Bad Deeds for 3-20-07

CIA leak prosecutor Fitzgerald was ranked below ‘strong’ and ‘loyal’ prosecutors on Justice chart – U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had ‘not distinguished themselves’ on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading a CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide. Fitzgerald was ranked “below strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty” to the Bush Administration but rated higher than weak U.S. Attorneys who chafed against Administration initiatives, etc. The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show.”

Rove Linked to U.S. Attorneys Firing Controversy – Newly-released email messages now link Karl Rove to the early discussions on the controversial administration decision to fire several US attorneys.

Blair did secret deal with Saudis – British Prime Minister Tony Blair struck a secret deal with the king of Saudi Arabia, assuring him there would be no criminal charges against anyone implicated in bribery in Britain’s biggest arms deal. It concerned a £60 million ($146 million) “slush fund” allegedly set up by BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest military contractor, to support the lifestyle of some members of the Saudi royal family.

White House Edited Climate Reports
Philip A. Cooney, former member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, edited government reports on climate change hundreds of times, documents released by a House committee revealed on Monday. Cooney, who before and after his job at the White House, was (and is) an oil industry lobbyist, modified official reports hundreds of times to inject doubt into the impact of human beings on climate change. A memo released by the Democratic members of the House committee stated that the documents “appear to portray a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change.”

Political Interference with Government Climate Change Science
Testimony of James E. Hansen of NASA

Fox News Lies About Valerie Plame – On Friday (March 16, 2007) , Neil Cavuto on Fox News featured “Republican strategist” Edwina Rogers about Valerie Plame’s testimony on Capitol Hill. Rogers claimed that:

(1) Plame was a third-rate CIA agent
(2) she had sent her husband to Niger
(3) he came back and didn’t give the report to the CIA but
(4) he turned it over in an op-ed to the New York Times
(5) and she had been in Vanity Fair before any of this came out, sitting in a Jaguar.
The truth:

(1) A “third-rate CIA agent?” Valerie Plame was the chief of operations of the Joint Task Force on Iraq, which was part of the Counterproliferation Division of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.

(2) Valerie Plame “did not recommend him, I did not suggest him, there was no nepotism involved — I didn’t have the authority,” Plame said in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday.

(3) Upon his return from Niger in February, 2002, Wilson provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. and later shared his conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau.

(4) Are we to believe that Wilson went to Niger in February, 2002 and did not make a report of any kind to the CIA until he wrote his op-ed in the New York Times in July of the following year?

(5) Wrong again. The Vanity Fair article about the Wilsons appeared in the January, 2004 issue.

Tell the Congressional Black Caucus “Don’t FOX yourself” – The Congressional Black Caucus is deliberating whether to have FOX News sponsor presidential debates. Please contact the following members of Congress and urge them to not legitimize FOX as an objective news outlet. Send them links to FOXAttacks: Black America and the treatment afforded Sunsara Taylor just last night on Fox.

Rep. Bennie Thompson
Chair, Congressional Black Caucus Institute
(202) 225-5876

Email: (constituents only)
Email:
(Mississippi, 38917)

Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick
Chair, Congressional Black Caucus
(202) 225-2261
Email:
(Michigan, 48226)

Rep. Mel Watt
Influential member, Congressional Black Caucus
(202) 225-1510
Email:
(North Carolina, 28201)

You can also ask them to consider, what kind of “fair and balanced” news network HAS an “opposition”? Have you ever heard anyone on another network call the Republicans or neo-cons or the chickenhawks “the opposition”?

Regards,

Jim