Wonkette

A private spy company worked for years tracing Al Qaeda’s Internet and video distribution network, and was finally able to grab terrorist propaganda before it was released to the public. So it was a proud moment when the intelligence contractor, SITE Institute, presented the White House with a brand new Al Qaeda video — Bin Laden with his “Just For Men” beard dye job — on the condition that it be kept secret until Al Qaeda made it public.

Within hours, the Bush Administration had leaked it to Fox News, and “ruined years of clandestine work to find and exploit al Qaeda secrets on the Internet.”

Leak Severed Link To Al Qaeda’s Secrets [Washington Post]

Ha ha, you wish. But he is making a “statement,” and it just might be a farewell to Alberto … or a pledge to send another 100,000 school-age troops for a Children’s Crusade in the Middle East. Who really knows?

Meanwhile, Watergate legend and current White House counsel Fred Fielding has sent a very special letter to Leahy and Conyers, offering the usual unsworn midnight interviews with Rove, Harriet, etc., but only if the Senate and House operate with the lights off and everybody wears Jar Jar Binks’ masks and the Medallion of Secrecy is waved over each doorway during the backwards-masked Pig Call.

Read the whole dumb thing, after the jump.

MORE »

* House approves but Senate rejects Iraq funding bill with bonus troop withdrawal date. Mr. War, John McCain, didn’t bother voting FYI. [WP, NYT]
* California jumps on the February 5th primary bandwagon. [LAT, WP, NYT]
* Henry Waxman interviews Valerie Plame live on C-SPAN! [WP]
* Karl Rove’s greasy fingers are way deep in the attorney-firing cookie jar. [NYT]
* Fred Fielding doesn’t like easy jobs — it’s the hard that makes it good. That, and the chance to eat some Democrats for breakfast. [NYT]
* Does the VIP ward at Walter Reed drain resources from the regular injured soldier ward? Is that even a question? [USAT]
* Start stocking up on champagne, and get ready for the citizenship party of the century! [WP]

If Dick Cheney was capable of regret, he just might be regretting telling Senator Patrick Leahy to “go fuck yourself” in 2004. MORE »

* President Bush’s televised address on Iraq tomorrow night will be “the biggest speech of his six years.” [WP, NYT]
* Mostly because no one wants to buy what he’s selling. [USAT]
* This is the way the world ends, not with a famous elected politician but a mid-level schmo. [WSJ]
* Big John Murtha wants to tie Iraq surge capability to brigade readiness levels. [WSJ]
* House Democrats to push for enacting 9/11 Commission recommendations, cause, you know, they can. [WP, NYT]
* Mitt Romney uses bespoke software package for “shock and awe” day of fundraising. [WP, NYT]
* Fred Fielding has the dourness to face Democratic subpoenas. [WP, NYT]

Fred F. Fielding, who helped a lot of Reagan Administration criminals not go to prison forever, is the new White House counsel. MORE »