ROBERT LUSKIN-- THE RIGHT LAWYER FOR KARL ROVE
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Last week it was my friend Ken who brought up the unthinkable-- that the Bush Regime would prevent the arrest and incarceration of slimy traitor Karl Rove by drawing a distinction between "only" identifying "Joe Wilson's wife" and Valerie Plame BY NAME. I mentioned at the time, half jokingly, that that would never fly because even 2-digit IQ hardcore Republicans in places like Mississippi and Alabama would know they were being snookered. And then this morning I woke up to a barrage of Repuglies on TV and radio who had apparently read the same talking points memo and were all either attacking Wilson and the Democrats criticizing Rove or doing a really bizarre dance that proved (once again) how prescient my friend Ken is.
Now I want to address the matter of Rove's attorney, Robert D. Luskin. It would only make sense that the sleaziest and most corrupt bucket of slime in Washington would find an attorney of equal stature.
Since Rove and the White House, previously dismissing all charges against Rove as too ridiculous to even consider seriously, have suddenly clammed up, most of what we get about the case-- having a Special Prosecutor somewhat more scrupulous about not leaking to the press the way Ken Starr never stopped doing-- comes from lil' Robbie Luskin. Is he to be trusted? Even a little? Luskin has said in the past that Rove had never told Cooper, Novak, or others that Plame was a clandestine operative for the CIA. He also has said that the special prosecutor has "repeatedly" assured him that Rove is not a target of the federal criminal probe (although Fitzgerald refuses to confirm or deny that). Last night Luskin said he would neither confirm or deny that Rove, ever spoke to Novak about Plame: "That particular question is not something I want to address at this point," he said.
Luskin has an interesting history worth looking into-- all very public and all certainly delved into carefully by Rove before he hired him. For example, it is widely know that Luskin is inexorably tied to New England's Patriarca Crime Family. (Yes, Bush's closest political aide is in bed with the Mafia.) A few years ago Patriarca "associate" and precious metals dealer, Stephen A. Saccoccia, was convicted of money-laundering for the 2 biggest South American drug cartels and La Cosa Nostra crime families in New England. Luskin was the attorney. Big deal, you say? Lawyers represent anyone, you say? Sit back and listen to the rest of this sordid tale (that Rove knew well). Saccoccia was sentenced to 660 years in federal prison, fined $15.8 million and ordered to forfeit all laundered money. (Justice should only be so Just in Luskin's current case.) Five years later Luskin, in a bargain that left him with a license to continue practicing law (and representing organized crime), was forced to forfeit to the federal government $245,000 of $674,296 he received in “legal fees” from Saccoccia. Luskin said he received 45 gold bars valued at $505,125 and $169,171 in wire transfers from a Swiss bank account. The U.S. Supreme Court had previously ruled that attorneys cannot be paid with funds acquired as the result of the crime and the Department of Justice went after Luskin charging him with "willful blindness" in accepting the gold bricks and suspicious wire transfers which were, after all, EXACTLY what Saccoccia was doing 660 years in the pen for! The U.S.-Attorney prosecuting Luskin pointed out that "Luskin had reasonable cause to know that these funds were the proceeds of Saccoccia’s money-laundering activities. Luskin, however, chose not to know the true origin of these funds.” Could Rove have found a more perfect match? And keep in mind that seizing attorney's fees is not an everyday occurrence. It happens two or three times a year. A lawyer has to be a really bad character to get the Department of Justice to go after him that way-- REALLY REALLY bad.
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 4:53 PM
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Further to what I was just saying about the Far Right calling out its dogs today to smear anyone and everyone demanding that Rove be brought to justice, here's an interesting piece by a classmate of Valerie Plame's who, succinctly, explains the lies slime-buckets like Peter King (R-NY) and P.J. O'Rourke, not to mention the garden variety GOP propagandists like Limbaugh and O'Reilly and North and religious-right kook so-called "preachers" and Hannity and Cudlow, and so on, ad nauseum, have been trying to program into the public consciousness all day.
THE BIG LIE ABOUT VALERIE PLAME
Larry Johnson, The TPM Cafe, July 13, 2005
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/13/04720/9340
The misinformation being spread in the media about the Plame affair is alarming and damaging to the longterm security interests of the United States. Republicans' talking points are trying to savage Joe Wilson and, by implication, his wife, Valerie Plame as liars. That is the truly big lie.
For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Novak's column was not an isolated attack. It was in fact part of a coordinated, orchestrated smear that we now know includes at least Karl Rove.
Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.
A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.
The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.
The Republicans now want to hide behind the legalism that "no laws were broken". I don't know if a man made law was broken but an ethical and moral code was breached. For the first time a group of partisan political operatives publically identified a CIA NOC. They have set a precendent that the next group of political hacks may feel free to violate.
They try to hide behind the specious claim that Joe Wilson "lied". Although Joe did not lie let's follow that reasoning to the logical conclusion. Let's use the same standard for the Bush Administration. Here are the facts. Bush's lies have resulted in the deaths of almost 1800 American soldiers and the mutilation of 12,000. Joe Wilson has not killed anyone. He tried to prevent the needless death of Americans and the loss of American prestige in the world.
But don't take my word for it, read the biased Senate intelligence committee report. Even though it was slanted to try to portray Joe in the worst possible light this fact emerges on page 52 of the report: According to the US Ambassador to Niger (who was commenting on Joe's visit in February 2002), "Ambassador Wilson reached the same conclusion that the Embassy has reached that it was highly unlikely that anything between Iraq and Niger was going on." Joe's findings were consistent with those of the Deputy Commander of the European Command, Major General Fulford.
The Republicans insist on the lie that Val got her husband the job. She did not. She was not a division director, instead she was the equivalent of an Army major. Yes it is true she recommended her husband to do the job that needed to be done but the decision to send Joe Wilson on this mission was made by her bosses.
At the end of the day, Joe Wilson was right. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It was the Bush Administration that pushed that lie and because of that lie Americans are dying. Shame on those who continue to slander Joe Wilson while giving Bush and his pack of liars a pass. That's the true outrage.
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