(Plame) Libby Lawyers intend to finger POWELL(!) as leaker

[yodermon]

http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/libby2.htm

I know nothing about this source ("insightmag") so take w/ grain of salt.

Libby lawyers finger top State Dept. leaders for CIA leak

Attorneys for former Vice President Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby say one of three senior State Department officials was the source of a leak that exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame.

They say the officials are: former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and then-Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

The attorneys for Mr. Libby plan to argue that a senior official in the State Department leaked Mrs. Plame's identity amid the administration's defense of the U.S. failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The attorneys have sought to highlight heavy infighting between White House staff and the CIA and State Department amid criticism by Mrs. Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

"The media conflagration ignited by the failure to find WMD in Iraq and in part by Mr. Wilson's criticism of the administration, led officials within the White House, the State Department and the CIA to blame each other, publicly and in private, for faulty pre-war intelligence about Iraq's WMD capabilities," papers filed by Mr. Libby's defense team said.
...

So, how does claiming that Powell (et. al.) was the leaker help defend against a Perjury charge of lying about Tim Russert? :wtf: or is this just general purpose obfuscation?

[hippiechick]

1. I think it only tries to throw the hounds off of W's trail ...

... you know, blame the guy that left the team? :shrug:

[radfringe]

31. sounds like

My Pet SCAPEgoat to me

[cantstandbush]

38. I believe it happened on the Air Force One trip they all took together.

But Powell wasn't "leaking" I bet they were in serious discussions about Wilson's credibility and that Powell probably said who his wife was during these discussions. It was Rove, Cheney, and Libby who decided to "leak" her name to the press in order to get back at Wilson. If my thinking is correct, I hope Powell finally gets enough balls to stand up to these scumbags.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I don't know the reliability of the source, but to me

this has Rove's fingerprints all over it. Saying Powell was the leak insulates Bushco.

[blm]

Insight is a RevMoon magazine.

Most articles in it are planted in support of BushInc's interests. A tablespoon of salt is in order.

[Cassandra]

14. They sometimes have some insider info that's...

not flattering to repukes but when they do, it's always wise to wonder what their agenda is in printing it.

[blm]

21. That's exactly my point - the occasional kernel of truth still tends to

have a benefit to the BushInc agenda behind it.

[Cassandra]

40. Sometimes, like with the male prostitute ring...

they leak some as a warning that they have more. Consider it blackmail.

[Kikosexy2]

3. This is becoming...

more like an episode of the 3 Stooges...pointing the blame at one another...he did it..no, he did it...no he did it...I didn't do it...he did it...hehehheehehe!

[dogday]

4. When all of this happened, wasn't there a story where

Powell was seen getting on AF1 with an eyes-only document on Valerie Plame... This was on the trip to Africa if I am not mistaken... You know Fitz asked for a record of all calls made from AF1 that day....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. the whole group was on that plane

Rice, Hadley, Rove, Bush, Powell, Libby... who am I forgetting?

[dogday]

8. Andrew Card

Our buddy who just left.....

[seabeyond]

17. fletcher??? the press dude for bush that then retired to spend time

with family

[stop the bleeding]

10. Ari, I think Rove and Libby were back in DC with Cheney during this

trip, either way see my post below to see how Powell or anyone else figures into Libby's charges.

In addition to Ari, Matalin and Hughes could have been there as well but I would have to go and review some notes.

[dogday]

11. Rove and Libby were not on that plane

I think you are right, cause I never could place Rove on that plane, I not sure about Libby, but if Cheney did not go, it would figure neither would he.....

[stop the bleeding]

26. See here: Good Research on your questions - H2O Man showed me this

article - very good timeline on the whole Plame debacle

July 7, 2003: Under a barrage of questions at a 9:30 am press briefing, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says of the Wilson claims, "There is zero, nada, nothing new here,' adding that "Wilson's own report that officials in Niger said that Iraq was seeking to contact officials in Niger about sales." (A reference to the "Algerian-Nigerian intermediary" in Wilson's debriefings.) ("That then translates into an Iraqi effort to import a significant quantity of uranium as the President alleged?" Wilson later that day replies to Fleischer. "These guys really need to get serious.") But as the briefing wears on, Fleischer's defense grows "murkier," as the New York Times reports, and he seems to "concede" that the State of the Union reference to Niger uranium "might have been flawed."

That evening, with the White House scrambling to defend itself against Wilson's resonating charges, Bush leaves for a trip to Africa, accompanied by Rice and Powell. Before the party flies out of Andrews, Rice is in several meetings with Rove, Libby and other senior aides of the WHIG.

The scene now shifts to the plush but still relatively close quarters of Air Force One, the specially configured 747 where the accompanying media are boarded through a rear door and funneled directly to their mid-level section closed off from the forward official compartment, and where Administration VIPs like Rice and Powell are in conference rooms and adjoining lounge chairs in closer and easier proximity and informality than in any other official venue. It is in this setting, soon after takeoff, as the New York Times will report two years later, that Powell is seen walking around carrying the INR June 12/July6 memo detailing Wilson's mission and Plame's identity and role in the "(S/NF)" paragraph. Powell discusses the memo with Rice and other presidential aides on board, including press secretary Ari Fleischer. Witnesses later see Fleischer "perusing" the memo. There are reports, too, of several calls between the plane and the White House discussing the Wilson affair. En route over the Atlantic, Rice and Fleischer both call contacts at the Washington Post and New York Times "to make it clear," the Times will report, "that they no longer stood behind Mr. Bush's statement about the uranium-the first such official concession on the sensitive issue of the intelligence that led to the war."

It is in these hours of late July 7 and early July 8 that Rove, Libby and other officials get word of Plame's identity from Air Force One. Rove and Libby will hear of Plame in the drafting with Tenet of his mea culpa, but officials on the plane reading the INR memo cannot know or be sure of this, and the memo's passages on Wilson, including his wife, are now relayed back to Washington. Reporters later speculate that Powell might have called either Rove or Libby with such information, but as one concludes aptly, "That was above his pay grade." The President himself might have read the memo and called the two aides. But given Bush's style and grasp, that, too, is implausible, though he may well have been informed of the calls and given his approval. The only official on board Air Force One with the knowledge and authority-motive, means and opportunity-to instruct Rove and Libby and so betray Plame was Condoleezza Rice.

July 7-8, 2003: Right-wing Columnist Robert Novak is called by......







http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:RajaUXFaeDcJ:www.counterpunch.org/morris07272005.html+Rice+on+Air+Force+one+to+Africa&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=13

Hope this helps.

[dogday]

29. Thanks, I knew I had read this

Bookmarked it for further reference..... Thanks again...

[robertpaulsen]

36. Fantastic! I hadn't seen that before. Worth bookmarking!

Dovetails nicely with what Michael Ledeen said about Hadley in Larisa's interview:

Ledeen also describes National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley as in a state of permanent "deputy" status. Hadley was Deputy National Security Advisor under now Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Ledeen provides a rather telling comparison of the Hadley/Rice relationship by using a precursor:

"I think Hadley is to Rice as Scowcroft was to Kissinger; not inclined to think or act independently," said Ledeen.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Conversations_with_Machiavellis_Ghost_Part_3_0320.html

[Ignis]

37. Great info, thanks for digging that up! (nt)

[stop the bleeding]

48. Here is more from a 02/24/06 thread - - Everyone read this article

This highlighted section is from the second article in my post. In light of JL's recent articles I am floored by this paragraph

The sources added that the witnesses testified that Joseph and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley had worked directly with senior officials from vice president Cheney's office - including Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, National Security Adviser John Hannah, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove- during the month of June to coordinate a response to reporters who had phoned the vice president's office and the NSC about the administration's use of the Niger documents.

~snip~

However, a few weeks before Foley's meeting with the Senate committee, the Niger intelligence was beginning to unravel and threatened to expose the roles of Libby, Hadley, Joseph, Hannah, and Rove in getting the administration to rely upon it to build the case for war.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=501914#508795

Let's review
1.Libby - indicted
2. Hadley - widely reported as cooperating and reported that Fitz is gonna seek indictment(s)
3. Joseph - cooperating
4. Hannah - cooperating
5. Rove - reported as cooperating more leaning toward the reports that Fitz is seeking indictment(s)

Drum roll please,

6. Rice -
7. Darth Cheney -



Anyone who has not read this paper needs to now, my highlighting here and on 02/24/06 does not do this paper justice

[sheelz]

49. It all leads to Cheney

[seabeyond]

16. hey... i have a post below sounding a lot like yours, lol

lots to remember with this crowd. i may still have documentation on this stuff

[Garbo 2004]

23. Yeah and I think it also was faxed to the WH. The original memo

was drafted in late May and Libby had access to the information from various sources, weeks prior to that trip. Other people on that plane had access to that memo/info. I figure at least a couple cooperating witnesses for Fitz were on that plane, maybe more, and subsequent stories were leaked that others on the plane had also seen the memo. That Powell story you referenced was leaked to the press by people who had a vested interest in pointing the finger at Powell.

But the document on the plane story is a "look here, not there" sleight of hand. Libby already had that info long before. As I seem to recall, Libby told Judy Miller that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA on June 23. The trip to Africa was in July.

Then like now, Libby's camp issues smoke and fog to attempt to distract from the charges he faces. Lying, perjury, obstruction of justice are the charges. Not leaking to the press or being the first to leak to the press.

[Catrina]

34. Thank you for reminding us of that. That Libby knew about Plame in

June, a month before the trip to Africa.

[stop the bleeding]

6. Bullshit (cough) (cough) - Libby is charged with OOJ, perjury, and lying

before a GJ, it does not matter if it was me, you or Skinner that leaked Plame's name/status. To determine an outcome of Libby's case, the defense or prosecution need to prove or disprove what Fibby has been charged with not with what Fitzgerald is holding his investigation under. This is a big difference that freepers overlook, but anyone who has spent more than a week in the courtroom will concur with my assessment of this. This is simply more grasping at straws by his lawyers.

Also this looks like a RW moon publication, always good to see what the other side is saying.

Repeat for clarity it does not matter who the leaker is for Libby's OOJ, perjury and lying charges.

[warrens]

7. Here's my guess

Cheney blew his top when he heard about the report, and someone told him that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent. He demanded her identity and somehow it came back through the State Dept. and Cheney/Libby then leaked it to make Wilson look bad. They're now saying that State "leaked" Plame's name to THEM.

[MADem]

9. Oooooh, smell the flopsweat!! The desperate act of a desperate man!

That still doesn't solve Libby's PERJURY problem, now, does it? Martha Stewart did time for LYING to federal agents, which is what our boy Scooter did!

They've got to be desperate, saying such slanderous (and thus far unproved) things about public officials. And of course, they protect themselves from slander charges by simply POSTULATING, as opposed to DECLARING, the guilt of all these "parties other than Libby:"

The second official fingered by the defense has been former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Court papers filed by the defense suggest that Mr. Armitage leaked Mrs. Plame's identity to Mr. Novak and perhaps to The Washington Post's Bob Woodward.

"If the facts ultimately show that Mr. Armitage or someone else from the State Department was also Mr. Novak's primary source, then the State Department and certainly not Mr. Libby bears responsibility for the 'leak' that led to the public disclosure," the defense said in the March 17 filing.

The defense has also identified another former State Department official as the possible leaker. Then-Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman was alleged to have told Mr. Libby of Mrs. Plame's employment at the CIA a month before her identity was leaked.

"If Mr. Armitage or another State Department official was in fact the primary source for Mr. Novak's article, Mr. Grossman's testimony may be colored by either his personal relationship with Mr. Armitage or his concern for the institutional concerns of the State Department," the defense said. ....

And of course, they get creepy Rev. Moon, friend of Poppy, to carry their water in his sleazy little rabid right mag! The shit must be getting very close to the Monkey, I'm thinkin'!!

Will this end in Weinberger-style pardons all round???

[berni_mccoy]

12. If this were REALLY their defense, they would not be leaking it

to the press, let alone openly discussing it with reporters. This is just there to muddy the waters and create FALSE doubt.

Fitzgerald is too smart for this sort of parlor trick.

[BR_Parkway]

13. Claiming the leaker was Powell is to deflect the "outing a spy" charges

they've seen enough in Fitz's indictment and later court submissions to fear that Plame was NOC and that Libby (or others soon to be indicted) knew her status - it's smokescreen for the perjury/obstruction charges - but lays groundwork the some of the WHIG members didn't violate the espionage laws - they aren't making headway against Fitz and they're getting scared that he might be able to hang that really big serious charge on one of the WHIGgers

[seabeyond]

15. way back... on a plane trip to africa? powell had memo on plame

and wasnt this discussed that he shared with people on plane... and wasnt it cheney's iraq war people of 14?

i am not surprised if powell gets fingered. it works into what we learned before election that media wouldnt pick up

[mmonk]

18. VP's office against the State Dept?

Or shadow neocon govt vs. executive branch gov't?

[aden_nak]

19. They'd better be careful if they try to scapegoat Powell.

I think, deep down, Powell almost wants to get in over his head, so he'll be able to justify bringing them all down with him. I don't think he's an especially good human being, as he's done terrible things over the course of his career from Mei Lei to Iraq. But unlike the rest of them, I think Powell actually feels the guilt that comes with his deeds. He may be all too happy to walk towards absolution.

[H2O Man]

20. Were he charged

with leaking Plame's identity, this would be significant. As it is, it is simply public relations.

[stop the bleeding]

22. Thank you - someone else understands what I have been trying to say

This is the 3rd or 4th time in the last 24 hours that I have tried to make this point, and people are just being blinded by the light.

Glad I am not taking crazy pills, at least not in regards to this topic.

[seabeyond]

25. everyone knows, he was charged with obstruction and perjury

shruggin. this is all about the story. ya about nothing, but who knows what will come out of it. has nothing to do with what libby is charged on. still...... if it gets others in trouble, cool enough for me. still going to be charged on the other indictments

[H2O Man]

39. The intent is to

blur the central fact -- which is that the VP oversaw a WHIG program to compromise Wilson and Plame -- by pretending that the people in State were in fact responsible for outing Plame. Thus, it is an attempt to keep the correct people from being charged, and offers zero chance of getting others in trouble in any way beneficial to the anti-WHIG folks.

[seabeyond]

44. yes to all you say. my guess though is cheney wanted it and powell

gave it to them. regardless of what cheney is trying ot do, or libby is trying to do.... libby is being charged with obstruction and perjury. cheney was the instigator of the outing of plame. and we already knew powell is the one that gave him the document. that is what has to get out. this administration doesn't tell the story ever. this is just another example of their playing with us. who knows, maybe fitzgerald has it all laid out and libby or cheney wont be able ot spin the story.

[H2O Man]

45. Right.

Inside the court is going to be very different than in the corporate media.

[stop the bleeding]

46. Well said my yoda friend,

this is just another example of their playing with us. who knows, maybe fitzgerald has it all laid out and libby or cheney wont be able ot spin the story.


Yep that is their plan, but they forgot that Fitzgerald is gonna be playing with them

:popcorn:

[seabeyond]

51. i have hope which is unusual with these people. fitzgerald seems

to have been right on it from the start. so not like he was trying to catch up. more like he was the manipulator with the info. i hope with this dude

[Neil Lisst]

24. That is a rabbit trail because it doesn't matter.

Libby isn't accused of wrongly KNOWING, he's accused of lying to the grand jury about what he did regarding spreading that classified info to journalists.

[Peace Patriot]

27. I suspect that these are just more "talking points" (distractions) to give

the yapper lapdog press something to say, to obscure, muddle, talkover the next indictment news: Rove, Hadley, possibly Card (if he isn't singing), maybe even Cheney (unindicted co-conspirator--out of Fitz's jurisdiction; Congress has to impeach, but Fitz can name).

Yesterday, AP put out some old news (about a month old) about Libby claiming that Fitz doesn't have the authority to prosecute this case--AP doing a shill job for Libby. That's also one of the "talking points" you'll soon be hearing (if you watch TV or listen to corporate radio), or reading (if you read any corporate rag)--drowning out the indictment news.

1. Fitz doesn't have the authority.

2. Powell did it.

:rofl:

[stop the bleeding]

30. Your right, and I will have to turn off the bobble heads when they repeat

these claims, because my head explodes every time I see them spinning this crap.:rofl:is right

[Catrina]

33. Or could it be that they realize Fitzgerald knows who the leaker is

and are trying to plant some other thoughts in his head?

I mean, we know that Bolton had made inquiries at the State Dept about individuals, but we don't know who they were. We know also that when the Senate tried to get that information, Condoleeza Rice ordered the State Dept. not to release the info to the Senate committee (Bolton's nomination).

It was already pointed out in a post above, that Powell couldn't have been the original leaker, if being on AF in July is Libby's claim, because Libby had met with Judith Miller in June and already knew Valerie Plame's ID at that time, one month earlier.

Even if Powell and Armitage were the ones who told Novak (I'm not saying they were, just going along with Libby's lawyers) it doesn't make them the leakers. It just means someone told them, way before the AF1 flight.

I think Cheney was the one who ordered, possibly Rice, who may have passed it on to Bolton, to get the info on the Plame. (Have to check when Bolton did make those inquiries). Even if this happened, all of it was technically no a crime, since they had the clearance to do so.

What happened afterwards, once they had the info, is difficult to prove. If Cheney told Libby (and others) and all of them plotted to 'get it out in the media' by spreading it around, telling Rove, Bush et al, in their minds, they were creating confusion as to where it originally came from, and intended to blame the press. The problem with that plan was that the press could not have had the info without someone giving it them. But I doubt they ever thought it would come to an investigation back then.

The other question always has been, why go to so much trouble to out Valerie Plame? We are told it was to punish Joe Wilson, and to discredit his trip to Niger. But had they done nothing, wouldn't his little OP Ed have simply gone away? There had to more to it than that, imo. Discrediting Wilson may have been a bonus, but I still think it was not their main goal.

Powell and Armitage cannot be charged with the crime of outing an agent, imo, just based on the timeline ~ at least in Powell's case re AF1.

If Fitz. thinks the leaker is Cheney, he's going to have a really difficult time proving it, unless Libby or someone else decides to talk. Even then, because all of them had clearance, they will claim there was no crime involved, they were doing their jobs. I don't know how he can 'get' Cheney, to be honest, even if he is certain he is the one.

[Justice Is Comin]

47. That just shows

how incredibly sharp Fitzgerald is for indicting him for the lying and not the leaking.

He still gets the squeezing rights and everybody is turning on everybody without jeopardizing his case in the least. Wells is fishing in the lake that has no fish and Fitz is just laughing at him.

The man is brilliant.

[DearAbby]

28. Huh?

The attorneys for Mr. Libby plan to argue that a senior official in the State Department leaked Mrs. Plame's identity....What does that have to do with lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice, ya know the charges he was indicted for?? :shrug:

[underpants]

32. Colin Colin Colin you should have known better than to get mixed up

with these people. They are trouble with a capital T and you were never anywhere CLOSE enough to their inner circle.

Colin Colin Colin

Oh well you get what you deserve. They used you to get their war and now you have no value to them.

[Peace Patriot]

35. I just want to remind everyone re the July 7 timeline (above)...

That was the day (July 7, 2003) that Tony Blair was informed that David Kelly knew more than he was telling the BBC about the "sexed up" pre-war WMD intel. (Kelly was found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances, ten days later.)

Kelly (the Brits chief WMD expert) had started whistleblowing to the BBC in late May 2003, about the Brits' "sexed up" pre-war intel documents. He was mysteriously outed to his bosses in late June, interrogated at a safe house and threatened with violations of the Official Secrets Act. According to the Hutton report, on July 7, Blair was then informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things." COULD say; not HAD SAID.

Wilson's article was published the day before, July 6. It is my hypothesis that these two events got conflated, so that actions that appear to have been taken in response to Wilson's publication were actually taken in response to what Blair had found out that Kelly knew. I'm theorizing here a phone call from Blair to Bush that day (July 7). (It's interesting that Fitz has subpoenaed the AF-1 phone records, because this call, if it occurred, might well have been to or from AF-1.)

The Bushites were likely aware that Wilson was going to publish. There is even evidence that Rice encouraged Wilson to publish (baiting him?). He had been ragging them about the Niger forgeries for months. So it was no surprise, and is therefore an unlikely trigger for what followed: a foolish, precipitous, highly risky outing of the entire CIA counter-proliferation project, involving at least SIX reporters (journalistic witnesses to treason), and numerous top Bushites, done in what appears to be haste and panic, during the week of July 7 to July 14. Yes, there was pre-planning and conspiracy back in May-June (involving at least Libby and Judith Miller*) (*--old friend of David Kelly's, by the way)--and evidence of the Niger forgery/nuke plot way back in 2001 (the Rome meeting)--but why the rush? Was an op-ed piece by an ex-diplomat, in a newstream controlled by Bushites, worth (and the cause of) the HASTE to out Plame AND Brewster-Jennings?

Here's the timeline:

July 6: Wilson's article published.
July 7: Blair is told Kelly could say "some uncomfortable things". (Blair calls Bush?)

July 7-12: panic on AF-1.

July 14: Plame outed (by Novak).

July 18: Kelly found dead under circumstances that strongly point to murder. His office and computers are searched.

July 22: The entire CIA Brewster-Jennings counter-proliferation program is outed (also by Novak), disabling all projects and putting its covert agents and contacts around the world at great risk of getting killed.

The WMD-planting theory of Treasongate is that the outing of Plame/BJ was the coverup, not the main crime. The main crime was a plot to plant WMDs in Iraq, that David Kelly got wind of, and that was foiled, likely by the Plame/BJ counter-proliferation network. These rogue operators who met in Rome in 2001--Michael Ladeen, Manucher Ghorbanifar, et al--were likely cooking up more than the "crude" Niger forgeries. Ghorbanifar is a notorious gun-runner. And they were likely not "rogues" but central to White House plans to trump up a nuke charge against Iraq and then make it come true, with planted weapons (weapons that likely were supposed to be "found" by NYT war propagandist Judith Miller, who was "embedded" with the US troops who were "hunting" for the WMDs that everyone knew weren't there). It is the sort of thing that would have appalled David Kelly (an insider, establishment guy, but an honorable one--and a tough one, known for staring down both Saddam Hussein and the Russians over WMD inspections).

Would Rice, Powell, Libby, Hadley, Rove, Fleischer, Card, and all of WHIG, not to mention Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (I'm sure he's in the middle of it--"Mr. Lurker"), risk treason charges by the panicky actions that were taken in the week of July 7-14 (and the following week), implicating every one of them (except Rumsfeld), over an OPINION PIECE? I don't think so. I think something else was afoot. And covering up a (at this point, still theorized) scheme to plant WMDs in Iraq fills the bill in many ways.

[Lusted4]

41. If there is one person

in this world, I would like to see spill his guts, it's Powell.

[Vidar]

42. Blame it on Jimmy Hoffa.

[H2O Man]

43. They would

if they thought of it.

[proud patriot]

50. Fuck that

as much as I dislike powell , he wasn't the leaker .