OMG! Cheney might be the Source who outed Plame!

[ck4829]

Notes in the hand of a federal prosecutor suggest the chief of staff to Vice President
Dick Cheney first heard of the covert CIA officer central to a leak investigation from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003, conversation between I. Lewis Libby and Cheney appear to differ from Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists.

The newspaper identified its sources in the story in Tuesday's editions only as lawyers who are involved in the case.

Libby has emerged at the center of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.

Miller said Libby spoke to her about Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions — although not necessarily by name and without indicating he knew she was undercover.

Libby's notes show that Cheney knew Plame worked at the CIA more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.

At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to — but not by name — in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.

The Times reported that Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Wilson from then-CIA Director George Tenet, but said there was no indication he knew her name.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051025/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_investigation

[radwriter0555]

1. Don't be too thrilled about cheney; yes, we need him gone, but ROVE needs

to be gone a lot MORE. He is the evil behind the throne. He's the enabler and the man behind the curtain.

I've always said cheney will be the administration's scapegoat since he can "retire for health reasons."

We can't let ANY of these fuckers off the hook.

[hiabrill]

2. The whole lot of them need to go...

And with the revelation the Cheney provided Plame's name to Libby, we're getting closer to the end game...

[B Calm]

12. They all need to be hanged for treason!

[Just Me]

3. Can you say, "c-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y"? Yeah, I know you can.

:7

[Spinzonner]

4. It's not illegal for Cheney to reveal it to someone that has

sufficient Security Clearance, though need-to-know might be an issue.

If, however, he ordered or encouraged the leak itself he could be a member of a conspiracy.

[leveymg]

7. 06/12/03 - Cheney to Libby: "Just take care of the problem."(wink, wink).

Libby to Cheney: Nod, Nod.

06/23/03 - Cheney to Libby: "Say hi to Judy for me." (wink, wink)
Libby to Cheney: Nod, Nod

Gee, "nothing illegal" going on here as far as Cheney is concerned. Here's the complete timeline.

June 10 - State Department produces the famous INR memo that tells about Wilson's trip and his wife's involvement.

June 12 - Cheney tells Libby about Wilson's wife's work with C.I.A. and her involvement with Wilson's trip.

June 12 - the day of the conversation between Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby, the Washington Post published a front page story reporting that the C.I.A. had sent a retired American diplomat to the Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had been seeking to buy uranium there. The story did not name the diplomat, who turned out to be Mr. Wilson, but it reported that his mission had not corroborated a claim about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear material that the White House had subsequently used in Mr. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

June 19 - Karl Rove attends party to celebrate 40th anniversary of Robert Novak's newpaper column; later (before grand jury October 2005) Rove tells Fitzgerald that he first heard about Wilson's wife at a social event outside the White House; says that he heard she works at C.I.A from Libby around July 8.

June 23 - (first interview) Libby tells Judith Miller about Wilson's wife's work at C.I.A. and her involvement with Wilson's trip (first meeting).

July 6 - Joe Wilson op-ed piece in NY Times saying "no uranium"; challenging the premises of going to war.

July 8 - (second interview during breakfast) Libby tells Miller about Joe Wilson's wife, clarifies previous conversation; same day or possibly later Miller records name "Valerie Flame" in notebook.

July 8 - Rove talks with Matt Cooper about Wilson's wife and C.I.A. work

July ? - Rove confirms information about Wilson's wife for article Novak is preparing.

July 11 - earliest date that Robert Novak's column was distributed to newspapers; first published on July 14 outing Valerie Plame as C.I.A. operative.

[TaleWgnDg]

11. Do you have sources for your timeline? each event? urls? . . . n/t

[leveymg]

13. Here's the source

Scroll about 1/8 of the way down the replies to the original post:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/24/211247/10#227

I've seen most of these events referenced elsewhere. No reason to doubt its accuracy.

[ObaMania]

5. .. course my local news can't stress enough this morning..

.. that it's not illegal what he may/may not have done.

[leveymg]

9. It is illegal to lie to the US Attorney about when you discussed it.

It's called perjury. Cheney could get 5 years in the federal pen for it.

That's what no one on the networks is willing to admit, yet.

[patricia92243]

6. I took it to mean just the opposite. Tenant did the outing and Dick is

innocent. Has Tenant even been included in the indictment investigation. By the way - Tenant is a Democrat, so it will be convenient for the Republicans if he is the culprit.

[12345]

8. I agree that they're trying to pin it on him (or anyone else),

but what would be illegal about Tenet revealing her identity to Cheney?

[patricia92243]

10. It probably really isn't, but it sure sounds like he is being set up to ta

take the fall for it. Hope I'm wrong.

[Boo Boo]

15. How did Tenet out Plame?

He told Cheney, who had clearance to know. We don't even know if Cheney found out her covert status from Tenet. Unless Cheney asked, he'd have no reason at all to tell him; and I can't think of any reason why Cheney would ask, "Hey George, by the way, uh, what's that person's covert status? Just curious, you know?" But it doesn't matter: Cheney and Tenet are allowed to have that conversation. Further, Cheney can tell Libby, because he, presumably, also has the clearance to know.

Finally, Tenet is the one that called for the investigation, or at least allowed the request to be made, which would be a pretty stupid thing to do if he was the guy that outed Plame.

[Boo Boo]

14. No indication that Cheney knew her name

Yeah, right.

But let's say Cheney at least didn't know her covert status from Tenet. So he tells Scooter to find out about this person that's fucking with him, and deal with it. So Scooter finds out from who? Bolton? Condi? Or one of these other schmucks we've been reading about lately. At what point did Cheney know he was fucking with a NOC? He surely must have known fairly early on. If Bolton and Cheney don't get tagged as part of a conspiracy, I'm going to be so disappointed.

So both Cheney and Bush have now been caught in their lie. They've known all along. Not news, I know, but Bush has been playing this "I want to get to the bottom of this very serious matter" crap, and that has now become non-operational. I suppose Bush could always try to claim that Cheney never told him about this, but only the most brain-fried freeper is going to buy that.

Should be fun to watch Scotty squirm over this one.