Cia Leak: Not above the law (Freep this poll)

SEATTLE POST ^ | 10/30/2005 | Editorial

[DogBarkTree]

There is a cancer on the presidency, and it cannot be exorcised by the resignation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Libby, assistant to the president and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, has been indicted on five federal counts, including obstruction of justice, making false statement and perjury. The charges stem from the investigation into a leak disclosing that Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a covert CIA operative.

Based on the allegations special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald laid out in the indictments Friday, it's increasingly evident that officials within the Bush administration disclosed Plame's identity as part of an effort to discredit Wilson's criticism of one of the pretexts for war against Iraq.

[Wil H]

The article states "No matter where the investigation goes from here, the question is why President Bush didn't fire Libby long ago if his role in outing Plame was as clear as the indictments indicate. It raises the uncomfortable and inevitable question: What did the president know and when did he know it?

What kind of stupid question is that?

Libby has NOT been indicted for "outing Valerie Plame", so it appears no crime was commited in that regard. Libby has been indicted for things he said before a Grand Jury, none of which The President would be privy to, or have knowledge of, so the answer to their question is the President couldn't have known anything, nor should he have.

[Colonial Warrior]

What do you want to believe?? There is a POLL to support it!

[Blake#1]

There was NO disclosure crime. Fitzgerald did not indict anyone for that action. Russert, Cooper, Miller, others, of the main street media attacked the Bush administration and Libby counter attacked them as would any Administration. For his action (Libby's) he gets a trial and the MSM gets a walk. Not what Peter Zenger had in mind!

[Enterprise]

"Was President Bush or Vice President Cheney involved in the disclosure of Valerie Plame as a covert CIA operative?

Exactly! She was not a covert operative. The question is factually wrong, therefore none of the answers are relevant.

[lugsoul]

The same way people here can post matters of which they have no knowledge as if they were established fact.

[Suzy Quzy]

There IS a cancer on the Presidency......he has DEMOCRATS working for him! Colin Powell...Tenet...Libby....and many others I suspect. They all WANT him to Fail! He didn't clean house like Clinton did...he should have, and he brought these traitors along with him!!

[Enterprise]

I hope the judge to whom this is assigned fully understands this. There was no underlying crime. But nonetheless, a criminal investigation was launched. Libby is accused of obstructing an investigation into - NOTHING! I hope the judge throws the whole thing out.

[Suzy Quzy]

And also the crap Fitz said about "showing the world...." blah, blah, blah...who does he think he is?

[Suzy Quzy]

And the B*tch, Plame was NEVER called before the Grand Jury!!

[Suzy Quzy]

How does the poll go from about 18%when you add those numbers to 58% for Bush and Cheney ...just proves that Americans are so easily manipulated.

[Suzy Quzy]

News Manipulators......that's all reporters and media are these days.....and the American people fall for it hook, line and sinker.

[truthpls]

I voted No on Cheney and Bush, and when I clicked on 'vote', the mark next to Bush's name disappeared, and there was no way to correct it. Now you know how 'unbiased' this poll is.

[cgbg]

If you intentionally "think" you are outing an agent is a crime; even though she or he may have been outed on other occasions; which of course she was

As a practical matter it is the harm to the government that determines whether such a crime is prosecuted. If you "out" someone who is sitting at a desk at Langley and is not scheduled for top secret overseas duty the harm is minimal.

I still don't understand why Bush allowed a special prosecutor on this stupid case.

[manwiththehands]

I don't even know why we bother with polls. The only "poll" I'm interested in is the TRUTH: 2 freakin' years and Fitz did not get a single indictment on President Bush, Dick Cheney or Karl Rove. And the indictments he got on Libby are dubious at best.

[raynearhood]

I didn't say that he did, nor did I assume that he did, I was giving an example of what would or wouldn't be a crime, according to Fitzgerald's description of how he understood the law.

I also am not saying that Libby did impede the investigation. I'm commenting on the fact that people on this forum are saying that the possible crime of violating the statute WAS NOT committed and that that was ADMITTED by Fitzgerald. That is not TRUE. Fitz said that the Grand Jury was unable to determine if a crime was committed because they felt not all the facts were presented because they felt they were mislead by Scooter Libby.

My next post was to expand on the statute to explain why, as I understood from Fitz's press conference, why there may or may not have been a law violated and why Libby was subsequently indicted.

[Mike Darancette]

As a practical matter it is the harm to the government that determines whether such a crime is prosecuted.

The overriding practical matter is whether a crime was committed. There has never been any evidence that the "outing" crime was committed.

[Mike Darancette]

I didn't say that he did, nor did I assume that he did,

That is true, i got ahead of myself.

That said, all counts against Miller revolve around whether Libby learned of Plame around the water cooler or from reporters and lied about it.

To my mind Fitzgerald participated in entrapment, in that he allowed and encouraged Libby to repeat the same story when Fitzgerald believed that story to not be accurate. I believe that it was the duty of the investigators to resolve Libby's inconsistencies with Libby for the furtherance of the investigation of the original charges.

[fantom]

Will the real WH info machine please stand up !

[rlmorel]

Libby "outed" Plame the way anyone who said that Liberace was a homosexual in the Seventies would have "outed" Liberace.

[PISANO]

The POLL question is based on a LIE. Valeria Plame was NOT a COVERT agent. Pathetic press strikes again.