Just got a press release from Congressman Jay Inslee’s office:
On Thursday morning, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee(WA) will join U.S.Rep. Rush Holt (NJ) and other Members of Congress at a press conference to discuss the introduction of a time-limited Resolution of Inquiry into the compromise of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. The Members will also call for a comprehensive Congressional investigation into the incident and its impact on American intelligence operations.
Finally, at least some attempt to launch a Congressional investigation into this incident, which for the moment appears to be the result of White House dirty tricks… and it’s good to see a WA congressman taking the lead.
If you happen to be hanging around the U.S. Capitol tomorrow morning, the press conference will be in the House TV/Radio Gallery, H-321, from 10:15 am – 10:45 am Eastern.
“a
*press conference to
*discuss the
*introduction of a
*time-limited
*Resolution of
*Inquiry”
So, when do we hang the traiter Rove?
As soon as we hang the Democrat traitors:
Jane Fonda,
Patty Murray
Jim McDermott
Susan Lindauer
John Walker Lindh
I think this is all a ploy by Rove and Co. to distract us from the Downing Streen Memos ;-)
that should be Downing Street…
I will give you John Walker, But None of the others did anything even close to outing an undercover CIA agent working on WMD in a time of war.*
SO hang Walker next to Rove, I don’t give a fuck!
* Who the hell is Susan Lindauer? And did she out a CIA Operative?
Bottom line as long as Rove gets hung, you can know Susan Sarandon in a Biblical way.
But as a patriotic American, I can never believe that person who leaks an CIA WMD operative to the press would not have bi-partisan support for neck stretching?
What has happened to the Republican Party?
I will give you John Walker, But None of the others did anything even close to outing an undercover CIA agent working on WMD in a time of war.
But you forget…everything the Repubicans have done, the Democrats have done a gazillion times worse!
I’m no Jane Fonda fan, but let’s judge her for what she actually did, not falsehoods that right wing haters made up about her (see, e.g., http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp). And let’s not forget that right wing liars circulated a fraudulent photo of Kerry and Fonda together in a dirty attempt to smear Kerry (see http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp) — fortunately these lying fuckers were caught red-handed. We also won’t forget the hateful right wing attempt to smear Kerry by circulating a phony story that falsely accused Kerry of having an affair with an intern. You fuckers complain about my calling you names and using foul language, well all I can say is, there is no language foul enough to express how vile right winger liars are. Your side plays dirty politics beyond dirty; in Rove’s case, the dirty politics stooped to the level of treason. We call you Nazis because you behave like Nazis. Fucking low-life America-hating sociopathic lying sons of bitches.
Reply to 7
You’re full of shit. Don’t impute Republican thievery, lying, and chicanery to Democrats. There is no comparison between the behavior of Republicans and Democrats. The GOP has degenerated into a cabal of subhuman, lying, dishonest, Nazis.
Reply to 6
“What has happened to the Republican Party?”
There is no Republican Party anymore. What used to be the Republican Party was hijacked by a gang of domestic terrorists known as Neocons who are no better than the Hitler Youth and have more or less the same aims.
Who is Judith Miller protecting? Speculation is that she was Karl Rove’s source, and that Joe Wilson was her source. Anybody have confirmation on that?
dONNA@5,
SO hang Walker next to Rove, I don’t give a fuck!
* Who the hell is Susan Lindauer? And did she out a CIA Operative?
I am not surprised you don’t know who Susan Lindauer is, the liberal media tried to suppress the story.
Susan Lindauer is a liberal activist who once worked for our very own liberal lefty Seattle PI. She more recently served as congressional aid to Democrat Sen Carolyn Mosley Braun.She was arrested for spying.
“The indictment said she accepted $10,000 for working for the Iraqi Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2002, including payments for lodging at the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad and expenses during meetings in New York City with Iraqi agents.
The government portrayed the agency as a spy nest responsible for foreign intelligence collection, counterintelligence, covert actions and terrorist operations including the attempted assassination of former President Bush”
From: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113923,00.html
dON@6,
But as a patriotic American, I can never believe that person who leaks an CIA WMD operative to the press would not have bi-partisan support for neck stretching?
What has happened to the Republican Party?
Well, first of all she was not covert and was not under cover.
Secondly, when you have an indictment and a conviction, let me know. Otherwise it is all partisan hot air.
Reply@10,
There is no Republican Party anymore. What used to be the Republican Party was hijacked by a gang of domestic terrorists known as Neocons who are no better than the Hitler Youth and have more or less the same aims.
It is the Democrat party that was hijacked – by terror loving traitors who call our troops Nazi’s as Durbin did. By traitors who worry more about some raghead’s koran getting wet than Nick Berg’s head getting sawed off!
@11
Here come the paid trolls planting little red fishies all over the place. The stench coming from the White House is sickening. What DID happen to those people?
pbj @ 12
“From: http://www.foxnews.com/…”
You’ve just been automatically disqualified from ever being taken seriously again. Thank you!
It’s peanut butter jelly time!
(peanut butter jelly time...)JC @ 11
I haven’t heard anything definitive. IMHO she’s only trying to protect what’s left of her shredded reputation by pretending to be a real reporter rather than a WH stenographer.
You “patriots” are hysterical. New converts to the school of national security.
What about Sandy Berger stealing docs? Deutsch taking CIA secrets home? Clinton and the Red Chinese?
I sort of agree leaking is wrong, but you guys are lunatics.
Goldy:
Didn’t a number (I hear 36) of MSM just file an appeal to the DC Circuit assering no crime has been committed? While their employees were hounding the poor press secretary and the editorial pages were screaming for blood, the management and the lawyers were claiming nothing happened.
Anybody here want to claim to be the Seattle correspondant to Taranto’s Best of the Web on Opinion Journal? They are quite literate and expressive.
RR @ 8
Actually, their command of disinformation, blatant denial of facts, and whitewashing of documentary evidence is more Stalinist than Nazi. It seems they learned something during the Cold War after all.
You’ve just been automatically disqualified from ever being taken seriously again. Thank you!
It’s peanut butter jelly time! (peanut butter jelly time…)
Comment by GeoCrackr— 7/13/05 @ 9:00 pm
The charge “automatically disqualified from ever being taken serious” is pretty brutal Geo. You can make that charge for the King County Elections Board,Dan Rather or Newsweek.. but not pbj.
PEANUTBUTTERJELLYTIME
peanutbutterjellytimeSorry woofus – citing Faux News as if it were a legitimate source of information = automatic disqualification from credibility.
GeoCrackr @ 17
Miller is a WH stenographer, yet why go to jail to protect Rove? He obviously threw her to the sharks. It also seems that the prosecutor is still mad at her for that charity/terrorist bust she tripped in to.
23
Serious… citing Fox puts you in the same category as 60 minutes and Newsweek. Shit.. those bunch of liars!!!
Donnageddon @ 6
“Bottom line as long as Rove gets hung, you can know Susan Sarandon in a Biblical way.”
Hmmm. . . I seriously doubt that Rove is going to get hung. There is some possibility he will be hanged, however. :-)
JC @ 24
That’s just it — I think she’s just playing the martyr to some misguided sense of “journalistic privilege” so she can a) still pretend she’s a real reporter, and more importantly b) be the center of attention. That she’s sucking up to the WH in the process is just gravy.
Donnageddon @ 1
“a *press conference to *discuss the *introduction of a *time-limited *Resolution of *Inquiry”
Yeah. . . this is disappointingly like weapons
of mass destruction-related program activities. :-)
Reply to 20
My bad. From now on, I’ll call them Stalinists. They do, however, have pronounced Nazi tendencies.
Justcurious @ 24
“Miller is a WH stenographer, yet why go to jail to protect Rove?”
What the fuck? Judith Miller is a well known journalist, who has been working for the New York Times since 1977. She has even co-won a Pulitzer Prize! Is this more right-wing drivel?
By all accounts, she is not protecting anyone. She is taking an idealistic stance against revealing sources to whom she has guaranteed confidentiality. But, it is known that her source is a high-level White House official—what we don’t know is WHO.
DJ… actually, I wonder if Miller may be protecting her own reputation. She was totally duped by her WH sources on WMDs in the months leading up the war, and it’s likely the same source.
Comment on 12
Pbj as usual is lying through his ass. First of all, MSM did not suppress the Lindauer story. It took me all of 10 seconds to find the following article on MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4506229
Secondly, Lindauer wasn’t arrested for “spying” and what she did isn’t remotely closed to “spying.” “Spying” is when you have access to secret or classified government information and pass it to a foreign government. Lindauer didn’t have access to government secrets. She was an itinerant job hopper who bounced from job to job, never spending more than a few months in one place, who worked for among others several newspapers and several Democratic congressman and a Democratic senator. Not the sort of person in a position to sell or give away government secrets.
Thirdly, pbj the fucking liar, in his greasy attempt to slime the Seattle P-I and Democratic congresspersons, conveniently failed to mention that Lindauer (a) worked as an editorial writer for the Everett Herald, which is chiefly famous as one of the most conservative newspapers in western Washington, and (b) is a cousin of White House chief of staff Andrew Card, and used her relationship with Card to try to influence, not Democratic congress persons, but Bush administration policy toward Iraq.
Lindauer claims she was an anti-war activist “trying to prevent a war.” In which case she is, by her own admission, at the very least, an officious meddler interfering with U.S. foreign policy, which is reason enough to throw her in jail even if she didn’t have a criminal intent, based on the principle that some people are so stupid they’re a public menace even without trying to be, and need to be removed from the streets for the public’s protection. (This argument could also be applied to a large number of Republican congressmen.)
Lindauer very likely is guilty of breaking some law or other. Technically speaking, she was indicted for conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and with engaging in prohibited financial transactions with the Iraqi government. It appears she took a smallish amount of money from the Iraqis to reimburse her expenses. That’s no excuse for breaking the law. It’s no excuse for stupidity, either.
Lindauer’s former editor at the Republican newspaper, Everett Herald, described her as “brilliant but eccentric.” Evidently she’s smart enough to figure out how to buy a plane ticket to Iraq and book a hotel room in Baghdad, so the developmentally disabled defense probably isn’t going to work for her. As I said, if stupidity isn’t against the law, it should be.
As for pbj’s lame attempt to portray Lindauer as a “liberal activist,” give it up, pbj! This woman is a nut case who acted on her own. She may have had liberal political leanings. So what, Ted Bundy was a Republican who worked for Dan Evans’ campaign. What does that say about Evans or the WSRP? Nothing.
One wonders if pbj is as stupid as Lindauer.
dj, Hung or hanged, as long as Rove can no longer spread his evil… the world is a better place. :)
Geocrackr – Been in read mode here but you brought me out of hibernation. What is your “real” problem with Fox News? Is it that they present to America another viewpoint that Sky News (Murdoch’s other news service) did for the rest of the world against the BBS and CNN? Ever been overseas? In many hotels, the only link to America was CNN. Sky News Fox News forces ABC, CBS, CNN, NPR, NBC, and PBS to report more than just the liberal spin. Yes Sean Hannity is strident in Hannity & Combes, but so is Alan. Bill O’Reilly is hated by both sides so he must be doing something right. Greta is ok. Brit Hume is feared because he holds people up for the words they speak. I was taught words mean something. Remember Brit and Bill were at ABC and Brit was a Washington insider for many years.
So getting back to the topical head. Why are the Dems introducing this resolution? I thought I read yesterday that the Times didn’t think Rove really did any real lawbreaking. I thought the NYTimes (Jayson Blair’s favorite paper) was the Democrats newspaper of record? If the NY Times doubts it, why are the congressional Democrats pushing it? Why hasn’t Goldy posted the link? (I know why rhetorical question) I just went to the site for the link and the 13th page is gone. Damn, cuz I know DJ & RR & Geoc will have a hissy fit if they can’t read it in their beloved NYT! But I did find this headline “Report Discredits F.B.I. Claims of Abuse at Guantanamo Bay”
I really think the Dems are still burning over Rove saying: “Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said we must understand our enemies.” Even Hilary (I’m really a Moderate) Clinton came out of her closet. But I digress.
Rove also talked about my hero Daniel Patrick Moynihan said in June 6, 1980: the New York Times reported that Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan(D) argued the Democrat Party had become a “stale force stubbornly defending the big establishment of modern government …” Moynihan went on to describe this reversal of Democrat Party fortune as ” … the onset of the transformation of American politics…” He concluded that “… all of a sudden, the GOP has become a party of ideas… From his memoirs http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/tau.....tro_98.pdf, it was stated again. All Karl Rove did was restate DPM.
I see in the news that some jackass got himself arrested for telling a passerby in downtown Seattle that he was going to kill Governor Gregoire. His political affiliation is unknown. He seems to have a vendetta concerning a foster care case. I would say he’s neither a “liberal activist” nor a “conservative activist,” he’s a jackass. He’s gonna be a felon, too. Threatening to kill the governor is a Class C felony. Hope he does some jail time. The stupidity principle applies here — some people are so stupid they’re a public menace even lacking the intent normally required to commit a crime.
All of a sudden PacMan invented an anochromatic apochryphy anecdotal republican talking points way back reverse logic never happened that way machine.
*poof* all sentient thought left the room.
Let’s see, what else is going on in the news — OH MY GOD THEY’RE GONNA ROUND UP MY KIDS AND DEPORT THEM FROM GREEN LAKE PARK!!! That’s right, the Parks Department charges the park is overrun with cute fluffy little bunnies and is fixing to trap and relocate them. Not to worry, even if they sweep the park clean of long-eared life forms, I and my bunny girlfriends can repopulate the park within a few weeks. Making more bunnies is something we bunnies do exceedingly well. :D
Pacman @ 34
“Damn, cuz I know DJ & RR & Geoc will have a hissy fit if they can’t read it in their beloved NYT!”
I swear to God, Pacman, I don’t have a subscription to ANY newspaper (never had). Additionally, I swear I don’t have a login for the NYT. People email me links to NYT articles and I have to tell them I cannot read it because I refuse to give ’em my information.
21
How can pbj “never be taken seriously again” when he was never taken seriously in the first place? Pbj sounds like a paid poster from Free Republic. Totally right wing, totally full of shit, spewing the party-issued talking points, never an original thought and God knows no evidence whatsoever of any analytical mental process.
34
“Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said we must understand our enemies.”
Any general who doesn’t understand his enemy is a fucking idiot unfit to lead troops. What we have seen is that a bunch of fucking idiot Neocons charged headlong into Iraq without a clue about what they were getting into — or how to win the war they started. The result? Over 1700 dead Americans with more being added every day, over $300 billion squandered with no end in sight, the U.S. military mired in a quagmire and stretched to the breaking point, nobody can figure out an exit strategy, and the likely outcome is a lost war and a hostile dictatorship in Iraq. That’s what happens when people full of hot air who don’t understand the enemy try to fight a war.
PacMan, you’re not as big an idiot as Rove, but you’re close.
Back on topic, yeah I think the Democrats should investigate who leaked Plame’s name to the press, and I already have a pretty good idea of where the trail leads. But we can pretty much count on the Republican congressmen to facilitate the coverup by trying to block or hinder the investigation. The last thing any Republican wants is for the leaker to get caught. His name just might be Bush or Cheney.
Don @36: HA! I couldn’t have said it better myself – thank you.
dj @38: Same here – I gave up on the Times after their disgraceful coverage of the 2000 campaign.
Goldy @ 31,
“DJ… actually, I wonder if Miller may be protecting her own reputation. She was totally duped by her WH sources on WMDs in the months leading up the war, and it’s likely the same source.
Yes, she made a first-class fool of herself taking BS from the WH on WMD and publishing it as the truth. And then she got pretty indignant and abrasive when people pointed out that she was wrong.
I am not sure I follow your point about protecting her reputation, though (aside from the confidentiality-integrety thing).
I must say, however, this whole thing does have a substantial component of mystery to it, still. Like the fact that Miller goes to jail rather than talks, when Rove gave Cooper license to talk. And, there were supposed to be 5 reporters to whom 2 senior white house officals spoke about Plame. Do we know the other two reporters are (besides Novak, Miller and Cooper)? Do we know who the other WH offical is?
Perhaps it was Shrub himself!
dj @43
I read that Cheney is a likely possibility as the other WH source, and/or as the actual target of the investigation. That would lead to a lot of interesting questions re: their current strategy.
and I don’t mean “I read it at RR @41.” (no slight to you intended, RR)
GeoCrackr @ 44
“I read that Cheney is a likely possibility as the other WH source, and/or as the actual target of the investigation. That would lead to a lot of interesting questions re: their current strategy.”
That would be extraordinary! I recall that Shrub (A.K.A. AWOL) went out and hired a personal lawyer when the investigation began—perhaps this was a diversion.
Speaking of the vast right-wing conspiracy, Alexandra Polier’s Republican-leaning father thinks there is one:
“My father, in spite of his Republican leanings, suspected a right-wing conspiracy, so at my suggestion he concluded his statement: ‘We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation and intend on voting for him for President of the United States.’”
Source: http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetr.....ndex2.html
Polier, of course, is the person whom right-wingers falsely accused of having an affair with Senator Kerry shortly after Kerry emerged from the 2004 primaries as the Democratic front-runner. This false story, first circulated by Matt Drudge, wrecked Drudge’s creditility forever. It was eagerly picked up by every right wing blogger and spinmeister in the universe, and it wrecked their credibility too. It proved beyond argument that right wingers are a gang of liars and rumormongers.
Compare these two web sites:
http://www.democrats.org/a/200.....etoric.php
http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=5630
I await your answers.
PacMan @ 34
“Bill O’Reilly is hated by both sides so he must be doing something right.”
Have you been reading Bill’s books again? Or, is he calling you and leaving erotic voicemails?
I’m not going to say to you that I know Karl Rove broke any laws. But I think we can agree that there is at least some evidence that may suggest that at the very least he exposed the name of a CIA officer.
Yes? Can we agree on that?
At this point in time the Rove issue isn’t about breaking any laws, it’s about breaking the trust of the American people by leaking a CIA officer’s name.
At the very least give us this: Karl Rove’s security clearance should be temporarily suspended pending the outcome of this ongoing investigation.
I think that’s pretty fair, don’t you?
You WANT answers Puddy?!?! You WANT answers?!?! YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE ANSWERS!!!!!!!
Here you go a pull quote right off of the LYING RNC website link that YOU posted. Thank you so much!!
Joe Wilson: “[W]hat They Did, What The Office Of The Vice President Did, And, In Fact, I Believe Now From Mr. Libby’s Statement, It Was Probably The Vice President Himself …” (CNN’s “Late Edition,” 8/3/03)
Off the RNC web site this implys that Joe Wilson is saying that it was DICK asked Joe to travel to Niger.
Here is the WHOLE TRUTH right fromthe CNN source they quoted.
“WILSON: Well, look, it’s absolutely true that neither the vice president nor Dr. Rice nor even George Tenet knew that I was traveling to Niger.
What they did, what the office of the vice president did, and, in fact, I believe now from Mr. Libby’s statement, it was probably the vice president himself…
BLITZER: Scooter Libby is the chief of staff for the vice president.
WILSON: Scooter Libby. They asked essentially that we follow up on this report — that the agency follow up on the report. So it was a question that went to the CIA briefer from the Office of the Vice President. The CIA, at the operational level, made a determination that the best way to answer this serious question was to send somebody out there who knew something about both the uranium business and those Niger officials that were in office at the time these reported documents were executed.”
Republicans caught in a LIE!!
To be accurate I should have said:
Republicans caught in another LIE!!
See how Republicans at the RNC lie using ellipsis?
For all you neocons who blindly follow whatever the Bush and the RNC tell you to believe I better give the definition of ellipsis, it’s a big word for such small minds.
Ellipsis: omission of implied word
In the RNC’s case it means: omission of TRUTHFL words as to completely alter the original meaning. Especially, if it’s related to a smear campaign to hide our lies.
GBS, I placed a comparison between the two web sites, Repub with the full links and the Demo which is innuendo. I asked all to contrast both sides. If I was being baised, I would only submit the Repub side. I didn’t do that. Being fair and balanced.
Puddy,
Don’t you know that liberals despise being fair and balanced?
reply@32,
from: http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....2odgdw.asp
ONE SUSAN LINDAUER was arrested today on charges that she acted as a spy for the Iraqi Intelligence service, and accepted $10,000 for the information she gathered. See the full story here.
Lindauer is identified as a “Takoma Park, MD woman” in news accounts, which allege that she made multiple visits from October 1999 through March 2002 to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in New York. She also traveled to Baghdad in February and March of 2002.
As of April 2002, a Susan Lindauer was in the employ of Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Lindauer previously worked in the press offices of Democrats Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon (from approximately May 1993 to January 1994), Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon (starting in January 1994), and Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois (from January 1996 to September 1996).
Lindauer also gave a deposition in the investigation of the 1998 Lockerbie airline terror bombing.
Moseley Braun says that she “doesn’t remember” Lindauer. But a spokesman for one of the congressmen confirmed that it was “extremely likely” that the woman in question was a former congressional aide and press secretary for the four Democratic congressmen.
reply@32,
Roger – you are a liar. Susan Lindauer DID work the for the Seattle PI.
Susan Lindauer, the former Democratic congressional aide charged with spying for Iraq, was arrested several months after meeting with an FBI agent who posed as a Libyan intelligence agent looking to recruit support for Iraqi groups attacking U.S. forces in the aftermath of the war.
According to the indictment charging Lindauer with conspiracy to spy for Iraq, that meeting took place on June 23, 2003, in Baltimore, Maryland. The indictment charges that Lindauer and the agent “discussed the need for plans and foreign resources to support [resistance] groups operating within Iraq.”
The indictment says Lindauer met with the agent again on July 17, 2003, to discuss the same topic. Then, according to prosecutors, the undercover FBI agent instructed Lindauer to leave a set of documents at a designated spot in Takoma Park, Maryland, the suburb of Washington, D.C., where Lindauer lives. The indictment says Lindauer left the requested documents on August 6, 2003, and left another set of documents on August 21, 2003.
During the period from June 2003 until February 2004, the indictment alleges, Lindauer remained in regular e-mail contact with the FBI undercover agent, whom she believed was working for Libya.
According to the indictment, Lindauer’s efforts to assist the Iraqi resistance came after years of contacts with Iraqi intelligence agents. The indictment says those contacts began in October 1999, when Lindauer first met with Iraqi agents in New York.
The indictment alleges that Lindauer met with a representative of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in New York on September 19, 2001, just eight days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The indictment charges that not long after 9/11, Lindauer and her co-conspirators gave Iraqi intelligence agents information about Iraqi expatriates in the United States. Prosecutors say Lindauer usually met with Iraqi intelligence agents in New York and was reimbursed for her travel and meals.
The indictment says Lindauer traveled to Baghdad in February 2002 as a guest of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Prosecutors say Lindauer met with several Iraqi agents during the trip. She also allegedly accepted about $5,000 in cash from the agents.
In all, Lindauer is charged with receiving about $10,000 from the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
In one intriguing passage, the indictment charges that on January 8, 2003, Lindauer “delivered, to the home of an United States government official, a letter in which Lindauer conveyed her established access to, and contacts with, members of the Saddam Hussein regime, in an unsuccessful attempt to influence United States foreign policy.” The indictment gives no further details and does not include the identity of the government official, or whether that official reported the incident to authorities.
Lindauer is a former journalist for U.S. News & World Report, as well as for Fortune magazine and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She also worked as a spokeswoman for then-Representative (and now Senator) Ron Wyden of Oregon, as well as former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.
Source:http://www.nationalreview.com/.....111444.asp
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113923,00.html
NEW YORK — The government is accusing a one-time journalist and Congressional aide of secretly becoming a paid Iraqi intelligence agent before trying to influence her distant cousin — the White House chief of staff — on U.S. policy.
Charges brought Thursday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan against 41-year-old Susan Lindauer (search) hinted at Hollywood-style espionage with packages left in what the prosecutor’s office described as prearranged “dead drop” operations in Baltimore.
But the defendant told WBAL-TV outside the Baltimore FBI office that prosecutors were mistaken in charging her with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (search) and with engaging in prohibited financial transactions with the Iraqi government.
“I’m an anti-war activist and I’m innocent,” she said after her arrest in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md. “I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible.”
In court, Lindauer was relaxed and smiling as she faced charges that carry a potential penalty of 25 years in prison. She declined to speak afterward, as did two court-appointed defense lawyers.
She was released to a halfway house in Baltimore, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey ordered a psychiatric evaluation and said she can be released as soon as bond is posted for her $500,000 bail.
The indictment said she accepted $10,000 for working for the Iraqi Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2002, including payments for lodging at the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad and expenses during meetings in New York City with Iraqi agents.
The government portrayed the agency as a spy nest responsible for foreign intelligence collection, counterintelligence, covert actions and terrorist operations including the attempted assassination of former President Bush.
The indictment makes no mention of Lindauer’s congressional staff work. She was not directly charged with espionage.
According to the indictment, Lindauer delivered a letter “to the home of a United States government official” on Jan. 8, 2003, in which she described her access to members of dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime “in an unsuccessful attempt to influence United States policy.”
The U.S. official was not identified. But a government official, speaking on condition on anonymity, said the recipient of the letter was White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (search), a distant cousin of Lindauer.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the last time Card recalls seeing or talking to Lindauer was during January 2001 inaugural events. McClellan said the FBI interviewed Card about his contact with Lindauer and that Card cooperated fully.
Card told the FBI that Lindauer had tried to contact him on behalf of the former regime several times.
The indictment did not specify a motive.
The arrest came as a surprise in Washington, where Lindauer had a long history as a journalist and a political aide.
She worked at Fortune, U.S. News & World Report and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before going into politics. Her father, John, was the Republican nominee for governor of Alaska in 1998.
She worked for Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., in 1993 and Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in 1994. She joined the office of Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., as press secretary in 1996. In 2002, she worked for Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.
In a release, Lofgren said she was “shocked to learn” of the arrest and that she had no further contact with Lindauer since a two-month work stint ended in May 2002.
“To my knowledge, this former employee had no access to sensitive information. Obviously, I had no reason to think that she was involved in this alleged activity,” Lofgren said.
The indictment stems from a series of encounters and exchanges in recent years.
The government said Lindauer returned in March 2002 from a trip to Iraq with $5,000 in cash received from Iraqi agents, breaking a law prohibiting transactions with a government that sponsors terrorism.
Lindauer’s work allegedly continued through last month, when she maintained contact with an FBI agent posing as a Libyan intelligence service operative who wanted to support resistance groups in postwar Iraq.
The indictment said she met the agent last July in Baltimore, “and discussed the need for plans and foreign resources to support resistance groups operating within Iraq.” Acting on the agent’s orders, Lindauer left documents at a spot in Takoma Park twice last August, the indictment said.
Lindauer’s father owned newspapers in Alaska. After his defeat in the governor’s race, he pleaded no contest to two charges related to his campaign finances. He received probation and a fine.
Reply@50,
Got a link for that CNN reference Roger or did you just make it up?
Puddy @ 53
I got the reasons for both links, and believe it or not I read both sites. Not in their entirety, but enough to get the gist of why you posted it.
My reaction was specifically the RNC lie they posted on their site that I exposed here. That, I suppose, is the the ulitmate irony. The RNC posting the “words” of Joe Wilson tring to make it seem as if he was lying, when in fact it is the RNC that is deliberately lying and smearing to protect the President at all costs.
PBJ @ 58.
It wasn’t Roger who made that post it was me. If I provide the link that outright disputes the RNC lie, will you denounce the RNC and President Bush on this blog for allowing this to happen and promise not to post here again?
Because I promise to provide the link IF you can keep your promise on the deal above.
(talk about making a deal with the Devil)
GBS@60,
Well, then you original point is unproven if you refuse to provide the link. YOU made the point – not me. If you haven’t got the evidence to back up your argument then just say so.
PBJ stop pissing down your legs and be a man with a spine for once in your life.
I am NOT refusing to provide the link! Quite the opposite in fact. I’ve promised to provide you the link, can’t you live up to your side of the bargain?
Hell, I’ll ask Goldy to make a special thread just so you can denounce, once and for all W and the RNC.
In fact, I’d love to do it. C’mon, take the challenge. I dare you. Be a man. Go on. Do it. Ignore the puddle of urnine that is collecting in your lap. Make the PROMISE. Please!
I just love it when you challenge a Republican man to man and they crap their pants.
You’re folding like house of cards. Like the Bush legacy.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for the laugh at your expense.
Great BSer@62,63,
You don’t have a link. Please just admit it – you made it up.
re you ever going to provide sources or are you just going to continue to make stuff up? So far you haven’t provided your link. You give a half completed quote and won’t provide the link. Could it be because you know that if you gave the link it would prove you wrong??
pbj @ 65
“you ever going to provide sources or are you just going to continue to make stuff up?”
Holy shit, pbj, you are too fucking stoopid to take a quote and hunt down the source?
It took me about 6 seconds to find that the exchange came from CNN Late Edition Aired August 3, 2003 at 12:00 ET. I’ll bet I could find a video clip if I spent another 6 seconds.
dj@66,
Holy shit, pbj, you are too fucking stoopid to take a quote and hunt down the source?
It took me about 6 seconds to find that the exchange came from CNN Late Edition Aired August 3, 2003 at 12:00 ET. I’ll bet I could find a video clip if I spent another 6 seconds.
DJ – you are a liar too. No one here ever called Wilson a pedophile or child molester and that is exactly what Roger has alleged.
Whacko!