- Late in the day on Friday, October 21, President Bush
nominated the US Attorney for Eastern Virginia, Paul McNulty, to replace
departed James Comey as Deputy Attorney General. Bush's first pick, Timothy
Flanigan, withdrew over his past ties to indicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
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- McNulty has been the chief prosecutor in the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) espionage case involving ex-Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, two former
AIPAC officials, and Israeli spies. McNulty's case continues to look at
other principal players in the espionage ring, including officials close
to Karl Rove and John Bolton.
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- As reported previously by WMR, McNulty has shared evidence
with CIA Leakgate Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald. The evidence
primarily concerns forged Niger government documents that were laundered
by Pentagon neocons through Rome. Also of interest to both McNulty and
Fitzgerald are a number of names common to both investigations, including
former Deputy Defense Secretary for Policy and Plans Douglas Feith.
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- Before he departed Justice, Comey appointed career Justice
prosecutor David Margolis as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General
to serve as a firewall between recused Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
and Fitzgerald. Comey's decision was based on the potential presence of
Bush loyalist Flanigan as Deputy Attorney General.
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- PREDICTIONS: With Fitzgerald, McNulty, and Margolis now
all on the same Justice Department team, the appointment of McNulty and
his assistants into the number two spot at Justice spells real trouble
for people like Rove, Libby, Cheney, and others, including Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and his closest advisers who remain under investigation
for their possible roles in the forged Niger documents as well as falsifying
other intelligence in the lead up to the war in Iraq.
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- With Bush I National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft
(who was fired by George W. Bush on Cheney's advice as Chairman of the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board) and Colin Powell's Chief
of Staff at State, Jim Wilkinson, making public broadsides against the
neocons, look for a wider chasm to develop between the Bush I Republicans
and the neocons around Cheney.
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- The GOP last ditch strategy appears to be that the Bush
I Republicans will take over the vacuum left after Cheney's departure and
the indictments of leading neocons for their roles in both CIA Leakgate
and AIPACgate. The strategy will also mitigate the indictments that will
be handed down for leading GOP congressmen over their involvement in Abramoff's
tainted money scandal. Look for GOP congressional "blue state"
moderates to assume control from Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Bob Ney, and others.
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- Paul McNulty as Number 2 at Justice will insulate Fitzgerald
and Margolis from neocon retaliation during the internal coup. The bottom
line is that for his remaining three years in office, George W. Bush will
no longer be taking orders from a "higher father," but from his
own father and his closest associates: Scowcroft, James Baker, and others.
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- http://waynemadsenreport.com/
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