http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/8514
Jul 4 2007
The Libby Cover-up Completed
by Robert Parry
President George W. Bush’s decision to spare former White House aide
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby from jail marks the final act of a crime and
cover-up that began four years ago when Bush, Vice President *****
Cheney and other top officials launched a campaign to discredit a
critic of the Iraq War.
That campaign started with the leaking of sensitive classified
information, the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame,
destroying her career and jeopardizing the lives of her agents in
other countries.
That was followed by White House lies being told to both investigators
and the public in order to shield the President from dangerous
political fallout.
By commuting Libby’s 30-month jail sentence on July 2 – and dangling
the possibility of a full pardon later – Bush has moved to ensure that
Cheney’s former chief of staff keeps his mouth shut and that the full
story is never told.
The Plame/Libby cover-up also demonstrates the modern techniques
available at least to a Republican president who wants to minimize
damage from embarrassing or incriminating information.
Bush was able to tap into the ideologically committed right-wing news
media to confuse the issue and create political space for his final
decision.
Ever since July 2003 – when Plame’s husband, former U.S. Ambassador
Joseph Wilson, revealed that he had conducted a fact-finding trip for
the CIA which helped debunk allegations that Iraq had been seeking
uranium from Africa – the right-wing media has kept up a steady
assault on Wilson.
Wilson received this treatment because his findings contradicted
Bush’s claim in his 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq’s
supposed search for uranium suggested that Saddam Hussein was trying
to build a nuclear bomb, a key argument for invading Iraq.
Wilson’s public statements – in a New York Times op-ed and later on TV
news shows – represented the first challenge to Bush’s case for war
from a government insider.
At the time, with Bush near the peak of his popularity, Wilson looked
like easy prey.
So, instead of showing gratitude to an American citizen who undertook
a difficult assignment at no pay, the Bush administration – aided by
congressional Republicans, the right-wing media and some pro-war
mainstream pundits – sought to tear down Wilson’s reputation and
mislead the public on the facts of the case.
Talking Points
The original White House talking points – given to about a half dozen
journalists – included that Wilson’s wife, Plame, worked in the CIA
office that sent Wilson to Africa, thus suggesting that the trip was a
case of nepotism.
One White House official later told a Washington Post reporter that
the administration had informed at least six reporters about Plame
“purely and simply out of revenge” against Wilson.
Libby was one of the leakers, briefing two journalists – Judith Miller
of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time – but neither ran
with Plame’s identity.
Libby also brought White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in on the
leak operation.
Two other leakers, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and his
friend, White House political adviser Karl Rove, finally managed to
get right-wing columnist Robert Novak to run a story about Plame’s
identity.
Novak’s column destroyed Plame’s career and put at risk the lives of
her overseas contacts who had helped the United States keep on an eye
on proliferation of dangerous weapons in the Middle East.
But the Plame leak backfired on the White House when the CIA sought a
criminal investigation into the illegal disclosure of a covert
officer’s identity.
In September and October 2003, the Bush administration’s next line of
defense was simply to lie.
For his part, Bush pretended that he knew nothing about the
anti-Wilson leaks, even though he had authorized release of some
intelligence information meant to bolster the White House position on
the uranium issue and undercut Wilson.
Bush disingenuously urged his subordinates to say what they knew.
“I want to know the truth,” Bush said on Sept. 30, 2003.
“If anybody has got any information inside our administration or
outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward
with the information so we can find out whether or not these
allegations are true.”
However, since the various conspirators knew that Bush already was in
the know, they would have read his comments as a signal to lie, which
is what they did.
Rove issued a false statement through the White House press office
denying any involvement.
That prompted Libby to seek help from Cheney.
As Libby’s lawyer Theodore Wells disclosed at his client’s trial,
Libby’s complaint was that “they’re trying to set me up; they want me
to be the sacrificial lamb.”
In response to Libby’s complaint, Cheney penned a message to the press
secretary demanding equal treatment for Libby.
“Not going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy the Pres that
was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of
incompetence of others,” Cheney wrote to press secretary Scott
McClellan.
In the note, Cheney initially ascribed Libby’s sacrifice to Bush but
apparently thought better of it, crossing out “the Pres” and putting
the clause in a passive tense.
Complying with Cheney’s wishes on Oct. 4, 2003, McClellan added Libby
to the list of officials who have “assured me that they were not
involved in this.”
Twin Conspiracies
So, the evidence is that not only was there a high-level
administration conspiracy to leak Plame’s identity but there was an
equally high-level conspiracy to cover up the truth.
Libby got nailed because he failed to shift away from the cover
stories when the investigation grew serious following the appointment
of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as a special prosecutor in
December 2003.
But the cover-up never ended. Republican senators and the Republican
National Committee issued harsh attacks on Wilson, making him out to
be a liar when the reality was that his fact-finding trip had helped
the U.S. intelligence community correctly raise pre-war doubts about
Iraq’s supposed pursuit of uranium for nuclear weapons.
As Libby faced trial in early 2007, other right-wingers, such as
attorney Victoria Toensing, released other red herrings to confuse the
public.
Toensing, for instance, began insisting that Plame was not a “covert”
officer because she was “stationed” at CIA headquarters in Langley,
Viriginia.
Toensing’s argument was based on her assertion that a 25-year-old law
protecting the identities of U.S. intelligence officers from exposure
required that the person “reside” or be “stationed” overseas in the
previous five years.
However, Toensing misstated the law, which actually refers to
intelligence officers having “served” abroad in the previous five
years, which Plame later testified that she had done by traveling on
overseas assignments for the CIA.
In other words, the law would protect the identity of a CIA officer
based at Langley who went on missions overseas or, say, a special
operations officer who was stationed at Ft. Bragg and resided in
Fayetteville, N.C., but who still “served” on dangerous missions
overseas.
But many in the right-wing news media and even at prestige newspapers
like the Washington Post have adopted Toensing’s word games as
reality.
It’s now an article of faith in some political circles that Plame was
not a “covert” officer and that therefore there was “no underlying
crime.”
After Libby was found guilty for perjury and obstruction of justice
and received a 30-month jail sentence, the cover-up entered a new
phase with a new ferocity.
His neoconservative allies, the right-wing press and some mainstream
pundits joined in a clamor for his pardon.
This phase of the cover-up created political space for Bush to commute
Libby’s sentence and to hold open the possibility of a full pardon.
So, rather than Libby cooperating with prosecutor Fitzgerald and
laying out the full story, Cheney’s former chief of staff has a very
strong incentive to stay mum.
Not only won't he go to jail, but he has reason to hope that Bush will
eventually wipe out the felony convictions with a full pardon.
_________________________________________________
Harry
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