Posted on 10/30/2005 4:13:47 AM PST by SE Mom
I was wet, smelling of chlorine. It was July 12, 2003, in Washington, a beautiful summer day, and I had just come back from swimming. All morning I had been trying to reach I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby for a cover story about both President George W. Bush's claim that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's controversial Op-Ed.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
wait for the multimillion dollar book.
"I called Libby to see if he would grant a waiver for my testifying. The lawyers representing TIME Inc. and me, who supported my making that call, thought Libby might well do so. After all, he had granted a waiver to a Washington Post reporter, and Tim Russert of NBC had just avoided contempt by testifying about his end of his conversation with Libby. Most important, my exchange with Libby about Wilson had been short and, in my thinking and TIME Inc.'s, not especially provocative. "
Someone with something to hide would not have granted waivers to all these reporters.
Miller: "I lay under the aspens, the sunshine filtered by their leaves, connected by their roots, talking to Libby".
I wonder what Russert will have to say?
LOL! One shudders to think...
Actually, the Libby indictment makes it pretty clear that Fitzgerald thinks she WAS COVERT prior to this whole episode. The judgment that he hasn't made is whether anyone violated the IIPA by discussing her with reporters - that would require him to determine that people knowingly gave up classified information, which his investigation hasn't yet determined.
ping-a-roo-ski
GJ expired on Friday. Investigation is over. Did he en panel a new one?
AFAIK, he has only said her employment with the CIA was classified information, probably because he has the memo with the paragraph that she was a CIA employee marked secret. That doesn't mean she was covert.
My GUESS is George Tenet
I do not see that in the indictment filed. Fitzgerald did not speak about it in his press conference. Where do you get your infomration?
I just think that it should have been the first order of business and provided to the public. If Valerie Plame was NOT a covert agent, this issue would have no publicity. It is the speculation that she is covert (based on the lying Joseph Wilson) that fuels the media fire.
EXACTLY- that is absurd, isn't it?
Libby is not being indicted for revealing anything about Plame. He is being indicted for lying about his conversations with reporters to both the FBI and the grand jury. The prosecutor evidently feels that these were intentional misstatements rather than being due to poor recollection.
From the indictment:
2. On or about October 14 and November 26, 2003, in the District of Columbia,
I. LEWIS LIBBY,
also known as “SCOOTER LIBBY,”
defendant herein, did knowingly and willfully make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement and representation in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency within the executive branch of the United States, in that the defendant, in response to questions posed to him by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stated that:
During a conversation with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine on July 12, 2003, LIBBY told Cooper that reporters were telling the administration that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, but LIBBY did not know if this was true.
3. As defendant LIBBY well knew when he made it, this statement was false in that: LIBBY did not advise Cooper on or about July 12, 2003 that reporters were telling the administration that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, nor did LIBBY advise him that LIBBY did not know whether this was true; rather, LIBBY confirmed for Cooper, without qualification, that LIBBY had heard that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA;
In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(2).
This whole sordid mess is about the MSM. Come on Matt tell us it is all about the power of the press and what you guys think you can do and get away with in the process. Fitzgerald has his focus on the wrong people.
LOL. You had pretty much the same reaction to Cooper's opening that I did.
I think he wants to give that impression but I doubt she was Covert. I believe just about everyone at the CIA has some type of classified status even desk jockeys. So pretty much anything the CIA lies about or sets up can not really be set straight by the record and Fitzgerald is playing it for all its worth.
Libby is a dumb bastid for trying to cultivate the press. They are a thankless group of lowlifes from whom one can expect no good. It is hoped that Bush's team has learned something from this -- but I doubt it, given the enormity of the egos involved.
That's an interesting point- is it possible- at least in ref to the Cooper exchange that Libby was talking about whether Plame had sent Wilson to Niger...which in fact was part of what he was trying to discover, wasn't it? Does that make sense?
For some time now the MSM reporters have clearly had an agenda, one they have pursued with maniacal zeal. It is to "prove" the administration knowingly used falsified and doctored data about uranium from Niger. Their faith in this "truth" is complete and profound. All evidence is sifted, accepted, rejected, warped, twisted and reformed according to this powerful bias.
I used to hear these kind of exchanges in the schoolyard when I was 7 years old.
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