WP: Ex-Aide Says Cheney Led Rebuttal Effort (Libby trial testimony)

[DeepModem Mom]

Ex-Aide Says Cheney Led Rebuttal Effort
By Carol D. Leonnig and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 26, 2007; Page A03

Vice President Cheney personally orchestrated his office's 2003 efforts to rebut allegations that the administration used flawed intelligence to justify the war in Iraq and discredit a critic who Cheney believed was making him look foolish, according to testimony and evidence yesterday in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff.

Cheney dictated talking points for a White House briefing in the midst of the controversy that summer, his former press aide, Cathie Martin, testified, stressing that the CIA never told Cheney that a CIA-sponsored mission had found no real evidence that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa.

Aboard Air Force Two, on a trip back from the launch of a warship in Norfolk, Cheney instructed his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, about responding to a Time magazine reporter who questioned how the faulty intelligence on Iraq had become one of the Bush administration's central arguments for going to war.

In the dramatic replay of events that summer that unfolded yesterday in Libby's federal court trial, Cheney was portrayed as a general on a political battlefield -- enmeshed in tactics, but also deputizing his chief of staff to handle the dirty job of persuading journalists that the war critic was all wrong.

Previously described in court filings and by the news media, Cheney's role was brought to life yesterday by Martin's account. She is the first witness in the case who worked closely with Cheney and Libby as they tried to refute former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was sent to Niger by the CIA to determine whether Iraq had sought uranium for a weapons program....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012500171.html?nav=hcmodule

[jamesinca]

1. I like all the stuff about the administration

Lots of good stuff about the administration is coming out in this trial. Regardless of the case about Plame, dirty laundry is getting aired. Lots of perjury or really good reasons to impeach, and put on trial as war criminals.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Who's making you look foolish now, Dick Cheney, you dipshit.

I scoff, but truthfully, if this man ever finds time in jail, he'll be like Dale the Whale from the Monk series.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Libby misled inquiry, trial hears - BBC

26 January 2007

Witnesses at the trial of former White House aide Lewis Libby have testified that he discussed the identity of a CIA agent before he has admitted doing so.

Mr Libby, former chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, told FBI investigators that he learned Valerie Plame's identity from a reporter.

But Mr Cheney's spokeswoman Cathie Martin told the court that he had discussed Ms Plame days beforehand.

Mr Libby denies five charges including perjury and obstruction of justice.

They carry a combined tariff of up to 30 years in jail.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6300829.stm


Libby lied. They all lied.

[chelsea0011]

4. BBC, Internets? Why am I only hearing about the trial through

these means. The MSM is all but ignoring the day to day of this trial.

[BeyondThePale]

5. How can you tell if a repub is lying?

-their lips are moving
-they have a pulse
-they're under oath
etc, etc, etc

[0007]

6. Do I sense cheney squeaking and smelling like the turd he is?

snip from article.....

"Ms Martin said when Ms Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, criticised Mr Bush for citing intelligence suggesting Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger - even though he had debunked those claims after visiting Niger - she phoned the CIA to see who had sent Mr Wilson to the African country.

The CIA spokesman told her that Mr Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

When she was told this, she said, she immediately passed on the information to Mr Libby and Mr Cheney."

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Point, game and, hopefully, match.

[yellowcanine]

8. Cathie Martin may be the "Alexander Butterfield" of the Plame Leak Scandal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Butterfield

Butterfield was the loyal Nixon aide who revealed the WH taping system during the Watergate investigation.