NO SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE
WHITE HOUSE CIA LEAK SCANDAL

YET

From the Washington Post via Eschaton:

President Bush's chief spokesman said yesterday that the allegation that administration officials leaked the name of a CIA operative is "a very serious matter" and vowed that Bush would fire anybody responsible for such actions.

The vow came as numerous Democratic leaders demanded the administration appoint a special counsel to investigate the charges that a CIA operative's name was divulged in an effort to discredit her husband, a prominent critic of Bush's Iraq policy. The White House rejected those calls, also saying it has no evidence of wrongdoing by Bush adviser Karl Rove or others and therefore no reason to begin an internal investigation.

However

Justice Department officials said yesterday they have opened a preliminary inquiry to determine whether to investigate a possible violation of the law protecting the identities of undercover intelligence operatives. If the department's career counter-espionage lawyers find grounds for a full investigation, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft will have to decide whether to name a special counsel to oversee the case. Among the considerations that could lead to such action is the inherent conflict of interest in having the Bush Justice Department investigate employees of the Bush White House, department officials said.

For more, click here.

Talk about the rooster investigating the hen house. How much you want to bet that the D of J either drags its feet on this or ends up finding no compelling reason to open a full blown inquiry? For that matter, why haven't they already opened an investigation? This story first broke in mid July; the only new wrinkle is that the CIA is now looking into it. Given all the players that are coming forth at this point, it's going to be interesting to see the psychic acrobatics that the White House goes through while attempting to keep a lid on it all. Ashcroft is the first wall of defense, but I can't see this Maginot Line lasting for long: the Attorney General is a lying scumbag, and this is becoming all too apparent. From the New York Times:

U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue
Crimes From Drugs to Swindling

The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.

The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said.

Justice Department officials say they are simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals — terrorists or otherwise. But critics of the administration's antiterrorism tactics assert that such use of the law is evidence the administration is using terrorism as a guise to pursue a broader law enforcement agenda.

And

Publicly, Attorney General John Ashcroft and senior Justice Department officials have portrayed their expanded power almost exclusively as a means of fighting terrorists, with little or no mention of other criminal uses.

"We have used these tools to prevent terrorists from unleashing more death and destruction on our soil," Mr. Ashcroft said last month in a speech in Washington, one of more than two dozen he has given in defense of the law, which has come under growing attack. "We have used these tools to save innocent American lives."

Internally, however, Justice Department officials have emphasized a much broader mandate.

A guide to a Justice Department employee seminar last year on financial crimes, for instance, said: "We all know that the USA Patriot Act provided weapons for the war on terrorism. But do you know how it affects the war on crime as well?"

For more, click here (and brave the annoying NYT registration procedure, too).

Here's hoping for an independent investigation. If there is any shred of decency left in our nation's capital, we ought to see this happening in a few weeks, if not less. That's when the sparks will really start to fly. Stay tuned to Eschaton for up to the minute reporting. I know I will be.

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