CIA Leak Case NOT Over & Cheney Still At Center Of Story

[kpete]

Discovery Phase
By Jeff Lomonaco
The American Prospect

Friday 13 October 2006

The CIA leak case isn't over by a long shot - and Cheney is still at the center of the story.

Behind closed doors at the US District Court for the District of Columbia this week, US District Judge Reggie Walton is considering what classified information I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff and national security adviser, will be able to use to defend himself against charges of obstruction of justice, false statements, and perjury. To bring Libby to trial, the special prosecutor in the case, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has to avoid the risk of graymail - the defense strategy of forcing the prosecution to drop the case because of classified information the defense would reveal at trial. Jury selection in Libby's trial is scheduled to begin January 16.

Nonetheless, in the wake of the recent disclosure that Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's deputy in the State Department, was syndicated columnist Robert Novak's initial source for his July 2003 column identifying Valerie Plame Wilson as an undercover CIA officer, the conventional wisdom - typified by The Washington Post's editorial page - is that the case is effectively over, and that it amounts to very little. "One of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House - that it orchestrated the leak of Plame's identity to ruin her career and punish Wilson - is untrue," according to The Washington Post.

Armitage may have leaked the information first. But it seems clear that White House officials, including those in the Office of the Vice President, also coordinated an effort to leak the information at almost the same time. In fact, according to the charges against him, Libby leaked Plame's identity to a reporter twice before Armitage ever spoke with Novak.

Conservative partisans have used the Armitage revelation to try to undermine Fitzgerald's prosecution of Libby. Nonpartisan commentators, surprised that Armitage was Novak's first source, have ignored the fact that the Wilsons were the target of an administration vendetta all the same. Fitzgerald has already, in the discovery phase of Libby's prosecution, presented substantial evidence that there was an effort by Libby and Vice President Cheney, with assistance from Karl Rove, to expose Plame's job at the CIA. Indeed, one of the most intriguing questions is how Fitzgerald will follow up on the suggestions he has already offered that Cheney directed Libby to tell New York Times reporter Judith Miller about Plame.

more at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101406D.shtml

[rodeodance]

1. most of the media said its over after the Armitage stories.---move along.

[originalpckelly]

3. Well, if or when the VP is indicted...

that will be their wake-up call. Wouldn't it be wonderful before the elections?

[aquart]

7. And, of course, we always believe what they tell us.

[stepnw1f]

2. kpete Does it Again!

Thanks dude...

[truedelphi]

12. Yep She did it, dues it , and does it once again n/t

[madrchsod]

4. fitzgerald takes a long time....

ask the all the people he nailed in the illinois republican party

[3121guitarist]

5. This case is taking way too long.

Forget and fatigue are setting in. I fear that people have forgotten.

[Zensea]

8. Who cares if they've forgotten?

What really counts is that the people pressing the case and who judge the case don't forget.
If anyone gets convicted everyone else will remember soon enough at that point.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. Guitarist always seems to get the wrong end of the stick.

On another thread, he assured me not to worry, that people wouldn't think the Bush family were superior to Chavez. As if... and as if I'd worry about such an eventuality, after pointing out to him how inconceivable that was.

Then he opined, thanks to Chavez, anarchy is mainstream after all! No more deaths squads or Shining Path to keep people in line. They will soon be history, if they're not already. Anarchistic mainstream like the governments in Scandinavia?

[kimmerspixelated]

9. Yes,

But the great and powerful Fitz is like the Turtle in the race with the Hare, and also, because he is so thorough, when he plays his cards, they will be all aces, or at least that is the feeling I get. I have great faith in the almighty FITZ!!!

[MissWaverly]

10. No, we haven't and Bush has gambled and lost

by delaying this, so much has come out that people are even less inclined to be lenient.

[C_U_L8R]

6. I still believe in Fitzmas

perhaps its in October

[Sherman A1]

11. Conservative partisans and the media may have

declared the case over, but neither happen to be a part of or party to the case. It will be decided within the framework of the laws that apply, not the spin that is being woven around it.

[Gabi Hayes]

13. like Iran Contra?

that really hurt the pugs a lot, didn't it?

and look at the legacy....the same creeps who were major players in it are RUNNING things now, and one of the DINOS who helped cover it up helped save the pigs' bacon after 911

nothing ever changes

hope I'm wrong, but until I see ANY evidence to the contrary, aside from the periodic PR BS (without ANY consequences for the PTB), I don't think I'll be holding breath

[Sherman A1]

14. He is a good prosecutor

give him the time and let him do the job, besides what choice do we have?

[Gabi Hayes]

15. agree on lack of choice, but so was Laurence Walsh, and look what

the likes of Dick Cheney and Bob Dole did to him: smearing him in the lapdog, only-too-willing-to-play-along media, as he got closer to the prize, just for starters

just watch and see what happens if Fitzgerald starts to really unsettle them

[Phrogman]

16. This case is going to be an October surprise for the Democrats

I betcha!

:-)