Vice President lied as White House sought to defuse leak inquiry

[rodeodance]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Vice_President_lied_as_White_House_1031.html

> Vice President lied as White House sought to defuse leak inquiry
>
> Jason LeopoldJason Leopold-Oct. 31, 2005
>
> Did Vice President Dick Cheney help cover-up the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson in the months after conservative columnist Robert Novak first disclosed her identity?
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> That’s one of the questions Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is likely trying to figure out. It’s unclear what Cheney said to investigators back in 2004 when he was questioned—not under oath—about the leak, particularly what he knew and when he knew it.
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> Friday’s grand jury indictment sheds new light on a pattern of strategic deception by the Vice President and the White House to defuse an inquiry into who leaked the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson to the press. Months after Plame’s identity was disclosed by conservative columnist Robert Novak, Cheney continued to hide the fact that he and his aides were intimately involved in disseminating classified information about her to journalists.What the Vice President denied knowing
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> The indictment against Cheney’s Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, clearly states that Cheney and Libby discussed Plame’s undercover CIA status and the fact that her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, traveled to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq tried to acquire yellowcake uranium from the African country in early June of 2003. (correction, 2004).............

[rodeodance]

1. What the Vice President denied knowing

What the Vice President denied knowing

The indictment against Cheney’s Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, clearly states that Cheney and Libby discussed Plame’s undercover CIA status and the fact that her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, traveled to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq tried to acquire yellowcake uranium from the African country in early June of 2003.

Yet the following month, Cheney and then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer asserted that the vice president was unaware of Wilson’s Niger trip, who the ambassador was, or a classified report Wilson wrote about his findings prior to the ambassador’s July 6, 2003 op-ed in the New York Times.

We now know, courtesy of the 22-page Libby indictment, that Cheney wasn’t being truthful. Cheney did see the report; he knew full well who Wilson was. He also knew that the CIA arranged for Wilson to travel to Niger, and he personally sought out information about Wilson’s trip to Niger, was briefed about the fact-finding mission, and even obtained classified information about Plame’s covert CIA status. He also came to know one other important nugget: that Plame may have recommended her husband for the trip.

Cheney’s public campaign and that of other White House officials to discredit Wilson and strategically lie about the Plame leak started on Sept. 14, 2003, during an interview with Tim Russert of NBC's “Meet the Press.”......

[stop the bleeding]

2. I think that Fitz has this on his list, but right now Libby is first up

in the batting order, but the better hitters including clean up are coming later. BTW love the Avatar, I am a HUGH wine par-taker

[WiseButAngrySara]

3. Cheney is a proven liar! Why wasn't he 'under oath'? He should have

been. He and Rove are the sand in Fitz's eyes, more so than Libby, IMO.

Cheney has already lied before Congress by telling them that he had complied with the GAO's request of turning over documents pertaining to Cheney's Energy Task Force.. He didn't. He lied. That, in itself, is impeachable. The reasons for his secrecy request for the Energy Task Force have never made sense. This is the firewall IMHO, that Cheney is protecting above all else, because it will lead investigators to the real reasons for the Iraq War, plans which were made PRIOR to 9/11.