Thursday, March 08, 2007

Any pardon of Libby must include disclosure about leak

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/03/08/8lib...

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Any pardon of Libby must include disclosure about leak

Already his defenders are demanding that Lewis "Scooter" Libby be
pardoned by President Bush.

If there is a pardon, it should come only after the president, Vice
President ***** Cheney and others, including Bush adviser Karl Rove and
Libby himself, give a complete public accounting of the
administration's attack on the credibility of former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson.

Libby has a long and respected record as an attorney, and he served as
chief of staff to Cheney.

In 2003, after The New York Times published a piece by Wilson accusing
the administration of distorting faulty reports that Iraq had
attempted to acquire uranium for nuclear weapons, the administration
set out to discredit him.

Libby was part of that campaign.

There is nothing illegal in itself about trying to discredit a critic,
even in an underhanded way that ducks the real issue:

whether the critic is right.

Attacking the critic's credibility is commonplace in politics.

But some in the Bush administration went a step too far by leaking the
fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the Central
Intelligence Agency.

She had served in a covert position with the agency for years.

Publicly, the president said he would fire anyone involved in the
leak.

In the ensuing investigation by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald,
no one was indicted for the leak itself.

But Libby was indicted for lying to federal investigators and a grand
jury about his role, and he was convicted on Tuesday.

Libby has not been sentenced, but even if he served only a short
period, he would remain a convicted felon, his career and livelihood
destroyed.

Libby's defenders, mostly on the political right, argue that it is
unjust to punish Libby for lying when no one else was indicted for an
actual crime.

They warn that this is a bad precedent, that Libby is being punished
as a criminal for playing hardball politics.

His critics, many on the left, say it's simple:

Libby lied to officers of the law, and no one should be above the law,
not even highly successful lawyers who work for the vice president in
the White House.

Even some jurors were sympathetic, saying that while there was no
question that Libby was guilty of lying, they suspected he was "a fall
guy" for others in the administration.

Libby's lawyer has said he will ask for a new trial and, if that's
denied, he will appeal.

Free for now pending appeals, Libby may face another year or more
fighting his conviction, paying immense legal bills - and still find
himself sent to prison.

Pardons are generally granted for two reasons:

The convicted is later proven innocent, or the convicted acknowledges
wrongdoing and demonstrates remorse.

Pardons seldom come within days or weeks of a conviction.

Much is known about the leak already.

But the president shouldn't grant Libby a pardon now or later unless
he and others - Cheney and Rove, particularly - provide a full
accounting of the roles they played in the campaign to discredit
Wilson.

Such an accounting may hurt the vice president's defense in the civil
lawsuit against him filed by Wilson.

But it could also spare his former aide time in prison and make clear
to the American public what role the vice president had in this
affair.

_________________________________________________

But, of course, we ain't gonna hold our breaths. The Bush Crime Family
doesn't work that way.

Harry