Fitzgerald Investigation of Leak of Identity of CIA Agent

"I'm not going to tell the jury the information was classified," Fitzgerald answered. "I will tell the jury that there was an investigation into whether the law was violated."

And what law might that be? Sure enough, it's the one barring disclosure of a covert agent's identity.

Yes, it was used to combat, retaliate if you wish to use the term, but to combat mis-information put out by Wilson

and they doubted her covert status

and they also figured the reporters already had the info, which many did.

I happen to think Wilson lied about many things and was involved in a vendetta for not only himself, but the CIA.

Ticomaya wrote:

mysteryman wrote:

blatham wrote:

This is altogether good news...if transparency is valued.

Quote:

Audio recordings of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's secret grand jury testimony will be released publicly after they are presented at his trial, the judge at Libby's trial ruled Monday.

In a victory for the news media, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he has concerns about releasing the recordings while the case is under way, but that he has little choice under the law as applied in the federal court system in Washington, D.C.

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8N3L3VO3.html

This is almost too funny.

You have denigrated salon.com in the past as not being reputable.
Now,you are using it as a source.

I must disagree. Blatham is devoted to salon.com, and I can't imagine he has ever denigrated it. (He would also never admit it's leftist leanings.)

You must be thinking of another source.

Good god. I do hope your mother doesn't still tie your shoe laces.

Salon.com clearly forwards a left viewpoint.

Why was it that everyone was so agitated in late 2003?

Yes, it was used to combat, retaliate if you wish to use the term, but to combat mis-information put out by Wilson, and they doubted her covert status, and they also figured the reporters already had the info, which many did. I happen to think Wilson lied about many things and was involved in a vendetta for not only himself, but the CIA.

It's 10:06.

F: (gives Libby the Wilson op-ed) What was your reaction? Were you angry?

L: I was confident that the facts were clear, that this was wrong.

F: Were you upset?

L: (long pause) I guess I was upset. I didn't like the article.

F: And did you discuss it with the VP?

L: (pause) Yes.

F: Are you uncertain?

L: I'm just trying to remember when. I didn't see him on Sunday.

F: Tell me about that conversation.

L: I don't remember it in detail. It was the same claims we had seen before.

F: Leaving aside if charges were true or false, is it fair to say this was most serious attack on administration credibility?

L: (doesn't want to concede this, but finally does)

F: Was this discussed on a daily basis in WH over the next week?

L: Yes.

F: Multiple times each day?

L: Yes.

F: What was Cheney's opinion.

L: He wanted to get all the facts out (this is an excerpt we've all read about before, I'm going to skim the main points)

(discussion of Cheney clipping out Wilson op-ed and keeping it on his desk)

(confirmation that copy of op-ed has Cheney's handwriting & underlining - "I have no choice but to conclude Iraqi intelligence was twisted")

(walks Libby through Cheney's notes about "did wife send him on

F: Do you recall discussing those issues with VP?

L: He was interested in how this person came to be selected for this mission. At some point after he learned that his wife worked

F: Cheney had told you this in June.

L: Yes.

F: So when you say "after we learned…" didn't you already know?

L: By this week I no longer remembered that. (mentions Russert conversation on July 10)

WASHINGTON - NBC newsman Tim Russert testified Wednesday he never discussed a CIA operative with vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, contradicting Libby's version to a grand jury in the CIA leak investigation.

The testimony came as prosecutors prepared to rest their perjury case against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

Russert, the host of "Meet the Press," testified about a July 2003 phone call in which Libby complained about a colleague's coverage. Libby has said that, at the end of the call, Russert brought up war critic Joseph Wilson and mentioned that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

"That would be impossible," Russert testified Wednesday. "I didn't know who that person was until several days later."

That discrepancy is at the heart of Libby's perjury and obstruction trial. He is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding Wilson's wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame.

During Libby's 2004 grand jury testimony, he said Russert told him "all the reporters know" that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. Libby now acknowledges he had learned about Plame a month earlier from Cheney but says he had forgotten about it and learned it again from Russert as if new.

Libby subsequently repeated the information about Plame to other journalists, always with the caveat that he had heard it from reporters, he has said. Prosecutors say Libby concocted the Russert conversation to shield him from prosecution for revealing information from government sources.

Plame's identity was leaked shortly after her husband began accusing the Bush administration of doctoring prewar intelligence on Iraq. The controversy over the faulty intelligence was a major story in mid-2003.

Given that news climate, defense attorney Theodore Wells was skeptical about Russert's account.

"You have the chief of staff of the vice president of the United States on the telephone and you don't ask him one question about it?" Wells asked. He followed up moments later with, "As a newsperson who's known for being aggressive and going after the facts, you wouldn't have asked him about the biggest stories in the world that week?"

"What happened is exactly what I told you," Russert replied.

Russert originally told the FBI that he couldn't rule out discussing Wilson with Libby but had no recollection of it, according to an FBI report Wells read in court. Russert said Wednesday he did not believe he said that.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has spent weeks making the case that Libby was preoccupied with discrediting Wilson. Several former White House, CIA and State Department officials testified that Libby discussed Plame with them ?- all before the Russert conversation.

Fitzgerald has said Russert would be his final witness. Prosecutors spent the past few days playing audiotapes of Libby's grand jury testimony in court. In the final hours of those tapes Wednesday, Libby described a tense mood in the White House as the leak investigation began.

Though President Bush was publicly stating that nobody in the White House was involved in the leak, Libby knew that he himself had spoken to several reporters about Plame. He said he did not bring that up with Bush and was uncertain whether he discussed it with Cheney.

Libby did remember one conversation with Cheney, however, in which the vice president seemed surprised when told by his aide where Libby had learned Plame's identity.

"From me?" Cheney asked, tilting his head, Libby recalled.

Libby said he had forgotten that Cheney was his original source until finding his own handwritten notes on the conversation. The notes predated the Russert phone call by more than a month.

The defense tried to impeach Russert's creidibilty and all they did (according to the way the jurors reacted) is continue to destroy their ownj credibilty as well as their client.

Sticka fork in him, he's done

The Guide: How Dick Cheney uses "Meet the Press" to control the message

In ?'01, Cheney said this on MTP:

CHENEY: It?'s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April.

on 6/19/04 CNBC, he said:

GLORIA BORGER, TV SHOW HOST: You have said in the past that it was, quote, "pretty well confirmed."

CHENEY: No, I never said that. BORGER: OK.

CHENEY: I never said that. BORGER: I think that is…

CHENEY: Absolutely not.

Back to you Tim….

http://crooksandliars.com/