For those of you who just awakening after the second cup of coffee, let me recap. Like your humble correspondent, my caffeine receptors are so down-regulated by my java habit, that I now sweeten my coffee with two lumps of NoDoz. [By the way, there is no HTML code for the phonetic long o as in o. A hack used here is the definition of a class in CSS ("span.overline {text-decoration:overline ;}") followed by defining the o using <span>.]

As I wrote previously, the fall-out from the White House exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame becomes curiouser and curiouser. First, the White House tried to bury the story, then tried to spin it, then attacked the messenger. The next step in the Karl Rove spin cycle is to accuse Clinton of doing the same thing. This always helps with the GOP partisans and the administration's irrational Clinton-hating base. I expect to see this spin very soon. Perhaps Philip Agee or Aldrich Ames will be revealed as a contributor to the Al Gore campaign.

The final solution by Herr Rove is to 'acquiesce' to an FBI or (GOP-led) Congressional investigation, depending on the political operatives in these departments to delay, obfuscate, and bury the scandal. If, by any chance, a report comes out which actually could damage the White House, this itself is then buried ('redacted') in the guise of national security.

Already there are calls for a special prosecutor or special counsel. The response of the White House and the punditariat is to let the "professionals" at the DOJ or FBI handle it. Well, let's examine the recent performance of these apolitical paragons of justice appointed by Bush and Ashcroft.

Exhibit 1, the Katrina Leung affair. For those of you who have not followed this (suppressed) scandal, here is a summary from CBS News. Basically, a prominent GOP fund-raiser is revealed to have taken $1.7 million from the FBI while being involved in a sexual relationship with at least two FBI agents. The modern-day Mata Hari meanwhile worked as an agent for the Chinese government, transmitting to them secret documents, obtained from her FBI lovers by application of that infamous Chinese torture "the velvet wrench." The story has been covered sporadically. Some links are here at Talking Points Memo, from Capitol Hill Blue, and here in a compendium of news articles. The affair was referred to the FBI and .... <sound of crickets>.

Exhibit 2, the bugging of the Philadelphia mayor's office. First we have Tom DeLay calling NORAD to locate the Texas Legislators who absconded to Oklahoma. Now we have the FBI bugging the Democratic mayor of Philadelphia during a close campaign with his GOP opponent. Not political, you say. No evidence, you say? Well, what is the back story? And, if something damaging comes up or some election strategy is revealed, do you think it will be rapidly transmitted to Karl Rove? This is called using all your assets. It's the leaks about the bugging and the supposed investigation into municipal corruption, all timed for the election that raise my suspicions. That, and Mr. Ridge's personal involvement with the race. Look for more here.

And even if the FBI or DOJ, against all odds, does an unbiased investigation, you can be sure that it will be bottled up and edited just like the infamous 28 pages of the Congressional Intelligence Committee's report on 9/11 and the Saudi connection.

Not to leave that alone:

Virtually everyone was upset by the 28 pages left blank in the copies of the 900-page report made public, 28 pages referring to links the Saudis had, or might have had, with terrorists.

The reaction was almost immediate. Outraged senators were quick to say most of the material which was redacted (the government's fancy word removing information from the report) could have been left in with no harm to U.S. security interests. Then Sept. 11 family members and their lawyers wondered aloud why the American public could not know what ties might exist between Saudi government officials and the Sept. 11 terrorists.

It didn't take long before the Saudi damage control operation swung into high gear. Riyadh signaled Washington it wanted to send its foreign minister to see President Bush at the White House. Like, the next day. Meetings are not normally put on the president's calendar that quickly, especially when the request comes from someone who has to fly halfway around the world just to sit down in the Oval Office.

But such are the close ties (read "political clout") between the Saudis and the Bush administration that Riyadh's request was granted. The word went forth: Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal would ask the Bush administration to de-classify the information contained in the 28 blank pages. "We can deal with questions in public, but we cannot respond to blank pages," said Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

As politicians from both parties hammered the Saudis and broadcast commentators and op-ed authors speculated on what was in the missing pages, the Saudi foreign minister winged his way to Washington. Before he was able to make his case, however, the White House pre-empted the outcome and gave its answer to the anticipated Saudi request: no, the Bush administration had already decided, the missing information would not be de-classified. National security reasons were cited by President Bush, who said the investigation was ongoing and declassification "would reveal sources and methods that will make it harder for us to win the war on terror."

After Prince Saud al-Faisal had his meeting with the president he walked to the cameras and microphones on the White House driveway to publicly defend his kingdom, which, after all, was the purpose of his trip. "It is an outrage to any sense of fairness that 28 blank pages are now considered substantial evidence to proclaim the guilt of a country that has been a true friend and partner to the United States for over 60 years."

Let's see the material. Where is Daniel Ellsberg when we need him?