CIA Leak Probe: Inside The Grand Jury (Keep Hope Alive Alert)

National Journal ^ | Friday, Jan. 12, 2007 | By Murray Waas, National Journal

[Perdogg]

Late in the morning of July 12, 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney stood atop a pier at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia awaiting the commissioning of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, a ship 20 stories high that took eight years to construct. More than 15,000 people stood under clear skies to watch the pomp and ceremony. As she christened the carrier by breaking a bottle of champagne over its bow, Nancy Reagan told the crowd: "I only have one line. Man the ship and bring her alive."

[Perdogg]

ping

[Prost1]

VP Dick Cheney....the dems nightmare!

"Bring it on!"

[Vineyard]

I scanned through the article and was totally amazed at the depth and breadth of trivia that appears to be designed to confuse readers.

The goal might be to overwhelm the reader into concluding that Libby is guilty.

A good defense lawyer will - in cross-examining certain individuals, and in the defense case - establish several points:

1. Libby wasn't the leaker.

2. Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame DID recommend to the CIA that her husband Joe be sent to Niger to "investigate" certain things. Joe Wilson and Valerie have both claimed that this isn't true, but facts show that they are both lying.

3. The CIA (or certain individuals in positions of power in some departments) probably wasn't supportive of President Bush (like the State Department - full of liberal civil servants more dedicated to liberal policies than supporting the President.) They allowed Joe Wilson to go on a "mission" without requiring him to sign a non-disclosure statement that would require him to get approval to publish anything related to his work.

4. Joe Wilson returned from Niger and posted a report that was suggestive the Saddam HAD in fact made contacts with Niger about obtaining Uranium.

5. Joe Wilson, later, penned an OpEd article attacking the President's actions (and challenging the 18 words in the President's State of the Union address). Wilson's OpEd article was full of lies and actually contradicts the report he had made when he returned from Niger. He was claiming to be a special envoy with special abilities to investigate, and that the Vice President had sent him, and he came back with a report that the Vice President ignored.

6. The President and Vice President felt that it was important to rebut the lies of Joe Wilson; releasing information that stated that Wilson wansn't sent by the VP (as Joe alleged), but was recommeded by his wife, a CIA employee, was appropriate, legal, and reasonable, and necessary to clear up the lies made by Wilson. Plame's name would never had come out if Wilson hadn't lied in an effort to gain popularity with Democrats (he became a special paid adivsor to JFKerry's presidential campaign - so he stood to profit if he could help Kerry and smear the policies of President Bush.)

7. Revealing that Valerie Plame was an employee of the CIA, under the worst contrived circumstances would not constitute an illegal action, since Valarie was not a "covered employee" of the CIA - since she had not worked overseas in a covert position within a 5 year period prior to the revelation.

8. The CIA knew that Valarie wasn't covered agent, and the request for a special investigator was actually an improper action - an abuse of the power of the agency - but was done to undermine the President and the Vice President. (Again, the power of the bureaucracy is sometimes too great!!)

8. The Special Investigator - Patrick Fitzgerald - ascertained very quickly that the leaker was Richard Armitage - a person who had opposed Pres. Bush's plans for Iraq, but the leak was inadvertant and therefore was not criminal.

9. Patrick Fitzgerald then decided to continue the investigation - which becomes an abuse of power because he had already determined who the leaker was, and that no crime had occurred. To continue the investigation in a "fishing expedition" where the most that could be obtained was "lying" rather than possible memory lapses of someone who is very busy, meets with dozens of people weekly, and probably sometimes daily ... is a flagrant abuse of power.

I think that any reasonable Judge, if presented with an accurate timeline of all actions, facts, etc., would be likely to dismiss the case against Libby. And it would be nice if Fitzgerald was considered a junior Nifong - and was reprimanded for abuse of power, and an investigation initiated on HIS actions to see if, like Nifong, he let the power of the office go to his head. Fitzgerald embarked on a "mission" to find something ... and to hell with proper procedure. Disbarment and a civil suit by Libby to get money to pay his legal bills would be a nice starter.

BUT ... the National Journal article isn't nice and straightforward ... it is like wading through quicksand.

Mike

[thegreatbeast]

The extraordinary amount of time and energy that Cheney personally devoted to the issue, as well as his intensity of emotion regarding it ...

There's a lot of supposin' in these words. The reporter is characterizing on the basis of hearsay.

[Ben Hecks]

Your summation of the facts is excellent. The fact that Richard Armitage's name fails to appear anywhere in Wass' article is astounding. That's like writing about the American Revolution and leaving out George Washington.

[Dilbert56]

The White House countered the Wilson lies with the truth. That little fact seems to escape all of these articles. Rove told Time magazine that the sourcing of Wilson's mission and his published conclusions were both suspect. He was right on both counts. So natually, Time portrayed this as a campaign against Wilson. The truth was irrelevant then and still is.