Did Cheney Tell Libby to Do It?

The Washington Post ^ | 03 June 2008 | Dan Froomkin

[BGHater]

Former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told the FBI that it was "possible" that Vice President Cheney instructed him to disseminate information about CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press, according to a redacted FBI report recently examined by Congressional investigators.

In part as a result of that revelation, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today reiterated its request for more Plame investigation documents -- including reports on the interviews investigators conducted with Cheney and President Bush.

In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman also writes that "[n]ew revelations by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan raise additional questions about the actions of the President and the Vice President. Mr. McClellan has stated that '[t]he President and Vice President directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby.' He has also asserted that 'the top White House officials who knew the truth -- including [Karl] Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice President Cheney -- allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie.' It would be a major breach of trust if the Vice President personally directed Mr. McClellan to mislead the public."

Back in December, I wrote about how special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald had agreed to give congressional investigators key documents from his investigation into the leak -- until the White House intervened. Waxman then asked the newly-installed attorney general to show some independence from his White House masters and release the documents. Committee investigators were eventually allowed to read redacted versions of the reports on interviews with senior administration officials, including Libby and Rove, but not Cheney or Bush.

[petro45acp]

“...to disseminate information about CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press,... “

That should be FORMER clandestine officer and at the time of the (gag) “leak,” a desk analyst roughly equivalent to a mid-level CPA (not that there’s anything wrong with CPA folks).

Figures the compost would refuse to get this right!

Ruefully

[okie01]

I have still not found any article or story that explains to me why it was important to try and discredit Valerie Plame?

Excuse me, but have you been following this story at all?

Plame's importance was that, as a CIA employee and Joe Wilson's wife, it was she who sent him to Niger. Not Cheney, as Wilson had been claiming.

Further, nobody in the White House was responsible for leaking Plame's name in an attempt to discredit her. Instead, it was an anti-Bush State Dept gossip named Richard Armitage.

It was true, though, that the White House had a real interest in finding out who sent him -- because Wilson was claiming it was Cheney and they knew better. However, once they found out, the White House kept their mouths shut.

The whole narrative that the MSM has established is a complete lie.

Wilson & Plame are important only in the sense of how far the media and their liberal cohort will go in order to promote an anti-war, anti-Bush interpretation of events.

[The_Republican]

Thanks for the info. Sincerely appreciate it. Nah, I never followed the story. I only heard about it when media tried to turn it into another Watergate. So one more question if you will....why is Wilson important? Who cares if he went to Niger or wherever?

There is still a lesson here......putting these losers on ignore is the right thing to do......otherwise nonsensical things like this turn into a huge scandal....

[Steve_Seattle]

What evidence is there that the White House was trying to “discredit” Plame? That is the Dem’s spin. What the WH was trying to do - IMHO - was to set the record straight. The media were circulating the story that the WH (Cheney) had dispatched Wilson to Niger, didn’t like what he reported back to them, ignored his findings, and then tried to smear him when he went public with the truth. The WH was trying to get out the FACTS that Cheney didn’t send Wilson (Plame apparently recommended him to her seniors), the WH didn’t even know about Wilson’s trip, was never briefed on it, didn’t ignore it because it disagreed with their presuppositions, and therefore was not “punishing” him for telling the truth. Moreover, Wilson’s findings in Niger were NOT as he presented them to the press, per the Senate investigation into this matter.

[Sooth2222]

I still haven’t found out, why leaking Velerie Plame’s identity considered a useful thing?

It answers the question: "Why would anyone in their right mind working for the White House have told the CIA to send Joe Wilson on a sensitive mission?" Answer --"Nobody did. His wife got him the gig."

[KevinJohnson]

Not this same old BS again?
Hey Wapo, the Valerie Plame “leak” wad made my Richard Armitage. Not to mention Valerie Plame was not even an undercover agent at the time anyways. You can't leak something that is not hidden in the first place.

[Steve_Seattle]

Robert Novak asked Armitage how a partisan zealot and loudmouth like Wilson had been selected for the sensitive mission to Niger, and Armitage said that Wilson’s wife - who worked for the CIA - had recommended him. Apparently many in the WH were wondering who Wilson was and how he was given that assignment, so the word got around about Plame. The WH was playing catch-up - they were being called liars and thugs by someone they didn’t even know, and who was allegedly sent to Niger on behalf of Cheney! The press eventually asked Rove and Libby and Fleischer about Plame, and they apparently affirmed what the press - or some of the press - already knew. I don’t think anybody really even thought that they might be divulging illegal information.

[The_Republican]

Thanks! Its clear now.

[skully]

The libtards just ignore Amritage’s role in this, that's how they keep this non-story going. Congressman Nostrils has been trying to find something on the Admin. since he became chairman. This little dweeb has a nose for investigating, too bad he can't smell his own stink.

Thanks Snotty for selling your BS book, and getting the moonbats all fired up over nothing, and wasting more taxpayer's money on endless investigations of non-crimes. Its like listening to my wife still b*tch about an argument we had that ended 2 years ago that she lost.

[mass55th]

Must be nothing else happening in the news today.

[Doctor Raoul]

Seriously, you can go to www.impeachbush.org and catch the sale on IMPEACH BUSH sweat shirts. 50% off.

[GOPyouth]

To paraphrase Tom Hanks in The Lady Killers.... And what, to flog a horse, that if not dead is at this point in mortal danger of expiring, does this article bring new to the table?

I will never be convinced that Plame was, or was recently was, undercover at the time this all went down.

The US government documents admit that she used her own identity on any trips she made overseas on official business. And if she's worried that she was outed, it was done years before by Aldridge Aimes.

[Rummyfan]

Aren't they exhausted from beating this dead horse for over three years? Give it a rest MSM - no one gives a damn anymore. Scooter Libby was sacrificed by the Special Prosecutor for what crime I'm not even sure. A political witch-hunt from start to finish.

[rep-always]

I am sick of this. Between all this crap and the Obama adoration on CNN and MSNBC, I think I am going to hit the wall.

AHHHHHHHHhh.

[Chode]

it's possible scooter could find his azz with both hands too... but i doubt it. what an ass.

[The Electrician]

This article was written by Dan Froomkin. Must I say anything more?

[capt. norm]

Even if their fondest wishes were true and Cheney had done it, no law was broken! What a bunch of dipsticks.

Logic can find no home among liberals.

If they were a separate species and had to fend for themselves, they would have been extinct long ago.

[Tallguy]

She should have been fired for giving Joe the gig, but it was evidently just hunky-dory with her bosses. When you add the fact that the criminal referal came from... Plames Big Boss at CIA... you have what you have — a CIA run operation to embarrass the chief executive.

[okie01]

So one more question if you will....why is Wilson important? Who cares if he went to Niger or wherever?

The famous "sixteen words" from the President's SOTU address in January, 2003:

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Wilson wrote a New York Times column in July, 2003 about "What I Didn't Find In Niger". In it, he inferred that VP Cheney had sent him to Niger to investigate the above claim -- in February, 2002.

He reported that he found no evidence to support the claim.

Wilson's column was immediately interpreted by the MSM and the Democrats as "Bush lied".

Never mind the fact that Wilson was actually sent to Niger by his CIA wife. Never mind that Niger wasn't specified in the 16 words. Never mind that British intelligence still stands by their report.

And never mind that Wilson's verbal report to the CIA upon returning was taken to confirm the evidence. And, finally, never mind the fact that, in January, 2003, Wilson had authored op-eds for the San Jose Mercury-News and addressed a student group at UCal-Santa Barbara counseling against an invasion of Iraq because a.) Hussein had WMD and b.) he would use them.

Wilson's column in the NYT was a partisan-inspired political hit job, apparently engineered by factions within the CIA, which began the firestorm that eventually consumed Bush's credibility.

Oddly, Wilson was proven a liar by the 9/11 Commission's investigation and a Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry. The Washington Post even printed a front-page retraction of their reporting on his story.

Nonetheless, all this is overlooked by the partisan media in order to keep the "Bush lied" meme intact.

1984?