| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
07 Feb 2007 08:57:21 AM |
| Object: |
Libby Testimony Ties Bush, Cheney to CIA Leak Plot |
From The San Francisco Chronicle, 2/7/07:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/07/MNGISO03RI1.DTL&feed=rss.news
In tapes, Libby tells of plan to leak secrets
Jurors hear new details of efforts to discredit Wilson
Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times
Washington --
Former White House official Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a grand jury in
2004 that Vice President ***** Cheney was upset by an ambassador's
public questioning of the Iraq war and that President Bush, Cheney and
Libby were involved in a plan -- kept secret from other senior White
House officials -- to leak previously classified intelligence to
counter the criticism.
Libby's audiotape testimony, played for jurors in federal court here,
offered new details about how the White House orchestrated a campaign
to discredit the Iraq war critic, Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
His wife, undercover CIA operative Valerie Wilson, also known by her
maiden name Plame, was subsequently exposed in the media, triggering a
criminal investigation.
As Libby sat silently in the courtroom, jurors heard his voice
describe how he was instructed to leak intelligence secrets to
selected reporters, even as other White House officials were
expressing concern over the leaks and debating whether the
administration should formally declassify intelligence reports on Iraq
to combat criticism of the case for war.
At one point, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald can be heard on
the tapes expressing disbelief that Libby would take part in those
meetings without disclosing that the president had effectively already
declassified key portions of one of the main prewar pieces of
intelligence on Iraq, a national intelligence estimate on the nation's
alleged banned weapons programs.
"Was that unusual for you to have the national security adviser, the
director of central intelligence, the White House chief of staff,
among others, in the dark as to something that you had done regarding
declassification?" Fitzgerald asked.
"It is not unusual for the vice president to tell me something which I
am not allowed to share with others," Libby replied.
Libby's remarks came during a day in court devoted entirely to playing
audiotapes of the former Cheney aide's grand jury testimony, allowing
jurors to listen to the defendant's voice as he made statements
prosecutors have labeled lies.
Libby faces five felony counts alleging perjury, making false
statements and obstruction of justice for what he told investigators
about his role in the campaign to discredit Wilson.
The tapes offer an intriguing window into the reaction within the
White House to mounting criticism of its case for war with Iraq, as
well as a chance to witness Fitzgerald's method as he sparred with
Libby during eight hours of grand jury testimony.
Libby can be heard describing how Cheney was upset when Wilson went
public with allegations that the White House had twisted intelligence
to make the case for war.
In an op-ed article, Wilson said he had been sent to investigate a key
claim -- that Iraq was seeking uranium from the African nation of
Niger -- and found it untrue, months before President Bush included
the allegation in his 2003 State of the Union speech.
"It was a serious accusation," Libby said.
"It was a very serious attack."
It also quickly became a "topic that was discussed on a daily basis"
in the White House.
Libby said that Cheney "thought we should get some of these facts out
to the press. He then undertook to get permission from the president
to talk about this" to reporters.
Libby said Cheney's lawyer, David Addington, had advised him that
merely getting such permission from the president rendered the
intelligence declassified.
Bush has publicly acknowledged doing so.
Libby's subsequent conversations with reporters and other White House
officials are now at the center of the perjury trial.
Prosecutors have produced a series of witnesses over the past week,
including former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, to say
that they learned of Valerie Wilson's identity from Libby.
Libby has testified that he learned about her from Cheney in June
2003, but then forgot that detail and didn't share it with others
until he heard it from NBC News reporter Tim Russert in a phone call
on July 10 or 11.
Recounting that conversation, Libby said in taped testimony that
Russert asked him, " 'Did you know that Ambassador Wilson's wife works
at the CIA?' and I was a little taken aback by that. ... And I said,
'No I don't know that' intentionally because I didn't want him to take
anything I was saying as in any way confirming what he had said."
Russert, who is expected to testify this week, has said he did not
tell Libby about Wilson.
_________________________________________________
This criminal group should be charged with treason.
Harry
.
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