Posted on 03/23/2005 2:19:24 PM PST by cyncooper
Time Magazine's White House correspondent Matt Cooper said he is still trying to find the right words to explain to his six-year-old son that "daddy might not be coming home for a while."
In a talk at the Law School Tuesday evening, Cooper explained the details of a case that could land him behind bars. Last month a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that Cooper could face time in prison for refusing to reveal the name of a confidential government source who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003. Judith Miller of The New York Times is also being prosecuted for refusing to comply with subpoenas, and the controversy surrounding the case has sparked a debate about the nature of journalistic privilege in regard to the confidentiality of sources, Cooper said.
~snip~
Cooper said he may face sentencing this week unless he obtains a stay. When asked about the prospect of serving prison time, Cooper said he would rather go to prison than break the confidentiality of his source.
~snip~
Cooper said he found the case proceedings and how it has been enshrouded in secrecy to be almost comic.
"Lots of the evidence of the case
is being kept sealed by the courts," Cooper said. "It's one of the ironies of this case that Judith Miller and I are being denied this information even though we've shown that we're pretty good for keeping secrets."
(Excerpt) Read more at yaledailynews.com ...
That's fine if the agent was in a position to be outed.
Evidence to date is Plame was not.
Evidence to date is she, her husband and her fellow rogues at the CIA were out to undermine a sitting U.S. President at time of War.
That's what I'm concerned about.
I don't know if you're aware, but another investigation this prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, is conducting is to do with New York Times reporters Philip Shenon and Judith Miller tipping off Islamic charities to imminent raids on their offices.
Fitzgerald is investigating who in the government leaked the raid information, as well as the reporters telling the charities the raids were about to take place. He also says he has evidence that as a result of tipping off the charities that they in fact destroyed evidence.
When did the leaking of these raids and tipping off take place? Why in 2001, very shortly after 9/11.
Don't forget Tony Blair. But Wilson's contribution to that project paled in size to the "45 minute" claim the Brits made.
Thanks for making those points.
Exactly.
cyncooper...maybe this grand jury is lookin for something else. Since Judith Miller wasn't involved in the Wilson/Plame stories, is there another subject in which the paths of Cooper and Miller intersect?
I know she was writing about the search for WMD's early in the Iraq war. I kind of lost track of her after that.
Oh, I hadn't read your post yet about those Islamic charity raids. I am wondering if the same person tipped the reporters about the raid and later spoke to Cooper about the Plame/Wilson thing. This is quite interesting.
I think it is very interesting that the reporters really really really want to know all the evidence the prosecutor and grand jury have and that the courts have sealed.
How much evidence would be accumulated just to document a leaker or two of Plame's name?
Either Patrick Fitzgerald is laboriously dotting all the i's and dotting all the t's in order to pursue that narrow point in the wake of evidence that seems to more than hint that Plame hadn't been undercover in years, or there is more being looked at here.
crossing all the t's
lol
This is what the court said about Miller:
"..In the meantime, on August 12 and August 14, grand jury subpoenas were issued to Judith Miller, seeking documents and testimony related to conversations between her and a specified government official occurring from on or about July 6, 2003, to on or about July 13, 2003, . . . concerning Valerie Plame Wilson (whether referred to by name or by description as the wife of Ambassador Wilson) or concerning Iraqi efforts to obtain uranium. Miller refused to comply with the subpoenas and moved to quash them."
That week was the time between Wilson's and Novak's articles. The topic are are 1. Plame and 2. Iraqi efforts to obtain uranium.
Who's the "specified government official?
Hey, if there is a specified government official, maybe the government already knows who it is. Maybe it was .....a sting!
Note "or" not "and". Again, a hint of a broader inquiry. At least it appears to go afield of the narrow Plame's name issue.
Well, with Cooper the earlier subpoena was "narrowed" to "a specific individual." Apparently that was Mr. Libby. Libby gave a waiver and Cooper testified.
The answer was apparently, no it wasn't Libby. So they issued another subpoena not narrowed - that's what Cooper is fighting.
Well, I see you did separate out the Iraq/uranium issue re Miller's subpoena.
And Cooper's subpoena is more than Plame, too, and is anything about her, Wilson and the Niger trip.
I think the government official is someone like Thielmann or Plame's former boss, Alan Foley.
Someone in on the Wilson/Plame spin of "Wilson went to Niger and discovered no uranium trade with Niger, hence Bush lied".
I have too many stories to keep track of...I need a filing system!
I wonder if they are looking for other leakers in the CIA.
The inquiry is broader. The first Gonzales report/memo addressed Novak and and the Newsday reporters whose leakers about Plame were "intelligence" officials. MSM focused on Novak.
By another leak to Newsday, the subpena list, we learned many reporters were subpoenaed.
It appears one specific item was leaked too. The State Dept. (?) memo documenting the not unsurprising fact that Plame suggested Wilson for the trip. That was a leak to harm Wilson's credibility, probably by a Bushie. It was first reported by the WSJ, then Gannon following the WSJ, his comments making him seem to those who forgot about the WSJ article as if he independently knew about it.
That's my theory.
Wilson's disavowal about his wife got bizarre, even after the Senate Bipartisan report debunked him. Was it fear of seeming nepotism? Or a macho thing that his wife got him the job? Then there's his repeated denials that he saw the Niger documents, makes me think maybe wifey brought some work home.
Matt Cooper has been a regular Chatty Cathy when it comes to talking about this subpoena.
I saw him a couple weeks ago at some event on CSPAN (I remember Joe DiGenova was on the panel and he and Vicki Toensing have really outlined how all the evidence is Plame was not undercover), and now he shows up at Yale. He's probably been at several other events we haven't heard about.
BTW, in my regular internet Favorites folder I have a special sub-folder for Wilson/Plame.
And there's the Terrance Wilkinson mystery...
I'm sure that's so, but if the sources are purveying disinformation or worse, we the public have a right to know.
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