Outrageous WaPo hit piece today: "Valerie Plame's claim that Scooter Libby leaked her identity"

[cvoogt]

The ad strongly suggests that Plame was an undercover operative in places such as Iran and North Korea, when that was not the case. (She was under diplomatic cover in Greece.) Plame, however, was operations chief at the Joint Task Force on Iraq of the Counterproliferation Division of the CIA’s clandestine operations directorate when her name was publicly disclosed in a column written by Robert Novak and published in The Washington Post on July 14, 2003.

But was Scooter Libby, Vice President Richard B. Cheney’s chief of staff, the source of the leak? Libby was convicted of perjury and lying to the FBI during its investigation, but he was not charged with leaking Plame’s name.

(Note: The writer of this fact check was subpoenaed as a defense witness and briefly testified during Libby’s trial.)

(emphasis mine)

This is a WaPo "fact check" piece written by Glenn Kessler, who was a defense witness during Scooter Libby's trial. Unbelievable journalistic malpractice if you ask me.

Washington Post

[JonLP24]

1. Washington Post is horrible

and they prove it in a piece that isn't about Bernie.

[NCLefty]

2. Is there proof Libby did this?

Or we're just all super sure because she said?

[cvoogt]

4. That isn't quite the point.

The point is the person who wrote this 'fact check' item testified in Libby's defense. WaPo should never have let this person write a fact check on this; it's a huge conflict of interest.

Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal investigators, all related to the investigation into who outed Plame (he at the very least assisted in outing her). Armitage expressed remorse; according to him he inadvertently outed Plame. But Libby intentionally outed her afterwards, then lied about it to investigators, and got convicted for it.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooter_Libby#Verdict and I am sure there are other, better sources out there.

[LanternWaste]

16. Is anyone arguing an absolute proof exists?

Or we're just all super skeptical because it's cool?

[3Hotdogs]

3. Try Richard Armitage

[cvoogt]

5. yes but you miss the point.

The so-called WaPo fact checker testified in Scooter Libby's defense. Terrible, slanted journalism.

[Mosby]

6. Link doesn't work.

And I don't see it at wapo.

[cvoogt]

7. fixed the link

[sharedvalues]

8. The chorus to end Kessler's BS column is growing

Here’s a real journalist

Link to tweet

[cvoogt]

11. Well, some journalist he is

He should lose his fact-check column at least.

[Volaris]

9. Hold on a sec...if I recall correctly, it was Powells CoS (Armitage?) who let slip to someone

Who Plame really was n what she did. Not sure if it was Libby. What Scooter did with it on his bosses orders is up for debate, as I think that's what Scooter lied to the investigators about.

Again, without going back and looking, its hazy.

[cvoogt]

10. Armitage was the original person to let it slip

and he expressed remorse. Libby leaked this info to several people intentionally, then lied about it to investigators, and was sent to jail for it. Kessler (the WaPo fact check columnist) was a defense witness for Libby. That is the problem here.

[Volaris]

15. Got it. Thanks for helping my memory out there!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. I really get annoyed about fact-checkers sometimes

As it seems like they only focus on very specific bits of information, some of which may be murky and nuanced and ends up missing the larger point, which, in this case, is that somebody (or somebodies) in the Bush (mis-)Administration outed her as a CIA officer in retaliation for her husband's exposure of the Niger Uranium/Iraq hoax, which directly challenged the WH's case for going to war in Iraq at the time .

[cvoogt]

13. yup

Armitage outer her by accident and Libby furthered that on purpose. We were lied into war, and they outed a spy out of spite. It'll leave a bad taste in my mouth forever.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

17. Absolutely

[Hortensis]

14. My question is did W know everything or just part of it?

Cheney was for sure involved, Libby the fall guy for treason.