the White House interferes, there will be a series of mass resignations in the FBI and Justice Department.
I hope you are right and a series of other indictments come down..but I don't know...everythig concerning Israel and spies has been put down by political pressure in the past.
What I keep hoping is that the LE and FBI will leak something, but not everything, about what they have that is so "shocking" that the media can't ignore it and it becomes a feeding frenzy among the public with demands for investigations.
Surely the FBI knows how to leak to leak something to their benefit for a change.
miguel - your argument makes some kinda sense (although at this point "the most that would happen from the scandal is Israel would look bad." is almost laughable)
Anon - yes, yes and yes.
Post a Comment