Posted on 10/24/2005 6:28:34 PM PDT by nj26
I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheneys chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libbys testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilsons husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administrations handling of intelligence about Iraqs nuclear program to justify the war.
Lawyers said the notes show that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Please tell me you forgot your sarcasm tag..
Wilson was selling his story around town for months before his July column to Novak.
Even Andrea Mitchell said she all the reporters in town knew Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.
Wilson and his wife were part of the social scene in washington. There was no secret.
It's Bob Bennett.
Wilson's July 6th column. Novak's column was july 14th.
If there is no crime to begin with and contemporaneous documents were handed over in timely fashion who cares if Cheney found out who sent Wilson. It only makes sense he'd like to know since he was being accused of sending Wilson himself!
This Wilson thing smells rotten.
:-)
You're not alone StAnDeliver. The glass is always half full in my world.
Yep. That's my call, too.
How would Bennett know about Libby's notes? This has to be a leak from the SP's office...if it's real.
"gotta love the tone of this by the Slimes...nowhere does it mention Wilson lied in the article about the VP sending him to Niger- I could see them saying after his report and the lies contained in it, "who the hell is this guy"..."
I went back and read Wilson's original op-ed. I'll quote it below. It looks to me like he carefully said that questions from the VP's office prompted the trip. From everything I've heard, that's pretty much how it happened.
Here are the 2 relevant paragraphs from Wilson's op-ed;
In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake -- a form of lightly processed ore -- by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.
After consulting with the State Department's African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.
"How would Bennett know about Libby's notes? This has to be a leak from the SP's office...if it's real."
He wouldn't.
It's Rove leaking.
This is getting so ridiculous! I pray we see an end to it on Tues or Wed, as some are forecasting, come what may.
Ummm .. how do they know what notes Fritz has or doesn't have and what they might say??
But the damage will be done. I hold the sliver of hope that the indictments will fall on someone outside the WH.
We know that Wilson has been proven to be a liar. Miller has kinda fudged the truth too.
And to quote the one who started this all, "This is Bullsh!t", Bob Novak
Veep Cheney did not do that.
Ergo, it is logical for the VEEP to be interested in just WHO had instigated Wilson's being sent to Niger.
That is what I have understood from the get-go. So then, why was a Special Prosecutor assigned to find the 'leak'?
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