Joe Conason: Role of the Big Guys Is Becoming Clear in Plame Case

[Hissyspit]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070207_role_of_the_big_guys_is_becoming_clear_in_plame_case/

Role of the Big Guys Is Becoming Clear in Plame Case

Posted on Feb 7, 2007
By Joe Conason

At long last, the fog of mystification generated by the Bush administration and the Washington media is lifting, so that everyone can see clearly why I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is on trial and why his prosecution is important. Whether or not the jury eventually finds the former White House aide guilty of perjury, the evidence shows that his bosses, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, have misled the public from the very beginning about the vengeful leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson’s CIA identity.

The question that now hangs over the president and the vice president is whether they lied to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald—the same crime for which their fall guy, Scooter, now faces possible imprisonment. According to published reports, the special counsel interviewed both Bush and Cheney during the summer of 2004. The only way for them to dispel the suspicion that they may have lied to him is to permit full disclosure of those interviews.

- snip -

“There’s been nothing—absolutely nothing—brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement,” said Scott McClellan, then the presidential press secretary, in attempting to cover Karl Rove and the rest of the White House staff with a blanket exoneration.

We have long since learned otherwise. We know, for instance, that Rove, Libby and former presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer were all involved in leaking Ms. Wilson’s identity to the media. We also know that Libby, by his own testimony, learned about her CIA identity from the vice president. They had hoped to discredit Joe Wilson by hinting at nepotism in his CIA-sponsored trip to Niger to gather information about alleged uranium trading with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. (Actually, he undertook the difficult journey to that unprepossessing nation as a public service, without pay.) In short, we know that top officials in the Bush White House were behind the campaign to smear the Wilsons.

Where does that leave the president and the vice president? Over the past several days, the outlines of Cheney’s role in the nasty attack on the Wilsons and the subsequent cover-up have become increasingly plain. He not only oversaw the activities of Libby, his chief of staff, but went so far as to order McClellan to “clear” Libby in a press briefing.

MORE

[BuyingThyme]

1. It's becoming very easy for regular folks to understand.

I think next week will be fun.

[Hissyspit]

2. And hopefully it will ultimately whittle down to a soundbite that even

the dimmest bulb will understand indicates that this must lead to impeachment.

[speedoo]

6. While I hope you guys are right, I have strong doubts.

After all, we have not even heard anything from our Democratic congress, about this.

I think a conviction is needed, to shake things up a bit, and get people off their asses.

[mmonk]

8. Disturbing, isn't it? At least it is to me.

Those that want to attack me for disloyalty or "bashing", load your guns.

[babylonsister]

13. Maybe they're not talking until the trial is over.

I wish every last Dem congresscritter would read this article: there's more than enough justification to take this further.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3100134&mesg_id=3100134

[H2O Man]

16. They can't.

It is wrong for elected officials to talk about on-going legal cases. This is part of the separations of powers. Older DUers will recall that President Nixon's comments on the Manson trial almost caused a mistrial. No intelligent member of the House or Senate would comment on Libby's case at this time.

[Catherine Vincent]

19. I'm glad you said "intelligent member".

Back during the bogus impeachment time of Clinton, there were plenty of elected officials talking about that case.

[H2O Man]

27. That was not

the same: it wasn't a criminal trial being heard in the judicial branch. It was a civil trial being heard in the legislative branch.

[Catherine Vincent]

32. And also it was dealing with sex.

:)

[Kikosexy2]

31. Write, call...

demand from your Congressperson about this...it's the only way to get them to take some action...

[BuyingThyme]

40. Schultz asked Feingold about this today.

Feingold said he was too busy with things like Iraq to be paying attention. I wasn't too happy with that response.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. How About This Sound Bite?

"They're felons!" The only people who wouldn't grasp that would vote for Satan if he was a repuke.
The Professor

[RaleighNCDUer]

33. He isn't? nt

[ProfessorGAC]

30. Double Post - My Fault

.

[BuyingThyme]

39. How 'bout...

Dick Cheney tried to murder CIA operatives in hopes of making it easier to murder 600,000 Iraqis in his quest to control oil. No, too long.

How 'bout, Dick Cheney committed treason under orders from George W. Bush. No, treason is too complicated.

How 'bout, Bush and Cheney to serve life terms. Yep, that's it.

[disndat]

23. Comimg from the distinguished Joe Conason

this is pure platinum.

[wakeme2008]

3. kick and NOM nt

[Supersedeas]

28. I'll second that -- when will Television Media outlets 'catch' on -- Astronauts in diapers too imp?

[chelsea0011]

4. But until MSM gets hold of what's going on at the trial, it will never

be anything but a blip. The media needs to start covering this as more than a sidelight story, which is how they are reporting it now. And my local news doesn't even report the trial at all. I have yet to see a local news story about it in Boston.

[acmavm]

5. The media will NEVER cover this story, or any story of any great

crimes of this administration. They make too much money of it. They are owned by GE and the like. Why kill the goose that lays those golden eggs?

And so much of America is just too lazy or stupid to do the research to see what this bunch of thugs are doing, have done.

[babylonsister]

11. The media, specifically Matthews and Olbermann, ARE covering it.

They're doing a pretty good job, I might add.

[mwb970]

14. Arrange with your cable company to receive MSNBC.

The Libby trial is discussed frequently all day long on MSNBC, with many reports from David Shuster, who is attending the trial. Hardball is especially strong on this story since transcripts of earlier Hardball programs have actually been introduced into the trial, but Olbermann and Scarborough both devote lots of time to it every night as well.

I'm as ready to bash the "media" as anyone, such as for their performance in the run-up to Bush's War in Iraq, but I'm not sure what you are watching where you find this particular story being ignored.

[acmavm]

15. I'm talking about the regular news channels, the one's most

people (at least here in the sticks) watch. NBC, CBS, and ABC.

You don't understand how uninformed a lot of people here in the 'Heartland' are. Seriously, they either think that this shit doesn't matter or give you a totally blank look when you start to talk about it.

It's very scary.

[The Wizard]

20. The corporate media

refuses to cover real news effecting our lives. Besides that, stories about sex crazed, diaper wearing astronauts and Clinton's pecker or the plane Pelosi uses really matter to their mentally challenged viewers. Any wonder why more people get their news on the blogs? The Fourth Estate is now the Fifth Column.

[havocmom]

26. "The Fourth Estate is now the Fifth Column" would make a great bumper sticker

...if the general public would actually get it.

[NewJeffCT]

21. MSNBC (owned by GE) is the only one covering it

It's up to us to get it out further - write letters to the editor for your local papers urging them to cover it; write your Congressional rep and urge them to hold hearings on the matter.

We can't press a button like the RW and it's "instant outrage" - it took months for everybody on the left to get the Downing Street Memo into the news. And, that was a huge concerted effort to write letters to local and national media that went way beyond DU...

[Frank Cannon]

24. Probably because Pumpkin Head Russert was implicated

I guess GE corporate figured it was okay to cover it and as long as they could help clear their own boy.

[Beelzebud]

22. The media won't cover it because they are involved in the story themselves!

If we learn anything form this trial is that our national press is just state-sponsored media at this point...

[Catfight]

7. Even if they lied, they were never under oath, that's why the refused to

speak separately and go under oath. This has been treason since the beginning but Bush/Cheney have gotten away with mass murder, false wars, lying to the people that elected them, and outing a CIA agent. So what, nothing will happen to Teflon boyzs, not inside America, it'll take another country to bring them to justice.

[GumboYaYa]

10. I believe lying to a federal agent is also a crime regardless of whether or not the

liar is under oath,

[Jacobin]

18. That is correct

Our state insurance commissioner went to jail for 18 months for supposedly lying to an FBI agent during an interview. NOT under oath.

[Cassandra]

35. Just ask Martha Stewart...

even though the underlying charges were dropped.

[randycrow]

41. If Cheney resigns with no strings attached

This entire deal could be contrived to give his replacement incumbency for a 2008 run for Pres.

[Toots]

17. Didn't they both take the oath of office?

They are indeed under oath..

[H2O Man]

9. Good article.

Thanks.

[Hissyspit]

12. .

[IWantAChange]

25. If the Blogosphere, Matthews and KO keep pounding this story..

broadcast MSM will have to start and pay it serious lip service - because the print media is coming on board.

[The Count]

34. I hope he'll guest on Air America tomorrow...

Always the clearest explanations.

[peacetalksforall]

36. If you like Joe and have never read The Hunting of a President - put

it on your list - (after you've read all the books on the crimes of this administration, of course).

He and Gene Lyons wrote a magnificent book that the right wing could not pull apart.

For all you politics loving neophytes who were too young to know what was going down in the 1990's - with the character assassinations of the Clintons - the right wing war of battalions of operatives working to take him down.

[Hissyspit]

37. .

[Spazito]

38. Excellent read! Thanks for posting

Recommended.

[AllyenSmithee]

42. Has anyone ever read Wilson's Op-Ed piece?

Read it carefully.

You should soon come to realise that Wilson never said that Saddam Hussein did not try to obtain uranium ore from Niger.

What Wilson said is that uranium ore was not purchased and delivered.

[rman]

43. Wilson also said that the docs that supposedly proved

Saddam was "trying to" obtain uranium were forgeries.

In other words: there is no evidence that Saddam tried to obtain uranium ore from Niger.