Blaming Media in Leak Case Not Working

[NVMojo]

snip...

Until this week, "the news media did it" was a standard defense among Republicans trying to protect the Bush administration from the political fallout of Fitzgerald's criminal investigation. Loyalists said that even if White House aides had passed on information, they didn't get it from classified sources and were simply repeating what they heard from journalists.

As new evidence accumulates on the public record, Libby's original source of information and how he passed the information on are becoming crucial unanswered questions. The public still doesn't know much about what the vice president and his top aide talked about, either.

snip...


more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-exec/2005/oct/20/102006205.html

[Laura PourMeADrink]

1. you are right. I have noticed a lot of people throwing in the line

that this makes the press look bad. Actually Tweety said "no way" when Andrea Mitchell made the claim.

[Cha]

2. Thanks for this..this story is so

convoluted..not like a straight forward Democratic Headquarters break in.

[NVMojo]

3. Ha-ha!!!!

[RamboLiberal]

4. AP: White House Defense Crumbling in Leak Case

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/20/D8DBVNSO8.html

<snip>

In light of all the disclosures, "it's going to be as difficult for the defense to prove the theory that the White House got the information from reporters as it is for Fitzgerald to prove that the White House leaked the information about Wilson's wife," said Washington-based white-collar defense attorney James D. Wareham.

<snip>

As new evidence accumulates on the public record, Libby's original source of information and how he passed the information on are becoming crucial unanswered questions. The public still doesn't know much about what the vice president and his top aide talked about, either.

In grand jury testimony shown to Rove, Libby said he had told Rove about information he had gotten about Wilson's wife from Russert, according to a person directly familiar with the information.

Prosecutors, however, have a different account from Russert. The TV network has said Russert told authorities he did not know about Wilson's wife's identity until it was published and therefore could not have told Libby about it. Russert also says that it was Libby who initiated the contact with him.

AP: Blaming Media in Leak Case Not Working

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/20/D8DC0A582.html

Basically same story but another nifty headline.

[Barrett808]

5. What a delicious headline

May it prove to be prescient.

[skooooo]

6. It's beginning to look alot like Fitzmas!

[jobycom]

7. It wouldn't matter if reporters told them first, because reporters don't

have security clearances to verify that information. If ten reporters told Rove, and Rove simply agreed with one of them, Rove passed on classified information, because he was the only one with the clearance to know. And it doesn't even matter if the person he told already knew, he would still be passing on classified information.

It's a failed defense from the beginning. Like trying to claim it's okay that you murdered someone because they were dying anyway.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. It was a defense only Freepland would buy anyway

And in case they haven't noticed, there really aren't that many of them.

[leesa]

9. So what if he got the info from Russert. Russert STILL got it from an

insider with security clearance. This is so weak.

[HereSince1628]

10. All of which defies the detail that someone must have told a reporter

This can't become an insoluble circularity because it is absolutely self-evident that the information had to be turned over to a reporter before the reporter could share it with anyone else.

There is just no way that a reporter is going to find out the name and role of a CIA agent without some help from the inside.

My money is on the idea that someone in Bolton's group, if not Bolton himself, originated the leak.

But even if a reporter did give it up to WHIG, it is looking like WHIG conspired to do damage to Wilson and Plame. And conspiracy is it's own ball of worms.

[kskiska]

11. White House Defense Crumbling in Leak Case

The evidence prosecutors have assembled in the CIA leak case suggests Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff sought out reporters in the weeks before an undercover operative's identity was compromised in the news media, casting doubt on one of the White House's main lines of defense.

For months, the White House and its supporters have argued top presidential aides did not knowingly expose Valerie Plame, the wife of administration critic Joseph Wilson, as a CIA operative.

At most, the aides passed on information about her that entered the White House from reporters, the supporters argued.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald now knows that Libby met three times with a New York Times reporter before the leak of Plame's identity, initiated a call to NBC's Tim Russert and was a confirming source about Wilson's wife for a Time magazine reporter.

(snip)

Until this week, "the news media did it" was a standard defense among Republicans trying to protect the Bush administration from the political fallout of Fitzgerald's criminal investigation. Loyalists said that even if White House aides had passed on information, they didn't get it from classified sources and were simply repeating what they heard from journalists.

more…
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/20/D8DBVNSO8.html

[patrice]

12. Yeah, I heard that this week, "It was just staff gossip."

Right! :banghead: . . . gossip that was shopped around to the media.

[damntexdem]

13. Stalked by reporters, poor chiefs of staff fend off info about ...

CIA operative.

Gee, why should Fitzgerald have ever doubted that defense?

[MGKrebs]

14. If I had exposed a covert agent to our enemies,

I suppose I would have tried that tactic too!