NYT: Former Aide Didn't Disclose Involvement in CIA Case

[leveymg]

November 4, 2005
The Defense Under Secretary

Former Aide Didn't Disclose Involvement in C.I.A. Case
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Eric S. Edelman, an under secretary of defense and former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, "would have been well advised" to tell Congress this spring about his "involvement" with the investigation into the C.I.A. leak case, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a statement on Thursday. President Bush installed Mr. Edelman in the post this summer, using a recess appointment to bypass the Senate confirmation process. Mr. Edelman told the committee in a written statement in May that "to the best of my knowledge, I am not presently the subject of any governmental inquiry or investigation."

But Mr. Edelman is identified by his former job title in the indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who resigned last Friday as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser. The office of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, has confirmed that Mr. Edelman was the "then principal deputy" to Mr. Libby in the indictment. The Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, issued his statement in response to questions from The New York Times about the answers Mr. Edelman provided to the committee.

SNIP

But the indictment describes Mr. Edelman as among a handful of people with whom Mr. Libby held discussions in June and July of 2003 about whether information about the trip that Joseph C. Wilson IV made to Niger at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency could be shared with reporters. Mr. Edelman's inclusion in the indictment suggests that he could be among the current and former aides to Mr. Cheney called as witnesses in any trial of Mr. Libby.

SNIP

The indictment says that Mr. Libby and Mr. Edelman spoke by telephone on or about June 19, 2003, before Mr. Wilson's name became public. It says that Mr. Edelman asked Mr. Libby in June 2003 whether information about Mr. Wilson's trip could be disclosed to the press to rebut allegations that Vice President Cheney had called for the trip. Mr. Libby replied that "there would be complications at the C.I.A." if information about the trip were disclosed publicly and "that he could not discuss the matter on a nonsecure telephone line," the indictment says.

This cast of characters seem to have some common characteristics. When are we going to hear from Mr. Bolton, another recess appointee in this case? How about Mr. Rove's failure to disclose the fact that he was under investigation when he moved into the Deputy White House Chief of Staff slot? Sleaze.

[leftchick]

1. link?

thanks

[Judi Lynn]

3. I think this should get it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/politics/04intel.html

[leveymg]

5. Sorry. That was a pre-coffee post this morning. n/t

[cassiepriam]

2. oops, he forgot. That darn WH memory.

Maybe we should ship them a case of ginkgo biloba.

[MiniMe]

4. One more "re-do" on an application...once a lie was exposed. n/t

[Toots]

6. This sounds to me like Libby knew he was discussing classified information

and was willing to release it anyway.

[No Exit]

7. We need to make a list of NYT writers, to separate

the ones we should kind of trust, from the ones we can't trust.

The ones we can't trust are the ones who still take calls and orders from Karl Rove.

Jehl, I THINK, is one we might trust, since he is apparently fed up with Judith Miller's paid water-carrying for the cabal.

One we can't trust would be whichever one wrote another article cited on here--that article said stuff about Fitzgerald allegedly "narrowing" his investigation of Fatso Rove.

[donkeyotay]

8. While the Repo's accuse the Democrats of "playing politics"

ie., using quaint rules, the Republicans have acted more like a swat team or a military operation. They ain't playing. The mention of Condi Rice at the end of the article reminded me of the public debut of this operation, the 2000 election, and one of the things I could never figure out. When Cheney appointed hisself VP, he offered the BFEE something valuable: he bailed out Dressler Ind. (read Kevin Phillips). I couldn't figure out what Cheney got - because it was too obvious. He got GWB. See, Cheney wanted to run for president, but couldn't (lack of charm), and there was no neocon who could. But they knew they could sell GW like soap. And they did. Mission accomplished.

[goforit]

9. Has he testified for Fitz and if not why not?

ARGH!!!