Prosecution Rests, Libby's Turn Now

I would like to know what crime was committed?

 

Libby has been charged with "Obstruction of Justice" and "Perjury".

 

If Armitage was the source of the leak, then why isn't he charged with a crime? How can you cover up something that has not been determined to be a crime? The way I understand it was that Libby just got mixed up on the minor details when he gave his statement. The case has been solved and no damage was done. Shouldn't the case now be dropped and closed?

 

Daisy, it was a big waste of money. Joe Wilson was inept and a mere political operative. His wife was not an agent but a civilian employee who acted to have him retained and sent on this mission even after he had switched parties.

One mistake that Bush made--and I am going to start a thread on Bush's mistakes in a few days--is that he did not fire all Democrat holdovers in his administration. Wilson should have been fired instead of sent to Africa.

If we give Libby the benefit of the doubt, why should the chief-of-staff for the Vice-President have remembered this minor event and these unimportant people at all?

Daisy, it is a tempest in a pot of tea. The Bush adminsitration has been essentially honest and Bush has been personally moral. I am sure that the Democrats can find other politically appointed jobs for the Wilsons that might even pay more. I have little respect for those people who work for another party's President.

 

There is no law about declassifying someone of Wilson's wife's status as far as I know.

Wilson had switched parties and was a Democrat activist at the time. His report from Africa was false because he was inept at this sort of thing.

 

Okay, Daisy, it is nice to debate with you.

Wilson claimed that there was no attempt to buy yellow-cake in Niger. Both the British government under the Butler Commission and the US Senate Intelligence Committee (I think that is correct) said that there was. Wilson had inaccurate information but his mission probably dealt with getting the Niger government on record with a denial and nothing else. However, Wilson's attack on Bush for the Niger government statement was founded on incorrect information. I have a link on the truth of the attempt to purchase yellow-cake if you need it, Daisy.

I think that Wilson switched parties during the Clinton administration. He liked Bush's father, who is very intelligent, but did not like the current President and remained a Clinton Democrat. Do you need a link on that, Daisy?

 

How could he? It wasn't. She wasn't a covert agent.

No possibility of a crime being committed in releasing her name.

 

Yes, a crime was committed!

 

"But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion. (A CIA spokesman at the time is quoted as saying Plame was "unlikely" to take further trips overseas, though.) Fitzgerald concluded he could not charge Libby for violating a 1982 law banning the outing of a covert CIA agent; apparently he lacked proof Libby was aware of her covert status when he talked about her three times with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Fitzgerald did consider charging Libby with violating the so-called Espionage Act, which prohibits the disclosure of "national defense information," the papers show; he ended up indicting Libby for lying about when and from whom he learned about Plame." - Newsweek​

The grand jury charges:

d.The responsibilities of certain CIA employees required that their association with the CIA be kept secret; as a result, the fact that these individuals were employed by the CIA was classified. Disclosure of the fact that such individuals were employed by the CIA had the potential to damage the national security in ways that ranged from preventing the future use of those individuals in a covert capacity, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, and endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who dealt with them. - Libby Indictment ​

 

But Wilson's wife was not a covert CIA agent. That is the reason that no one has been charged with a crime in connection with outing her. Libby's charges deal with his response to the investigation. Libby had nothing to do with anything--he was merely chief-of-staff, or office manager.

 

Is it of any concern that Cheney and Rove went ahead with this, without even telling Bush what they had done?

This sorta confimrms what Americans have been thinking about where the real power is in the White House.

 

Sorry . You're wrong. Fitzgerald has proven it.

 

OK, Daisy. I would have to dig to document Wilson's political history but the information is out there.

However, the information about the truth that Iraq sought to buy yellow-cake is beyond dispute. Wilson never had a clue, but again he is a low-level operative and he should have exercised humility and realized that he did not have any valid information whatsoever. He could have misled the public.

Here is what an impartial observer wrote in a non-Christian newspaper:

On Sept. 24, 2002, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons that "Saddam has been trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa, although we do not know whether he has been successful." On Jan. 28, 2003, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." The Butler commission concludes that both statements were "well-founded."

Daisy, best wishes to you and yours! Here is the link to the above quotation:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0721/p09s01-cojh.htm