Fall of a Vulcan
"Scooter Libby always had a knack for fiction. He once penned a thriller set in Japan that a critic praised for its "storytelling skill" and "conspiratorial murmurs." Then, in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he earned the scorn of officials at the CIA and State Department for inserting unchecked, raw intelligence into speeches to vilify Saddam Hussein and boost the case for war. One hard-to-kill Libby favorite: the irresistible tale about how 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta had met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague five months before the hijackings. That red herring kept creeping back into Vice President Dick Cheney's speeches long after it had been debunked".
....Of course, any plea bargain also has the potential to endanger higher-level officials like Cheney, who is mentioned more than once in the indictment. Fitzgerald's document notes, for example, that Libby flew with Cheney on July 12 to Norfolk, Va., and discussed with some officials on the return trip how to handle the Cooper inquiry--an indication that Fitzgerald has reason to at least investigate a conspiracy that might involve the Vice President. Rove too could be ensnared if Libby cuts a deal. So far, Fitzgerald has declined to detail in his indictment the conversation Libby and Rove had about the Novak story before it broke--and whether they discussed the legality of leaking Plame's identity. A trial might provoke a deeper autopsy into how that may have worked--something the White House is surely not keen on.
"Some observers wondered last week why a bright lawyer like Libby bothered with a cover story at all. The indictment offers scant evidence that Libby knew Plame was a covert officer, a key test in the 1982 law barring such disclosures. By that logic, Libby could have told the truth about everything he did and still avoided criminal exposure. But other lawyers pointed out that it's easy to forget that Fitzgerald hasn't made public everything he knows. The two senior officials who discussed Plame's employment with Libby may have testified that they warned Libby about the secret nature of her work. "Some things," said a lawyer for one witness, "come out only at trial."
* The group gave itself the nickname the Vulcans, for the Roman god of fire. For more details, see Rise of the Vulcans, by James Mann.
Will Scooter Libby go down by himself or will he tell the truth about Dick Cheney being the person who put him up to outing a covert CIA agent in an ignorant display of retribution, and treason, against someone who dared to question their lies? Either way, someone's going to jail and with a little luck, Scooter will rat on his boss and we'll get to see the country's biggest and most arrogant bastard, Dick Cheney squirm a little.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
The 'Vulcans' Will Go Down in Flames!
Fall of a Vulcan
"Scooter Libby always had a knack for fiction. He once penned a thriller set in Japan that a critic praised for its "storytelling skill" and "conspiratorial murmurs." Then, in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he earned the scorn of officials at the CIA and State Department for inserting unchecked, raw intelligence into speeches to vilify Saddam Hussein and boost the case for war. One hard-to-kill Libby favorite: the irresistible tale about how 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta had met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague five months before the hijackings. That red herring kept creeping back into Vice President Dick Cheney's speeches long after it had been debunked".
....Of course, any plea bargain also has the potential to endanger higher-level officials like Cheney, who is mentioned more than once in the indictment. Fitzgerald's document notes, for example, that Libby flew with Cheney on July 12 to Norfolk, Va., and discussed with some officials on the return trip how to handle the Cooper inquiry--an indication that Fitzgerald has reason to at least investigate a conspiracy that might involve the Vice President. Rove too could be ensnared if Libby cuts a deal. So far, Fitzgerald has declined to detail in his indictment the conversation Libby and Rove had about the Novak story before it broke--and whether they discussed the legality of leaking Plame's identity. A trial might provoke a deeper autopsy into how that may have worked--something the White House is surely not keen on.
"Some observers wondered last week why a bright lawyer like Libby bothered with a cover story at all. The indictment offers scant evidence that Libby knew Plame was a covert officer, a key test in the 1982 law barring such disclosures. By that logic, Libby could have told the truth about everything he did and still avoided criminal exposure. But other lawyers pointed out that it's easy to forget that Fitzgerald hasn't made public everything he knows. The two senior officials who discussed Plame's employment with Libby may have testified that they warned Libby about the secret nature of her work. "Some things," said a lawyer for one witness, "come out only at trial."
* The group gave itself the nickname the Vulcans, for the Roman god of fire. For more details, see Rise of the Vulcans, by James Mann.
Will Scooter Libby go down by himself or will he tell the truth about Dick Cheney being the person who put him up to outing a covert CIA agent in an ignorant display of retribution, and treason, against someone who dared to question their lies? Either way, someone's going to jail and with a little luck, Scooter will rat on his boss and we'll get to see the country's biggest and most arrogant bastard, Dick Cheney squirm a little.
WANTED
Dead or Alive
