SPARKY: I TOLD YOU SO ...
The CIA Leak Case washingtonpost.com: Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus: Cheney's Office Is A Focus in Leak Case
George W. Bush: Is he the clueless puppet or another conspirator?
“ As the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name nears its conclusion, the special prosecutor has zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office.”
As the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name hurtles to an apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office, according to lawyers familiar with the case and government officials. The prosecutor has assembled evidence that suggests Cheney's long-standing tensions with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame.In grand jury sessions, including with New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Fitzgerald has pressed witnesses on what Cheney may have known about the effort to push back against ex-diplomat and Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, including the leak of his wife's position at the CIA, Miller and others said. But Fitzgerald has focused more on the role of Cheney's top aides, including Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, lawyers involved in the case said.
Audio The Washington Post's Walter Pincus discusses the latest developments in the CIA leak probe. Karl RoveWho's Blogging? |
One former CIA official told prosecutors early in the probe about efforts by Cheney's office and his allies at the National Security Council to obtain information about Wilson's trip as long as two months before Plame was unmasked in July 2003, according to a person familiar with the account.
It is not clear whether Fitzgerald plans to charge anyone inside the Bush administration with a crime. But with the case reaching a climax -- administration officials are braced for possible indictments as early as this week-- it is increasingly clear that Cheney and his aides have been deeply enmeshed in events surrounding the Plame affair from the outset.
It was a request by Cheney for more CIA information that, unknown to him, started a chain of events that led to Wilson's mission three years ago. His staff pressed the CIA for information about it one year later. And it was Libby who talked about Wilson's wife with at least two reporters before her identity became public, according to evidence Fitzgerald has amassed and which parties close to the case have acknowledged.
Lawyers in the case said Fitzgerald has focused extensively on whether behind-the-scenes efforts by the vice president's aides and other senior Bush aides were part of a criminal campaign to punish Wilson in part by unmasking his wife.
In a move people involved in the case read as a sign that the end is near, Fitzgerald's spokesman yesterday told the Associated Press that the prosecutor planned to announce his conclusions in Washington, where the grand jury has been meeting, instead of Chicago, where the prosecutor is based. Some lawyers close to the case cited courthouse talk that Fitzgerald might announce his findings as early as tomorrow, though hard evidence about his intentions and timing remained elusive.
In the course of the investigation, Fitzgerald has been exposed to the intense, behind-the-scenes fight between Cheney's office and the CIA over prewar intelligence and the vice president's central role in compiling and then defending the intelligence used to justify the war. Miller, in a first-person account Sunday in the Times, recalled that Libby complained in a June 23, 2003, meeting in his office that the CIA was engaged in "selective leaking" and a "hedging strategy" that would make the agency look equally prescient whether or not weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
The special prosecutor has personally interviewed numerous officials from the CIA, White House and State Department. In the process, he and his investigative team have talked to a number of Cheney aides, including Mary Matalin, his former strategist; Catherine Martin, his former communications adviser; and Jennifer Millerwise, his former spokeswoman. In the case of Millerwise, she talked with the prosecutor more than two years ago but never appeared before the grand jury, according to a person familiar with her situation.
Starting in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the vice president was at the forefront of a White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that invading Iraq was central to defeating terrorists worldwide. Cheney, a longtime proponent of toppling Saddam Hussein, led the White House effort to build the case that Iraq was an imminent threat because it possessed a dangerous arsenal of weapons.
Before the war, he traveled to CIA headquarters for briefings, an unusual move that some critics interpreted as an effort to pressure intelligence officials into supporting his view of the evidence. After the war, when critics started questioning whether the White House relied on faulty information to justify war, Cheney and Libby were central to the effort to defend the intelligence and discredit the naysayers in Congress and elsewhere.
Administration officials acknowledge that Cheney was immersed in Iraq intelligence, and pressed aides repeatedly for information on weapons programs. He regularly requested follow-up information from the CIA and others when a piece of intelligence caught his eye.
Wilson's trip, for example, was triggered by a question Cheney asked during a regular morning intelligence briefing. He had received a Defense Intelligence Agency report alleging Iraq had sought uranium from Niger and wanted to know what else the CIA may have known. Cheney's office was not told ahead of time about the Wilson mission to investigate the claim.
In the Bush White House, Cheney typically has operated secretly, relying on advice from a tight circle of longtime advisers, including Libby; David Addington, his counsel; and his wife, Lynne, and two children, including Liz, a top State Department official. But a former Cheney aide, who requested anonymity, said it is "implausible" that Cheney himself was involved in the leaking of Plame's name because he rarely, if ever, involved himself in press strategy.
 | |
| Order: | 46th Vice President |
|---|---|
| Term of Office: | January 20, 2001–present |
| Predecessor: | Al Gore |
| Date of Birth | January 30, 1941 |
| Place of Birth: | Lincoln, Nebraska |
| Wife: | Lynne Cheney |
| Profession: | Businessman |
| Political Party: | Republican |
| President: | George W. Bush |
One fact apparently critical to Fitzgerald's inquiry is when Libby learned about Plame and her CIA employment. Information that has emerged so far leaves this issue murky. A former CIA official told investigators that Cheney's office was seeking information about Wilson in May 2003, but it's not certain that officials with the vice president learned of the Plame connection then.
Miller, in her account, said Libby raised the issue of Plame in the June 23, 2003, meeting, describing her as a CIA employee and asserting that she had arranged the trip to Niger. Earlier that month, Libby discussed Wilson's trip with The Washington Post but never mentioned his wife.
Senior administration officials said there was a document circulated at the State Department -- before Libby talked to Miller -- that mentioned Plame. It was drafted in June as an administrative letter and addressed to then-Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who was acting secretary at the time since Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Deputy Secretary Richard L. Armitage were out of the country.
As a former State Department official involved in the process recalled it, Grossman wanted the letter as background for a meeting at the White House, where the discussion was focused on then growing criticism of Bush's inclusion in his January State of the Union speech of the allegation that Hussein had been seeking uranium from Niger.
The letter to Grossman discussed the reasons the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) did not believe the intelligence, which originated from foreign sources, was accurate. It had a paragraph near the beginning, marked "(S)," meaning it was classified secret, describing a meeting at the CIA in February 2002, attended by another INR analyst, where Plame introduced her husband as the person who was to go to Niger.
Attached to the letter were the notes from the INR analyst who had attended the session, but they were written well after the event occurred and contained mistakes about who was there and what was said, according to a former intelligence official who reviewed the document in the summer of 2003.
Grossman has refused to answer questions about the letter, and it is not clear whether he talked about it at the White House meeting he was said to have attended, according to the former State official.
Fitzgerald has questioned several witnesses from the CIA and State Department before the grand jury about the INR memo, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Washington Post: Alec Russel: Top Bush aide to go if charges laid
THE White House is in a state of near siege after an announcement that Karl Rove, President George Bush's key adviser, will almost certainly step down if he is indicted in the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity.
With all Washington holding its breath for the results of the investigation, a source close to Mr Rove told Time magazine that cutting his ties to the White House would allow him to fight "any bulls--- charges".
This is the first time the Administration has acknowledged the political peril it faces from the investigation.
The federal prosecutor heading the investigation is to release his findings soon, possibly tomorrow, after two years of inquiries into several of the Bush Administration's most senior aides. The key figures are Mr Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief-of-staff.
Investigators have questioned witnesses about whether Mr Cheney was aware or authorised Mr Libby to talk to reporters about Bush Administration critic Joseph Wilson. Mr Wilson is married to CIA operative Valerie Plame whose identity was leaked to US newspapers.
The Washington Post reported special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has assembled evidence showing Mr Cheney's long-running feud with the CIA contributed to Miss Plame's unmasking.
Mr Wilson, a former diplomat, says White House officials exposed his wife, damaging her ability to work undercover, to discredit him for accusing the Bush Administration of twisting intelligence to justify the Iraq war in a New York Times opinion piece on July 6, 2003.
Mr Rove's official title, White House deputy chief-of- staff, hides an extraordinarily broad and influential role overseeing key political and policy decisions.
To lose him would be a terrible blow for Mr Bush as the White House struggles to counter a six-week run of disastrous news. He was at Mr Bush's side in his two elections as Texas governor and his two presidential runs.
Mr Rove, known to his critics as "Bush's brain", spent about 4½ hours testifying on Friday as White House aides fended off questions about the effect of his entanglement in the saga on their agenda and morale.
This was the fourth time that Mr Rove had testified, but it was easily his most highly charged appearance.
To unmask a covert agent intentionally is a federal offence. But there is mounting speculation that, as often happens with grand jury investigations, the probe has widened its focus as the months have passed, and that the prosecutor is considering other charges, either conspiracy or perjury.
Mr Rove and Mr Libby have both admitted discussing the saga with journalists, but they insist they did not leak Miss Plame's identity.
A source close to Mr Rove told Time that Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, appeared to be "seriously weighing" a perjury charge for Mr Rove's initial failure to tell the grand jury that he spoke to a journalist about Miss Plame.
Mr Rove corrected himself in a subsequent appearance.
The alleged offence, an apparently malicious leak, is merely part of the everyday business of Washington politics.
But the investigation is seen by Mr Bush's opponents as exposing a cynicism about the cause for war, and also as undermining the President's claims to have ushered in an upright, leak-free culture.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller breaks silence on Plame leak investigation
October 17, 2005
New York Times reporter Judith Miller broke her media silence by writing a column the newspaper published on Sunday. Her lengthy story recounted two testimonies, September 30 and October 12, she gave to a U.S. federal grand jury seeking information on the source of the Valerie Plame leak. The column described the testimony as one that relied heavily on her reporting notes given to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald between her first and second appearances.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is the chief of staff to Dick Cheney, vice-president of the United States. Libby, along with Karl Rove, are two high ranking adminstration insiders suspected of slipping information to the press in an effort to undermine Plame's husband Joe Wilson, the former ambassador to NigerPresident Bush to support the build up to the war in Iraqi. who denied a White House claim that Iraq was trying to buy enriched uraniuman, a claim made by
The mistaken spelling, Miller explained, was made in a section of her notes unrelated to the interviews with Libby. Other notes documented 3 interviews with Libby, conducted in the year 2003, that in her NYT column she wrote:
- June 23) ... Mr. Libby raised the subject of Mr. Wilson's wife for the first time. I wrote in my notes, inside parentheses, "Wife works in bureau?" I told Mr. Fitzgerald that I believed this was the first time I had been told that Mr. Wilson's wife might work for the C.I.A.
- July 8) ... our conversation also turned to Mr. Wilson's wife. My notes contain a phrase inside parentheses: "Wife works at Winpac."
... first time I had heard that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for Winpac, I assumed that she worked as an analyst, not as an undercover operative.- July 12 (telephone) ... I might have called others about Mr. Wilson's wife. In my notebook I had written the words "Victoria Wilson" with a box around it, another apparent reference to Ms. Plame, who is also known as Valerie Wilson. I told Mr. Fitzgerald that I was not sure whether Mr. Libby had used this name or whether I just made a mistake in writing it on my own. Another possibility, I said, is that I gave Mr. Libby the wrong name on purpose to see whether he would correct me and confirm her identity.
These notes were written shortly before the Robert Novak story on July 14 was published, revealing Valerie Plame, and after which the controversy was ignited. Asked by prosecutor Fitzgerald how she felt about the Novak story, she wrote that she was "annoyed at having been beaten on a story."
Before she agreed to testify, and thereby be released jail, she sought from Libby his personal assurance that his pre-existing waiver of confidentiality was not forced upon him by outside pressure. She also sought an agreement from Fitzgerald that grand jury questioning would be restricted in scope to questions relating only directly to her interviews with Libby.
Both of these, the assurance from Libby and the limited scope by Fitzgerald, were granted; but why she thought she needed them is open to question. Critics are skeptical of what motives are driving Miller, and wonder if she has something to hide or is protecting Libby. In the absense of road blocks to testifying that she herself made, the 85 days she spent in jail would otherwise not have been imposed.
Fitzgerald had been planning to wrap up the investigation sometime this month when the grand jury term expires October 28.
Previous related news
- "New York Times reporter sent to jail in leak case". Wikinews, July 6, 2005
- Judith Miller "My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room". The New York Times, October 16, 2005 free subscription
- Howard Kurtz "Reporter, Times Are Criticized for Missteps". The Washington Post, October 17, 2005
- Pete Yost, AP writer "More questions arise in CIA leak probe". Detroit Free Press, October 17, 2005
- Sydney H. Schanberg, "Paper Chastened: At the wounded Times, fallout from the Judy Miller saga" Village Voice, October 18th, 2005
Then the Village Voice on Judy Miller being the latest public beating of The New York Times ... Paper Chastened: At the wounded Times, fallout from the Judy Miller saga
Sydney H. Schanberg: “I was a copy boy, reporter, editor, and columnist at The New York Times for more than a quarter-century, and like many of its alumni, I care a lot about what happens at and to the paper. Though I have occasionally criticized the Times on some issues, I admire it as the nation's leading newspaper, warts and all. It is still looked to as the standard-bearer of the profession's ethics and reporting principles. Now, its role as journalism avatar and watchdog of government abuses has again been wounded, in part by its own lack of managerial supervision. And that means that journalism in America has been wounded.
In the wake of the Wen Ho Lee and Jayson Blair failures, the Times is in another embarrassing situation, this one about a national security reporter, Judith Miller, who felt she was above the rules and even called herself—facetiously, she claims—"Miss Run Amok."
The Times' own account of this drama—5,800 words of frank, stark, unsparing reporting that ran on page one in Sunday's paper—painted exactly that picture of Miller, a tenacious and driven reporter who was a loose cannon.
In what has been the paper's long-standing First Amendment practice, the Times, in 2003, backed Miller's refusal to identify sources or turn over notes to a special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald. He is investigating whether senior Bush administration officials illegally leaked to reporters the name of a CIA undercover agent, Valerie Plame, in order to punish or intimidate Joseph Wilson, her husband. Wilson is a former U.S. diplomat who was publicly criticizing the Bush administration for "twisting" intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the U.S. war then under way against that nation.
Early in the lengthy Times story—prepared by four reporters "about [Miller's] role in the investigation and how The New York Times turned her case into a cause"—were these paragraphs, based on interviews with the Times' leaders:
" 'She'd given her pledge of confidentiality [to a source],' said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher. 'She was prepared to honor that. We were going to support her.'
"But Mr. Sulzberger and the paper's executive editor, Bill Keller, knew few details about Ms. Miller's conversations with her confidential source other than his name. They did not review Ms. Miller's notes. Mr. Keller said he learned about [a second Miller notebook with Valerie Plame's name in it] only this month. Mr. Sulzberger was told about it by Times reporters [last] Thursday. ... ”
Rains and pours at times - doesn't it? Let's see which of the traitors tries to make a run for it. We're unlikely to see the Democrats make any headway even when the Republicans are revealed to be treacherous disloyal greedheads with total disregard for the folks they're responsible to. Life is amazing. - Sparks
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