Posted on 10/25/2005 7:00:26 AM PDT by yoe
Lawyers close to the Plame investigation say that Fitzgerald will indict Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson for obstruction of justice and perjury. In addition, Wilson will be indicted for outing his wife, who was a covert CIA agent. Additional charges are being considered against Valerie Plame for her role in selecting her own husband for a government assignment in a concerted political effort to undermine the administration.
Now, that's actually not true. But, given the media's handling of this matter, this post should be treated with the same credibility that the media is presenting statements of "lawyers close to the Plame investigation." In point of fact, there are several lawyers on this site who have kept up with the material and they are probably as close to the investigation as the ones being quoted in the media, which is to say not very close at all.
Something will happen this week. But, we should all tread carefully in making predictions and jumping to conclusions. Likewise, we should refrain from jumping on the "must resign" bandwagon until the facts get out there. Lastly, as Michael Barone said today
Rove and Libby did seek to discredit Joseph Wilson -- as they should well have done. As the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a bipartisan report in July 2004, just about everything Wilson said publicly about his trip to Niger was untrue. He said that he had discredited reports that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Niger. But the CIA people to whom he reported concluded that, if anything, he substantiated such reports. He said that he pointed out that certain other intelligence reports were forged. But the forgeries did not appear until eight months after his trip. He said his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Niger. But it was she who recommended him for the trip. And on and on.
Yes, and had they not tried to discredit Wilson, they would have been negligent in their political duties. Wilson and the left can claim Wilson had some high and noble goals, but he was and is a charlatan attempting to become a living media martyr.
Update [2005-10-24 21:32:37 by Blanton]:
Let me add this: I think it is just as plausible that Wilson gets indicted as it is for Rove and Libby to get indicted. Of course, all the Democrats right now bemoaning Fitzgerald getting attacked by Republicans (something that is not happening, by the way, save for Hannity), will do all they can to attack and discredit Fitzgerald.
Goss is quietly cleaning house and we can assume since Lawrence Wilkerson unleashed his blistering attack on the Bush White House, that the State Department is getting some long over due cleaning also.
Not necessarily... Nothing could happen this week.
In this case, nothing will be a big something.
Sorry - Meant Bureaucrats*~*
"Yes, and had they not tried to discredit Wilson, they would have been negligent in their political duties. Wilson and the left can claim Wilson had some high and noble goals, but he was and is a charlatan attempting to become a living media martyr."
Yes, Wilson has been acting like a cheap political hack. But since he was factually correct about the lack of evidence from Niger to justifiy the war then it was a mistake to try to discredit him. It just focused more attention than ever on the lack of evidence.
Bush should have done it the day he took office
He learned NOTHING from his father's tenure and Clnton's subsequent reign
Either something will happen, or nothing will. I'm having a Yogi Berra moment.
I hope he does indict Plame and Wilson, and maybe some other CIA lackeys who did nothing to correct Wilson's lies. IMO this was a covert action attempting to bring down a presidency through fraud, and heads should roll because of it.
We certainly are being led to thin Libby, at the least, will be indicted.
I'm beginning to think this might not be such a bad thing (follow me here!).
Like the Delay travesty, we'll have to go thru the MSM squeals of delight phase. But eventually, Libby's lawyers will get to cross examine Wilson, Plame, Cooper, Russert, Miller, Novak, etc in open court. Like most Republican vs. MSM scandals, we start with a hadicapped score. But a trial may be the only way we're ever going to get to grill Wilson..
/if there was Justice:
"Fitzgerald is expected to indict scores of CIA employees for leaking classified information to the media in an attempt to damage this nation's foreign policy".
"We certainly are being led to thin Libby, at the least, will be indicted.
I'm beginning to think this might not be such a bad thing (follow me here!).
Like the Delay travesty, we'll have to go thru the MSM squeals of delight phase. But eventually, Libby's lawyers will get to cross examine"
One difference if that Delay's district in Texas will likely re-elect him indefinitely whereas the President has a finite three year window and before this Cheney probably could have had the Presidential nomination if he wanted it.
Since Valerie Plame was a CIA desk jockey and not a covert agent;
this whole investigation is a joke...and a ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money!
Right On! I been saying that from the getgo. Another waste fof taxpayer dollars and we can thank the Rats and the MSM for it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying a Libby indictment would be a good thing. I'm simply pointing out the (slim) silver lining. If Fitz folds up shop without releasing more information, the media will see that Wilson goes down in history as a mega-hero (books, movies, speaking tours will follow). I want to know the TRUTH and it may be that a court is the only place to get it. I also want the media humiliated for having embraced the guy.
I would like to know what CIA officer authorized Wilson to go on this mission. Obviously, Plame influenced the decision but did not have the authority to authorize it. So, the question is who in CIA was working against the administration and was out to discredit the case for war.It also may have been an honest effort to find out more information. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is that they chose a political opportunist by the name of Joseph Wilson.
P.J. O'Rourke, "the cover that Valerie Plame was using as a covert CIA agent" as "a masterpiece of hiding in plain sight ... Plame was working a desk job at CIA headquarters."
Mark Steyn wrote that "Valerie Plame ... wasn't a 'clandestine officer' and indeed hadn't been one for six years. So one can only 'leak' her name in the sense that one can 'leak' the name of the checkout clerk at Home Depot." .
John Tierney, "the law doesn't seem to apply to Ms. Wilson because she apparently hadn't been posted abroad during the five previous years [before her identity was published by columnist Robert Novak in July 2003] ... Ms. Wilson was compared to James Bond in the early days of the scandal, but it turns out she had been working for years at C.I.A. headquarters, not exactly a deep-cover position."
And if anyone should be indicted it should be Joe Wilson and his "007" wife Valerie.
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