Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 6:37 PM
Subject: As The Shrub Turns-An Analysis
AS THE SHRUBS TURNS-INSIDE THE PATRICK FITZGERALD INDICTMENTS FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 21-31, 2005
AN ANALYSIS
by Scott Mowry & Dan Rezac
11.1.05
At first appearances, it would seem that the lone indictment of an apparent "little fish" like Irv(e) Lewis "Scooter" Libby from the Fitzgerald grand jury investigation is extremely disappointing. Especially after nearly two years of investigating the overtly corrupt and criminal George W. Bush, Jr. administration. But there is much more to this story than occurred this past Friday, October 28, 2005.
Expectations were very high, when there had been numerous and consistent reports since August 2, 2005 that we would see anywhere from 22 to 28 indictments implicating practically the entire hierarchy of the Bush brain trust. That was the day that Tom Heneghan announced the impeding indictments to the world. And on Thursday, October 27th, the eve before the big day, Heneghan and Stew Webb were very enthusiastic on their "U.S. Intel" radio show about the impending announcement.
"I speak it tonight folks, because tomorrow (Friday), you WILL HEAR the indictments by Fitzgerald against the 'occupunk' of the united States of America at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Bush/Clinton crime families. You will hear the indictments roll, and these indictments are the first round of three rounds of indictments, " Webb declared.
However, it is equally important to be mindful of the words Heneghan uttered immediately after Webb's impassioned plea.
"We are in the most severe CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS that this country has ever experienced. We are in the most dangerous period this country has ever faced. I am talking more so than the (American) Revolution, the Civil War, World War I and World War II combined, because the forces of satanic evil will do anything to survive including attacking us, American people, again," Heneghan said.
Heneghan had been expressing the words, "constitutional crisis" for over two months, when issuing his various reports on both
http://www.cloakanddagger.de and on his show with Webb heard over the Turner Radio Network every Thursday evening at 5 PM EST. In addition, Sherman Skolnick had been reporting much the same on cloakanddagger for several months too.
A constitutional crisis is defined as ?a situation where there is a severe breakdown in the smooth operation of constitutional government above and beyond the normal day-to-day minor conflicts.? Such a crisis can occur whether there is a written or unwritten constitution but is most possible when there exists separate factions or branches WITHIN a government that disagree about the extent to which each of these factions hold power.
When Heneghan declares that we are on the verge of a constitutional crisis, it may very well be the case. If that is the situation, then one must choose which targets will give the greatest ?bang for the buck? and which ones have the most compelling evidence to support the indictments. With that said, who is ?Scooter? Libby? How powerful is he?
It also should be noted that "Scooter" Libby is, indeed, a very significant catch for Fitzgerald. He actually wields more power than Rove within the Bush administration and has close ties to both Bush and Cheney. Here is what author Webster Tarpley had to say on Friday afternoon about the Libby indictments.
"For some people, it maybe is not clear that if you had to pick between Libby indicted and Rove indicted, it is much better to have Libby indicted because he is incomparably a more powerful figure,? Tarpley explained.
?If you look at Libby, first of all, he was special assistant to the President; he was really Bush's assistant before he was anything else. He was also Chief of Staff to Cheney and Cheney's National Security Advisor so he had three important hats in the White House. If you add up the number of hats he's got, he's probably more important than anyone in that White House. Libby is probably more responsible than anybody in starting the Iraq War," Tarpley added.
However, clearly the Judge who finally issued the indictments was not prepared to go any further than Libby, for reasons that may well be directly related to a possible constitutional crisis in the united States of America. This was probably THE main reason why you did not see more indictments last Friday afternoon, along with the fact that the remaining 22 or 23 indictments were sealed, for so called "national security" reasons aka "constitutional crisis." And by law, Fitzgerald, as a federal or ?Special Prosecutor,? is NOT PERMITTED to reveal anything to do with national security.
Let's review the activities over the last ten days from reports that were filed by Skolnick, Heneghan, Webb, journalist Tom Flocco and others, and try to speculate what may have actually happened and what has yet to come with the Fitzgerald indictments.
On the morning of Friday, October 21, 2005, Fitzgerald reportedly handed over 28 indictments, which were originally thought to be only 22, to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Washington, DC. Gonzales's reaction, upon seeing the scope and sheer number of the indictments, was one of utter shock and awe, which may have even included himself among the criminally charged.
When Gonzales informed Bush of the indictments by telephone, who was in California at the time, Bush ordered him to immediately fire Fitzgerald. Gonzales refused Bush's directive, perhaps thinking it would lead to yet more hot water for him, and then removed himself entirely from the picture. Skolnick reported that the second in command at the Department of Justice had left the prior week and the third in command was not available, so there was no one left to neither fire Fitzgerald nor issue the indictments. Flocco reported that Gonzales ultimately refused to issue the indictments, which prompted him to be indicted on the spot, maybe for perhaps for a second time.
So, apparently, those 28 indictments basically sat in limbo over the remainder of that weekend.
Then on Monday morning, October 24th, Condoleezza Rice and Supreme Court nominee (of the moment) Harriet "The Witch" Miers, went before a District of Columbia Appellate Court Judge in Washington, DC in a an attempt to sue their own Department of Justice and get the indictments over turned, with Fitzgerald in attendance, as well. Rice and Miers were laughed out of the courtroom by that same judge as he said to them, "you can't do this!" Then, on Thursday, October 27th, Miers was forced to remove herself as a Supreme Court nominee, after much consternation by both Democrats and Republicans. (Talk about a bad week for you, Harriet!)
Flocco wrote: "Importantly, the dismissals by both the district and appellate courts will likely preclude an additional appeal by the Bush administration to the United States Supreme Court, since two consecutive reversals ordinarily result in the high court deciding not to hear the case and grant relief." This, of course, was fantastic news!
Ultimately, Fitzgerald found another federal judge by the name of Thomas Hogan, who was willing to make the indictments public for 12 noon EST, Friday, to be followed by a Fitzgerald news conference at 2 PM.
Here is one plausible scenario that could have unfolded as Fitzgerald attempted to get his indictments out in the open throughout the week:
Sometime after Monday, Fitzgerald turns over the 28 indictments to Judge Hogan for public release after being rebuffed by Gonzales and surviving the challenges from the team of Rice and Miers. As Judge Hogan reads over the documents, he too is completely shocked when he learns the comprehensive nature of them. In that they may well name, not only Libby, but Karl Rove, Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Press Secretary Scott McClelland, former Press Secretary Ari Fleisher, White House advisor Mary Matlin, former President Bill Clinton, New York Times reporter Judith Miller and also Bush and Cheney, as, at the very least, un-indicted co-conspirators.
Other possibilities for indictments may have included Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former First Lady Hilary Clinton, former White House advisor Karen Hughes, former President George H. W. Bush, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, NBC's Meet the Press anchor Tim Russert, Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper and ABC's This Week's host George Stephanopoulos, to name but a few.
Hogan then possibly says this to Fitzgerald:
"Mr. Fitzgerald, I can't issue ALL of these indictments. They name this ENTIRE administration. There would be no one left to run the country! This could cause total chaos in our government and in our nation and in our economy and maybe even in the world! Undoubtedly, this will cause a major CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS!! I am not prepared to do that yet.
You are issuing indictments for the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of Defense, and their closest advisors...all the way down the line!
Under the best scenario for the American people, I am going to allow you at this time to make only five of these indictments public against Libby, until such time as it can be figured who is going to lead this country. However, for NATIONAL SECURITY reasons, I am going to seal these remaining indictments for now."
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