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Thursday, February 8. 2007
What Did He Know and When Did He Know It
This blog was started nine days ago, after watching clips from two days of the I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial. What’s happened since is … I became the manager of my nephew’s rock band, One Theory, and things began popping. The band is set to play Milwaukee Metalfest in May and Hemp Fest in Las Vegas in April. So, I’ve been busy making all sorts of tour arrangements and getting dates and publicity for the band. Heavy Metal Rock Band Manager; never thought I’d own that title.
Tomorrow starts day ten of the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney — the Veep’s number one aide and national security advisor.
The former (and first) press secretary for the White House, Ari Fleischer, gave testimony for the prosecution last week, complete with cross examination. And the defense was given a lift Tuesday when Fleischer said he divulged the name of Valerie Plame-Wilson to John Dickerson, a reporter for Slate.com who, at the time of the original crime, was a reporter for Time magazine.
In his piece on the Libby trial last week, Dickerson contradicted Fleischer’s testimony, writing that Fleischer only told him (Dickerson) to look into who sent Ambassador Joe Wilson to Niger to check on the yellow cake uranium story. The implication being that the White House was trying to spin the story that Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger was an act of nepotism perpetrated by Wilson’s wife Valerie, who worked in the super-secret counter-proliferation division.
So, why would that be an act of nepotism? The Merriam-Webster’s definition being: “favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship.” The implication of course is that it was Valerie Wilson who authorized her husband to make the trip to Niger to check on the bogus yellow-cake uranium story. We have yet to find out if she even had that authority. She wasn’t the station or division head, she was primarily a field agent in the counter-proliferation division which means the authority to send people on missions rests with someone higher up in the C.I.A. chain-of-command.
By all accounts, the defense’s charge wasn’t taken seriously. And to note: the title of this rant isn’t a reference to Libby, although that’s the thrust of the case. It is for the vice president:
In the first week of testimony we found out the vice president himself helped orchestrate — if not completely manage — the discrediting campaign of Joe Wilson, and in fact the vice president was the one who first revealed Valerie Wilson’s name and that she was a covert agent.
That Libby will be convicted is almost a forgone conclusion, witness after witness has testified that Libby knew of Valerie Wilson before the defendant spoke to NBC newsman Tim Russert, which was the basis of Libby’s defense: he heard about Valerie Wilson from Russert.
Russert testified that he and Libby never spoke about the Wilson’s when Libby called Russert. Apparently, Russert keeps notes of his conversations with his subjects and verified his claim.
The most interesting and important information to come from this trial will be how the White House threw all conventions of decency and national security aside in order to slander and silence it’s critics to promote an illegal war that was sold to the public on faulty (at best) information. And, it was hinted at, the vice president knew, well before the 2003 State-of-the-Union address, the intelligence on the yellow-cake uranium was bogus.
Yes, if Congress is dragging its feet with that investigation — that is now two years old — let the Scooter Libby trial expose the truth about Vice President Dick Cheney.
Tomorrow starts day ten of the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney — the Veep’s number one aide and national security advisor.
Ari Fleischer
In his piece on the Libby trial last week, Dickerson contradicted Fleischer’s testimony, writing that Fleischer only told him (Dickerson) to look into who sent Ambassador Joe Wilson to Niger to check on the yellow cake uranium story. The implication being that the White House was trying to spin the story that Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger was an act of nepotism perpetrated by Wilson’s wife Valerie, who worked in the super-secret counter-proliferation division.
So, why would that be an act of nepotism? The Merriam-Webster’s definition being: “favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship.” The implication of course is that it was Valerie Wilson who authorized her husband to make the trip to Niger to check on the bogus yellow-cake uranium story. We have yet to find out if she even had that authority. She wasn’t the station or division head, she was primarily a field agent in the counter-proliferation division which means the authority to send people on missions rests with someone higher up in the C.I.A. chain-of-command.
By all accounts, the defense’s charge wasn’t taken seriously. And to note: the title of this rant isn’t a reference to Libby, although that’s the thrust of the case. It is for the vice president:In the first week of testimony we found out the vice president himself helped orchestrate — if not completely manage — the discrediting campaign of Joe Wilson, and in fact the vice president was the one who first revealed Valerie Wilson’s name and that she was a covert agent.
That Libby will be convicted is almost a forgone conclusion, witness after witness has testified that Libby knew of Valerie Wilson before the defendant spoke to NBC newsman Tim Russert, which was the basis of Libby’s defense: he heard about Valerie Wilson from Russert.
Russert testified that he and Libby never spoke about the Wilson’s when Libby called Russert. Apparently, Russert keeps notes of his conversations with his subjects and verified his claim.
The most interesting and important information to come from this trial will be how the White House threw all conventions of decency and national security aside in order to slander and silence it’s critics to promote an illegal war that was sold to the public on faulty (at best) information. And, it was hinted at, the vice president knew, well before the 2003 State-of-the-Union address, the intelligence on the yellow-cake uranium was bogus.
Yes, if Congress is dragging its feet with that investigation — that is now two years old — let the Scooter Libby trial expose the truth about Vice President Dick Cheney.
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