Posted on 10/29/2005 10:34:11 AM PDT by smoothsailing
NEWS ANALYSIS
Prosecutor Fitzgerald, Where's the Beef?
By Jim Kouri
Oct 29, 2005
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney as well as a trusted White House security advisor, was indicted Friday by a special grand jury with five felony counts of perjury, obstructing justice and making false statements in the Valerie Plame-CIA Leak case. Libby wasn't immediately arrested, but he did resign from his White House post.
The two-year grand jury investigated allegations that someone in the Bush White House leaked the identity of a CIA covert agent to the press, a criminal act if proven true.
Plame is the wife of former US Ambassador Joe Wilson, who publicly cast doubt on Bush's case for invading Iraq -- that Saddam Hussein was pursuing nuclear weapons. Mr. Wilson intimated at first that it was Vice President Cheney who dispatched him to Africa, something that turned out to be false. As facts slowly came to light, it became obvious that Mr. Wilson has a casual relationship with the truth. For instance, it was discovered that indeed it was his wife who pushed for Wilson to be sent to Niger to investigate intelligence regarding Iraq and uranium. Wilson repeatedly denied it until a memorandum written by Plame was discovered showing she highly recommended her husband for the fact-finding mission.
Ironically, it was British intelligence who made the claim that Iraq sought the capability to develop nuclear weapons and during Bush's speech in 2003 he mentioned it was a British allegation. To this day the British continue to stand by their intelligence and analysis. And the so-called "16 misleading words" are really a fabrication of the mainstream news media.
The Libby indictment -- the only one after two years of investigation -- provides more questions than answers in that not one person has been indicted for the crime of divulging the identity of a covert CIA operative. In fact, during prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference and subsequent question and answer session with gleeful news reporters, he continuously used the word "classified." But leaking classified information is not a crime, or else people such as Senator Patrick "Leaky" Leahy would be serving several prison sentences and keeping house for his new jailhouse boyfriend.
One could make the case that the indictment of Scooter Libby is actually a victory of sorts for the Bush Administration. Karl Rove, the so-called political genius in the Bush White House, was not indicted Friday as many hopeful reporters, pundits and Democrat operatives had predicted. However, Mr. Fitzgerald did give the reporters attending his dramatic press conference a ray of hope that perhaps the Democrats and the mainstream news media will eventually succeed in fulfilling Joe Wilson's dream of seeing Rove, "Frog walked in handcuffs out of the White House."
Prosecutor Fitzgerald claims that Libby knowingly misled the grand jury about his role in the exposing of Valerie Plame, a CIA secret agent whose cover was blown when administration aides leaked her name to reporters. Of course, no one asked about the fact that Joe Wilson mentioned his CIA wife in his bio posted on a seminar website well before the Robert Novak article outed Plame.
Fitzgerald, playing to the cheap media seats, went into a tirade about the seriousness of divulging classified information and its risks to national security. That is true. However, Mr. Fitzgerald's grand jury did not indict Libby for anything having to do with divulging classified information. He's charged with perjury and obstruction in a case of leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent, and if the charges be true then Libby deserves the appropriate punishment.
Once the celebrating denizens of America's newsrooms calm down, perhaps they will begin to take this case as seriously as they wish Americans to take it. As stated earlier, there are more questions than answers in this case. For instance, did Valerie Plame testify before the grand jury? Did Joe Wilson? Was Valerie Plame indeed a covert CIA agent? Who in the CIA sent Wilson, a man with no intelligence experience, to Africa to investigate the British claims that Saddam attempted to procure yellow-cake uranium? Didn't the US congress question the validity of Wilson's reportage?
And didn't congressmen report that Wilson lacked credibility? Where is Joe Wilson's CIA report? If Mr. Wilson's trip to Africa was classified, why was he blabbing about it in an op-ed piece in the New York Times? When Joe Wilson worked for the John Kerry campaign and was prominently listed on Kerry's website, why was his bio and information removed so quickly when it came out that Wilson was a liar? Yes, there are many, many questions that need to be answered.
Scooter Libby's indictment provided a day of celebration for the Democrat Party and the liberal news media. Soon, Libby will retain attorneys who will conduct their own investigation into this case. This is not a slam-dunk for the prosecution, the liberal-left media and the Democrat Party. They may want to re-think their plans of riding Joe Wilson to victory in the 2006 elections.
Libby's attorneys and their investigators will pursue answers to many questions that the news media feel they should ignore. They will also have the power of discovery, full disclosure, and will be able to dissect what went on in the grand jury room. They will be able to delve into Valerie Plame's and Joe Wilson's attempts to undermine the Bush war effort. Defense counsel will look into the purpose of the CIA sending a left-wing activist with no intelligence or investigative skills on such a sensitive mission. The defense lawyers will reveal what many already know: that Joe Wilson and Valeria Plame had a hidden agenda. These topnotch lawyers will conduct an inquiry into the relationship Joe Wilson has with Senator Chuckie Schumer or other Democrat Party honchos.
In the days ahead the Democrat Party blowhards will repeatedly talk about the Bush Administration's "culture of corruption." The fact is there has been merely one White House staffer who's ever been indicted in five years. I suggest the Democrats look at the number of indictments and convictions during the eight years of the Clinton Administration before they start their vitriolic rhetoric. And if they want to discuss issues of national security, they should go talk to Sandy "Pants" Berger.
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Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.
© Copyright by NationalLedger.com
"Beef" is not required when you're Martha Stewarting a political enemy. And to the DemocRATS, "that's a good thing."
The only beef is the one some rogue CIA folks have with this WH.
The way to handle these rats is for the repubs from the president down to start governing as conservatives. Nominate a JRB type to the SCOTUS, pass laws that allow drilling in ANWR, pass laws that make building refineries easier, close the borders to illegals, start fining employers that hire illegals, cut the pork from the budget, etc. The rats will howl and it will be music to our ears.
The growing number of books by "former" and "disgruntled" CIA employees is a sign that Goss is cleaning up the Clintonista mess at the CIA. We Americans need to support this fight to get our CIA back from the DNC. Clinton did a lot of damage to this important organization during his eight years. No matter how hard the Liberal MSM fights to suppress it, "Able Danger" is coming.
I'm about ''all donated out''...
But I'll find money to donate to Scooter's defense fund... Especially if his lawyers proceed as aggressively as the author recommends.
Don't be hasty. Fitz isn't finished. He may yet generate an indictment against Karl Rove. If he hasn,t done so by the middle of next week, I'll begin to feel better, although key questions will remain unanswered.
If one thinks about the way Prosecutor Fitzgerald managed his rather immpressive caseload and won a very substantial number of convictions, think about this (1) Fitzgerald has thrown this whole case into the public domain where it deserves a through hearing (2) The case against Libby is mostly built around "he said / she said" and on its face is speculative, something that a good defense counsel will tear into and raise very substantial doubts in the minds of jurors (3) a lot of characters who have lied about the facts in this case, and did not figure in Fitzgeralds commentary or were peripheral to it will have to raise their hands in court and swear an oath to tell the truth and face the consequences of their earlier deception.
The whole nation will be exposed to this spectacular parade of the good the bad and the ugly and it will not be pretty. IMHO Libby will get off and there will be plenty of exposure focussed on activities in the State Department, CIA, media and Democratic party. A secret investigation within a Grand Jury could never get the response that a daily blow by blow account in an open court room will produce. The media will be forced to report the facts as they are spoken and televised, substantially depriving them of the ability to twist the facts to suit their political agendas.
This case was the same as if someone was on trial for murder and was convicted of stealing. They didn't find what they wanted so they dropped down about five rungs just to make it look like a two year investigation wasn't a waste of time. Didn't fool me though. It was a waste of time and money.
Fitzgerald can't indict Rove; at least not with this grand jury. There time is through. Fitzgerald would have to seat a new grand jury to bring indictment against Rove. That is very unlikely.
I've been watching Fitzgerald here in IL for years now. He may be nuts but he's not a partisian hack. He's just a hack IMHO.
He has made things bad for former Gov Ryan (R) but he's tormenting the heck out of Mayor Daley too.
As long as Rove continues to tell the truth and doesn't say anything that the 'RATS can misconstrue as a "lie," he'll be okay. No crime was committed in this fiasco. It's just another 'RAT thing.
Of interest is why Libby volunteered for a perjury indictment instead of saying "I don't remember".
"In the days ahead the Democrat Party blowhards will repeatedly talk about the Bush Administration's "culture of corruption."
Remember all the crap and lies the Whigs have thrown at W since the day he announced. Remember that none of it stuck because people don't believe that W is an evil person.
Remember these things and rest easy. We pick up more seats next year because the Whigs have no positions on anything. They will learn that "I hate Bush, you must hate Bush too, so vote for me." doesn't work.
That has intrigued me as well.I have a theory,FWIW.Libby is by all accounts, a topnotch attorney and powerful behind the scene player in the hardball political cesspool of D.C.
He had to know that this SP was going nowhere with this lame investigation that had been invented by the CIA and ballyhooed by the leftist media and the DNC.
To him that meant the truth about Plame,Wilson,CIA rogue treason, and media culpability would never see the light of day.
He had to get the thing out of the secret GJ and into the public view of a court of law.
The bar will be much higher to prove his guilt, and he can call all the witnesses, supoena GJ documents and testimony,you name it.He can expose the whole sordid cabal that has been hell-bent on destroying our president and our country.
That's my take, I just hope it works.
"Of course, no one asked about the fact that Joe Wilson mentioned his CIA wife in his bio posted on a seminar website well before the Robert Novak article outed Plame."
Seems like proof positive that Libby is innocent. With Joe out there outing his wife it seems impossible that it was not widely known in the press that his wife was CIA. Thus it is very very likely that Russett is the one that lied to the Grand Jury not Libby. This makes all the other indictments moot as they were all bassed on an asmption that Fitz made that Libby lied about his conversation with Russett.
My guess is that if they did testify, there were a few more FALSE STATEMENTS uttered to that Grand Jury. This is most likely a case of selective prosecution.
And I think Fitzpatrick should lay off the "National Security" concerns. If he really cared, he'd be investigating the infested CIA right now.
Just to add one additional thought.I believe Scooter not only wanted this fight, I bet he demanded it!
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