Fitz begins to unravel Plame Conspiracy

Evidence Suggests White House Conspiracy
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 06 April 2006

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald stated in a court filing late Wednesday in the CIA leak case that his investigators have obtained evidence during the course of the two-year-old probe that proves several White House officials conspired to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence.

This is the first time the special counsel has acknowledged that White House officials are alleged to have engaged in a coordinated effort to undercut the former ambassador's credibility by disseminating classified intelligence information that would have contradicted Wilson's public statements.

Fitzgerald's court filing was made in response to attorneys representing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who was indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators related to his role in the leak, who are desperately trying to obtain evidence from the government to prove Libby did not intentionally lie to the grand jury when he was asked how he found out about Plame Wilson and whether he shared that information with the media.

Furthermore, Libby's attorneys have argued that they are entitled to the evidence in order to prove Libby was not engaged in a "plot" to discredit Wilson. But Fitzgerald said he does not have evidence that would prove that theory. Instead, Fitzgerald said the evidence he has obtained proves there was a coordinated effort by White House officials to discredit Wilson.

"There exist documents, some of which have been provided to defendant and there were conversations in which defendant participated, that reveal a strong desire by many, including multiple people in the White House, to repudiate Mr. Wilson before and after July 14, 2003.

Although Fitzgerald makes it abundantly clear that Libby is not charged with conspiracy, he argues that Libby's suggestion that no there was no White House plot to discredit Wilson is ludicrous given the amount of evidence Fitzgerald has in his possession that suggests otherwise.

"Once again, defendant ignores the fact that he is not charged with participating in any conspiracy, much less one defined as a "White House-driven plot to punish Mr. Wilson," the filing states. "Moreover, given that there is evidence that other White House officials with whom defendant spoke prior to July 14, 2003, discussed Wilson's wife's employment with the press both prior to, and after, July 14, 2003 - which evidence has been shared with defendant - it is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to "punish" Wilson."

MORE: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040606R.shtml

Once again, Libby seems to be overplaying his hand. He has not been charged with plotting to discredit Wilson by revealing the identity of his CIA agent Wife. He's been charged with lying to the FBI and the Grand Jury, period. This court revelation itself comes fast on the heels of the revelation just yesterday that Libby's sharing of NIE information with Judith Miller was authorized by the Vice President and the President.

Murray Waas:

"Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has testified that President Bush authorized him to disclose the contents of a highly classified intelligence assessment to the media to defend the Bush administration's decision to go to war with Iraq, according to papers filed in federal court on Wednesday by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case...read on"

In their effort to suppress to protestations of Wilson, the Vice President allowed Libby to share then classified information with a Reporter - backed by the President's personal ok. The issue here then turns onto whether or not this permission also extended to revealing Plame's ID. Plame-Wilson herself is not mentioned within the NIE, but it's interesting to note that the full classified NIE did contain several references which supported Wilson's position that the Niger-Uranium claims were bogus, such as the INR speculation that the Niger document may have been a forgery, as well as the Energy Dept doubts about the Aluminum Tubing having anything to do with Uranium enrichment. Libby didn't release this information, he released info from the sanitized one-page summary that had been given to Congress which had all doubts and questions about Iraq's WMD expunged.

Although this revelation doesn't place the President directly in the line of persons who wished to out Plame, it does involve him in the "Conspiracy" to discredit Wilson - but many questions remain unanswered, which were brought up last night by Former White House Council John Dean on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

The President does indeed have the authority to classify and declassify - but there is a procedure for doing so - and although the President can change that procedure, he is required to follow it while it is in effect. Nothing in this recent Libby revelation indicates that the President followed any type of declassification procedure, which would include notifing the George Tenet and the CIA that portions of the NIE - which they produced - were now considered "Unclassified".

What this does prove yet again, is that President Bush is a bald-faced Liar - since he claimed no less than eight times not to know the source of the leak. That's because he was one of the sources of the leak.

Vyan