Exclusive Interview: Murray Waas on How Cheney "Authorized" Libby to Leak

[understandinglife]

AMY GOODMAN: I reached Murray Waas yesterday and asked him to outline his expose.

MURRAY WAAS: Well, the story today says that Vice President Cheney, according to recent court filings, was authorized – actually authorized and directed “Scooter” Libby to provide classified information to the press, among the people, Judy Miller of the New York Times, to make the Bush administration’s case that they hadn’t misused pre-war intelligence to make the case to go to war with Iraq. So even though Libby’s not saying Cheney directed him to release the Plame information, Libby is essentially claiming he was authorized in a broader way by Cheney to go out and discredit Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is based on documents you have seen?

MURRAY WAAS: There’s actually a public court filing in the case, which is correspondence between Pat Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor, and Libby’s attorney, in which Fitzgerald makes reference to the fact that Libby said that he had been – he had claimed in the grand jury to have been, quote/unquote, “authorized” – that’s Libby’s word – by superiors to disclose the classified information. Libby and Fitzgerald don’t disclose who the superiors are, but I’ve talked to other people with first-hand knowledge of the matter who say that it was indeed – Cheney was the key person there.

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More at the link:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/10/1433252

Peace.

[Peace Patriot]

1. It's not a very good interview. Waas trips all over himself, trying to

clarify certain things, and ends up saying Cheney didn't commit a crime, Libby's not ratting on Cheney and there is no evidence that others were involved, when the facts (including recent info developed by Waas) all point, in a rather overwhelming way, to just the opposite: big crime, multifaceted conspiracy involving a bunch of top Bushites, starting with Bush (also Cheney, Libby, Hadley, Rove, and possibly also Rice and others). Bad hair day, Murray?

Does somebody have the url to Murray Waas' recent article handy? Please post it here.

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Here it is:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x370469

And here's the original--he lays out the recent information quite well in the article:
http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0209nj1.htm#

[Peace Patriot]

2. Some key paragraphs from Waas's recent article:

"The new disclosure that Libby has claimed that the vice president and others in the White House had authorized him to release information to make the case to go to war, and later to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence, is significant for several reasons. First, it significantly adds to a mounting body of information that Cheney played a central and personal role in directing efforts to counter claims by Wilson and other administration critics that the Bush administration had misused intelligence information to go to war with Iraq.

"Second, it raises additional questions about Libby's motives in concealing his role in leaking Plame's name to the press, if he was in fact more broadly authorized by Cheney and others to rebut former Ambassador Wilson's charges. The federal grand jury indictment of Libby alleges that he had lied to the FBI and the federal grand jury by claiming that when he provided information to reporters about Plame's CIA employment, he was only passing along what he understood to be unverified gossip that he had heard from other journalists.

"Instead, the indictment charges that Libby had in fact learned of Plame's CIA status from at least four government officials, Cheney among them, and from classified documents. Indeed, much of Libby's earliest and most detailed information regarding Plame's CIA employment came directly from the vice president, according to information in Libby's grand jury indictment. 'On or about June 12, 2003,' the indictment stated, 'Libby was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division.'

"Libby testified that Cheney told him about Plame 'in an off sort of, curiosity sort of, fashion,' according to other information recently unsealed in federal court. Not long after that date, Libby, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and a third administration official began to tell reporters that Plame had worked at the CIA, and that she had been responsible for sending her husband to Niger.

"Finally, the new information indicates that Libby is likely to pursue a defense during his trial that he was broadly 'authorized' by Cheney and other 'superiors' to defend the Bush administration in making the case to go to war. Libby does not, however, appear to be claiming that he was acting specifically on Cheney's behalf in disclosing information about Plame to the press."

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0209nj1.htm#