Posted on 02/06/2007 9:15:40 PM PST by STARWISE
On a tape played at his trial Tuesday Lewis "Scooter" Libby told investigators he thought President Bush authorized him to give a reporter information about CIA agent Valerie Plame.
"If the president tells you to talk about a document, it's declassified," Libby told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on March 24, 2003, during testimony before a grand jury that would eventually indict Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Libby is charged with lying to investigators trying to find out who leaked Plame's identity as a CIA operative. Her identity was revealed after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, alleged in an editorial that the Bush administration twisted facts to support an invasion of Iraq. Wilson said his intelligence-gathering work -- which concluded Iraq had made no serious effort to obtain nuclear weapons material in Niger -- had been ignored by the administration.
The audio recordings, made nearly four years ago, shed light on how Libby handled the controversy over Wilson's allegations.
Libby said White House Counsel David Addington told him the president has the power to declassify material on his own. Libby said he asked Addington, "Can the president declassify a document just by telling us to talk?" and Addington said he could.
Libby quoted that response to Fitzgerald on the stand.
Fitzgerald asked Libby whether he was present when Vice President Dick Cheney asked Bush to declassify the material, whether anyone else was present, and whether issues were raised about how going public might overrule CIA Director George Tenet.
To each question, Libby answered no.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Scooter ~~ !
what you are seeing in these transcripts is Fitzgerald's real motives. he wanted Bush or Cheney, and he wanted Libby to give them up.
yep
I'm not sure that this is exactly what is being said in court. I can't see how it would help Libby's case to say that he thought that the President authorized the release of a classified document. Telling reporters that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA is not classified information.
Star...I read that article by CNN...and in the body of the article...I didn't read any quotes by Libby...or even see the question asked of him if "Bush authorized the UNMASKING of Plame"...
No where...
The headline of this piece doesn't coincide with the body of the article....unless they left out the part where Libby said that there was a piece of classifed information...that Bush UNclassified that specifically said, "Valerie Plame is an undercover agent"...and then gave him permission to say that.
Since Plame was a mere paper pusher, what was classified about her?
Oh, shit, Scooter! You didn't.....???!!?
Thanks.
That would be about right.
This is just CNN pulling a juicy bit from the tapes to make a story. Nothing more.
Where does it say that in that article?
Since Valerie Plame was not covert since 1997, what's the dif? The President didn't unmask anybody. She drove to the CIA every day. Even Andrea Mitchell of NBC said it was common knowledge amongst the DC glitterati that Plame was CIA.
Valerie pulled strings to give her husband a free trip to Africa, courtesy of you and me.
Fitzgerald needs to be on the stand, not Libby.
He still has to prove intent to commit perjury. Good luck.
There are big holes missing in that article
Been reading all.
This one almost gave me an anxiety attack.
Libby is facing a leftist jury. In Washington, that's the only kind you ever get. His ONLY hope is to dump on Bush and Cheney. If Libby stands up to Fitzfong, and suppports Bush, he's cooked. He's saving himself.
You're both right!! That is really perverse.
Article talks about declassifying a *document* .. not a *person* .. yet this is what's on top of the CNN article page .. i.e., the title:
Story Highlights
• NEW: Libby says he thought Bush authorized him to talk about CIA employee
• On tape, Libby says he was surprised when Russert mentioned Plame
• Libby accused of obstructing probe into leak of Valerie Plame's CIA position
• On tapes, Libby apologizes for poor memory
Opening:
On a tape played at his trial Tuesday Lewis "Scooter" Libby told investigators he thought President Bush authorized him to give a reporter information about CIA agent Valerie Plame.
"If the president tells you to talk about a document, it's declassified," Libby told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on March 24, 2003, during testimony before a grand jury that would eventually indict Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Time for an email to CNN.
If they truly had Libby saying those things they list...I would think they would have printed the quotes.
The one quote of Libby's that they did print is a pretty vague, generic quote about classified documents.
When I was reading about all of this months ago...I got the impression the reason that Pres. Bush gave Libby permission to discuss previously classified information...was because the information went to the reason that those 16 words were in the SOTU speech...
CNN is once again playing word games in a case of "wishful thinking"
I will watch Brit Hume's show every night...and get the trial report...from there.
Turn the channel to MSNBC...and hear David Shuster give Chrissy the EXACT OPPOSITE synopsis.
Evidently, nothing since nobody is being charged with that as a crime. That includes the real source of the leak, Richard Armitage from the State Department.
Outing Valrie Plame was a side effect, and frankly, who cares? While technically confidential, she was no longer covert nor harmed by the non-news that she is CIA.
I've sent my very probing email and requested an answer. I'll let ya know if I get one.
Rats twisting words ... we'll see.
What was Shuster's take? I missed it.
The outing of Plame, regardless of who did it, is tantamount to me disclosing that my son is an Eagle Scout. Big deal. No harm and no foul.
When is the LIE that Plame was a "CIA operative" going to be punished?
"unmasking"?!</i>
If she were truly "unmasked" this trial would be about a totally different matter.
Not a thing.
And there is no secret classification mentioned in Fitzgerald's Libby indictment about Plame's job at the CIA.
Bill Klintoon lied under oath - repeatedly - and Scooter's freedom is jeopardized because of questionable memory issues.
It seems like this is still going in the wrong direction.
You can't lie about exposing someone is not exposable (sic).
(I am practicing Bushisms.)
Libby could not lie about knowing when he talked about Plame because she was a non-entity.
Why can't the lawyers get it?
What does this have to do with the ONLY case that Fitz has? Which is perjury?
(Fitz and Libby discuss declassification of NIE and Jan. 24th document, Addington saying Pres has absolute ability to declassify anything whenever he want — this has all been reported previously)
F: Getting back to Judith Miller, did you talk about Mr. Wilson?
L: I don't remember specifically, but probably since we discussed it since we talked about Niger and uranium.
F: What about Mr. Wilson's wife?
L: I don't believe I did.
F: Do you recall a meeting on July 9th chaired by Stephen Hadley?
L: Not specifically.
F: Hadley was angry, saying that Tenet was upset by Andrea Mitchell report… do you recall him looking at Cathie Martin and Claire Buchan of OVP?
L: Not specifically.
F: This was just after you spoke with Andrea Mitchell, right?
(Fitz explains that Martin and Buchan were removed from contacting CIA during that period, Libby says he doesn't remember it for that reason, was because of work on Tenet statement at higher levels)
F: Do you recall Hadley saying on July 9th that we need to do something about Wilson now, discredit him? (Oh, my.)
L: I don't recall that specific phrase, but I'd have to check my notes.
F: Do you remember that concept coming across, regardless of specific words?
L: Yes, to discredit what Wilson was saying. Don't recall about discrediting him personally.
F: (pulls out notes) Do you recall Rove complaining that Wilson was viewed as a credible expert?
L: Remember wanting to discredit his story, but not him personally
F: Were people saying, "Let's be careful to discredit his story, but not discredit him personally"?
L: Don't recall any statement like that.
F: Do you recall an effort to push back on Wilson's credibility that week?
L: Yes, trying to get statement from Rice and Tenet explaining that Wilson's findings didn't really undermine intelligence, but supported it (gives the whole spiel again)
It's 11:36.
F: Did you consider Wilson's wife working at the CIA as something that undermined his credibility?
L: No, I thought he was credible to do what he did.
F: Do you believe it reflected nepotism in his hiring?
L: I… I don't think I knew then why he was hired. That didn't come out until later, with the Rove report. (??? I have no idea what this means. ???)
F: You're clear that you didn't give this information with Ari Fleischer
L: I don't recall it. I'm sorry to keep repeating this, but all I recall is being surprised when I talked about it with Tim Russert.
F: (pulls out note from conversation about Tenet statement, with references to Cheney, Hadley, plus Harlow/McLaughlin on CIA)
F: Does this say, "Wilson is declassified"?
L: Yes.
F: Does this say, "The president is comfortable"?
L: Yes.
F: And the next line:
L: Hadley saying it's the NIE should be leaked.
F: Did anyone say it was OK to leak the NIE that week?
L: I had already talked to Judith Miller, with the President's approval.
F: Did you tell Hadley this?
L: No.
F: Why not?
L: Because the VP was there, and he knew, and didn't say anything.
F: What is this line?
L: Hadley saying whole truth has to get out, and he'd told Tenet that.
F: Was he getting ticked off?
L: More or less, Tenet statement was supposed to come out Tuesday, and was being delayed.
F: Tell me about conversation with Mr. Russert.
L: Chris Matthews has a TV show, and is an outspoken fellow, and he was saying Wilson report had been seen by VP and should have convinced WH that Niger uranium intelligence was false, not even referring to denials by WH, OVP, and CIA.
This was frustrating to us, and we wanted him to acknowledge that the public record was different. Wasn't first time Matthews had criticized us. So I called Mary Matalin and asked for advice on how we should get Matthews to acknowledge public record. Mary had own opinions on where we were, so she gave them, then suggested I call Tim Russert.
So I called Russert, can't remember if I got him right away or had to call back. We spoke briefly, and then I turned to our issues.
I mentioned Andrea Mitchell but said I'm not really calling about Mitchell, then went into problems with Matthews. I think Russert said he had to call me back. And I think in the second phone call, if there was one, or a delay in the first call, we had a fuller conversation.
He said not much he could do about Chris Matthews, and then he said did you know Ambassador Wilson's wife works for the CIA? I remember being taken aback by that, and I said "No, I don't know that." Intentionally, because I didn't want him to take me as confirming it. Because I had forgotten by then that I had ever known.
So he said wife works at CIA, and I said, "I don't know that," and he said, "Yeah, all the reporters know that," and I said "I don't know that." Again.
F: What was resolution with Chris Matthews.
L: We were told to go to his producer. In short, I struck out.
F: Did he give you the name of the producer?
L: Yes. I think it's Shapiro.
F: Did you call him?
L: No. We asked someone in the WH press office who knew him. Adam Levine.
F: Did he succeed?
L: No. Matthews kept saying same things.
More at the site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is just beyond insane. I hear the sincerity in Scooter's words .. and what a challenge it was to keep up with all that was going on at that time at the WH, plus having to be distracted and diverted with this garbage.
That delay of Tenet in releasing info .. wonder if that's meaningful.
Hadley was angry, saying that Tenet was upset by Andrea Mitchell report
Was that the "everyone knows she works at the CIA" report?
I'm beginning to despise Fitz.
CNN reporters admitted to supressing news of torture and abuse under Saddam to keep thier Baghdad Bureau.
Trust news from CNN as would trust a report from ANY Stalinist.
Dean? That's crazy. I know he's arrogantly been penning open letters to him on findlaw.com.
Do you remember where you read it?
Obviously.
If Fitz doesn't know if relevent material has been declassified or not, and some wuestions imply he doesn't know, it may be the CIA made a referral over a nonexistant crime.
Mary McCarthy worked in the CIA office that would have made the referal, did she not?
Maybe Fitz really doesn't know if Plame was classified or not.
It seems strange we have a gazillion leaks in Scooter's case but not a one in Mary McCarthy's.
Thanks.
the whole line of questioning I just read was fishing for a hook to Cheney,Rove or Bush. Also if Libby is truthful,Russert lied saying he did not tell Libby or knew personally,Pflame was CIA.
When is the LIE that Plame was a "CIA operative" going to be punished?
Well, she may have been an operative (as in agent) but at least the phrases undercover or covert are no longer "operative" so that's progress for the media, who kept using them long after it became understood that it was not true.
What is a lie, is that investigators were trying to find out who leaked Plame's identity, period. They already knew it was Armitage from Novak and Armitage himself, and should have known that the 1982 law was not broken, intentionally or unintentionally.
More on Greenspan's wife:.....Now, an odd burp of a story is floating around the Internet about a question from Andrea Mitchell to James Risen on the possibility that CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour was the subject of a government wiretap. The place to start here in The Moderate Voice, where Joe Gandelman has some good analysis and lots of links to get you around. Be prepared for the typical responses in the comments from the usual suspects. Bush backers will say something on the order of, "Well, there must have been a good reason," while anti-Bush people will be throwing I-told-you-sos amidst the predictions or hope of an early impeachment. And let's not forgo the obvious Nixon parallels.
In a nut shell, Mitchell, in interviewing Risen, gave the impression that she was aware that the administration was bugging Amanpour's communications. NBC killed the transcript and issued an oddly phrased statement that implied that NBC thought that the charge was credible but wasn't ready to break the story, which, whether this ends up being true or hooey, is the right thing to do.
39 posted on 01/06/2006 9:39:46 AM PST by Cboldt | To 1 |
For the second time in two weeks, radio host Don Imus grilled Mitchell on her Oct. 2003 remarks, where she told CNBC's Alan Murray that Plame's CIA connection was "widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger."Mitchell went on to explain: "So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn't aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it."
The top NBC'er said Wednesday, however, that she was completely mystified as to why she would have made the comment. "I have gone back over this, I can't tell you how many times," she lamented. "I was quite surprised to hear about it because it's inconsistent with anything in my memory. I can't find any notes that reflect this alleged knowledge. And so I was muddled on the timeline - that's all I can imagine."
Pressed on why she would have said she knew about Plame if she didn't, an exasperated Mitchell blurted out: "Because, I messed up . . . clearly back in Oct. of '03, I screwed it up."
Despite her conflicting accounts, Mitchell revealed that prosecutor Fitzgerald has shown no interest in interviewing her in the three weeks since her 2003 comments have become an issue. Asked if she'd been subpoenaed, Mitchell replied: "No, no - not at all." Asked whether Fitzgerald's office has even bothered to contact her, the top NBC'er said: "No - in no way."
The Mitchell-Imus exchange went like this:
MITCHELL: I know the question now. I've gone back and reread it. And I frankly - I thought - I think that I thought he was asking about, did I know there was an envoy. But I know that I didn't know about Joe Wilson's wife until after the [Novak] column. Because when the column came out I went in to my producer and said - "Look at this. How the heck did we not know that?"
And at the same time we were talking with [Tim] Russert and everyone else. You know - this is a different part of the story that we didn't know about.
So clearly back in Oct. of '03, I screwed it up.IMUS: Well, [Alan Murray's] question seems plain. "Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. And you said that his wife worked . . .
MITCHELL: When you look at my answer, I said: "It was widely known - and we were trying to track down who among the foreign community was the envoy to Niger." So far, so good. Okay? [Quoting herself again.] "So some of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn't aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact the she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.
IMUS: Well, that part is clear.
MITCHELL: That's clear. So, what's not clear is that I didn't know about her role at the CIA until Bob Novak wrote it. And I obviously got it muddled.
IMUS: Well, what this suggests to me is that, you knew she worked at the CIA but you didn't know what she did there. MITCHELL: Yes, but that's not . . .
IMUS: Is that fair? Did you know that?
MITCHELL: I didn't.
IMUS: Well, then - why did you say you did, Andrea?
MITCHELL: Because, I messed up.
IMUS: Oh.
MITCHELL: I think that I was confused about the timeline. We weren't all as focused on the timeline then as we really are now. And I think I just was confused.
IMUS: Did you ever have a discussion with Russert about it?
MITCHELL: Sure, after the fact.
IMUS: Oh.
MITCHELL: Well, I think Russert, conversations with Russert, obviously after Joe Wilson came out on "Meet the Press" - and we all talked about those 16 words. That's what we were focused on. We were focused on Niger, uranium, were there WMD? That's what the whole focus was. Not on his wife.
Then Joe Wilson's wife was mentioned by Bob Novak and it became a major issue when the CIA referred it to the Justice Department for investigation. . . . . [SNIP]IMUS: I think the reason that there's a question about you, and I'm not patronizing you, but it's because the respect you have as a journalist and as a reporter.
MITCHELL: I appreciate that but I've got to tell you . . .
IMUS: I mean, [reporters are] very careful about what they say and when they say it.
MITCHELL: I have gone back over this, I can't tell you how many times. I was quite surprised to hear about it because it's inconsistent with anything in my memory. I can't find any notes that reflect this - this alleged knowledge. And so I was muddled on the timeline - that's all I can imagine.
IMUS: Have you been subpoenaed?
MITCHELL: No, no - not at all.
IMUS: Have you ever - have you talked to Fitzgerald informally?
MITCHELL: No - in no way. I was - I didn't have any knowledge about this. You know, one of the things that happened was that the Washington Post wrote an inaccurate story in the middle of this whole period, saying that I was one of the six people who had been leaked to before the Novak column. And that's how my name first got into this.
Which was not true. They didn't check with me. They didn't call me. I was in the office all day. It was a Sunday. They wrote the story on Monday morning.
*************
In addition to IMUS and Russert connections and discussion with Mitchell, I heard her speak 3 times on Matthews show saying repeatedly, it was well known in Washington that Plame (Wilsons wife) worked at CIA....------15 posted on 01/22/2007 9:06:38 AM PST by Texas Songwriter
Moreon Russert:
...Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald cut last year for NBC "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert's testimony may shed light on the emerging White House defense in the Valerie Plame leak case. The agreement between Fitzgerald and NBC avoided a court fight over a subpoena for Russert's testimony about his July 2003 talk with Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis (Scooter) Libby. The deal was not, as many assumed, for Russert's testimony about what Libby told him: it focused on what Russert told Libby. An NBC statement last year said Russert did not know of Plame, wife of ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson, or that she worked at the CIA, and "he did not provide that information to Libby." 24 posted on 10/11/2005 4:56:56 PM PDT by umgud | To 22Back to Mitchell:
The Mitchell Mystery at the Libby Trial The American Thinker ^ | Jan 21, 2007 | clarice feldmanOver the weekend an intriguing mystery about Andrea Mitchell surfaced. On Friday, Matt Apuzzo reported:
A federal judge said Friday that he likely would allow NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell's notes to be used in the CIA leak trial, setting up another potential fight between journalists and the court in the case.
Mitchell's notes on her conversation with former White House aide "Scooter" Libby have been under subpoena for nearly a year, but U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton had ruled that, because Mitchell was unlikely to testify at trial, her notes would not be released.(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Somebody had to look up a statute to refer to DoJ, which degenerated into this farce because Ashcroft and Gonzales recused themselves and Comey then appointed his buddy from Marc Rich case, Pa'tricky' Fongerald.
That served both to divert attention from CIA's own inept handling of "flawed intelligence" and Wilson's real findings in Niger and put the WH on the defensive, and at the same time created a "crisis" which was supposed to bring the WH to Dems in 2004.
That didn't happen in 2004, but may have been a cumulative factor together with other things in 2006 elections, just like Iran-Contra didn't stop GHWB in 1988, Lawrence Walsh's "surprise" indictment of Weinberger just days before 1992 election helped give WH to Clinton.
I am also amused about the nepotism thing- from what I remember the very first sugestion Plame picked her hubby for those reasons came from me or someone else on FR, not from any news article sourced to the admin.
Thanks. Mitchell's role in the case keeps coming up:
--Hosted Wilson's TV appearance (with Carl Levin following up) the day of his NYT op-ed.
--Allegedly first to show Wilson copies of forgeries.
--Claimed she knew Plame was covert, then retracted it.
--Allegedly one of six reporters leaked Plame's identity before Novak's column.
--Linked to Tim Russert, another key figure in the case.
--First to report CIA had asked DOJ to investigate leak.
Wow.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.