Free Republic

As the curtain closes on the presidency of George W. Bush, the one loose end dangling is the pardon of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. In 2007 Mr. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Let us be clear about the Bush legacy. After September 11, not a year into Mr. Bush's term, his became a war presidency. George Bush's place in history will turn on what becomes of Iraq and al Qaeda. If Iraq fails, history will mark down the Bush presidency. If by fits and starts Iraq grows into the...

Barely a month before the 9/11 terror attacks, two Pakistani nuclear scientists, said to be close to disgraced Abdul Qadeer Khan, met up with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and offered to supply him with atomic weapons, according to a newly released book. Chaudiri Abdul Majeed and Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, who held a series of senior posts in Pakistani nuke programme, went to Taliban [Images] headquarters in Kandahar in mid-August 2001 and spent three days with bin Laden who was keen on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the book says. In fact, Mahmood was said to be more close to...

Bush's War Monday, March 24 and Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9 P.M. (check local listings) From the horror of 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq; the truth about WMD to the rise of an insurgency; the scandal of Abu Ghraib to the strategy of the surge-for six years, FRONTLINE has revealed the defining stories of the war on terror in meticulous detail, and the political dramas that played out at the highest levels of power and influence. Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush's War, airing Monday, March...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

If Alan Colmes turns up at your Thanksgiving get-together sporting a couple shiners and a re-arranged smile, don't press the poor guy if he claims to have walked into a door. The FNC host just got clobbered by a certified DC heavyweight -- Bob Novak. Novak was a guest on this evening's Hannity & Colmes. Colmes first questioned the venerable reporter about the item he published this week regarding the Clinton campaign's claim to have a scandalous story about Barack Obama. For the record, Novak stated this evening that since first reporting the story, "I've had substantiation from another source,...

Apparently one of the movie roles that Alec Baldwin won't be playing in the future is that of Sherlock Holmes. Baldwin writes an entire Huffington Post blog, Prosecuting Those Responsible For Outing Valerie Plame, without once mentioning the name of the leaker---Richard Armitage. Baldwin starts out with a fantasy about the things he would do if he were play-acting as president: The fifth thing that I would do is to prosecute whoever is responsible for outing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. At this point you would think that Baldwin would lash out at the leaker, Richard Armitage, or at...

When I went to my office Monday, July 7, 2003, Joe Wilson was not in the forefront of my mind. Frances Fragos Townsend was. She had just been named deputy national security adviser at the White House though her background was in liberal Democratic politics, including Attorney General Janet Reno's inner circle during the Clinton administration. Her appointment was a political mystery of the kind I had been exploring for forty years in my column. I wrote the Townsend column Tuesday morning because I had a busy schedule the rest of the day, including a 3 p.m. appointment with Richard...

Lawmakers in Canada appear to be paving the way for "deep integration" with the U.S. and Mexico with a proposed measure that advances the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America promoted by the Bush administration, notes WND columnist Jerome Corsi. It's an issue Corsi has fully investigated for his newest book, "The Late Great USA." The conservative minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pressing for "The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement", which would enable a Canadian company to challenge laws in provinces that block the North American Free Trade Agreement. Murray Dobbin, a Vancouver author...

Three months after his felony conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, 56, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and fined $250,000. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to impose a sentence of 30 to 37 months, on the grounds that Libby had lied about his role in leaking the identity of former CIA staffer Valerie Plame and impeded a serious investigation, and has not expressed remorse. Libby's lawyers argued for leniency, considering that no one was ever charged...

If some people imagined a verdict in the criminal trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. would calm the political passions surrounding his fate, they may have forgotten two words with a combustible history: presidential pardon. The 11 jurors had barely pronounced Mr. Libby guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury on Tuesday when a new donnybrook broke out. “Now President Bush must pledge not to pardon Libby for his criminal conduct,” declared Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority Leader, a stance echoed by other Congressional Democrats, editorial writers and bloggers on the left. On the right, The Wall Street Journal...

In his prosecution of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald contended that Vice President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff was actively involved in a smear campaign against anti-war diplomat Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame and that he lied about what he said to whom during the early summer of 2003, thus obstructing the investigation to determine who “outed” Plame as a CIA agent by leaking her identity to the media. Libby’s lawyers countered that he was too busy with pressing national security matters to be involved up to his eyeballs in a conspiracy to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer leaked the identity of a CIA operative to Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus during a 2003 phone call, Pincus testified Monday as the first defense witness in the CIA leak trial. Pincus was one of the first reporters to learn the identity of Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and prominent Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson. Pincus said he learned her identity July 12, 2003 but did not immediately write about it. Plame was outed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak two days later. Pincus testified on behalf of Vice...

WASHINGTON — The jury in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who served as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, has heard powerful evidence that two other officials were responsible for disclosing the identity of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame. Over a prosecution objection, the defense played an audio recording yesterday of a profanity-laden rant in which a former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, told a prominent journalist, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, about Ms. Plame's ties to Langley a month before she was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert Novak. Mr. Novak also testified yesterday,...

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage originally leaked Plame's identity. Armitage says the leak was inadvertent, and he is not being prosecuted.......Federal prosecutors are trying to show that Libby lied to investigators about conversations he had with reporters regarding Plame. Libby has denied lying and says he has a faulty memory........ Former Cheney Chief of Staff on Trial for Allegedly Lying to a Grand Jury, Not Outing CIA Agent: .Jan. 16, 2007 — Jury selection begins today in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby is charged with...

AN immediate withdrawal by Australia from Iraq would not hurt the country's alliance with America, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage said. And Peter Khalil, a Melbourne-born Pentagon adviser and former head of security for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, agreed. Mr Khalil said Diggers had done their job and could withdraw knowing they had stabilised a large section of southern Iraq. The Australian force's size limited what it could achieve, Mr Khalil, an analyst with Eurasia Group in Washington, said. And moving it to Baghdad to fight insurgents was not likely because of the political risk...

The former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage says no one would fault Australia if it decided to withdraw its troops from Iraq. But the Federal Government has warned Labor that pulling out would damage the alliance with the US. Protesters greeted several senior US officials at a dinner at Old Parliament House in Canberra last night. Inside, the Defence Minister Brendan Nelson's target was the Labor Party. "Friendships count for something," he said. "Anyone who thinks that prematurely leaving Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom would not do damage to our relationship with those countries is...

/begin my excerpt Armitage, "N. Korea to Push Ahead with Nuclear Test This Year" (Washington = Yonhap News) Cho Bok-rae = Richard Armitage, the former Deputy Secretary of State, commented on Sept. 21, "N. Korea will push ahead with nuclear test this year. If it happens, everything including the issue of wartime command control would be brought back to square one, and reevaluated," according to a lawmaker of Hannara Party(conservative opposition) visiting U.S. Mr. Armitage gave his view, saying that it is his personal opinion, while meeting some lawmakers from Hannara delegation made up of Lee Sang-deuk, Vice Chairman of...

Musharraf reveals post-9/11 threat in book serialised by The TimesPERVEZ MUSHARRAF, the President of Pakistan, claimed last night that the Bush Administration threatened to bomb his country “into the Stone Age” if it did not co-operate with the US after 9/11, sharply increasing tensions between the US and one of its closest allies in the war on terrorism. The President, who will meet Mr Bush in the White House today, said the threat was made by Richard Armitage, then the Deputy Secretary of State, in the days after the terror attacks, and was issued to the Pakistani intelligence director. “The...

Christine M. Flowers | A SCANDAL GOES DOWN IN PLAMES SCANDALS, like wool sweaters, tend to shrink when mishandled. An item that looked so sharp at first glance can lose its zing when thrown into the wrong spin cycle. And it's only when we pull it out, misshapen and ruined, that we realize last season's trendy purchase is this year's damaged goods.Take Plamegate, where the beautiful blond wife of an ambitious diplomat was unmasked as a CIA operative. Never mind the fact that Valerie Plame, Mrs. Ambassador Joe Wilson, wasn't exactly the spy who came in from the cold since...

CIA agent's naming led to giant hoax by Bush foes Fred Barnes September 15, 2006 THE rogues' gallery of those who acted badly in the CIA "leak" case turns out to be different from what the media led us to expect. Note that we put the word "leak" in quotation marks, because it's clear now that there was no leak at all, just idle talk, and certainly there was no smear campaign against former US ambassador Joseph Wilson for criticising President George W.Bush's Iraq policy. It's as if a giant hoax were perpetrated on the country - by the media,...

Since the revelation that Richard Armitage, a former high-ranking official in the State Department, was the source of the much-ballyhooed Valerie Plame "leak," many in the media have refused to touch the story with a ten-foot pole. This was quite a turnaround since before the Armitage involvement was known, many journalists believed the CIA leak story was one worth pursuing on a daily basis. Some even believed it could bring down the Bush White House, or at least end the careers of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. One of the biggest media figures boycotting the Plame story has been MSNBC...

This does get a little complicated. First, a holdover, liberal CIA employee, Valerie Plame, decided to undermine President Bush’s policies by pulling strings to get her like-minded husband, Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger to discredit the report from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase yellowcake for nuclear weapons development. (This British report was mentioned by Pres. Bush as one piece of intelligence we relied on in concluding that there was a significant risk of WMD in Iraq. The report turned out to be factual.)

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has resigned as expected a day after his boss and close friend, Colin Powell, announced he was stepping down, a State Department official said on Tuesday. Armitage, a barrel-chested former Navy officer who closely managed the day-to-day operations of the State Department's worldwide bureaucracy, tendered his resignation to Powell on Monday, the official said. "He came in with the secretary and is leaving with him," said the official, who asked not to be identified. Armitage was respected among diplomats and lawmakers for his candor. He was always expected to leave at the same...

Plamegate: Patrick Fitzgerald's three-year manhunt to track down who blew Valerie Plame's CIA "cover" has been exposed as a costly sham. He apparently knew all along that his man was not Scooter Libby. ...But it's hard to see anything but politics as the motivation for Fitzgerald's handling of the Plame affair. The facts indicate that Fitzgerald knew early on that the original leaker was State Department official Richard Armitage. So why did Fitzgerald let a cloud hang over White House adviser Karl Rove's head for so long? And why is Fitzgerald continuing to hound Libby, the former vice presidential chief...

With the REVELATION by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff that the REAL source of the leak of Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak was NOT Karl Rove but frequent critic of the Administration's Iraq policy, Richard Armitage, both DUmmieland and the KOmmieland are in a deep state of shock. Therefore, in order to ease their angst, perhaps this is a good time to take a brief break and serenade them with the Freudenschade song (to the tune of "Edelweiss) composed by that famous Tin Pan Alley songmeister, Charles Hendrickson: Freudenschade, Freudenschade, DUmmie joy bears repeating; Pop champagne, feel no pain-- Only...

If John Kerry becomes President he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma - which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new Secretary of State. According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks after winning the White House and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Baring one of Washington's worst-kept secret, Secretary of State Colin Powell's deputy said he and Powell sometimes went public with their dissenting views to try to influence Bush administration policy. Richard Armitage, who leaves along with Powell at the end of President Bush's first term, described the process as using the "bully pulpit.'' "Differences of opinion are something you as a citizen and I as a citizen should value in your government,'' Armitage said in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition'' on Thursday. "You really want it.'' Powell and Armitage,...

ONE of the reasons so many people admire Richard Armitage, the outgoing Deputy Secretary of State, is his well-earned reputation for fierce honesty. He is George Orwell-like in his ability to face hard facts straight up, and deal with them. Although he always manages to do this with a smile, he'll tell you the things you don't like to hear as well as the things you do. With his best friend and boss Colin Powell, Armitage, according to Bob Woodward's account of the period leading up to the war in Iraq, was the member of the Bush administration who urged...

NEW YORK, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Though by most accounts secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are friendly, the 72-year-old Defense chief may not be taking his partially eclipsed status very well. Though he has given no sign he might depart early, rumors have flown for weeks that Rumsfeld could leave after the quadrennial defense review expected by the end of 2005, report Senior Editor Michael Hirsh and Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman in the March 14 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 7). Among those said to be eying Rumsfeld's post is newly retired...

WASH POST's Ben Bradlee Claims Plame Leaker Was Richard Armitage Mon Mar 13 2006 10:48:34 ET THE WASHINGTON POST's famous Watergate editor Ben Bradlee claims that it was former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage who was the individual who leaked the identity of CIA official Valerie Plame. In the latest issue of VANITY FAIR: "Woodward was in a tricky position. People close to him believe that he had learned about Plame from his friend Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's former deputy, who has been known to be critical of the administration and who has a blunt way of speaking. 'That...

THE STATE DEPARTMENT PLOT THICKENS [John Podhoretz] Time Magazine has a new story about the revelation of Valerie Plame's name -- a story that, despite Time's own bizarre spin, reinforces the claim that Karl Rove and others learned that Joseph Wilson was married to a CIA operative from the media. "As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration," writes Massimo Calabresi. Later, he...

WASHINGTON - It was a spring-like Monday morning here as Afghan leader Hamid Karzai watched a hastily sewn flag rise over the long-abandoned Afghan embassy. Much like Mr. Karzai's desperate nation, the dilapidated embassy is a testimony to neglect, with peeling paint, leaky roofs, sagging walls, and termites. Still, no one seemed to notice. Speaking of shared US-Afghan pain, partnership, and hope, Karzai dignified the moment. He seemed sincere, yet polished - even, some would say, chic. "Tie it well, Haron," said Karzai, looking on in a silver lamb's-wool cap, flowing tunic, and emerald cape as his chargé d'affairs ...

More signs of Syria turn up in Iraq The Iraqi ambassador to Syria tells the Monitor that photos of high-ranking Syrian officials were found in Fallujah. By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor DAMASCUS, SYRIA - When US troops stormed the rebel-held city of Fallujah last month, they uncovered photos of senior Syrian officials that have further strained the already tense relations between Syria and Iraq, according to the Iraqi ambassador to Syria.Several captured insurgents were found in possession of the photographs, confirmation, according to Iraqi officials, that some elements in the Syrian regime - perhaps...

Sep. 11, 2004 9:56 | Updated Sep. 11, 2004 23:03 Armitage: Syria responsible for regional terror By JANINE ZACHARIA AND AP WASHINGTON Syria bears some responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in Beersheba on August 31, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday, although he stopped short of endorsing an Israeli retaliatory attack on Damascus. Asked in an interview with Egypt TV if Syria "should be held accountable" for the Beersheba bombings, which killed 16 and wounded dozens, Armitage said, "Why not? Syria holds and houses Hamas. Syria is a conduit of weapons from Iran to Hizbullah....

In a just-completed interview with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the Katie Couric on display was a far cry from the bitter, clenched-jawed woman of yesterday. Couric's interview of Gen. Ricardo Sanchez yesterday was a festival of attempts to downplay the significance of Saddam's capture and to highlight perceived shortcomings in US policy and accomplishments. No one would confuse the Couric of today with a cheerleader for US policy. But while she turned no handstands on behalf of Pres. Bush, neither did she second-guess or undermine in the same way she attempted yesterday. It could be that Katie was...

Bush administration examining ways to change course in IraqBy Warren P. Strobel and John WalcottKnight Ridder Newspapers CHUCK KENNEDY, KRT U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2003. WASHINGTON - Alarmed by mounting casualties and staggering costs in Iraq, a growing number of top Bush administration officials have concluded that the current U.S. strategy is unsustainable and are looking for ways to increase United Nations involvement, American officials and foreign diplomats said. The sharp course corrections under consideration, they said, include creating a multinational U.N. peacekeeping force with continued U.S. military...

US official says Iraqi scientists helping on arms By Carol Giacomo WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - Captured Iraqi scientists have started cooperating with the United States, giving U.S. officials renewed confidence that there are unconventional weapons in Iraq and they will be found, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Wednesday. "The people we have found are already leading us to other people as well as to computer files and to documents," he told the National Defense University, an elite school for America's military officers. "With these sources of information, we can say with a high degree of confidence...

Armitaj: we will not attack Syria.. But our relations are difficult Syria-USA, Politics, 4/9/2003 US Department of State official, Richard Armitaj, yesterday expressed his hope that Damascus would have stopped sending supplies and fighters to Iraq and blocked its borders before any non -humanitarian supplies. He repeated his saying that the USA does not intent to attack Syria despite the many sources of "concerns from it." Armitaj was referring to the recent American accusations and criticism to Syria accusing it of providing Iraq of equipment of military and civilian use including night vision goggles as well as permitting Arab fighters...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A bill in the Virginia legislature that promotes the flag of the former South Vietnam died in a subcommittee after federal officials warned lawmakers it could damage relations between the United States and Vietnam. Sen. Malfourd Trumbo said Monday that the bill will not face a vote before Monday's midnight deadline for action. The measure sparked concern among officials in Vietnam and the State Department after it passed the House of Delegates last month. State Department officials urged several legislators to kill the bill. In a Feb. 5 letter addressed to bill sponsor Del. Robert Hull,...

U.S.: Nine nations pledge troops Iraq has 'weeks and not months' to disarm, White House says 01/31/2003 By RICHARD WHITTLE / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - Nine nations will commit troops, and nearly two dozen will let U.S. forces use their territory and airspace for a war with Iraq, a top State Department official said Thursday. "I do not desire to announce the names publicly," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said 21 countries have pledged to give U.S. forces "access en route" to Iraq, up to 23 will allow basing...

A top U.S. official says Washington is working very closely with Moscow on preparing a list of Chechen separatist groups, which the U.S. government could designate as foreign terrorist organizations. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the United States denounces anyone who kills civilians for political aims. He stressed, however, that the United States is counting on Russia to respect the rights of Chechen citizens who are not involved in terrorist activities. Mr. Armitage, who is in Moscow for talks with Russian officials, made the comments Thursday, during a live radio interview with Echo Moskvy. The U.S. diplomat...

July 17, 2002, 12:50 p.m. Visas for Suspected Terrorists? State defends the indefensible. The State Department is fighting a terrorism task force's recommendation that suspected terrorists be denied visas — this is the same department that wants to hold onto the visa-issuance power in a time of war when our enemies want nothing more than entry into the United States. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage responded to the recommendation by writing to the Justice Department that "[believing that] an applicant may pose a threat to national security... is insufficient [grounds] for a consular officer to deny a visa." No,...

WASHINGTON - (AP) -- Al Qaeda and Middle East terrorists are operating near Ecuador's borders with Peru and Colombia, and Ecuador needs U.S. help to combat them, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Thursday. ''We have got in the triborder area a bit of a problem with al Qaeda itself and some Hezbollah elements,'' he told the House Appropriations' foreign operations subcommittee. ``We do need cooperation.'' In addition, U.S. efforts to help Colombia combat drug traffickers -- and perhaps insurgents -- might hurt Ecuador if the traffickers and rebels seek to escape there, he said. President Bush's request for...