Breaking News! Cheney Pushed President Out Of Washington To Avoid Subpoena

Garlic Exclusive!
President’s Surprise Iraq Visit Not Diplomacy; White House Wanted Distance From Rove

Staff Gets Info Wrong, Thought Bush’s Brain Indicted; Wanted President Out Of Capital, Away From Subpoenas

President Bush was spirited out of the Camp David late last evening, rushed to Andrews Air Force Base and boarded on to Air Force One for a trip to Iraq, after a West Wing staffer misheard a telephone message, believing that White House Special Council, and longtime key aide to the President, Karl Rove had been indicted.

In what was described to The Garlic, by a source close to the Bush Administration, a tense and chaotic scene unfolded, as Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Vice President Dick Cheney White House Council Harriet Meirs conferred. Reportedly, Cheney argued for getting the President out of the Capital area, in the remote event that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald attempted to serve the President with a subpoena.

“If this is what went down,” offered Dix Whitcomb, editor of the newsletter "Our Laws Are Different", “then this White House doesn’t know whether to piss or wind their watches.”

“They should have had the President, and Rove, running victory laps around Washington today,” said Whitcomb.

Cheney Orders Constitutional Exemption and White House Spins “Closer Relationship” With Iraqis

It was said the Cheney wanted the White House Legal Team to have time to attempt to come up with a credible argument, based on the Constitution, War Time Powers or Executive Privilege that would prevent the President from being served a subpoena.

The White House official spin on the President surprise trip to Iraq was to follow-up on the momentum on the killing of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and give support to the new Iraqi Government, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki

The Washington Post reported this morning that White House counselor Dan Bartlett told reporters aboard Air Force One before landing in Baghdad that a personal meeting was designed to allow Bush and Maliki to "establish a closer relationship than you can just over a telephone."

Rove Cleared, Libby Indicted and Cheney Fingerprints On Leak

The chain of events begin early last evening, after Karl Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, was told by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he did not expect to file charges against Rove, for his role in the leaking of CIA Agent Valarie Plame, as retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, after Wilson criticized the President in a New York Times Op-Ed over the administrations contention of WMD’s in Iraq, and Iraq’s alleged pursuit of uranium for nuclear weapons – after President Bush asserted such in his 2003 State of the Union Address.

Fitzgerald put Rove before the Grand Jury investigating the leak five times, grilling the man called “Bush’s Brain” over his possible false testimony about speaking with reporters about Plame and Wilson.

To date, only former Vice President Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been indicted in the case.

Both Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney are potential witnesses that may be called to testify in the Libby case, scheduled to begin in January, 2007.

In a court filing last month, record show that Cheney may be deeply involved in the outing of Plame’s CIA identity, writing notes in the column of the newspaper carrying Wilson’s Op-Ed and directing Libby, and others in the Vice President’s office to rebut the charges.

Intern and Low-Level Staffer Set-Off Chain Pushing President To Iraq

Luskin called the White House early last evening to pass along the good news of Rove being cleared of possible indictment.

According to sources, a West Wing intern, working late, took the call. Realizing the importance of the message, the intern patched the call through to Camp David and, whoever took the call there, another administrative staffer, is where things began to go wrong.

The staffer at Camp David “panicked”, according to our source, and relayed the message that “Rove’s indicted” to Bolten and others in the room.

From there, things moved very quickly and the President was hustled out of Camp David to Air Force One.

Pattern of White House Screw-ups

This would not be the first situation in which White House staffers gave the President wrong information.

Last December, as reported by The Garlic, the Lincoln Group, a Washington, D.C. PR firm, hired by the Pentagon to plant pro-U.S. Military stories in the Iraqi media, gave the President the wrong folder before a speech at the Naval Academy. The President then went out and spoke of the "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq", while media in Iraq carried harsh slams against critics of the President, Senators Jack Murtha, John Kerry and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

As to the Lincoln Group error, Harold "Ace" Larson, an analyst for the counterintelligence think tank, 'Book'em and Beat'em', said

"Until when, and if, Karl Rove or Dick Cheney gets indicted, this is about the worst thing that could happen for Bush.”

It’s not clear if the President, or anyone on the staff advised the Iraqis of the reason for the surprise visit. News reports at the time of this writing are still carrying the official White House spin, adding in visits by the President to the U.S. Troops stationed in Iraq.

A quickly-assembled advance team handed out to the troops, wallet-sized photos of the dead terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in preparation for the President’s visit.

The Garlic has learned that President Bush’s surprise visit to Iraq today was not a diplomatic gesture, but rather he was spirited away from his Camp David Summit over the misinformation that Karl Rove had been indicted. Vice President Dick Cheney led the effort, pushing the President out of Washington and away from any possible subpoenas