Reply #35: *** New Thread at Firedoglake.com- Libby Live: Libby Grand Jury Testimony,

[ralps]

Libby Live: Libby Grand Jury Testimony, Five
By: Swopa
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/06/libby-live-libby-grand-jury-testimony-five/

HiMore? You want more Libby trial live-blogging? Haven't you already been on this ride enough times today? Oh, very well, step this way and climb on board…

A further reminder about these posts… as Marcy/emptywheel was fond of saying, we are not court reporters. Even though an exchange may look like verbatim dialogue, what I'm usually doing is boiling down a two-sentence question and a four-sentence answer (with plenty of false starts) into a short sentence each — the gist of each question and each answer, with any key phrases or pauses included as best I can. With that, here we go with the afternoon session.

NOTES: (1) This is not an official transcript — just a very loose paraphrase, at best — so don't treat it as one. (2) My own notes will be in parentheses and/or italics. (3) I'll tell you the time at the end of each update; expect about 15-20 minutes before the next one. The hamsters that run the servers will appreciate it if you don't refresh excessively in the meantime. (4) I didn't write the book on the Valerie Plame outing — but you should buy it, if you haven't already. If you're wondering who this "Swopa" character is, my previous writings on Plamemania can be found here.

Libby's being sworn in for his second grand jury appearance, a week or two after his first one in March 2004.
F: You said you had some items in your earlier testimony you wanted to clarify or amend.

L: You had asked me about Marc Grossman, and I couldn't remember any conversations about Wilson's wife. But one of your questions was whether I asked if State Dept. had sent Wilson, which was so far from what I believed that it stuck in my head, and so I kept thinking why you might have asked that, and I now recall joking with Grossman about it.

F: Tell me about that.

L: (long story about Bush seeking UN resolution against Saddam in Fall 2002, whether and how to let inspectors back in to Iraq) We had meetings about this, and I was told Grossman wouldn't participate. He felt it was just an effort to prevent inspectors from going, and would end up in a newspaper leak embarrassing Colin Powell. Six months later, we were in a deputies' meeting, and to fill time I ribbed Grossman by saying "this guy who went to Niger was one of yours," and he said, "No he was one of theirs," pointing at a CIA official. I said, "But he was an ambassador, it's a sad state of affairs when the CIA has to get their own ambassadors to find things out," again just joking

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