Of course the Jeffrey Sterling case is not about politics. It is all
about protecting the Ruling Class. It's a case of survival. Jeffrey
Sterling is a sacrificial offering upon the Alter of Greed.
Keep up the good work, you Empire Elitists. Soon our prisons will be
filled with more honest people than your greedy 1%...Oh, I guess
that's already happened.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/27/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > As Trial Finds CIA Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Guilty on 9 Felony
> Counts,
> Govt. Claims 'This Case Is Not About Politics'
> ________________________________________
> As Trial Finds CIA Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Guilty on 9 Felony Counts, Govt.
> Claims 'This Case Is Not About Politics'
> By Norman Solomon [1] / Expose Facts [2]
> January 26, 2015
> When the jury in the CIA leak trial voted "guilty" on all nine felony
> counts
> Monday afternoon, it appeared to buy into a notable claim from the
> government: "This case is not about politics."
> The prosecution made that claim a few days ago in closing arguments - begun
> with a somber quotation from Condoleezza Rice about the crucial need to
> stop
> the spread of nuclear weapons. Of course prosecutor Eric Olshan was not
> foolish enough to quote Rice's most famous line: "We don't want the smoking
> gun to become a mushroom cloud."
> During the seven days of the trial, which received scant media coverage,
> Rice attracted the most attention. But little of her testimony actually got
> out of the courtroom, and little of what did get out illuminated the
> political context of the government's case against former CIA officer
> Jeffrey Sterling.
> A heavy shroud over this trial - almost hidden by news media in plain sight
> - has been context: the CIA's collusion with the Bush White House a dozen
> years ago, using WMD fear and fabrication to stampede the United States
> into
> making war on Iraq.
> And part of the ongoing context of the Sterling case has been the Obama
> administration's unrelenting pursuit of Sterling for allegedly leaking
> classified information - revealed in the last chapter of a book by James
> Risen - about a now-15-year-old CIA operation that's far more suitable for
> Freedom of Information Act disclosures than criminal prosecution.
> It was just six weeks after the invasion of Iraq when, at the end of April
> 2003, Rice hosted a meeting at the White House to tell representatives of
> the New York Times that the newspaper should not report on Operation
> Merlin,
> the CIA's ill-conceived and dangerous maneuver that had provided a flawed
> design for a nuclear weapon component to Iran three years earlier.
> The Times management caved within a week. Only Risen's book State of War,
> published in January 2006, finally brought Operation Merlin to light.
> Rice was in her usual smooth form at the Sterling trial. Emphatic that the
> CIA's Operation Merlin was hardly known to anyone, Rice testified: "This
> program was very closely held. It was one of the most closely held programs
> during my tenure." Yet the CIA manager in charge of Operation Merlin ("Bob
> S," who appeared at the trial behind a screen) testified that the operation
> was known to more than 90 people.
> Helping to lay groundwork for the Iraq invasion, Rice was a key enabler for
> the CIA's slam-dunk mendacity about Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of
> mass destruction. More than a decade later, she has used the Sterling trial
> as an opportunity for more distortion of the historical record, as though
> her quash-the-Merlin-story meeting at the White House in 2003 was free of
> self-service.
> The prosecution helped Rice settle into her stance:
> Q: "Now, was the purpose of your convening this meeting out of any sort of
> embarrassment that it would get out that there had been a botched
> operation?"
> RICE: "My concern in convening this meeting was that we had a very
> sensitive, extremely important program for the security of the country that
> was about to be compromised . . . That was my concern."
> But one of the prosecution's main concerns, no doubt shared by Rice, had to
> do with insulating the trial from intrusive context - a context that could
> explain why any whistleblower or journalist might want to expose and debunk
> Operation Merlin - an operation targeting a supposed nuclear weapons
> program
> in Iran, a country that the Bush administration was eager to attack with
> the
> goal of regime change.
> When the time came for Rice to face cross-examination, defense lawyer Barry
> Pollack tried to blow away some fog:
> Q: "[P]reventing working nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of
> rogue states is one of the most important missions of your, the
> administration you worked for certainly -"
> RICE: "Yes."
> Q: "- and any other administration, correct?"
> RICE: "That's correct."
> Q: "And certainly counterproliferation was of great interest at this
> particular time, correct?"
> RICE: "That's correct."
> Q: "The United States had invaded Iraq the earlier month?"
> PROSECUTOR OLSHAN: "Objection."
> JUDGE LEONIE BRINKEMA: "Well, we've heard that before. Let's just move
> this
> along, Mr. Pollack. Sustained."
> A week later, in the closing arguments, Pollack - who noted that "the
> government has great lawyers" - told the jury: "Make no mistake. This is a
> very important case for the government." He pointedly reminded jurors that
> the last chapter in Risen's book "made the CIA look bad."
> Minutes later, wrapping up the prosecution's closing statement, Assistant
> U.S. Attorney James Trump declared: "This case is not about politics. It's
> not about salvaging the reputation of the CIA."
> But, no matter how great the government's lawyers may be, the case of
> United
> States of America v. Jeffrey Alexander Sterling has everything to do with
> politics and the CIA's reputation.
> Share on Facebook Share
> Share on Twitter Tweet
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [3]
> [4]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trial-finds-cia-leaker-jeffrey-ste
> rling-guilty-9-felony-counts-govt-claims-case
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/norman-solomon
> [2] http://exposefacts.org
> [3] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on As Trial Finds CIA
> Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Guilty on 9 Felony Counts, Govt. Claims 'This
> Case Is Not About Politics'
> [4] http://www.alternet.org/
> [5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > As Trial Finds CIA Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Guilty on 9 Felony
> Counts,
> Govt. Claims 'This Case Is Not About Politics'
>
> As Trial Finds CIA Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Guilty on 9 Felony Counts, Govt.
> Claims 'This Case Is Not About Politics'
> By Norman Solomon [1] / Expose Facts [2]
> January 26, 2015
> When the jury in the CIA leak trial voted "guilty" on all nine felony
> counts
> Monday afternoon, it appeared to buy into a notable claim from the
> government: "This case is not about politics."
> The prosecution made that claim a few days ago in closing arguments - begun
> with a somber quotation from Condoleezza Rice about the crucial need to
> stop
> the spread of nuclear weapons. Of course prosecutor Eric Olshan was not
> foolish enough to quote Rice's most famous line: "We don't want the smoking
> gun to become a mushroom cloud."
> During the seven days of the trial, which received scant media coverage,
> Rice attracted the most attention. But little of her testimony actually got
> out of the courtroom, and little of what did get out illuminated the
> political context of the government's case against former CIA officer
> Jeffrey Sterling.
> A heavy shroud over this trial - almost hidden by news media in plain sight
> - has been context: the CIA's collusion with the Bush White House a dozen
> years ago, using WMD fear and fabrication to stampede the United States
> into
> making war on Iraq.
> And part of the ongoing context of the Sterling case has been the Obama
> administration's unrelenting pursuit of Sterling for allegedly leaking
> classified information - revealed in the last chapter of a book by James
> Risen - about a now-15-year-old CIA operation that's far more suitable for
> Freedom of Information Act disclosures than criminal prosecution.
> It was just six weeks after the invasion of Iraq when, at the end of April
> 2003, Rice hosted a meeting at the White House to tell representatives of
> the New York Times that the newspaper should not report on Operation
> Merlin,
> the CIA's ill-conceived and dangerous maneuver that had provided a flawed
> design for a nuclear weapon component to Iran three years earlier.
> The Times management caved within a week. Only Risen's book State of War,
> published in January 2006, finally brought Operation Merlin to light.
> Rice was in her usual smooth form at the Sterling trial. Emphatic that the
> CIA's Operation Merlin was hardly known to anyone, Rice testified: "This
> program was very closely held. It was one of the most closely held programs
> during my tenure." Yet the CIA manager in charge of Operation Merlin ("Bob
> S," who appeared at the trial behind a screen) testified that the operation
> was known to more than 90 people.
> Helping to lay groundwork for the Iraq invasion, Rice was a key enabler for
> the CIA's slam-dunk mendacity about Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of
> mass destruction. More than a decade later, she has used the Sterling trial
> as an opportunity for more distortion of the historical record, as though
> her quash-the-Merlin-story meeting at the White House in 2003 was free of
> self-service.
> The prosecution helped Rice settle into her stance:
> Q: "Now, was the purpose of your convening this meeting out of any sort of
> embarrassment that it would get out that there had been a botched
> operation?"
> RICE: "My concern in convening this meeting was that we had a very
> sensitive, extremely important program for the security of the country that
> was about to be compromised . . . That was my concern."
> But one of the prosecution's main concerns, no doubt shared by Rice, had to
> do with insulating the trial from intrusive context - a context that could
> explain why any whistleblower or journalist might want to expose and debunk
> Operation Merlin - an operation targeting a supposed nuclear weapons
> program
> in Iran, a country that the Bush administration was eager to attack with
> the
> goal of regime change.
> When the time came for Rice to face cross-examination, defense lawyer Barry
> Pollack tried to blow away some fog:
> Q: "[P]reventing working nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of
> rogue states is one of the most important missions of your, the
> administration you worked for certainly -"
> RICE: "Yes."
> Q: "- and any other administration, correct?"
> RICE: "That's correct."
> Q: "And certainly counterproliferation was of great interest at this
> particular time, correct?"
> RICE: "That's correct."
> Q: "The United States had invaded Iraq the earlier month?"
> PROSECUTOR OLSHAN: "Objection."
> JUDGE LEONIE BRINKEMA: "Well, we've heard that before. Let's just move this
> along, Mr. Pollack. Sustained."
> A week later, in the closing arguments, Pollack - who noted that "the
> government has great lawyers" - told the jury: "Make no mistake. This is a
> very important case for the government." He pointedly reminded jurors that
> the last chapter in Risen's book "made the CIA look bad."
> Minutes later, wrapping up the prosecution's closing statement, Assistant
> U.S. Attorney James Trump declared: "This case is not about politics. It's
> not about salvaging the reputation of the CIA."
> But, no matter how great the government's lawyers may be, the case of
> United
> States of America v. Jeffrey Alexander Sterling has everything to do with
> politics and the CIA's reputation.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [3]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trial-finds-cia-leaker-jeffrey-ste
> rling-guilty-9-felony-counts-govt-claims-case
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/norman-solomon
> [2] http://exposefacts.org
> [3] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on As Trial Finds CIA
> Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Guilty on 9 Felony Counts, Govt. Claims 'This
> Case Is Not About Politics'
> [4] http://www.alternet.org/
> [5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
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> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
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>
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