I know you have not heard it from any of the network
news shows, AnythingButSee (ABC), NotBeSeen (NBC) or
any of the other network news organizations, but yes,
that's right, Newsday reports: "The federal grand jury
probing the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity
has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone
calls in the week before the officer's name was
published in a column in July." Although SeeNotNews
has ignored this bombshell, it does report on another
US Just Us Dept. development: "Attorney General John
Ashcroft is in the intensive care unit of a Washington
hospital after being admitted Thursday night for
gallstone pancreatitis..." Coincidence? The LNS
science editor is tempted to take a look at the
signifigance of the gall bladder in Chinese medicine,
but perhaps not...
Tom Brune, Newsday: The federal grand jury probing the
leak of a covert CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed
records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week
before the officer's name was published in a column in
July, according to documents obtained by Newsday. Also
sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained
in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office
of President George W. Bush are records created in
July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known
internal task force established in August 2002 to
create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by
Saddam Hussein.
Repuidate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
Air Force One phone records subpoenaed: Grand jury to review call logs from Bush’s jet in probe of how a CIA agent’s cover was blown
BY TOM BRUNE, STAFF WRITER
March 5, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The federal grand jury probing the leak
of a covert CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed
records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week
before the officer's name was published in a column in
July, according to documents obtained by Newsday. Also
sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained
in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office
of President George W. Bush are records created in
July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known
internal task force established in August 2002 to
create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by
Saddam Hussein.
And the subpoenas asked for a transcript of a White
House spokesman's press briefing in Nigeria, a list of
those attending a birthday reception for a former
president, and, casting a much wider net than
previously reported, records of White House contacts
with more than two dozen journalists and news media
outlets.
The three subpoenas were issued to the White House on
Jan. 22, three weeks after Patrick Fitzgerald, the
U.S. attorney in Chicago, was appointed special
counsel in the probe and during the first wave of
appearances by White House staffers before the grand
jury.
The investigation seeks to determine if anyone
violated federal law that prohibits officials with
security clearances from intentionally or knowingly
disclosing the identity of an undercover agent.
White House implicated
The subpoenas underscore indications that the initial
stages of the investigation have focused largely on
the White House staff members most involved in shaping
the administration's message on Iraq, and appear to be
based in part on specific information already gathered
by investigators, attorneys said Thursday.
Fitzgerald's spokesman declined to comment.
The investigation arose in part out of concerns that
Bush administration officials had called reporters to
circulate the name of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame,
in an attempt to discredit the criticism of the
administration's Iraq policy by her husband, former
ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.
In 2002, Wilson went to Niger at the behest of the CIA
to check out reports that Iraq was seeking to buy
uranium "yellow cake" to develop nuclear weapons. He
reported that Iraq sought commercial ties but that
businessmen said the Iraqis didn't try to buy uranium.
All three subpoenas were sent to employees of the
Executive Office of the President under a Jan. 26 memo
by White House counsel Alberto Gonzalez saying
production of the documents, which include phone
messages, e-mails and handwritten notes, was
"mandatory" and setting a Jan. 29 deadline.
"The president has always said we would fully comply
with the investigation, and the White House counsel's
office has directed the staff to fully comply," White
House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Thursday.
The Novak column
Two of the subpoenas focus mainly on White House
records, events and contacts in July, both before and
after the July 14 column by Robert Novak that said
"two senior administration officials" told him Plame
was a CIA officer.
The third subpoena repeats an informal Justice
Department document request to the White House last
fall seeking records about staff contacts with Novak
and two Newsday reporters, Knut Royce and Timothy
Phelps, who reported on July 22 that Plame was a
covert agent and Novak had blown her cover.
The subpoena added journalists such as Mike Allen and
Dana Priest of the Washington Post, Michael Duffy of
Time magazine, Andrea Mitchell of NBC's "Meet the
Press," Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball," and
reporters from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal
and Associated Press. There have been no reports of
journalists being subpoeaned.
The subpoenas required the White House to produce the
documents in three stages -- the first on Jan. 30, a
second on Feb. 4 and the third on Feb. 6 -- even as
White House aides began appearing before the grand
jury sitting in Washington, D.C.
The subpoena with the first production deadline sought
three sets of documents.
It requested records of telephone calls to and from
Air Force One from July 7 to 12, while Bush was
visting several nations in Africa. The White House
declined Thursday to release a list of those on the
trip.
That subpoena also sought a complete transcript of a
July 12 press "gaggle," or informal briefing, by
then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer while
at the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria.
That transcript is missing from the White House Web
site containing transcripts of other press briefings.
In a transcript the White House released at the time
to Federal News Service, Fleischer discusses Wilson
and his CIA report.
Finally, the subpoena requested a list of those in
attendance at the White House reception on July 16 for
former President Gerald Ford's 90th birthday.
The White House at the time announced the reception
would honor Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan
Greenspan, but said the event was closed to the press.
The White House Thursday declined to release the list
and the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, which paid for the
event, did not return phone calls.
The subpoena with the second production deadline
sought all documents from July 6 to July 30 of the
White House Iraq Group. In August, the Washington Post
published the only account of the group's existence.
What about Karl Rove?
It met weekly in the Situation Room, the Post said,
and its regular participants included senior political
adviser Karl Rove; communication strategists Karen
Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson;
legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; policy advisers
led by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and
her deputy Stephen J. Hadley; and I. Lewis Libby,
chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Wilson alleged in September that Rove was involved in
the leak but a day later pulled back from that,
asserting that Rove had "condoned" it.
Hughes left the White House in the summer of 2002.
Matalin, who left at the end of 2002, did not return a
call for comment. Matalin appeared before the grand
jury Jan. 23, the day after the subpoenas were issued.
The subpoena with the last production date repeated
the Justice Department's informal request to the White
House last fall for documents from Feb. 1, 2002,
through 2003 related to Wilson's February 2002 trip to
Niger, to Plame and to contacts with journalists.
Current White House press secretary Scott McClellan,
press aide Claire Buchan and former press aide Adam
Levine have told reporters they appeared before the
grand jury Feb. 6. At least five others have
reportedly been questioned.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.