US News

Harry Hope · Guest

From The Guardian, 3/7/07:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2007/03/scooter_libby_guilty_as_charge.html

Scooter Libby: guilty as charged

Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's former top aide, has just been found
guilty of numerous felonies.

But what does the verdict mean?

By Michael Tomasky

In the biggest news story of the year so far out of Washington, I
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick
Cheney, has just been convicted by a jury for lying about his role in
the public outing of a covert CIA officer whose husband, a former
diplomat, had strongly challenged the Bush administration's case for
going to war against Iraq.

Libby was found guilty on four out of five counts of perjury,
obstruction of justice, and lying to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation about a conversation with Tim Russert, one of
Washington's most powerful journalists.

So what does this mean?

At least three important things.

First, the verdict means that it's now been officially established in
a court of law that the administration was engaged in a campaign to
discredit an undercover officer and a diplomat, Valerie Plame and Joe
Wilson.

Libby's defense - that he learned about Plame's identity from
journalists - paralleled the administration's public arguments that it
made no effort to try to expose Plame and Wilson to criticism.

The jury didn't buy that.

Second, the verdict vindicates the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.

Mountains of calumny have been heaped on him by the right since he
brought the indictment against Libby.

Conservatives were waiting for an acquittal to pounce on Fitzgerald,
on Wilson, on Plame - and on Democrats and liberals generally for
having made a federal case out of nothing.

They would have used an acquittal to shut down all the talk about the
manipulation of pre-war intelligence, which was Joe Wilson's initial
accusation.

And not only conservatives - a lot of the paragons of Washington
morality (yes, an oxymoron) were waiting, too.

Bob Woodward, who used to be a great investigative reporter, once
called Fitzgerald a "junkyard dog prosecutor".

Can't be said now.

Third and most important, the guilty verdict means that pre-war
intelligence manipulation will continue to be a political issue.

When it was in Republican hands, the United States Senate summarily
shut down an inquiry into the matter.

Now that Democrats are in charge, they will pursue it.

The trial was focused on Libby, but questions remain about how
directly Cheney and chief presidential aide Karl Rove were involved in
all this.

The verdict gives Democrats, who by dint of their majority control can
now subpoena administration officials, added momentum to turn over the
rocks.

A juror said that Libby, though guilty, was just a "fall guy".
Congress now has to look higher than Libby's level, especially at
Cheney.

Far from being the sideshow that conservatives and moralists like
Woodward described, this trial was always centrally about the Iraq
war.

The Bush administration built much of its case for invasion on lies.

When those lies were exposed, its response was to try to destroy the
whistleblowers - even one who was a covert CIA officer.

Here's what one noted American had to say about this kind of behavior:
"I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust
by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most
insidious of traitors."

The speaker was George Bush Sr, in 1999.

And that's exactly what his son oversaw.

______________________________________________________

Yup. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, card-carrying member of the Bush Crime
Family is now a convicted felon member of the Bush Crime Family.

Harry

DemocratsFEARtheTRUTH · Guest

Nope, no CIA leak by the administrration folks, just a 4 year witch
hunt that nailed a guy for not recalling.

Server 13 · Guest

"DemocratsFEARtheTRUTH" <Libs Loathe Military@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:45eecf82$0$4874$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...

Gr · Guest

"DemocratsFEARtheTRUTH" <Libs Loathe Military@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:45eecf82$0$4874$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...

Coulter's Stanky Crotch · Guest

"DemocratsFEARtheTRUTH" <Libs Loathe Military@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:45eecf82$0$4874$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...