The Blue State

Cheney to make cameo, and why Libby is screwed

While prosecutors familiar with the investigation told Hardball's David Schuster yesterday that that Karl Rove would have been cleared weeks ago had he been innocent, there is also fresh news on the Scooter Libby front.  Word late yesterday that Dick Cheney might testify in the CIA leak case circulated throughout Washington faster than Jeff Gannon could interrupt a White House press conference.  In a filing in court yesterday, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald noted that Cheney's actions in the days leading up to the leak are very important in determining whether Libby lied to federal officials:

Libby "shared the interests of his superior and was subject to hisdirection," the prosecutor wrote. "Therefore, the state of mind of thevice president as communicated to (the) defendant is directly relevantto the issue of whether (the) defendant knowingly made false statementsto federal agents and the grand jury regarding when and how he learnedabout (Plame's) employment and what he said to reporters regarding thisissue."

In looking at this statement closely, what Fitzgerald wrote about Cheney was very significant.  If Libby lied to federal agents and the grand jury partly because Libby was "subject to his (Cheney's) direction," then this really puts Cheney in a huge predicament.  In other words, the Vice President will likely play a huge role in the trial.

But Cheney's situation is not even close to as stressful as what Libby is going through.  The New York Daily News reports that Patrick Fitzgerald will call two CIA officials as witnesses because they have unmistakable proof that Scooter Libby did lie to both federal officials and the grand jury.  Read this carefully:

Both CIA officials - including a top architect of the 2003 Iraqinvasion - discussed Plame with Libby a month before columnist RobertNovak blew her cover in July 2003, prosecutors charge.

Libby has said journalists told him about Plame - not Cheney or the six witnesses named so far by prosecutors.

In other words, Libby had already testified under oath before this year that reporters were the ones that told him the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame.  However, these two witnesses will testify that they talked to Libby about Plame before Libby talked with reporters, proving that Libby lied.  Oops!

Making sense of this Rove indictment mayhem

There is still no new information about the almost certainly imminent indictment of White House Advisor Karl Rove.  Over the weekend, political Jason Leopold told all that Karl Rove was notified on Saturday that he will be indicted on perjury charges.

But according to the conservative magazine National Review, Rove's defense spokesperson Mark Corallo said nothing has happened yet.  Byron York of National Review said he sat down with Corallo for some questioning about the case:

Did Patrick Fitzgerald come to Patton Boggs for 15 hours Friday?
No.
Did he come to Patton Boggs for any period of time Friday?
No.
Did he meet anywhere else with Karl Rove's representatives?
No.
Did he communicate in any way with Karl Rove's representatives?
No.
Did he inform Rove or Rove's representatives that Rove had been indicted?
No.

Now before you bow your head in sadness that Rove might not get indicted after all, William Pitt of Democratic Underground said he talked to Jason Leopold about his Rove indictment article.  Pitt explained why we might not even learn anything until Wednesday:

I just got off the phone with Jason Leopold who clarified something for me that is pretty damned important.  In his article, he said:

"Duringthe course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for formerDeputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment chargingthe embattled White House official with perjury and lying toinvestigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructedone of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get hisaffairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of themeeting said Saturday morning."

In point of fact, those 24 hours are "business hours," i.e. starting on Monday.

"Jeez,Jason," I said, "we might want to put that into the essay. Half theplanet thought 24 hours was 24 hours. They thought the deal would godown today."

To be fair, a dozen eyes looked at that articleyesterday before we published it, mine included, and none of us caughtthat. The word "business" has been inserted into the story after"hours" where it belongs:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306W.shtml

So.  Monday at the very earliest, but more like Tuesday or Wednesday.

Expect for some of the major news networks and newspapers to start rumblings a day or so before the announcement.  In the meantime, try to relax!

Video: Rove's indictment would rip off White House "scab" about Plame outing

On the syndicated weekend program "The Chris Matthews Show", Howard Fineman was asked about how the White House will be impacted if it is true that Karl Rove will be indicted:

Click to watch clip >>> (Windows Media Player)

FINEMAN: "Karl Rove is the guy who guides political strategy in the White House.  And also, there will be further questions raised about exactly what the White House was up to when they were going after Joseph Wilson."

MATTHEWS: "So it rips the scab, if you will, off that whole question about WMD and why they were so nervous about a nobody named Joe Wilson questioning them, right?"

FINEMAN: "Absolutely."

Yes.  Exactly.  This is where Cheney's role comes in -- which is what Karl Rove will probably testify.  Years from now, we will look back at Patrick Fitzgerald and think of him as the man that made the White House turn against itself.

Valerie Plame monitoring Iran proliferation when her name was leaked

Throughout the CIA leak investigation, many conservative pundits have downplayed the significance of the Administration outing former CIA operative Valerie Plame, citing the notion that she was not on assignment then, and therefore leaking her name did not put her life in any bit of jeopardy.  Recently hired White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said just that when filling in for Bill O'Reilly on his radio show in February earlier this year:

"Very quickly -- very quickly, you got this Valerie Plame case. Now, itturns out that [special counsel] Peter (sic: Patrick) Fitzgeralddoesn't -- can't even identify any harm. She wasn't a covert agent. She wasn't compromised."

But according to a report by MSNBC's David Schuster and written about today on the web site "Editor and Publisher", it turns out that Valerie Plame was on assignment -- monitoring Iran's nuclear weapons program:

What was Valerie Plame working on at the CIA whenshe was outed by administraton officials and columnist Robert Novak?MSNBC's David Schuster on Monday said he had confirmed an earlierreport that she was helping to keep track of Iran's nuclearactivity--not a front and center issue for the White House.

Earlier this year, Larisa Alexandrovna of the Web siteRawStory.com, reported that Plame, whose covert status was compromisedin the leak, was monitoring weapons proliferation in Iran. At the time,officials told her that Plame's outing resulted in "severe" damage toher team and "significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitornuclear proliferation."

On last night's Hardball, MSNBC correspondent Shusterreported that intelligence sources told him that Wilson was part of anoperation three years ago "tracking the proliferation of nuclearweapons material into Iran." And the sources asserted, he said, "thatwhen here Wilson's cover was blown, the administration's ability totrack Iran's nuclear ambitions was damaged as well."

So not only do we have a case of the Administration unlawfully leaking the name of a CIA operative, but also a case of the Administration compromising the intelligence community's effort to keep our nation safe from Iran as they pursue nuclear weapons.  This prompts many Americans to conclude that the current leadership in the Executive spends much more time trying to delete their internal enemies than finding ways to curb nuclear proliferation.  This smells too much like Nixon.

Here is what other blogs have to say about this new revelation:

• AmericaBlog: "WhatKarl Rove did is an offense worth of treason. And what is George Bush'sresponse to the fact that one of his top aides intentionally andmaliciously hurt our ability to stop Iran from getting nukes?? Nothing.Rove is still working out of the White House, with George Bush'sblessing.  There comes a time when a president's stubborness and incompetence becomes downright dangerous."
• The Best of South Dakota: "Talking about cutting off your nose to spite your face! So howimportant is Iran’s nuclear weapons program if the Bush administrationcontinues to employ Karl Rove in a high level White House position, thevery person responsible for setting back the US’s efforts to preventIran from getting those capabilities in the first place?"
• The Left Coaster: "I think we have laws to deal with that kind of national securitybreach. But we'll need an intern and a blue dress before the Beltwaymedia will stop eating their cocktail weenies and cover it with thesame breathless abandon they showed when the fate of the countryrevolved around sex."

Bush will get the glare from Valerie Plame during WH Correspondents dinner

Look for Valerie Plame to be within plain site of George W. Bush and Robert Novak during the April 28th White House Correspondents dinner.  The web site Editor and Publisher is reporting that ABC News has invited Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson as guests to the event, along with Steelers quarterback Ben Rothlisburger and Jeopardy host Alex Trebek:

Plame, the former CIA operative whose outing bycolumnist Robert Novak sparked a U.S. Justice Department probe that hasalready sent one reporter to jail and brought a White House officialunder indictment, may take that role this year. It is unlikely she willbe seated next to Novak, but perhaps Bush may have a good view of herfrom the dais.

Comedy Central personality Steven Colbert was also invited and will attend the event.  That should make things even more interesting!