Comments (29)

profmarcus wrote on April 30, 2007 4:38 PM:

condoleezza rice has been one of the principal liars of the bush administration... the waxman's questions revolve around iraq, but there are many, many more - torture, black sites, extraordinary rendition, forewarning and/or foreknowledge of 9/11, the mysterious flight whisking bin laden's relatives out of the u.s. immediately post-9/11, and the list goes on... ms. rice is every bit as much a criminal as dick cheney, donald rumsfeld, alberto gonzales, george tenet, colin powell, karl rove, and george bush, and, like all of them, must be held accountable, whether it be sooner or later... my preference is for sooner...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

bobh wrote on April 30, 2007 4:56 PM:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/feinstein-proposes-plan-to-close-gitmo-2007-04-30.html

side note
Feinstiein wants to close Gitmo....drumroll.

Feinstein proposes plan to close Gitmo
By Chris Good
April 30, 2007

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation Monday that would close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“Guantánamo Bay has become a lightning rod for international condemnation,” Feinstein said. “Rather than make the United States safer, the image projected by this facility puts us at greater risk.”

Since January 2002, the facility, also known as “Gitmo,” has housed suspected terrorists whom the administration has described as “the worst of the worst.”

The U.N. called on the U.S. to close Guantánamo in February 2006, siding against the Bush administration’s claims that suspected terrorists were not entitled to treatment adherent to the Geneva Conventions or the habeas corpus right to challenge the legality of their detentions.

Feinstein’s bill would require the Department of Defense to close the Guantánamo Bay prison 100 days after the bill’s enactment. As to where the detainees would go, Feinstein laid out several options.

Detainees could be transferred to civilian or military prisons in the United States and charged before civilian courts or military tribunals, or they could be handed over to international tribunals authorized to try them.

Detainees cleared for release would be sent either to their home countries or, if torture looms at the hands of home governments, to third-party countries that have agreed to take them.

Feinstein said she opposes releasing any terrorists, but that the U.S. would be better served holding them elsewhere.

“Conducting trials elsewhere, either in the United States or before internationally recognized tribunals, will give these proceedings a credibility that they would not likely have it they were conducted at Guantánamo Bay,” Feinstein said.

jon wrote on April 30, 2007 4:57 PM:

In her policy initiatives and management of the State Department, and the office of National Security Advisor prior to that, Rice has far more to explain and apologize for than Tenet.

The State Department has some intelligence resources, as does the NAS. What did they have to offer on the issues of al Quaeda and Iraq, WMDs. I don't believe we've really heard about that.

What exactly have been her acomplishments overall while in managing these offices?

I'd also like to hear what the Fund, or whatever it is that Wolfowitz's squeeze is administering is accomplishing. Can we also hear about the stellar work of Karen Hughes and Cheney's daughter, under Rice's auspices?

She will probably do anything to avoid testifying under oath. And maybe Laura would like her to answer one or two questions under oath as well.

I'll make the popcorn, this is gonna be good.

bordersmuggler wrote on April 30, 2007 5:20 PM:

Next time any inconvenient subpoena is issued, counsel can simply reply that his client is "uncompelled" to answer it. Case closed.

scientist wrote on April 30, 2007 5:30 PM:

One truly bizarre aspect of the whole thing is the basic lack of prima facie credibility that the 16 words had. (1) It would appear from the scientific literature (of which there is much about the so-called Oklo phenomenon) that the uranium mines in the former French colonies of Africa are tightly controlled by the French. If you want to buy their uranium, you go to Paris, not Niamey. (2) If Saddam was still in need of natural uranium, he was very far from building a bomb. Getting the natural uranium is one of the easier steps of the whole process, especially if you have a relatively big country like Iraq to look for it in.

For me, the "16 words" were actually what tipped me from a skeptic to a convinced opponent of the proposed invasion. If this was the best evidence of WMD that they had, they had nothing.

I wonder if some of the professionals in the government agencies -- when they let this thing go through -- were thinking if we've got to give those guys in the White House something, let's give them something that the world won't believe.

bordersmuggler wrote on April 30, 2007 5:39 PM:

From Rice's expression on Sunday, it's not difficult to see her terror. She knows the walls are closing in. Keep pressing.

az5762 wrote on April 30, 2007 5:57 PM:

Can she IGNORE the subpoenas just because she feels like it? Can they haul her ass if she does?

security code: sound . . . as in the sound of those walls CLOSING in cher Condi, tightly.

Buck wrote on April 30, 2007 6:08 PM:

Atrios just put this up:
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070430nj1.htm

Have I missed it on TPM? Hopefully this one is devoloping.

B W wrote on April 30, 2007 6:09 PM:

Some time back Josh posted a way to contact TPM tv to give a heads up about clips.

The Ray McGovern on tonight's Tucker was really good. McGovern placed the blame on Cheney for the Niger forgeries. He accused the VP of sending his "plumbers" (think Larry Franklin, Harold Rhode, and Michael Leeden) out to Rome to meet with Italian agents to cook up the document, and said he has some evidence to back it up.

That was an awesome interview.

ColoradoDem wrote on April 30, 2007 6:17 PM:

"Can she IGNORE the subpoenas just because she feels like it? Can they haul her ass if she does?"

posted by az5762

I'm pretty sure that's what Contempt of Congress citations are intended to address. I'm not quite sure why no one has suggested such a thing in some of these cases. Any thoughts?

j swift wrote on April 30, 2007 6:29 PM:

Shorter Condi Rice: Oversight Committee? Peasants all of them. Let them read blogs.

JEP wrote on April 30, 2007 6:38 PM:

from ground-level employees up to the US-A's, Gonzales gave cabinet level hiring and firing power at DOJ to Goodling and Griffin in a secret agreement..

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070430nj1.htm

bcraw wrote on April 30, 2007 6:40 PM:

In response to B W and ColoradoDem, Waxman has in fact threatened to find Rice in contempt of congress if she refuses to come before his committee. If he does, the matter will be referred to a U.S. Attorney - fun! There will most likely be some sort of negotiation process before that happens though.

JEP wrote on April 30, 2007 6:40 PM:

oops, that was Sampson and Goodling

"green" blogger here,

reid wrote on April 30, 2007 6:44 PM:

Truthout has a fantastic article on Tenet and the 16 Words from tenet's book. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042907A.shtml

Here's what Tenet says happened the night Bush gave the state of the union.

Ex-CIA chief says he was "in bed, asleep" during Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech when the president claimed Iraq was attempting to obtain uranium from Niger.

chuckles wrote on April 30, 2007 6:45 PM:

Maybe Condie could get a talk show with Imus...chuckle chuckle

Barbara LeBey wrote on April 30, 2007 7:28 PM:

When the mainstream media finally decides to beat the drum for a thorough investigation of the Bush White House like they beat the drum to promote this idiot into the White House, then and only then will the Dems get enough Republican legislators to agree with them and push for oversight. Right now Dems can't prevent a filibuster, But the public wants to know the truth if the media lets them know how they can push for oversight. There has to be a squeeze on these Republican loyalists whose seats are in jeopardy. As for C. Rice, she is a bopping, smiling fool who accomplishes nothing, a silly woman who allowed her loyalty to this idiot president to compromise her own integrity.

FMArouet wrote on April 30, 2007 7:43 PM:

Gary Leupp at CounterPunch back in 2005 wrote a good summary of publicly available information on the possible origins of the yellowcake fabrication. Here is the link:

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11012005.html

Two of Leupp's more interesting paragraphs seem to provide several possible leads worthy of investigative pursuit by Rep. Waxman and his staffers:

"The Italian newspaper La Repubblica has recently published an exposé alleging in essence that the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare) at the specific behest of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi provided bogus intelligence to the Bush neocons in order to curry favor with the U.S. and to abet the relentless drive for war between 9-11 and the March 2003 invasion. This follows an Italian parliamentary report released in part to the public in July concerning the forged Niger uranium documents at the heart of the Plame Affair. These, which purport to show a deal between Baghdad and Niger for the purchase of huge quantities of yellowcake, were it seems produced in the Italian capital.

"The report names four men as the likely forgers of the documents (Michael Ledeen, Dewey Clarridge, Ahmed Chalabi and Francis Brookes) and suggests that the forgeries may have been planned at December 2001 gathering in Rome involving Ledeen and SISMI chief Nicolò Pollari. Also in attendance at that meeting: Larry Franklin, Harold Rhode, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Antonio Martino and others including a former senior official of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran. Here is a true rogues' gallery."

Here is the key question: did VP Cheney's "plumbers" arrange for the fabrication of the yellowcake story to serve as a key pretense for invading Iraq? Former CIA officer Ray McGovern seems to think so.

TheraP wrote on April 30, 2007 8:14 PM:

What bothers me with rice this past Sunday, and with all of them is the way they just keep smiling and smiling - in the face of deaths and destruction and failure - smiling while denying, while people are dying. That is unconscionable. Not only do they lie. But they smile and smile - all the while. It gives all the appearance of blithely doing whatever they please, not a care in the world, while they have personally pushed the whole world into chaos, harmed the nation, and undermined the constitution they swore to preserve and protect.

totallynext wrote on April 30, 2007 8:33 PM:

Now that Sam Seder is off of AAR - Josh Marshall is my new best friend. Start a radio show - you were great on bill moyers.

Books Alive wrote on April 30, 2007 9:01 PM:

B W @ 6:09

Tucker was so good with Ray McGovern tonight that I actually sent him an e-mail. I suggested he might google Michael Ledeen's name as well!

Although Ray has tried to break through the fog of the MSM, and has been on some cable shows I've seen, this seems like the first time he's been taken seriously. Maybe Tenet's book is going to act like an icebreaker on the story.

Sharon A wrote on April 30, 2007 10:35 PM:

There is a direct correlation between how much trouble a Bushie is in and the number of Sunday talkie appearances logged. I'd say Rice is in it purty deep at this point. She had the same message over and over and over again, verbatim. She name-dropped like crazy -- she likes the name Silberman a LOT.

phil james wrote on April 30, 2007 10:47 PM:

If Condi indeed refuses to show, this looks like a real stand-off. I mean, what USA is going to have her cuffed, do the cavity search, and put her in the orange jump suit? Besides, why should any member of the Bush administration have to answer for anything they've done? ...or at least answer for anything before the book deal is done?

Herb wrote on April 30, 2007 11:13 PM:

Miss Rice has been one of the principal liars of the bush administration...

SHE failed before Nine-Eleven.
The warnings were there. The President stayed on vacation, and did NOTHING, in response to the warnings HE received. She was the broken-part of the US Government. It was HER JOB, once the President decided to stay "on the Ranch," to wake-him-up. SHE was the National SECURITY ADVISOR to the White House... She FAILED!

molly wrote on May 1, 2007 12:44 AM:

Wonder if the bookies have anything going about Rice and Gonzo doing time because of their dark color and Bush's bizarre sense of humor. I've thought for a long time Condi would take the fall because she is a woman and dark. Now, it looks like Gonzo too.Madman in the WH alert.Wouldn't surprise me if Gonzo didn't go down the bonkers road with the prez.They're both getting more bizarre by the day.

parrot wrote on May 1, 2007 12:57 AM:

Failure to appear before the Congress and wandering around talking about how one has not obligation to do so? Hmmm, sounds like...impeachment might be necessary here too. It is a shame when you have to weaken your country by removing criminals...but it beats me how letting them remain in power somehow makes a country more moral.

bogi666 wrote on May 1, 2007 9:36 AM:

Condi by invoking that the Republicans committees had investigated and found nothing is basically saying she has investigated herself and found nothing wrong with herself.Then she uses what amounts to a self proclaimed NOT GUILTY as her rational for rejecting investigation by a Democratic committee.This is just another insult and abuse to the intelligence of the American public by the Bush maladministration.

she

E. Smith wrote on May 1, 2007 1:17 PM:

Rice pulled this same crap during the 9-11 inquiry, but caved in the end.

I say it's pure bluster.

Hector wrote on May 1, 2007 3:13 PM:

I just came upon this post on US Senator Kit Bond's website. Could those who know more about the issue it raises respond? Thanks.

Press Release

Wilson Vs. Plame: Stories on Niger Trip Don't Add Up Says Bond Ambassador's Wife Resists Corroborating Wilson's Story Pflame Testified She "Does Not Recall" If She Suggested Husband for Niger Trip

Contact: Rob Ostrander 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Wednesday, July 21, 2004

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kit Bond today for the first time revealed that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's assertion that his wife, Valerie Plame, had nothing to do with his selection to lead a fact-finding trip on Iraq's efforts to buy uranium from Niger is in direct conflict with what his wife told Senate Intelligence Committee investigators earlier this year.

"After months of her husband telling the world she had nothing to do with his selection, under questioning by investigators, Ms. Plame now says she just doesn't remember what happened and will not corroborate Mr. Wilson's story," said Bond. "The fact is the whole Wilson story has been exposed as a fraud and a hoax designed only to smear the President."

Bond said that in his book, The Politics of Truth, Mr. Wilson notes: "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter....She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." And in July 2003, Wilson told TIME Magazine that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Africa: "That is bulls__t. That is absolutely not the case," said Wilson. Also, in his letter to Senator Roberts dated July 15th Wilson again denies that the plan to send him was suggested by his wife, stating "That is not true."

Despite all these assertions by Wilson, Plame, in testimony before Senate Intelligence Committee investigators in January 2004, did not support her husband's assertion, one that he had been saying for months. Mrs. Pflame told Senate investigators:

"I honestly do not recall if I suggested it to my boss ..."

"I don't recall if I suggested it to my boss?" said Bond. "Then just who is Mr. Wilson's source for all his denials if not his wife?"

The bipartisan Senate Intelligence report states that there is a history of Joe Wilson's wife suggesting him for missions. The report states, "The former ambassador was selected for the 1999 trip after his wife mentioned to his superiors that her husband was planning a business trip to Niger in the near future" and "that the former Ambassador's wife 'offered up his name'".

Bond pointed out that last night on PBS's The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Wilson claimed that the CIA had told "a couple of reporters" that Plame did not recommend her husband to take the Niger assignment. Bond said the CIA was able to review and comment on the facts of the Senate report related to the agency and indeed had many comments. Yet, not one issue was raised by the CIA on the matter of Plame, said Bond.