Cheney Definitely Part Of Leak Scandal
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Breaking News, General Politics, The War On Terrorism, WarWow. This could be a lot bigger than we all thought.
Libby’s meeting notes essentially tell the story that Cheney told him that Plame was a C.I.A. agent. However, Libby has never told the prosecutors anything about this. That’s probably why he’s facing perjury charges.
From NY Times:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 � I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the war.
Who told Cheney? Oh, only a Medal Of Freedom Winner:
Mr. Libby’s notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson. But they contain no suggestion that either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby knew at the time of Ms. Wilson’s undercover status or that her identity was classified. Disclosing a covert agent’s identity can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent’s undercover status.
They didn’t know Plame’s status? I’m willing to believe this, but I’d like to hear this come from George Tenet. If he gave Cheney the name, one would think that he would also tell him she still had covert status.
One last thought. This basically means that Cheney has known about this all along. So why, if he was trying to bring respectability back to the office, hasn’t he come out and said that he told Libby before now? None of this means he’s going to get charged with a crime, but it certainly concerns me that he hasn’t spoken out.
One last, last thought. I’m over on memorandum checking out this story, and the conservabloggers are nowhere to be found.
Why?
(HT: Memeorandum)
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 and is filed under Breaking News, General Politics, The War On Terrorism, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 25th, 2005 at 8:47 am
Because … conservabloggers sleep in later than liberabloggers!
Essentially we’re looking at a political and policy fight and Mr. Fitzgerald is losing sight of what his role and office should be providing.
There’s an excellent perspective from WSJ Opinion Journal that I’ll be posting.
October 25th, 2005 at 8:48 am
What on earth is a “conservablogger”? And does the world really need another demeaning and meaningless political pigeonhole? Would it be worthwhile to ask why there are no “libabloggers” commenting on the article a few items down the list from that, the one titled “Galloway lied over Iraqi oil payments, says Congress report”? Or the one above that, about Iraqi voters approving their constitution?
Anyway, on the Cheney story I see Opinion Journal and The Corner, which suit most people’s definition of “conservative,” if not “blog,” and Protein Wisdom, Decision ‘08, and a few others who regularly link with, or agree with, me, which seems to be some people’s definition of “conservative.”
But where are the Kossacks and the Talking Points people on Gorgeous George? Or the voters of Iraq?
We no longer live in a world where people see the same scene and interpret it differently. We live in a world where some of the people don’t even live in the same world.