Posted on 01/06/2007 5:21:11 AM PST by Laverne
Two journalists were sentenced last September for refusing to testify about who leaked secret grand jury testimony to them about Barry Bonds' use of steroids. (They had written a series of articles and a popular book exposing steroid use in the major leagues.)
There is a parallel between that travesty and the CIA leak fiasco which resulted in both the indictment of Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff - for obstruction of justice and perjury, and the jailing of yet another journalist who refused to testify about sources.
In the Bonds matter, baseball lovers were highly suspicious of Bonds when he bulked up for the 2000 season and was hitting home runs with obviously increased power. (Think Mark McGuire.) Bonds went from 37 homers in 1998 to 49 in 2000, and the following year he banged in an amazing 73 homers to break McGuire's record. Rumors were all over the baseball world, given the sudden change in Bonds' appearance, similar to other users of steroids. So Bonds is playing ball and making big bucks, while these reporters were sent to jail.
In Libby's case two reporters were threatened with jail time. One (Judith Miller) has already served serious time whereas the second testified after his source released him from his confidentiality pledge at the last minute. (He was sweating bullets and wrapping up his personal affairs getting ready for a trip to the slammer.) The injustices here are aplenty and appalling. Very few people know the full story.
In 2003, Robert Novak wrote a column identifying Valerie Plane, the wife of retired Ambassador Joe Wilson, as an "undercover" CIA operative. Wilson and the Democratic scream machine went into a frenzy charging senior White House officials - George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, as part of a right wing conspiracy to discredit Wilson who is an outspoken critic of the Administration, and had written a column in the New York Times charging that Bush lied when he said that the United States had intelligence that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Niger.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to investigate the source of the leak, and here's where it gets strange For three years he knew that the original leaker was Richard Armitage, an official in the State Department, and the "go-to guy" for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell - both critics of the Administration's preemptive war on Iraq. (On the other hand, Libby was one of the original proponents of this strategy.) Now get this: Fitzgerald also instructed Armitage to keep his mouth shut that he was the leaker. Armitage obliged. (Funny. The State Department has a long history of leaking anything - but only to discredit Bush.) And why did he let Judith Miller rot in jail? How could Armitage say nothing when Libby was indicted? Why wasn't Armitage indicted for outing Valerie Plane?
Fitzgerald harassed Libby all this time, got him indicted and let the White House dangle in the wind - particularly Karl Rove - who needed a reserved parking place at the courthouse because Fitzgerald had him in front of the grand jury with regularity hoping for a "gotcha" moment while Rove was under oath. The Democrats were salivating because they were certain Rove would be indicted also. The point is that Fitzgerald was trying to nail anyone on Bush's staff - he even interviewed the president - even though there was no underlying crime, and if there was, the criminal already confessed.
So the question arises why hasn't the special prosecutor been indicted for obstruction of justice for concealing vital information from the grand jury? He said publicly that Scooter Libby "was the first official known to have told a reporter, when he talked to Judith Miller in June 2003 about Valerie Wilson." That simply isn't the truth. Armitage leaked the story to Novak. Early on Fitzgerald could have declared the manhunt was over, that the crime had been solved since nobody intentionally outed Plane who wasn't even a covert agent.
Why haven't the media and the liberals been beating up on Fitzgerald? This phony manhunt was kept alive for years by the media. When the truth was known and it didn't favor the Democrats, the story died a quick death. No apologies to Rove, Bush and Dick Cheney.
Let us imagine that the victim had been a prominent Democrat and not a hated Bush official. You can be assured that story would have more legs than a centipede - like Abu Grab, no WMD - stories the media beats incessantly like a drum. Republican prosecutorial abuse would have been the Democrats centerpiece for the November elections.
The irony is that Bush is so weak in the polls he can't even fire Fitzgerald or pardon Libby. Both would be the right thing to do. But the mainstream media and the Democrats would never approve. Fitzgerald has endeared himself to the Illinois media as a hard hitting prosecutor - he prosecuted former Republican governor George Ryan - and surely will run for high elective office in Illinois - as a Democrat.
Scooter Ping
(Gasp!)
Ya mean that "journalists" are NOT a superior breed, exempt by their angelic natures from the Rule of Law and the Rules of Civilized Behavior??
Shocking!!!!!
/sarc
HF
I think it's called journalistic standard.
Fitzgerald has endeared himself to the Illinois media as a hard hitting prosecutor - he prosecuted former Republican governor George Ryan - and surely will run for high elective office in Illinois - as a Democrat.JOHN REINIERS is taking STOO-PID ™ pills.
Fitz has put more Chi DemoncRATS in the slammer than republicans. And currently Fitz and his boys are going after the following and all for corruption of one sort or another..
The Chi IL RATS are shaking in their boots. And at City Hall, the County Building and the Gov's Chi office in the Space Ship Building don't know who to trust or whose a snitch.
REINIERS is full of 'it'.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.