Posted on 10/11/2005 5:00:12 PM PDT by YaYa123
In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of his sworn testimony.
The new revelations regarding Libby come as Fitzgerald has indicated that he is wrapping up his investigation and making final decisions as to whether criminal charges will be brought in the case.
Libby also did not disclose the June 23 conversation when he was twice interviewed by FBI agents working on the Plame leak investigation, the sources said.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently learned about the June 23 conversation for the first time just days ago, after attorneys for Miller and The New York Times informed prosecutors that Miller had discovered a set of notes on the conversation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
The questions that don't seem to get asked: Was Plame actually an undercover operative at the time protected by law? Did she openly work for the CIA? Was any law broken?
The name Murray Waas sounds familiar to me, although I don't remember any details. I think he was around as a reporter or commentator or leftist ideologue before the blogosphere existed. I could be wrong. In any case, Slate has some claim to being part of the MSM, even though it's on the net.
Because those "key facts" don't support his agenda -- which is to find Rove and/or Libby guilty of something!
It strikes me that there is another piece of evidence that this whole affair has been manufactured, then inflated beyond reason.
The universal MSM premise is that the Bush administration was actively seeking to destroy Wilson (e.g., "...an intensive period in which senior White House officials were scrambling to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson..."). Every news story contains a statement like this as "necessary background".
However, thanks to Cooper's testimony, we then hear the actual reports of this alleged attempt "to destroy Wilson". And what does it amount to?
Cooper calls Rove.
Cooper asks about welfare reform.
Cooper broaches the Wilson column and asks for a response.
Rove responds off-handedly, "I hear his wife, who works at the agency, sent him. I wouldn't get too far out there."
That's it. Whatever it is, it ain't an intense media campaign to discredit Joe Wilson.
In other words, just about everything the MSM has reported about this affair has been bent into an unrecognizable form by their pet bias.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Hmmm. Sounds like the crooked scumbags at the NY Times have decided to play hardball. I sure hope somebody at the White House "discovers" some earlier notes about a conversation that Miller had with Libby where she revealed to a "surprised" Libby that Plame was her main WMD source at the CIA and that Plame had sent her husband, Joseph Wilson, to Nigeria.
This woman was not a "covert" CIA operative. She was a CIA emloyee. This charade is ridiculous.
May you post on FR forever, under your current screen name!
Call me a Doubting Thomas but this article, citing unnamed sources, doesn't impress NOR DO all the wishful thinking pundits who have Libby and Rove in orange suits before Fitzgerald wraps it up.
And Wilson has problems.
If I am wrong, I will never post here again...at least under this name!! ;)
May you have a long posting life under this name. Amen.
Nice post Narby, I had the same thought but lo and behold you were on it like white on rice.
It's the "Vice President made me do it" angle ~ that really is the only reason to pursue this, and the target would be Valerie Plame herself.
On another thread you posted this was hatched to stop going to war against Saddam. I know for a fact (I have sources too, LOL!) many in the agency were against this war.
Not everyone in the agency who disagreed with the President's actions are involved in this, just a few. But plot aside, why did so many in the agency object to this action.
Maybe that is the millon dollar question. I can't figure it out.
Armed with information from FR I sit and listen to him and several journalist, but always Andrea Mitchell, dissect their opinions (not news) from infomation delivered up that day. They have Rove and Libby in the federal penetetary. This bothers me as it runs contrary to the analysis of cyncoper and stellar dendrite and many others who have carefully considered these matters, not to mention myself.
I guess I am writing to say I sure hope like heck Rove and Libby are not indicted, and that Wilson, Plame, Russert, or any journalist is flushed instead. That is probably an ugly thought, but we do not need an indictment in the upper eschelons of this administration.
I wish.....
I am sort of confused. Are you saying that Fitzgerald is going to name Cheney as an unindicted co-conspirator?
Can the FBI determine how long the ink has been dried?
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/0/a0f101466d6da341ca256d6b000ae3cc?OpenDocument
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/19/wniger19.xml
One way or the other, the talkers seem convinced somebody's going to get indicted, and their money is on Livvy and Rove. I swear, I think they are even hoping Cheney will be caught up in the net, but to prove they're just guessing, some even mentioned Judy Miller and Matt Cooper might be in trouble too.
If Libby and Rove tell totally consistent stories then the folks who are inconsistent with either one of them are in a bit of difficulty.
Miller was needed to validate Libby's story, for example, because that puts the nail in Cooper's coffin, and with that, certain statements made internally to the CIA (without external circulation) become highly suspect.
With Wilson not being a CIA employee, it would be Plame, or someone closely associated with her, who is the source of the inconsistencies that grabbed Fitzgerald's attention. That individual may well have "outed" a different undercover agent none of us know about ~ e.g., the person who provided the holographic copy of the papers on file in Niger supposedly showing Saddam Hussein's interest in yellowcake.
It's absolutely amazing so few folks have ever had any interest in the only spy in the game.
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