so, apparently, we are NOT safer with Bush. Now that's a surprise! man, he's lucky the GOP is running the US Government, or he and Dirty Dick would be in jail. The Grand Old Party, what a bonus they have been for us over the years.....Nixon, goofy Reagan, the Bush'es. Yeah, really Grand.
Posted by T2 at October 5, 2005 04:42 PMMy problem with this story is that ABC "broke it" in September....12 September
NEWARK, N.J. Sep 12, 2005 — An FBI intelligence analyst with top secret clearance was charged Monday with passing classified information about Filipino leaders to current and former officials of that nation.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1120463
and others had the story in September...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/12/fbi_intel_analyst_charged_with_spying/
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1103060.php
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-12-espionage-filipino_x.htm?csp=34
So why is it BIG news NOW? Could it be to cover up something else....???
Posted by jillian at October 5, 2005 04:46 PMBush and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day-
I'm with jillian on this. Over on an Americablog thread on this same story there are comments (with links) that this broke last month. So why is this now considered a "breaking story" and coming to light because???????
Could the timing of this old breaking spy story be a smokescreen for some other more serious criminal activity that occurred in the Whitehouse.? Hmmmm Americablog is also full of rumors flying around the capitol about possible indictments coming down in the Plame case. Add to this the Delay indictments, and now the Blunt tie in, the Aipac Franklin spy issues, the Savafian and Abramoff problems, and according to Raw Story Rove is now a target in the Plame case (not a subject) it looks like a horrible week for Bushco. The culture of corruption that has permeated all corners of the party and people that promised to bring "honor and integrity" to the WH perhaps might have a visit or two with lady justice. No wonder Bush wanted to pack the court with cronies and Bush idolizers like Miers in there.
Posted by emal at October 5, 2005 05:03 PMLet's see -- a SPY in the Veep's office is a story intended to eclipse something even worse.
My brain has gone blank, in a wave of Zen-like tranquility -- what the hell could be coming down the pike?
O.T. but interesting -- a bumper sticker seen this afternoon:
Like it or Not, Bush is Saving Your Ass Every Day.
I Like it -- NOT.
Posted by ck at October 5, 2005 05:21 PMLet's see -- a SPY in the Veep's office is a story intended to eclipse something even worse.
I know it's a tired question at this point, but just think: If this happened to VP Al Gore, would we have heard about anything else, ever again? But with this administration, and all its neverending abuses and incompetence? Eh, it's no big deal.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 5, 2005 05:26 PMthe new wrinkle may be the fact that he worked in Cheney's office for three years. The original stories only talked about the passage of classified information to the Phillipines, without stating that Aragoncillo worked inside the White House in Cheney's office.
How many scandals is it going to take? The MSM can't cover them all because covering one prevents covering another one. Well, during the 70's a West German government was brought down by a spy scandal. Granted, we're not a parlementary system, but spies in the White House should be simple enough for anyone who thought that they were safer with Bush to understand. We'll see.
Posted by rlp at October 5, 2005 05:27 PMThe Philipines?
We had a spy in the White House and he wasn't some big evil empire spy for say . . .Russia?? . . but for the Filipinos???
Jimmny Christmas. This administration can't do anything right.
Posted by idiosynchronic at October 5, 2005 05:42 PMAs usual, where is the MSM on this story?
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 05:48 PMWhat, ABC news isn't mainstream enough?
Posted by dj moonbat at October 5, 2005 06:15 PMI know it's a tired question at this point, but just think: If this happened to VP Al Gore, would we have heard about anything else, ever again? But with this administration, and all its neverending abuses and incompetence? Eh, it's no big deal.
Hate to break it to you, but he did work for Al Gore. Also from the artcle (but not included in the blog entry):
In 2000, Aragoncillo worked on the staff of then-Vice President Al Gore.
Aragoncillo began working at the White House in 1999. Officials are now trying to learn how he landed the job, when he started spying, and how he escaped detection for so long.
According to friends, in addition to his work for Cheney and Gore, Aragoncillo claimed he also worked with President Clinton and Condoleezza Rice when she was the national security advisor.
I expect better from this blog--the WHOLE story. I seems that perhaps he didn't start spying until recently, but he was hired under the Clinton administration, and presumably, that's where the vetting went wrong.
Posted by CG at October 5, 2005 06:18 PMAmericablog just went down. Anyone have a content mirror. Can someone offer Jon posting space somewhere else. Get on the phones and find out what's up!
Posted by patience at October 5, 2005 06:20 PMAtrios is now down also.
Something is definitely up.
Coordinate reroute.
Posted by patience at October 5, 2005 06:21 PMLooks like all of blogspot is down.
Posted by patience at October 5, 2005 06:23 PMThe vetting didn't go wrong under Clinton. He was hired under Clinton. He got the security clearance that allowed him to spy under Bush.
Posted by garampani at October 5, 2005 06:32 PMOK, does it say that anywhere? It's really not clear from the article when he got his top secret clearance. I'd feel much better being able to blame this on Bush :).
Posted by CG at October 5, 2005 06:35 PMOh, and I just remembered the Bush vetting criteria: if you haven't been convicted of a crime you're good to go.
Posted by CG at October 5, 2005 06:36 PMGee, that was the quickest non-scandal I have ever seen! You all got taken in by ABC and the MSM over a NON –SCANDAL and tried desperately to hang it on the White House. You lemmings better stay away from the edge.
Posted by Cyber Sarge at October 5, 2005 06:44 PMCyber Sarge, which part of the story where he admitted to spying in Cheney's office did you miss?
You can read, right?
Posted by Steve Soto at October 5, 2005 06:49 PMPassing WH information to a foreign government is treason.
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 06:50 PMI don't think an act of treason is a non-story, but maybe you do Cyber. This Marine's life is over as he has known it, that's for sure.
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 07:01 PMWonder if he knows who was doing Jeff Gannon. LOL
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 07:04 PMLarry Franklin, Aragoncillo, what in the hell is going on?
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 07:07 PMOT
Looks like DeLay passed money to Roy Blunt to aid his son, Matt Blunt during his campaign for Governor of Missouri. Sure hope this goes somewhere in the laundering money scam, as the Blunts deserve to be taken down. Thanks DeLay, you may help get rid of the worst Governor we have ever had, but not in time to save thousands of seniors who you dumped out of the Medicaid Program.
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 07:13 PMI think it's the Plamegate cover. When the indictments come down, Aragoncillo will have leaked the information to Judith Miller. They need a patsy! Just food for thought.
Makes me wonder how low this administration will continue to go. I've heard the rumor mill about rove keeping his distance. A flu bug? I think not!
I'm headed for Mexico for some serious R&R! I'll be thinking of you all when I'm drinking brewski's and laying in the sun!
Posted by bbtb at October 5, 2005 07:23 PMThere's enough shoes poised to drop they'd fill Imelda's closet.
Posted by steve duncan at October 5, 2005 07:42 PMa U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney
Most recently assigned? Wouldn't you think that people would be re-screened before they are assigned to different level jobs within the WH? Seems prudent, given Benedict Arnold and all. Come on, boys, people change! I guess they're still living with that pre-9/11 mindset.
Posted by ann at October 5, 2005 08:38 PMSteve Duncan:
I believe you have stumbled upon a small portion of the true nature of all of these scandals. They are the result of a massive on-going government cover-up that transcends a multitude of administrations. The implications are horrifying, and to some unbelievable.
Imelda's shoes were not collected by Imelda, but by Condi, in covert international operations to upstage Raisa Gorbachev's footwear and in so doing, bring down the Evil Empire. And it some success.
The only problem is the Russian's ability to produce an untold number of hot Internet babes in Chinese knock-offs, which has reduced Project Emilio Pucci Slingback to nothing more than a $22.5 billion dollar slush fund for DeLay. Sad, but inevitable.
The Phillipine spy connection is obviously part of this operation, as shoe trends change by the minute, and classified information regarding these trends are priceless.
The Bolton-Cheney-Miller connection is somewhat more difficult to explain, other that the first two know nothing about shoes, and Miller knows even less.
These revelations and many more will all come out in the wash using Cold Water Tide(tm) in the next month. And for once, the evangelicals may be right about Armageddon.
bbtb, where is Mexico? I love it there.
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 09:40 PMbbtb, interesting concept. The Marine as the cover.
Posted by Judith at October 5, 2005 09:43 PMJudith:
Turn right at Texas, then quickly turn left at the first Minuteman vigilante you run into.
Posted by tempus at October 5, 2005 10:42 PMI received an interesting comment up at skippy's re: this....especially since the spy in question was over $500,000 in debt....
From Bryan of Why Now? (who is former Military...)
To work in the VP's office you would need a top secret clearance. If you are in the military and have a top secret clearance you are on a credit watch - when you owe more than a limited amount you get flagged and questioned.
It had to be the FBI that dropped the ball. The Marines wouldn't have let anyone have a clearance that owed $500K and the FBI can't have been updating his background.
The FBI is the organization that was supposed to have done the background on Kerik.
Bryan
Posted by jillian at October 5, 2005 11:07 PMWhoa there. This guy's name is very very similiar to mine it's freaking me out. My last name (Agoncillo) is very unique and I'm also originally from the Philippines. Weird stuff...
Posted by John Agoncillo at October 5, 2005 11:36 PMOK Lemmings. Although I never served in combat and don’t have superior education that iamcoyote received, even I can see that the ‘spy’ was hired on in 1999. I forget who was in office then? Also I doubt that Al Gore or anyone with a ‘D’ after their name had anything to do with hiring this guy. He was way, way down the food chain and hired by the FBI and probably only worked for the VP office as part of his duties. I know you all think that everyone in government is fired when a new occupant comes to the White House but that is far from the truth. Also since the guy was hired on in 1999 he was due for his Special Background Investigation update in 2004. So it was probably when he had update and polygraph that it was found out he was spying. So a case could be made that the Bush administration found out a spy hired on by the Clinton Administration, but in truth neither had any to do with either event. You lemmings are so desperate to pin a scandal on Bush (maybe you should make it a game?) that you jumped full force into this pile without first examining the facts. But then that has always been the MO of the left. How are the other scandals panning out: Plame, Weapons caches, Guard Docs, Halibuton, etc? Ever hear the story about the boy who cried “wolf”?
Posted by Cyber Sarge at October 6, 2005 07:41 AMHow are the other scandals panning out: Plame, Weapons caches, Guard Docs, Halibuton, etc?
Pretty good considering that the administration under investigation controls all three branches of government and has plenty of stonewalling tools and uses every one of them.
Ever hear the story about the boy who cried “wolf”?
Very perceptive of you to realize that attempting to defend the undefendable is damaging your creditability sarge.
Cyber Sarge:
Why was a guy who had access to classified documents not subject to a more rigorous and frequent background check after 9/11?
Posted by Steve Soto at October 6, 2005 08:29 AMYou lemmings are so desperate to pin a scandal on Bush (maybe you should make it a game?)
Every time I hear a Bush apologist (or a Republican) say something like this I have to chuckle. This from the group that allowed the multi-year witch hunt into Clinton's personal life to tie up the court system and cost the taxpayers a pile of cash all for a consensual, adult blow job.
Posted by ann at October 6, 2005 09:12 AMthis phillipino spy case is meant to distract us from the more significant confluence of the plame case and AIPACgate. stay focused. AIPAC's workers have been indicted for espionage and i wonder how many congresspeople accept money from AIPAC?
Posted by kebmodee at October 6, 2005 09:29 AM