E Pluribus Unum

by Mark Adams

So how's that Draft Condi effort going?

Lawyer: Rice Allegedly Leaked Defense Info

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaked national defense information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence, the lobbyist's lawyer said Friday.

Ahh, Larry Franklin and AIPAC.  The scandal that we keep forgetting just keeps on giving. 

Franklin is the former analyst jailed for giving secrets to the Israeli lobby outfit American Israel Public Affairs Committee when he worked for Doug Feith, the former number three man at the Pentagon.  Feith, the neo-con-duit between Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Cheney's boys in the mysterious Office of Special Plans, was tasked with selling the Iraq war despite all the evidence contradicting their agenda to create a link between Iraq and Al Quaeda and WMD's. 

These are the guys whose hands are stained red with the cherries they picked from intelligence sources like Curveball, Chalabi and Al Libi

In addition to Rice,

The judge also granted subpoenas for David Satterfield, deputy chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq; William Burns, U.S. ambassador to Russia and retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni.

The lawyer for accused secrets recipient, Steven Rosen who is being prosecuted under a WW-1 era espionage act, argues he was permitted to have the info Franklin provided because the National Security Adviser already had let the cat out of the bag.

"On day one, Secretary of State Rice tells him certain info and on day two one of the conspirators tells him the same thing or something less volatile."

Franklin fell on his sword and is presumably waiting for his presidential pardon from the Decider and Declassifier in Chief.

Howard Dean is still ranting about Karl Rove retaining a classified security clearance.  Hell, I wouldn't trust a single one of Bush's retainers with my grandmother's cookie recipes.