Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney's Role

[cal04]

(snip)
In the aftermath of Libby's recent five-count indictment, this curious sequence raises a question of motives that hangs over the investigation: Why would an experienced lawyer and government official such as Libby leave himself so exposed to prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald? Libby, according to Fitzgerald's indictment, gave a false story to agents and, later, to a grand jury, even though he knew investigators had his notes, and presumably knew that several of his White House colleagues had already provided testimony and documentary evidence that would undercut his own story. And his interviews with the FBI in October and two appearances before the grand jury in March 2004 came at a time when there were increasingly clear signs that some of the reporters with whom Libby discussed Plame could soon be freed to testify -- and provide starkly different and damning accounts to the prosecutor.

To critics, the timing suggests an attempt to obscure Cheney's role, and possibly his legal culpability. The vice president is shown by the indictment to be aware of and interested in Plame and her CIA status long before her cover was blown. Even some White House aides privately wonder whether Libby was seeking to protect Cheney from political embarrassment. One of them noted with resignation, "Obviously, the indictment speaks for itself." In addition, Cheney also advised Libby on a media strategy to counter Plame's husband, former ambassador Wilson, according to a person familiar with the case.

"This story doesn't end with Scooter Libby's indictment," said Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), giving voice to widespread Democratic hopes about the outcome of Fitzgerald's case. "A lot more questions need to be answered by the White House about the actions of and his staff." But to Libby's defenders, the timing of Libby's alleged lies supports his claims of innocence. They say it would be supremely illogical for an intelligent and highly experienced lawyer to mislead the FBI or grand jury if he knew the jurors had evidence that would expose his falsehoods. Libby, they say, is guilty of nothing more than a foggy memory and recollections that differ, however dramatically, from those of several witnesses in the nearly two-year-old investigation.

"People have different memories," said lawyer Victoria Toensing, a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration. She said the fact that Fitzgerald did not indict on the crime he set out to investigate -- illegal disclosure of classified evidence -- supports the conclusion that no such crime took place. Fitzgerald has said he could not make such a determination because his inquiry was obstructed by Libby's deceptions. Even if Fitzgerald shows beyond a reasonable doubt that Libby's version of events is wrong, he also must prove the former Cheney aide lied on purpose. But many lawyers and several White House aides said the case against Libby appears strong -- and has the potential to embarrass other administration officials if it goes to trial.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/12/AR2005111201085.html

[daleo]

1. It looks like Libby may be accepting the role of fall-guy

No doubt he expects a pardon. "The aspens turn together, they are connected at the roots".

If it happens that way, it will be one more spit in the face for the rule of law in America.

[EuroObserver]

12. Libby had to do it

- Otherwise he'd have suffered more than a broken foot...

[daleo]

18. I thought it was interesting about the foot, too

There have been a number of accounts of how he injured himself, but the timing certainly made you think.

[lovuian]

2. Theres a CIA agent who was exposed and Spies running around

in the white house and pentagon... Ya fitzgerald is onto a whole bunch of embarassing stuff!!!

[usregimechange]

3. kick!

[grasswire]

4. John Dean knows the answer

Dean stated last month that the Nixon WH had considered committing intentional perjury so that the underlying crimes would be obfuscated.

That's exactly why Scooter lied. To kick up dust.

And that's exactly why Fitzgerald must not accept a plea bargain from Libby unless there are other indictments. Because if Scooter pleads guilty and no one else is charged, the whole thing just goes away forever. The people will never know the truth.

No plea!

[Wilms]

5. And that's exactly why Bush might pardon him.

Like father, like son.

[grasswire]

6. a pardon is an admission of guilt

Although pardoning the Iran Contra thugs didn't keep them out of public office.

[GuvWurld]

10. Inherent Uncertainty

This is one of their favorite tactics. You can see it everywhere. Create so much doubt that the public becomes divided about what is reality (including election results, most especially). Intentional divisiveness is also rampant. If We The People are fighting amongst ourselves we will not be uniting to oppose fascism. We have been cast into a Cold Civil War, but cold for how long? We have to be very intentional about being non-violent. To peacefully end the Cold Civil War, the divided people must unite against the government, shifting the balance of power in between. This is by definition, peaceful revolution.

Read Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution.

[vickitulsa]

11. I understand the time for a plea bargain has passed, is that not right?

At least I thought it was extremely rare for a plea deal to be struck after a trial was well under way. Even if a plea was agreed upon, wouldn't Libby still have to allocute? Detail to the court (and presumably publicly) exactly how he committed each criminal offense?

We had a judge in Tulsa who was well known for not allowing anyone charged with a crime in his court to plead guilty without allocuting fully, and the catch was they had to convince him they had actually done the crime! If he even suspected they were simply pleading -- almost always to a lesser form of the crime, of course -- for dubious reasons, possibly protecting someone else, or they just didn't feel they could defend themselves adequately even if not guilty, this judge would not accept it!

I just get the feeling Fitzgerald may be this way ... like if it's at all legally possible, he would not rest with just one player taking the fall for ALL those involved -- some of them more culpable than Libby because they had more authority.

Also, there's that quote from Libby's letter to Judith Miller when she was in jail, which daleo posted above: "The aspens turn together, they are connected at the roots."

I mean, I've been trying hard to figure out just exactly what he was trying to tell her with that bit of flowery language?? Does anyone know?

Well, I do know one thing for sure. If more Americans who are still reluctant to believe this administration could really commit such treasonous crimes would simply READ THE LIBBY INDICTMENT, it ought to give them pause -- and serious doubts. I was so surprised when it first came down and I read wording I had never expected! It's not peppered with "alleged" and "allegedly" as the charges are made. It's just straightforward: "Libby did this, Libby did that." And even more significantly, several OTHER players are named and spoken of in exactly the same way, leaving only "Official A" which HAS to be Karl Rove, judging by the context, unnamed (and maybe for a very good reason).

I remember the first time I read through the indictment -- and it's not that difficult a document to comprehend, btw -- I thought, "Man, this reads like Fitz believes he could convict ALL these guys he talks about in this document!"

I thought then, and still fervently hope, that more indictments will be coming down in the near future....

[roguevalley]

7. Toensing is evil personified, the revolting cow.

[vickitulsa]

8. I especially like the final paragraph of the WaPo article!

Even though we already knew it, still it's a powerful way to wrap up the piece and makes the most salient point so clearly. And it's quite likely many Americans who may read this article did NOT realize the stark fact of the short final sentence.


"After lengthy court battles over journalists' duty to testify in the case -- including several contempt citations by a trial court judge, appeals to the Supreme Court and one reporter's jailing -- Fitzgerald got all the reporters' testimony that he had sought. Russert, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller of the New York Times all testified about their conversations with Libby. All contradicted Libby."

[daleo]

19. I tend to read the last few paragraphs of articles first

These days, any truth that is likely to be found in newspaper articles is generally near the end. The first few paragraphs are usually spin and propaganda. Any nuance comes at the end, I guess because the corporate media assumes most people never get that far.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. No! You jest. It can't be. Who'd believe such a thing?

What kind of poppycock is that? The henchman of the most hands-on and intrusive murderous thug in Washington didn't do it all by his little ol' lonesome? Pshaw.

[SittingBull]

13. Victoria Toensing praying again

that no crime was comitted. Thank God that she isn't the person who will judge that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Does anybody know how Libby picked up the limp?

He just suddenly appeared on crutches one day, and I wondered if Cheney kicked him.

[Festivito]

15. Protecting the power of the pardon is now job #1.

They must protect Bush, protest innocence, downplay the acts, kick up the dirt, obfuscate the laws, confuse the public, then comes the pardon from the only one they really have to protect, Bush.

[LizW]

16. If Libby is willing to go down to "mask Cheney's role"

The what exactly was Cheney's role?

I have said all along that this whole thing rested on an effort to protect Cheney. Remember that the wording of all the denials from EVERYONE back during the "16 words" was geared toward protecting Cheney.

"The VP didn't send Wilson."

"I don't know Joe Wilson."

That disclaimer was everywhere. Condi Rice was flacking all over the place to keep Cheney out of it.

Why?

The most obvious and likely thing is that Cheney DID know about Wilson. Cheney was all over the Niger uranium claim. He pushed the CIA to find out more about it. What are the chances, really, that he never heard Wilson's findings when he came back? Zero.

Here's my theory. Wilson's report came back and went to the WH. Cheney didn't like what it said. This administration was adept at cherry picking intelligence and filtering out what didn't support the case for war. They had been doing that forever. They ignored Wilson's report, choosing instead to believe the documents they had been sold. Cheney may or may not have asked at that time, "Who is this guy you sent to Niger, and what's his angle? Or Cheney may have just ignored the report, believing that it would never become public anyway. The WH never attacked Ambassador Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, or Fulford (sp?) even though they both found the same as Wilson, because they never had to. They never planned on those reports disproving the Niger allegation becoming public.

My theory is that Cheney got the Wilson report and asked Tenet how credible it was. Tenet, in an effort to be a good lap-dog and give the admin what they wanted, told Cheney who Wilson was and that his wife worked for the CIA. Cheney had Libby look into Wilson's political contributions THEN, and convinced himself that he could afford to ignore Wilson's report. They may not have planned at that time to attack Wilson's wife to discredit him, and they probably would never have done it if Wilson hadn't spoken out, but they knew then that they COULD use it. Knowing that, Cheney and Hadley felt comfortable continuing to push for the Niger uranium claim to be included in speeches pushing for war.

Two things screwed up their plan, though. The IAEA insisted on seeing the documents, and State (damn that Colin Powell!) gave them over. When the IAEA found the documents to be forgeries and announced it to the world, it got messy. Then Joseph Wilson started making noise, and in approximately March of 2003, Cheney knew he was going to have to use what he had to shut Wilson up or try to discredit him.

If there is one person I would love to hear from in this case, besides Cheney, it is Valerie Plame. She will never testify, but I would be willing to bet that she knew before Novak had his "stranger on the street" conversation that she was about to be exposed. (If I was writing this story as a novel, I would have the stranger not be a friend of Joe's, but a co-worker of Valerie's, sent by her to run into Novak and strike up a conversation to find out what he would say!)

Cheney is ground zero of the Plame leak. If everyone eventually testifies truthfully about what happened, it will be seen what lengths Cheney and his staff went to to shape the case for war, what facts they had before them and lied about, and exactly how they cherry-picked the evidence to get their war.

I wonder if Patrick Fitzgerald feels the full weight of what rests with him. I don't want to overstate it, but I truly feel that if Cheney and the neocon cabal get away with this, America is over.

[Einstein99]

21. A very plausible explanation, but

you left out one person: Bush. Cheney was probably telling everyone to bring everything directly to him, not to burden the president with any more than he really needed (which was probably far more than he could handle anyway). Has anyone ever seen "The 4400" on TV? That's what I'm talking about: letting the boss think that he's really in charge when everyone around the place knows who's really in charge.

[DrZeeLit]

17. First take on headline: Well Duh

Cheney is evil.
Period.
And Libby will either fall on the sword or... (hallelujah!) roll over.
Time will tell.

And hearing of Libby's change o'heart (that cell won't seem half as pleasant as say, living in Belize).... Cheney's has massive coronary. And.. the story ends.

I'm just sayin'.... look for the rat to jump ship? Maybe...

[symbolman]

20. More Staggering truth we were mislead

my Film "ROVE'S WAR" has 150 minutes of TRUTH on 2 DVDs, after a year of research I've got the GOODS on these Monsters..

There's too much of a trail for them to get out of it so they go straight for the bald faced LIE..

ANd HADLEY of all people is now out lying about all this - might as well trot out Cheney, maybe he'll be next, Hadley is about as nasty to look at as Cheney.. fearless fly glasses, all the charisma of a child molester, skin like a shaved mole..

I've got the WHOLE STORY, the Definitive Chronology of PlameGate on "Rove's War" at http://www.takebackthemedia.com - watch the 12 minute trailer and listen to my cover of the a great song, "Secret Agent Plame" (Randi Rhodes sang the LYRICS to my cover TWICE on Air America Radio a few weeks ago :) ) ..

GOt people getting this 2 DVD set to members of Congress as a TOOL!

Adopt a Congressman today :)

[usregimechange]

22. Did everyone read the last 5 paragraphs of this article? Busted!