Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show

NY Times ^ | 10/24/05 | DAVID JOHNSTON, RICHARD W. STEVENSON and DOUGLAS JEHL

[nj26]

I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s 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. Libby’s 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. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s 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.

[Michael Barnes]

Please tell me you forgot your sarcasm tag..

[johnmecainrino]

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.

[MJY1288]

In kind, someone has to be a defeatist, it most deservingly be you!

[Perdogg]

It's Bob Bennett.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

A leak here, a leak over there, indictments tuesday, no indictments wednesday, rove is going to jail, cheney will resign, Chris Matthews is having numerous orgasms!!
ENOUGH ALREADY

WHERE ARE THE F##KING INDICTMENTS!!!!

Shit or get off the pot!

[johnmecainrino]

Wilson's July 6th column. Novak's column was july 14th.

[newzjunkey]

I swear, if Fitzgerald has these notes and Libby testified differently (honestly misrecollecting) there is no way in hell you can in clean conscience indict on perjury or obstruction. Surely, Fitzgerald would've asked Libby about the notes themselves during testimony and Libby would've realized he had been in error about who he learned about Plame from first.

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.

[nopardons]

:-)

[Chuck54]

fair enough. someone has to be the optimist on these threads, it might as well be you.

You're not alone StAnDeliver. The glass is always half full in my world.

[lugsoul]

Yep. That's my call, too.

[Rokurota]

How would Bennett know about Libby's notes? This has to be a leak from the SP's office...if it's real.

[blogblogginaway]

This makes perfect sense. Cheney knew Wilson was lying and inquired who the H he was and how the H he was 'dispatched' to Niger. Tenet and Cheney had every right to discuss this even going as far as discussing his 'wife's' CIA status.

Problem is, nowhere, that we know of does anyone ANYONE from the WH disclosed Plame's status to anyone who did not have the right to know.

When did the Senate Intelligence Committee become public? I have it somewhere here but doesn't it state in there that "Mrs." Wilson suggested her husband for the trip? And doesn't it also claim in that report that "Mrs." Wilson told here husband 'THERE'S THIS CRAZY REPORT" about a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq?

[Dorian]

"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.

[Shermy]

"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.

[StarFan]

This is getting so ridiculous! I pray we see an end to it on Tues or Wed, as some are forecasting, come what may.

[Mo1]

But the notes, now in Mr. Fitzgerald’s possession, also indicate that Mr. Libby first heard about Ms. Wilson

Ummm .. how do they know what notes Fritz has or doesn't have and what they might say??

[digger48]

, if he indicts, he'll get no convictions.

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

[nopardons]

Wilson claimed that Cheney had had him sent to Niger.

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.

[houeto]

It's all chicken and no egg, Pinch. Why? Because she wasn't NOC, she was a desk jockey, and apparently well known inside and outside the Agency.

That is what I have understood from the get-go. So then, why was a Special Prosecutor assigned to find the 'leak'?

[MJY1288]

IMHO, these leaks are meant to lead people to believe Karl Rove and Scooter Libby deserve being indicted, and that this leads to the VP or the POTUS in order to justify outrage when Valerie Plames Boss is who gets indicted, and Joe Wilson and his wife were driven by political motives with the intent to undermine the War in Iraq.