An excellent NPR report on the White House exposing a CIA agent.

[Berzerker]

In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.

Cheney et al reacted to the notion Wilson had Cheney's blessing for the mission. I applaud Wilson for his action, but I can see why he had to clarify himself. And I can also see what the WH did.

Wilson was a critic, and what do partisan politicians do to critics? They tell us the critic is a partisan liar. So any perception the partisan politician sent the partisan liar on such an important mission must be eliminated - hence the leaking of Plame, to show us Wilson was a partisan liar sent by his wife and supporters of the Democrats.

The problem here is Wilson's wife was CIA with a deep cover history. Outing her may get people killed...allies...

[Dinner]

USA Today has dropped a bombshell. They have have publically cited Cheney as one of the sources of the leak of Plame's identity.

Report: Cheney cited as source in CIA leak
NEW YORK (AP) — Documents in the CIA leak investigation indicate the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney first heard of the covert CIA officer from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported in Tuesday editions.

The newspaper said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003 conversation between I. Lewis Libby and Cheney appear to differ from Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists. The newspaper identified its sources as lawyers who are involved in the case.

Libby has emerged at the center of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.

Miller said Libby spoke to her about Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions.

Libby's notes show that Cheney knew of Plame's CIA work more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.

At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to — but not by name — in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.

The Times reported that Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Wilson from then-CIA Director George Tenet.

The notes, the newspaper said, contain no suggestion that Cheney or Libby knew at the time of their conversation of Plame's undercover status or that her identity was classified.

According to a former intelligence official close to Tenet, the former CIA chief has not been in touch with Fitzgerald's staff for over 15 months and was not asked to testify before the grand jury. The official said Tenet declined to comment on the investigation.

Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls and e-mail to his office. The White House also did not return calls.

Fitzgerald is expected to decide this week whether to seek criminal indictments in the case. Lawyers involved in the case have said Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment.

Putting Cheney in the heart of the information flow regarding Wilson's wife represents yet another ratcheting up of the CIA leak investigation as a political problem for the White House.

Fitzgerald questioned Cheney over a year ago. It is not publicly known what the vice president told the prosecutor.

Cheney has said little in public about what he knew. In September 2003, he told NBC he did not know Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to check into a intelligence — later deemed unreliable — that Iraq may have been seeking to buy uranium there.

"I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," Cheney said at the time. "... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."

The Cheney-Libby conversation occurred the same day that The Washington Post published a front-page story about the CIA sending a retired diplomat to Africa, where he was unable to corroborate intelligence that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The diplomat was Wilson.

A year after Wilson's trip, President Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iraq was pursuing uranium in Africa.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-25-cheney-leak_x.htm

[Dinner]

It's interesting that Libby's own notes also contradict his testimony before the grand jury where Libby claimed he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer from journalists & the lawyers after the leak occured. Libby's own notes now show he and Cheney knew about and talked about it at least one month before her identity was leaked.

[DRoseDARs]

New York Times as well

So Libby lied about his involvment (said he heard the name from journalists first) AND Dick is involved to the hilt. Boo-yah!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/politics/24cnd-leak.html?hp&ex=1130212800&en=db7d02c93e5913ef&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show

By DAVID JOHNSTON, RICHARD W. STEVENSON and DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: October 24, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.

The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson's husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration's handling of intelligence about Iraq's nuclear program to justify the war.

Lawyers involved in the case, who described the notes to The New York Times, said they showed that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.

Mr. Libby's notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson. But they contain no suggestion that either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby knew at the time of Ms. Wilson's undercover status or that her identity was classified. Disclosing a covert agent's identity can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent's undercover status.

It would not be illegal for either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby, both of whom are presumably cleared to know the government's deepest secrets, to discuss a C.I.A. officer or her link to a critic of the administration. But any effort by Mr. Libby to steer investigators away from his conversation with Mr. Cheney could be considered by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, to be an illegal effort to impede the inquiry.

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment, and Mr. Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, would not comment on Mr. Libby's legal status. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, declined to comment on the case.

Mr. Fitzgerald is expected to decide whether to bring charges in the case by Friday, when the term of the grand jury expires. Mr. Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment, lawyers involved in the case have said. It is not publicly known whether other officials also face indictment.

The notes help explain the legal difficulties facing Mr. Libby. Lawyers in the case said Mr. Libby testified to the grand jury that he had first heard from journalists that Ms. Wilson may have had a role in dispatching her husband on a C.I.A.-sponsored mission to Africa in 2002 in search of evidence that Iraq had acquired nuclear material there for its weapons program.

But the notes, now in Mr. Fitzgerald's possession, also indicate that Mr. Libby first heard about Ms. Wilson - who is also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame - from Mr. Cheney. That apparent discrepancy in his testimony suggests why prosecutors are weighing false statement charges against him in what they interpret as an effort by Mr. Libby to protect Mr. Cheney from scrutiny, the lawyers said.

It is not clear why Mr. Libby would have suggested to the grand jury that he might have learned about Ms. Wilson from journalists if he was aware that Mr. Fitzgerald had obtained the notes of the conversation with Mr. Cheney or might do so. At the beginning of the investigation, Mr. Bush pledged the White House's full cooperation and instructed aides to provide Mr. Fitzgerald with any information he sought.

The notes do not show that Mr. Cheney knew the name of Mr. Wilson's wife. But they do show that Mr. Cheney did know and told Mr. Libby that Ms. Wilson was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency and that she may have helped arrange her husband's trip.

Some lawyers in the case have said Mr. Fitzgerald may face obstacles in bringing a false-statement charge against Mr. Libby. They said it could be difficult to prove that he intentionally sought to mislead the grand jury.

Lawyers involved in the case said they had no indication that Mr. Fitzgerald was considering charging Mr. Cheney with wrongdoing. Mr. Cheney was interviewed under oath by Mr. Fitzgerald last year. It is not known what the vice president told Mr. Fitzgerald about the conversation with Mr. Libby or when Mr. Fitzgerald first learned of it.

But the evidence of Mr. Cheney's direct involvement in the effort to learn more about Mr. Wilson is sure to intensify the political pressure on the White House in a week of high anxiety among Republicans about the potential for the case to deal a sharp blow to Mr. Bush's presidency.

Mr. Tenet was not available for comment Monday night. But another former senior intelligence official said Mr. Tenet had been interviewed by the special prosecutor and his staff in early 2004, and never appeared before the grand jury. Mr. Tenet has not talked since then to the prosecutors, the former official said.

The former official said he strongly doubted that the White House learned about Ms. Wilson from Mr. Tenet.

On Monday, Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby both attended a cabinet meeting with Mr. Bush as the White House continued trying to portray business as usual. But the assumption among White House officials is that anyone who is indicted will step aside.

On June 12, 2003, the day of the conversation between Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby, The Washington Post published a front-page article reporting that the C.I.A. had sent a retired American diplomat to Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had been seeking to buy uranium there. The article did not name the diplomat, who turned out to be Mr. Wilson, but it reported that his mission had not corroborated a claim about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear material that the White House had subsequently used in Mr. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

An earlier anonymous reference to Mr. Wilson and his mission to Africa had appeared in a column by Nicholas D. Kristof in The New York Times on May 6, 2003. Mr. Wilson went public with his conclusion that the White House had "twisted" the intelligence about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear material on July 6, 2003, in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times.

The note written by Mr. Libby will be a crucial piece of evidence in a false-statement case against him if Mr. Fitzgerald decides to pursue it, lawyers in the case said. It also explains why Mr. Fitzgerald waged a long legal battle to obtain the testimony of reporters who were known to have talked to Mr. Libby.

The reporters involved have said that they did not supply Mr. Libby with details about Mr. Wilson and his wife. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, in his account of a deposition on the subject, wrote that he asked Mr. Libby whether he had even heard that Ms. Wilson had a role in sending her husband to Africa. Mr. Cooper said that Mr. Libby did not use Ms. Wilson's name but replied, "Yeah, I've heard that too."

In her testimony to the grand jury, Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, said Mr. Libby sought from the start of her three conversations with him to "insulate his boss from Mr. Wilson's charges."

Mr. Fitzgerald asked questions about Mr. Cheney, Ms. Miller said. "He asked, for example, if Mr. Libby ever indicated whether Mr. Cheney had approved of his interview with me or was aware of them," Ms. Miller said. "The answer was no."

In addition to Mr. Cooper and Ms. Miller, Mr. Fitzgerald is known to have interviewed three other journalists who spoke to Mr. Libby during June and July 2003. They were Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Tim Russert of NBC News.

Mr. Pincus and Mr. Kessler have said that Mr. Libby did not discuss Mr. Wilson's wife with them in their conversations during the period. Mr. Russert, in a statement, declined to say exactly what he discussed with Mr. Libby, but said he first learned the identity of Mr. Wilson's wife in the column by Mr. Novak.

[Dinner]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-10-23T161616Z_01_MOR119416_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK.xml

Reuters is reporting that the indictments are to be handed out in the next two days.

[DRoseDARs]

I always thought Halloween kicked off the holiday season, but it appears Fitzmas shall be the first this year.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Berzerker


I know, but what exactly did he need to clarify? He
mis-communicated the level of involvement the WH and
Cheney had in his appointment. Sure, he was probably told the WH wants to know if the Niger claim was accurate but he initially led people to believe he was sent at the behest of the WH. The WH didn't choose him, thats what the whole thing was about. A mountain out of a molehill because of partisan politics...

very good reading between the lines, you get an A+

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
New York Times as well

So Libby lied about his involvment (said he heard the name from journalists first) AND Dick is involved to the hilt. Boo-yah!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/politics/24cnd-leak.html?hp&ex=1130212800&en=db7d02c93e5913ef&ei=5094&partner=homepage

I'm sorry but I dont see any smoking gun here.

The vice president knew that Plame worked for the CIA. OK.
The vice president may have told his chief of staff that (Lets assume he did). OK.

So what?

[Berzerker]

Outing her could endanger her past contacts, and it may be illegal. And doing it for partisan political reasons makes it smell even worse.

[Berzerker]

And lying us into a war should be an impeachable offense

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Berzerker
Outing her could endanger her past contacts, and it may be illegal. And doing it for partisan political reasons makes it smell even worse.

While I disagree that Ms. Plame had 'covert' standing within the CIA, I agree that the whole thing stinks. OTOH, where is the evidence that the vice president 'outed her' (or ordered it done)? It is not illegal in any way for the VP to mention or discuss that Ms. Plame works for the CIA with his top aide.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Berzerker
And lying us into a war should be an impeachable offense

I agree. However, choosing which info/intel to accept and which to reject is not lying, it is analysis. Poor analysis is not a reason for impeachment.

[Mr. Harley]

Krazyhorse and Oerdin - I should have stated "programming that can be heard on NPR". That's why I noted that it was a CBC program - I forget many people are unawear of the program sharing agreements, and thus my statement could be misleading. I should have posted one of my usual run-on forever caveat laden sentences.

Berzerker, that is some excellent analysis of what probably happened. I have no sympathy for Rove and Cheney or any of their staff if, in the process of filthy politics, they finally overstepped the law. It would be like if Hillary had gotten nailed on Securities fraud - both groups/individuals played fast and close to the edge of the law, and if you do that - don't whine when you err into illegality. People who play "...but what I did was legal" do not have my sympathy when they overstep and stray into the illegal. In fact, it's inevitable unless you are very, very good - and not unlucky. Pride goeth...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by SpencerH

I'm sorry but I dont see any smoking gun here.

The vice president knew that Plame worked for the CIA. OK.
The vice president may have told his chief of staff that (Lets assume he did). OK.

So what?

The so what is that Libby testified before the Grand Jury saying he knew nothing about Plame's identity until it was in the papers and reporters started hounding him. Clearly he lied.

Its still no smoking gun and I don't think people should go to jail over a misdemenor (which I belive this is) but publicly exposing a CIA agent is a felony. Felonies are a whole different matter.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by SpencerH

While I disagree that Ms. Plame had 'covert' standing within the CIA, I agree that the whole thing stinks.

She was a covert agent something like a year before she was exposed and the law protects current and former agents for something like 10 years after they completed their assignments. The reason is the CIA has to end several cover operations and then has to worry about sources being exposed as foreign governments piece together which cover groups are associated with the CIA and which people used to visit them.