The false characterization of a “Special Prosecutor” that the AP used to show “independence” is exactly opposite of what Mumbles Mukasey was actually doing.

Mumbles Mukasey was not after “independence”. He was after “control”.

- Control over the timing to run out the clock,
- Control over the parameters of the “investigation”,
- Control over the tactics to be used,
- Control over the “targets”,
- Control over the “allowable witnesses”,
- Control over the deference and privileges (executive, deliberative, etc.) allowed “certain” past and present White House and DOJ employees,
- And on and on and on!

The fact is that the AP told a great big lie, and one wonders just why.

Folks like the AP:

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a special prosecutor to pursue possible criminal charges against Republicans involved in the controversial firings of U.S. attorneys.

(My Bold)

But as far as I can see, that ain’t so.

This is not a “Special” prosecutor in the manner of Pat Fitzgerald with plenary authority, but instead is just your “run-of-the-mill” US Attorney who must adhere to all the pecking order political oversight and control within the very same compromised Department of Justice that sits under the thumb of the White House and its Counsel’s Office that the very same prosecutor is supposed to investigate.

This is just another of this Administration’s “going nowhere” stall tactics to run out the clock.

If there is to be anything done to redress these crimes, it will only occur at the hands of a new Democratic Administration.

And I’m not holding my breath.

rtsp://video1.c-span.org/project/ethics/ethics092908_firings.rm

Did you mean to say …DOG Inspector…?

Once Mukasey shoves his pick in, limitations clocks tick, evidence is destroyed, stories are cross-coordinated, and it will be difficult to get any real investigator involved later and by then there won’t be any need, anyway – things will be too far down the sewage pipes.

OT – Boston1775, if you see this, you asked:

Can you say more about Bush trying to issue military orders to surveil US citizens?
So what – just in case he doesn’t have the military authority – he gets a dual authority from the AG who has since admitted he didn’t understand what he was signing for the first year?
And after Ashcroft and Comey objected, he had Gonzales write pretend notes that the Gang of Eight told him he must continue this?

Was it the military thing that was presented to the phone companies?
Is this what they were prepared to say? That the President issued military orders to them?

Here’s a link to one of the Angler series and what Gellman dropped in there, almost as a sidenote.

45 days, after Justice Department review, Bush renewed his military order for warrantless eavesdropping. Brenner and Potenza told Hayden that the agency was entitled to rely on those orders [4]. The United States was at war with al-Qaeda, intelligence-gathering is inherent in war, and the Constitution appoints the president commander in chief.

emph added

So imo the answer to your questions is yes. The interesting expansion on Brenner and Potenza telling Hayden that it was ok to rely on those orders is that when those 2 went to DOJ looking for why DOJ thought the orders were ok, Addington tossed them out on their ear.

Joel Brenner and Vito Potenza, the two men wilting under Addington’s wrath, had driven 26 miles from Fort Meade, the NSA’s eavesdropping headquarters in Maryland. They were conducting a review of their agency’s two-year-old special surveillance operation. They already knew the really secret stuff [3]: The NSA and other services had been unleashed to turn their machinery inward, collecting signals intelligence inside the United States. What the two men didn’t know was why the Bush administration believed the program was legal.

So two years into their unwavering advice to Hayden (remember Hayden’s stand up routine on how well the NSA was *trained* on the 4th amendment? so well that he couldn’t remember that there was a warrant clause and probable cause requirement in it) that of course he could rely on the orders to use the US military against American citizens on American soil and violate the Constitutional protections at the whim of a egomaniacal frat boy, all while relying on military orders as protection against countless felony violations of domestic law – - two years into all that it looked like an election might bring in some new players and all of a sudden the NSA lawyers were asking, “uh, doh, why is it again we should think we can do this?” and were being told that question was above their pay grade.

So yeah – in addition to the fact that the FBI had inadvertently discovered the program within days (or was it hours?) of it starting and was raising questions about its illegality; despite first one, then another, Chief FISCt judge expressing opinions that the program was unconstitutional and barring it; despite a DAG (Thompson) who was so obsessed over the unconstitutional aspects of the program that he would not sign FISCt applications; despite the memo given to Thompson on legal consequences; despite the fact that the legal opinions for the program were so bad Addington wouldn’t even share them with loyalist NSA lawyers who were already so entrenched in the program they would have jumped through hoops backwards to give credibility to them; despite concerns raised by Goldsmith as head of OLC; despite 3 mos of turmoil and rebellion; despite an opinion by the only judge to look at the program on the merits post-Comeychanges that it was absolutely unconstitutional —- despite all that, we were sold the story that the telecoms at every point through the whole of “teh program” up to and including the date of the Congressional Absolution Legislation, was acting in “good faith” reliance that they could engage in unlimited felony violations and unconstitutional domestic surveillance of American citizens on American soil without warrants and without probable cause, for the purpose of not only obtaining illicitly evidence for use in criminal proceedings, but also for the purpose of singling out Americans to be disappeared into military torture.

Not that anyone gives a damn much anymore. Notice how the 11yo American child the FBI and Army walked away from while the Afghan gov disappeared him didn’t make Nancy Grace.

None of the St. Comeys in Justice give a rats ass about anyone who isn’t part of their circle. They’ll circle the wagons based on personal loyalty, but they when they don’t even give a damn about an 11 yo child, it’s a journey into the absurd to expect them to give a damn about the law.

I think Feingold should be put on the endangered species list, since he must be genetically different from the lawyers in the administration and the members of Congress. Even Whitehouse, who can see all the problems, is more concerned about keeping all the whiteboys who had *high spirits* out of trouble – after all, when they lined up to establish and advocate for torturing the brown people they were just under pressure, let’s hand out the amnesty and candygrams.