To kill a mocking blogScooter Libby's lawyer wants to block the publication of pleas for clemency because bloggers may make fun of them.Comment Is Free
By Marcy Wheeler
May 29, 2007 7:10 PM
In preparation for the upcoming sentencing of Scooter Libby - the Bush administration official convicted of perjury in the Valerie Plame scandal - his defense team solicited his friends and associates to
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070509/9libby.htm">write letters to the judge arguing that Libby deserves a reduced sentence. Last Friday, Libby's lawyer Bill Jeffress submitted a
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/files/libby_no_letters.pdf">filing (PDF) opposing the release of those letters to the public. In it, he writes:
"Given the extraordinary media scrutiny here, if any case presents the possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the internet and their authors discussed, even mocked, by bloggers, it is this case." <snip>
According to a filing by the government, those who wrote letters in support of Libby include "current and former public officials." It is not unreasonable to suggest some of these public figures submitted letters to curry favor with the administration or advance their own position within it.
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Further, some of Libby's likely supporters have their own reasons to be thankful that Libby successfully obstructed the investigation. Take
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._James_Woolsey,_Jr.">James Woolsey, one of the public supporters of Libby's defense fund. The former director of the CIA under Bill Clinton, Woolsey has long been a supporter of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. As such, he was an important broker of Chalabi's shoddy intelligence in the lead-up to the war.
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And finally, this sentencing, now scheduled for June 5, takes place against the background of the Bush administration's purge of at least nine US attorneys, in at least one case at the behest of Republicans who complained that the US attorney didn't file charges against a Democrat before an election. We have every reason to suspect that Bush's supporters have inappropriately intervened in the administration of justice. Without seeing those letters, how can we be sure the same isn't happening here?
So long as Jeffress knows the names of Libby's supporters, but we don't, we have no way of ensuring that Libby's supporters have no ulterior motive in supporting Libby. Jeffress' invocation of bloggers is a cheap attempt to dismiss precisely what bloggers bring: an appropriate scrutiny of the motivations and actions of those who lied us into war and outed Valerie Plame. In this case, it is Jeffress' mockery that is dangerous, not mine.
more:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marcy_wheeler/2007/05/to_kill_a_mocking_blog.html *** - I have to say that this concerns me. If the judge rules in Libby's lawyer's favor on this and takes our right of mockery away, then there would be absolutely no reason for me to get up in the mornings...."