Plame Update
After today's bombshell revelation, via Scooter Libby's testimony to the federal grand jury, that President Bush authorized leaking of "sensitive information from a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)" (see the WaPo for more), there are a lot of questions about what it all means. Seeing that this is turning into Salon Day at Cracks (really, I'm not on their payroll, nor do I get any affiliate kickback), here are some answers from Farhad Manjoo over at the War Room:
What does this have to do with the disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity? Not that much. As I pointed out earlier, Libby has not testified that President Bush or Dick Cheney told him to tell reporter Judith Miller that Joseph Wilson was married to an undercover operative named Valerie Plame. What we know about who leaked Plame's status to the press is this: That an unnamed official talked to the Washington Post's Bob Woodward about Plame in mid-June of 2003 ...So is there any news here about the Plame leak? Yes. What this does tell us is what Bush and Cheney knew about Libby's meeting with Miller on July 8, when, according to prosecutors, he disclosed to her that Plame worked for the CIA.
To put it simply, the document suggests that the president and the vice president knew a lot more than they've let on in the past; it directly contradicts the White House's assertion that there was no high-level effort to fight back against Wilson's claims. We now know that, according to Libby, Bush and Cheney were aware that he was going to meet with a reporter to discuss why the administration believed that what Wilson was saying was bogus.
[...]Does this contradict Bush's statements on what might happen to leakers? It isn't clear. Bush has repeatedly claimed that he didn't know who leaked Plame's identity and that anyone who did so would be punished.
Think Progress lists his very definitive statements on this.
[...]The new filing doesn't technically contradict these statements for two reasons: 1) We still don't know if Bush knew who leaked Plame's identity, and 2) if Bush authorized Libby to disclose the information in the NIE, then you could argue that by definition Libby wasn't leaking because the information was no longer classified and Libby had permission.
Of course, this would be a very legalistic way to avoid admitting that Bush lied -- not very different from arguing about the definition of "is."
posted by Agen @ 5:07 PM | Top o' the Cracks
1 comments
1 Comments:
Recent clues point to Abbott and Costello as original architects of Plame Leak.
Grand Jury testimony of Scooter Libby, former Chief of Staff of the United States (COSTUS) for the Vice President, leaked by Rove-ing reporter (humor).
?
It is posted at: Libby Knows who Leaked First
Bobbing and weaving, a tangled web we do. Book him, Danno.
Please keep my identity a secret. Double super Secret.
Middle-aged, Middle-of-the-road, Mid-Westerner
We can only hope that Fitz doesn't fizzle.
I think Mr. Fitzgerald's motto should be: "If you do a white collar crime then you will serve blue collar time." Look where he lodged Judith Miller. A few months in a blue collar jail and she was ready to sing. Unfortunately, she says she forgot the words
The Times & Post They Should Be A-Changin
Bloggers Request:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the Times & Post should be a-changin'.
Good Bye Sulzberger, Keller, Miller, and Woodward!
Fitzgerald's response:
Come politician's, journalists
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the indictments they are a-comin'.
--Bob Dylan
Perhaps for Rove?
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