We Have a Nice Egyptian Cruise You'd Like

Barging upriver past the pyramids, the chronicler of Thomas White's criminal career keeps the faith by upping the ante:

In one of the boldest moves yet in the 22-month investigation into the outing of a covert CIA agent to a handful of top reporters covering the White House, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is extending his probe and pursuing much more serious charges against senior White House officials, specifically President Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, lawyers directly involved in the case told RAW STORY Friday.

While many people were left confused by news reports that said Rove wouldn't be indicted Friday, the lawyers said that Rove remains under intense scrutiny and added that Fitzgerald is betting on the fact that he can secure an indictment against Rove on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, the misuse of classified information, and possibly other charges, as early as next week.

“This investigation is not yet over,” one of the lawyers in the case said. “You must keep in mind that people like Mr. Rove are still under investigation. Rather than securing an indictment on perjury charges against Mr. Rove Mr. Fitzgerald strongly believes he can convince the grand

The lawyers said that in the past month Fitzgerald has obtained explosive information in the case that has enabled him to pursue broader charges such as conspiracy, and civil rights violations against targets like Rove. Specifically, the lawyers said Fitzgerald is focusing on phony intelligence documents that led to the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity: the documents that claimed Iraq was attempting to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Niger.

And, he is not alone. Also booking staterooms; the entire ensemble of the Huffington Post:

That's right -- it isn't a one-day holiday like Fitzmas. This could go on and on. One day a great gift like Libby, the next day a pair of socks (Ari Fleischer), the next day, who knows: maybe an Xbox 360 (Karl Rove)! Maybe this can be dragged out until the 2006 midterms.--Al Franken

Today's indictment of Vice President Cheney's Chief Aide Scooter Libby is an important first step in holding this Administration responsible for its efforts to deceive the American people and their elected representatives to bolster the case for going to with Iraq. But it is only the beginning.

In many ways, it raises more questions than it answers.--John Conyers

Rather than be the eighth person in the herd trampling after meaningless comments from "lawyers involved in the case," who'll spill first now to the NYT just to help its credibility-rebuilding campaign, why not camp out at Steve Hadley's office? There, you could try to get his comment on the blockbuster series this week in an Italian newspaper which seems to be the definitive story, so far, on how the forged yellowcake-Iraq-Niger documents, the story at the bottom of Plamegate, ended up at the White House.

One of the key moments in the story is a meeting, unusual in protocol terms, between the head of Italy's intel agency SISMI and Hadley, at the time Condi Rice's chief assistant at NSC.--Harry Shearer

None of whom seem to have noted Fitzgerald's many cautions against 'reading too much into' his continuing investigation, since it's routine in cases where there has been an indictment.

Nor the grudging admission near the end of the question and answer period when the prosecutor said there was no Official Secrets Act in America. That for revealing classified information to be a crime there must be criminal intent to do harm, and that just wasn't there.