WOODWARD COULD KO CASE VS. SCOOTER

NY Post ^ | 11-17-05 | DEBORAH ORIN

[veronica]

November 17, 2005 -- CALL it "Deep Throat 2." The CIA-leak probe is in big trouble because superstar reporter and Watergate hero Bob Woodward has emerged as a surprise witness for the defense — potentially undermining the case against ex-White House aide Scooter Libby.

Woodward yesterday revealed that he's told prosecutors he could be the first reporter to learn from a Bush administration source that Iraq war critic Joe Wilson's wife worked as a CIA analyst — but Libby wasn't his new "Deep Throat."

[b4its2late]

I guess he didn't turn over all the rocks, or maybe he did, and some of them he let back down in their original position.

[Ann Archy]

Novak said we would "laugh" when we learned of his source......I woud REALLY laugh if it was Andrea Mitchell and I would ROTFLMAO if it was Valerie PLAME!!

[oceanview]

I thought the whole concept of "reporters privilege" was litigated all the way to the SCOTUS - and the reporters lost? Hell, aren't all of us here "reporters" too? Is Matt Drudge a "reporter"? - or does the privilege only cover people who for for the Times and the Washington Post?

[AmishDude]

Exactly right. The indictment is careful to say that Libby was the first known person to know about Plame, but Bigmouth (Fitz, this time, not Wilson) said in his press conference that Libby was the first to know (or the first to tell somebody), period.

Fitz is gonna be put on trial by the defense and well he should be.

No wonder he looked so nervous at that presser.

[1Old Pro]

No wonder he looked so nervous at that presser.

He was nervous because he knew he was selling his soul to liberalism instead of defending the law.

[Sacajaweau]

I keep thinking it's Christopher Wolf....because of the "friend" incident and the fact that the "friend" continued on his way to Joe's Office (near the Capitol) and they wrote down everything that Novak said. (Typical attorney conduct.) I went out with one for ten years.

Given the FACT that Wolf is Joe's best friend AND next door neighbor, I'd say that would make me laugh.

Novak "smelled" a setup and "cleared himself" by writing the article. He let Joe spew his rath but he obviously told the truth when called before Fitz.

[Sacajaweau]

I can't believe I spelled WRATH....rath!! Naptime!!

[Sunnyflorida]

"Libby should plead no contest (not guilty)"

That's crazy. He will beat this. It is a very weak case that just got weaker.
The people that put out the news will not stop. They put pressure on the adminstration to start this and it is time to take them on. It would be a snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. The witnesses in this case will be very weak. They will take the journalistic-fifth.

[Sacajaweau]

The media will be begging people to come forward so Fitz has to back off the indictment. Hillary is paranoid. Hey, where'd she go?? File cabinet? Marcy Park? OR TO TIMMY??

[the Real fifi]

As to the damage to national security--Woodward says that an informal assessment by the CIA says there was none.

Still, after 3 years the CIA has not undertaken a formal assessment. I can think of only one reason for that:They know there is no damge; the defense will subpoena and use it and Fitz will be shown up.

[AmishDude]

As to Woodward's bias, I agree that he doesn't have a strong political bias except this: Woodward is always out for Woodward and would run over his own mother and interview her in her coma in order to advance his career.

[Sacajaweau]

Be Careful what you ask for. I believe Hillary was promoting legislation of hate and/or political sites. I think I saw it in a "take out" from Klein's book. I believe FR was mentioned. I just read it yesterday. Wolf is a first amendment lawyer...Internet specialist. He is/was involved in a case where two men were photographed at their "marriage" ceremony and the picture was used by the right. The one thing that stood out was that one of the dudes? mentioned Hillary in particular being hurt by the ad.

[Sunnyflorida]

"FITZGERALD: At the end of the day, what appears is that Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls,
passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true.

It was false.
He was at the beginning of the chain of phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter.
And then he lied about it afterwards, under oath and repeatedly."

I am so glad you posted this. It is too funny. Fitz says what Libby said is false and that is the heart of the indictment. Now we know the what Fitz said is false (at least according to Woodward). Does Fitz name himself as a co-defendent.

If I believed in conspiracies I would think about now the MSM is going to try to scuttle this whole thing. Nothing good can come to them from a trial.

[pankot]

Glad to know somebody beside me never trusted Woodward all the way back to Nixon. Could he be a Democrat operative all these years?

[huck von finn]

All good questions. But Miller has been a very reckless reporter. I seriously question her ethics.

[Cboldt]

But if he knew that, but did not comment until he was told by a reporter...then what's the big deal?

The big deal is he never told investigators of his independent inquiry to the CIA. The indictment alleges that Libby tried to lead investigators away from that.

Is it because he said he first heard it from a reporter? Or did he say he didn't talk about it publicly until he heard it from a reporter. If that is the conflict, whew.

It's that he tried to convince investigators that the only source of his "knowledge" was the reporter-fed rumor mill. So reads the indictment.

[pollyannaish]

Thanks for the information. If that is the case then he should be prosecuted.

What was not, and still is not clear to me from the indictment, and the presser with Fitzgerald, is how much evidence, from whom, they have to back up that charge.

Only a full boat trial will take care of that. What is odd though, is that Libby is a beltway lawyer. Doesn't it seem as if he SHOULD know not to do that? That is the piece of this that just doesn't make any sense to me at this point.

[McGavin999]

If he did, name them, and tell me why he bothered to ask the CIA and state departments who Wilson was and why he was sent to Africa. Tell me also why he conveniently forgot that they had reported back to him and to Cheney?

Maybe he didn't ask who he was, maybe he asked who the ambassador was who was sent to Niger. And why he was sent. Besides, when you ask an official question, you don't furnish them with the answer, even if you know it. Maybe he wanted to be sure that the CIA had, in fact, sent him and that it wasn't just someone inflating the truth. Just because you know Wilson, a former ambassador, is married to a CIA agent, doesn't mean you know that the CIA sent him to Niger.

Besides, unless they asked him a specific question (i.e. did you ask the CIA about them, did they report back to you) he shouldn't be divulging conversations regarding the CIA and/or discussions of official business within the WH.

Now, if they asked him specifically, and he lied, then that's a whole different thing. But, I don't think they asked him that.

[oceanview]

I still want to know how Fitzgerald obtained the notes about the Cheney meeting, whether Libby provided them.