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.

[mosquitobite]

Exactly Pincus and Corn wrote articles LONG before Novak's "outing"...

[Perdogg]

I am getting impatient about this. You are getting mixed up in the spin. Please re-read the article in the NYT. No crime was committed.

[Perdogg]

I heard it was LCJ.

[johnny7]

The DUers must be positively nerve-wracked.

Not to mention Chris Mathews.

[jackv]

Sounds good to me!! I do hope you're right.
:o)

[UglyinLA]

Both Cheney and Libby have security clearances to talk about whatever the hell they want to talk about. As long as they don't pass along any confidential information to outsiders, then whats the problem with talking about Plame or anybody else working in the CIA.

So you have two top level govt officials talking to each other about a CIA analyst (not a covert agent) who sent her husband on a highly questionable mission and they discuss it. So where's the crime? There isn't any.

I think that the NYT is living in the past, when whatever they say would never be challenged. CBS learned the hard way. The NYT is still hasn't learned it. But they will.

[toddlintown]

Is the Times just making this stuff up or is Fitzgerald's office riddled with leaks?

[uncbob]

It has smelled like an elaborate Rat set-up from the get-go. Unfortunately, since Bush didn't bother to clean house after taking office, he's having to deal with the end result of these infestations. Too bad Bush didn't call the pest exterminator/hammer to rid himself of them, eh?

Exactly
Sad to say but Bush is not the leader we need for the times were are in but we are stuck with him and I see no one on the horizon

Bush has no strong philosophical beliefs . He is the same as his father

Bush I had his "Kinder Gentler Government " ( a direct hit on Reagan ) and Bush II has his "Compasionate Conservatism"

Remember all the agony in the 2000 election when Bush said " If I don't win I can be content to return to Crawford Texas and lead my life" ( or words to that effect)

He DIDN'T SAY " I will continue to fight for and support the effort to turn this country around etc etc "

He is not the leader to take on the RINOs let alone the democrats or the MSM

Very depressing

I am 69 and when the Berlin Wall came down I thought DAMN now I can enjoy life without the Cold War hanging over our heads etc etc
Boy was I wrong

[Dave S]

Any charge against anyone in any related to the exposure of the traitor Valarie Plame is treasonous at its core and anyone who cooperates in such an act is themselves a traitor or, at the least, a party to treason.

Are you the reincarnation of Joe McCarthy or was the rumour of his death mistaken? Take a Valium and calm down.

[Dave S]

So you have two top level govt officials talking to each other about a CIA analyst (not a covert agent) who sent her husband on a highly questionable mission and they discuss it. So where's the crime? There isn't any.

You could have a crime depending upon what was discussed (i.e., a conspiracy to dessiminate classified info to reporters). If Libby told the grand jury that he heard this from reporters and never spoke to Cheney about it (perjury). If Libby's assistant Hannah was the source for libby's notes and the existence of these was denied by Libby. Yeah, there COULD be a lot of crime there in that meeting (perjury).

[mosquitobite]

That's what I believe as well, but I don't think it's been recorded as such in the media, has it? We know Wilson & Johnson are friends, and Novak most likely would have known Johnson - so he may have discussed the Niger issue with Johnson not knowing Wilson & Johnson were friends.

I think the bigger question here is how did Johnson know that Novak was investigating Wilson's claims to begin with? Who had Novak talked to before that street encounter that made it so that Wilson & Johnson knew to spring this "chance meeting" into being??

[Perdogg]

We may find out this week. I think Libby and Rove are "safe". Reminds me of the famous line in "Absence of Malice". "Mr Libby you are a very smart man,..don't get too smart."

We could get a conspiracy to obstruct justice against Wilson, Plame, et al.

[mosquitobite]

Novak says he talked to Harlow or someone in CIA right? That person talks to Wilson/Plame or Johnson. Johnson decides to "bump" into Novak. He probably used the claim that the CIA sent Wilson to help bolster the credibility of Wilson's story.

I too have made a bet with a liberal on another board I belong to that no indictments will be made against the administration. He says I'm wearing a tin foil hat, yet he won't take my bet! ROTFLMAO!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Very interesting.....

Your statement ........ 110 posted on 10/24/2005 7:09:46 PM PDT by journalist3072

However....we have .....your signup date as 10-25-05....so from what country are you currently in as you signed up?

[Rokurota]

Have either Wilson or Plame been called before the grand jury?

[Perdogg]

Have either Wilson or Plame been called before the grand jury?
No. Why did Fitz call Wilson two weeks ago? Just speculating, maybe to inform him he was a target?

[Rokurota]

Did Fitz call Wilson? I hadn't heard this. Any link to this information? Certainly would be interesting.

[Steve_Seattle]

"He says I'm wearing a tin foil hat, yet he won't take my bet!"

If you were wearing a tinfoil hat, you'd be convinced someone in the admin would be indicted, not cleared. I think your friend means you're wearing rose-tinted glasses.

[okie01]

Not true. I saw a article in August that year in USA today that said the documents were fakes.

I'd wager the article you refer to didn't use the word "fakes", but something else. The documents in question weren't originals, nor were they copies (in the xerographic or photostatic sense).

Instead, they were "holographs" -- hand-drawn copies of a document, with the seals, stamps and signatures, etc. indicated.

Not a "fake", per se, but a crude hand-drawn copy of a purportedly authentic document. We soon knew better, of course, and concluded that it was a genuine fake...

[Steve_Seattle]

"She put her life on the line for her country, to work on issues of weapons of mass destruction, and her government repaid her by outing her for purely political reasons."

Actually, Plame herself - by recommending her husband for a high-profile assignment, her CIA superiors who approved it, and Wilson, who blabbed to the press with false information which aroused the ire of the White House, are the primary people responsible for her "outing," which was apparently a poorly-kept secret in DC prior to all this.