Liddy says Rove didn't break the law

[sabra]

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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14876994&BRD=1300&PAG=461&dept_id=156923&rfi=6

Liddy says Rove didn't break the law


BY DONNA SMITH, Black Hills Pioneer July 18, 2005

LEAD - In advance of his return trip to the Black Hills during the 2005 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, G. Gordon Liddy took a few moments to chat about issues on the national radar. He said he understands the law that bars disclosure of the identities of U.S. undercover foreign agents, and he said President George W. Bush's top political aide Karl Rove did not violate that law.

"I understand the law, the statute, as it was written," Liddy said Friday. He explained that years ago a CIA agent named Philip Agee published a list of agents working undercover and one of those agents was later assassinated. A law was written to protect agents from such disclosure and risk of injury or death from the disclosure. "First the law states that you must find out the identity from a classified source, and the agent whose identity is disclosed must be posted abroad and working undercover," Liddy said. He also said the protection of the law looks backward for five years, and if the agent has not been working undercover in a foreign capacity within the past five years, the protection does not apply.

Since Valerie Plame, the agent whose identity was allegedly disclosed does not meet that criteria, Liddy said no law was violated in disclosure of her name. "Besides, Bob Novak (CNN news corespondent) disclosed her name to Rove, not the other way around," he added.

Liddy hosts a national radio program, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, and he often waxes eloquent on political issues of the day. He was one of the people sentenced to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon Administration, and he is one of the nation's well-known figures in recent political history. His leanings are decidedly conservative.

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[Shoeempress]

1. And as a convicted felon, he'd know

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

58. As a convicted felon on his way to a biker rally...

LOL

[readermostly]

64. Exactly right!!

[mtnester]

2. Pot meet kettle

sheesh

[liberal N proud]

5. You beat me to that one

:rofl:

[NervousRex]

51. Harharhar

and I thought I was the fastest at message board cliches...ROTFLMAOEMF!!!

[VegasWolf]

52. Exactly! Mr Watergate says nothing to see here, move along. nt

[annabanana]

3. hrmph... Liddy should know. . . . .n/t

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Take it from me, a convicted burglar, he's clean

And you'd better not mention it again, got it?

I don't have to say "or else", now, do I?

[Moochy]

10. Burglar? but he's so much more

Correction, convicted burglar, and celebrated reborn right wing media hack.

[iamjoy]

6. My Reaction:

:rofl:

[Greeby]

7. .........

Oh, don't you have some body parts to burn, Liddy? I'll supply the candles, if you like :P

[progressivebydesign]

8. Well that settles it for me! Rove's obviously innocent.

You all agree, right? ha, ha.

[klyon]

49. Oh yeh if G.G. says it, it must be true

KL

[Raster]

9. not just "a" convicted felon, one scarry-ass convicted felon

[goforit]

11. Charlie Manson would say he was an angel sent from heaven too.

Mental illness saturates this gov't!!!!

[lazarus]

12. facile crap

As one who held a Top Secret/SCI clearance for years, I can tell you several things wrong with this statement.

The biggie: You CANNOT confirm or deny the veracity of information that is classified until you find out if it is declassified. If Novak truly called Rove up and said, "Hey, Karl, is Valerie Wilson a CIA operative as I've heard from many sources?" Rove would have to decline to answer, or he's broken the law.

It pisses me off to see this weasel get away with this. An airman I worked with when we were stationed in the UK got a dishonorable discharge because he failed to properly count all the crypto cards after shift change one day, and one of the cards had fallen behind the machinery.

Liddy, btw, has advocated shooting government employees. I fail to understand how this twit has any credibility with anyone who's not already a terrorist.

[5thGenDemocrat]

42. Sounds like you and I had pretty much the same job, laz

And the first lesson I remember from Signal School at Fort Gordon was simply "keep your mouth shut." It isn't a matter of whether or not Rove knew Plame was/wasn't undercover when he outted her.
He should be in deep doo for even discussing such a matter with a reporter. It is considered bad security to have such a blabbermouth entrusted with classified information. If he talks about this, what else does he talk about and to whom?
Hell, a guy like this never would've gotten access to our communication center. We would've weeded his ass out early in AIT or he'd have been court-martialled and discharged. At the very least, his security clearances would've been yanked at the first screwup.
Between Rove and Gannon and who-all-else, I think this administration is compromising national security through sheer arrogance. And, yes, it IS a criminal offense.
John
72E20 (ComCenter Specialist); United States Army Communications Command (now 8th Signal Brigade), Fort Monroe, VA, 1974-76. A soldier who could keep his damned mouth shut (it really isn't all that hard).

[lazarus]

44. I was Comm, too

In the Air Force, back in 84-88.

My time in the comm center was when it happened. Remember the old DSTE equipment? Still using it. manual teletypes and all! :hi:

[Vincardog]

13. What about the law that makes it a felony to reveal any classified

information? Why do we have to spend all our time on this law? What about the moral law that makes it illegal for the pResident to start a private war? What about the fact that they are slimming Wilson to hide the lies about the fake document showing uranium sales? What about the stolen election in 2004? What about the illegal Selection of aWoL in 2000? WHO gets to say which law we have to enforce?

WE DO./

[redqueen]

14. Why do they keep saying Novak told Rove?

Hasn't Novak said otherwise?

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. Well, that's OK because we all already know that Novak is a

liar. Right?

Uh, I'm starting to confuse myself.

[RSchewe]

15. Hahaha!

The comedy in this just goes without saying... Thanks for the chuckle. Nothing like some comedy relief for a little break from the tidal wave of news burying Rove. Ok, resume waves...

[Julius Civitatus]

16. According to Liddy, he didn't break the law either in Watergate

Take it from the convicted felon to lecture us about law and order.

[Monkie]

17. Philip Agee - read one book to understand recent history

he is not the most hated man in the cia for nothing.
he spills ALL,and although it was published in 1975 his expose on how the cia goes into a country and TOTALLY corrupts it shows EXACTLY what is going in the USA today.
everything is clear once you have read his book.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. Mebbe. But in exposing Plame, the leaker also exposed the

cover organization she had been working with, thus indirectly exposing every other agent who worked with that organization, implicating civilians who were not agents who worked with that organization, and opening up every foreign national who worked with those agents, or had innocent contact with that organization, to suspicion of being in the pay of American agents.

It wasn't just Plame that was blown - it was the whole operation. Years of established contacts and friendships flushed down the toilet, and the CIA now needs to re-establish itself there with a new cover, and develop entirely new contacts as every one of their old contacts have been compromised.

Rove better watch out. You just don't fuck with the CIA like that. It's not healthy.

[Ganja Ninja]

20. Your using way too much common sense.

The GOP doesn't want people to understand whole truth. They just want to muddy the issue with lame excuses and technicalities. Putting two and two together is tough enough for them let alone two and two and two and two.

[leveymg]

19. Rove broke classified materials nondisclose agreement - separate crime

Intelligence Identities Disclosure Protection Act.

Libby is still a dirty tricks and disinformation guy.

[dave29]

21. I bet Rove loves Liddy speaking on his behalf

lol

[dave29]

22. Nixon returns from Dead: Declares Rove not a crook

n/t

[gratuitous]

23. Gee, first Frist and now Liddy

I don't know why we have all these doctors and lawyers running around, when Bill Frist can diagnose a serious brain impairment from 30 seconds of videotape and G. Gordon Liddy can pronounce guilt or innocence of a suspect based on his own personal feelings.

Close all the hospitals and the courts! Bill and Gordon are the only oracles our country needs!

[Walt Starr]

24. Well Liddy claimed he committed no crime

right before he was indicted, convicted, and sent to prison.

So Liddy defending Rove should tell you Rove committed numerous crimes. One felon protecting another, jailhouse rules.

[wallwriter]

25. I'm sorry to have to keep doing this, but

it just keeps being so very relevant.

Everybody, Together: Perjury, Obstruction of Justice.

Disgraced felon and self-important grandstanding political hack and posturing fake tough-guy Gordon Liddy can't possibly know what has emerged before the grand jury. This is purely partisan demagoguery as if his opinion mattered and as if he had the remotest idea what he is really talking about.

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. Why is the opinion of right wing flack and convicted felon NEWS???

Who gives a fuck what G. Gordon Liddy thinks about anything?

[jobycom]

28. In other news, Charles Manson claims Jeffrey Dahmer didn't break the law

Someone needs to pimp-slap that neurotic, insecure psycho-babbler. Some men never get over their penis being too short.

[Canuckistanian]

29. What exactly IS a crime to "head-shot" Liddy?

I'd like him to explain that to us some time.

[Virginian]

30. So he knows all about the testamony to the Grand Jury?

I thought that was kept secret.

I do believe I read that Mrs. Wilson had been out of the country undercover within the past five years, but I don't have any links.

He seems to be following the talking points the GOP put out last week.

[WinkyDink]

31. Charlie

doesn't like a snitch.

[TahitiNut]

32. Rove probably didn't beak the law against jaywalking, either.

It's fucking irrelevant whether Rove can be regarded as guilty of breaking any particular law based on some overly-lenient bullshit spin when it's obvious to the blind that he, along with others in this criminal administration, engaged in overtly criminal behavior up to and including war crimes and crimes against humanity. At a very minimum, they violated their oaths to "protect and defend the Constitution" and have defrauded the People of the United States!!

[Massachusetts]

33. Don't celebrate to soon

This group of Crooks in the WH are the WORST in the history of this country. They are ABOVE the law (they think), and they will use EVERYTHING they can to circumvent JUSTICE. (IMO)

[Lorien]

37. But they're also not a very bright lot

they've been permitted their crimes by the lapdog press, and now the poodles are growing some teeth.


:popcorn:

[mitchum]

34. What? Gordy is a jailhouse lawyer now?

[ncteechur]

35. Who gives a shit what that TRAITOR Liddy thinks!!

[ooglymoogly]

36. so we have carter to thank for

the last 40 years of this insane twit.

[Im_Your_Huckleberry]

38. well, i guess that settles it.

[Lucille]

39. Did anybody check to see what John Gotti Jr. thinks?

Or Martha Stewart?

Or Fabian Basabe, the bon vivant and friend to Barbara Bush and Paris Hilton? I hear he spent a night in jail once, after having failed to pay the bill for his table's bottles of Veuve Clicquot.

How about Gary Busey?

The guy who played Willis on "Diff'rent Strokes"?

REally, the media needs to form a symposium of cons and ex cons who will thoughtfully consider the possible levels of criminality here.

IMO, Foxy Brown can particpate, but only after she does her time. The news media should have standards, after all.

[leesa]

65. Where's Ollie North?

[Zorra]

40. Liddy is a convicted thief, who placed his party before his country.

I cannot understand why anyone would listen to this fascist.

[skip fox]

41. Not only is he guilty, he's probably guilty of several crimes, incl.

conspiracy since the more we learn, the more it seems as though Rove orchestrated the leaking. Today we learn in the NYT that he was rabidly out to get Wilson, a bit rabidly even for some WH staffers. This weekend we learned Cooper probably had more than the two named sources (Rove and Libby) he gave to the grand jury. We also know Rove was the primary source for Cooper and Libby one of his confirming sources. We so know there were at least 6 primary contacts (incl. Miller, Cooper, Novak, and Pincus) as reported. We also know that there were at least two different primary sources (Libby for Novak and Rove for Cooper) and maybe more (remember Miller's source did not explicitly release her, but Cooper's gave him an explicit waver). And we know that 3 contacts confirmed their stories with one or more other "high administration officials." Therefore, there were minimally 9 calls/contacts. All this with every thing we know about Rove strongly suggests coordination, collusion, and/or conspiracy.

Anyone in the administration who discovered the Plame-Wilson-Niger connection would have taken the information to the world master of personal assassination: Rove. (I'm guessing the VP's office first learned the information since they would have felt somewhat responsible for Wilson's trip to Niger. I'm also guessing the topic of leaking the Plame information was discussed at an emergency meeting of the White House Iraq Group). With 6 original calls, Rove would have to make sure that no two officials tried to act as a primary source for a single reporter (it would appear too eager) He would make sure the primary contacts pitched the information in an off-hand manner, not as the main subject, to make the contact think the source is trying to do him or her a favor ("Don't go too far out on this Wilson thing, I don't want you burnt."), etc. He would also have insured that no two official had exactly the same pitch. Then he would have to arrange for a number of officials (probably 3-4) would be ready and willing to confirm the story. Some of the confirming sources could be primary sources for other reporters, but JUST DOING THE NUMBERS one realizes that there had to be at least 4 officials involved and that they coordinated the leak (and maybe later their responses to the prosecutor).

Therefore an indictment appears likely for Rove and 3 others. In addition, Rove will either be indicted for or censured for his role in the coordination.

Rove would have more to coordinate! To establish guidelines like: No source should call another's contact, Pitch the information off hand, not as the main subject, Make the contact think the source is trying to do him or her a favor ("Don't go too far out on this Wilson thing, I don't want you burnt."), etc. AND Rove would have had to field a group of officials to support the sources stories.

And then we haven't even begun to ask the question of how Rove got the information. (Doesn't leaking the information to him also constitute a crime?) Did Plame give information to officials as one report suggested? Why did Ashcroft recluse himself? (This rings of possible involvement of Cheney or W.) Did Rove have the proper clearance prior to becoming Deputy Chief of Staff to have seen the material? Or were other federal laws broken to the effect that classified information was used for political purposes? Etc.

I think the great thing we have going for us on this case is Patrick Fitzgerald. By all accounts a fine prosecutor.

[Olney Blue]

60. S Fox, your post makes me wonder....

when in hell do these people have time to do the job we're paying them to do?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

43. Liddy's a good one to talk about the law.

[daleo]

45. Liddy should stick to eating rats

Rather than commenting on their legal problems.

[bluedog]

46. Liddy is a real slime bucket.........fits in well with cheney

Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping and served four and a half years in prison before having his 20 year sentence commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
snip

Liddy is noted for certain unusual events in his childhood. For example: catching, cooking and eating a rat (in order to overcome a phobia to rats) and climbing a tree during a thunderstorm (in order to overcome a phobia to lightning).


Liddy concocted several far-fetched plots intended to "embarrass the Democratic opposition". Most were rejected, but one caught the eye of Nixon operatives in the White House, and Liddy organized the ill-conceived break-in of the Democratic National Campaign headquarters in the Watergate complex. Liddy and E. Howard Hunt also broke into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Ellsberg had leaked the Pentagon Papers and the Plumbers were hoping to find information they could use to discredit him.

One of Liddy's most famous feats of endurance would have to be where he would hold his hand on a candle flame until the flesh on his hand was burnt. According to the book "All The President's Men", he did this once at a dinner party and afterwards somebody asked, "What's the trick?" He replied, "The trick is not minding."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Gordon_Liddy

[damntexdem]

47. Well, if G. Gordon Liddy says that Rove is innocent, what more is needed?

Guilty, guilty, guilty!

[SoCalDem]

48. Wow.. Glad that issue is solved..Thanks GGordon

We can now all "move on".."get over it"..etc etc

[Robeson]

50. He's nothing but a later day Julius Streicher.....

...since when did he become a viable news source? :shrug:

[Daphne08]

53. Some of us are old enough to have memories and

a little bit of sense.

G. Gordon Liddy would do well to keep his mouth closed on this subject.

[Justice]

54. Perhaps he didn't break that law, but he broke other laws

He violated terms of the nondisclosure agreement.

[xxqqqzme]

55. when gig 'G' get a law degree?

n/t

[amber dog democrat]

56. That's just his opinion

as if he is qualified to know. He is still a political sociopath.

[TankLV]

57. A criminal, convicted fellon - said this? O Kaaaay!

And I should believe HIM, a lying, thieving, scum sucking criminal who sait he would run over his grandmother to help the repukes or some other similar idiotic thing, but not Wilson because Wilson farted some time in the past or some other such imperfection has be "discovered"?

O Kaaaaay!

[Vickers]

59. Thank God he's not the judge!

:eyes:

[Blue_Roses]

61. what a creep

But during his upcoming visit to the Hills, Liddy said he'll just be coming "with a bunch of guys out riding our Harleys and having a good time." He said he won't be bringing any of the beautiful women who may model for one of his "packed and stacked" calendars this time. Liddy said he heard there will be enough beautiful women up here already.

:eyes:

[Cocoa]

62. will Rove be a pundit in 30 years?

flash forward to 2035...

[spanone]

63. Fuck You Gordon Liddy. You, sir, are an asshole.

[kestrel91316]

66. Well somebody sure better call Fitz and .........................

tell him to back off! I am sure that as a lowly federal prosecutor he is clueless about such trivia as the US Criminal Code as it pertains to this case. Liddy is such a prominent authority, we had best listen only to him.:sarcasm:

[sleipnir]

67. "He often waxes eloquent on political issues of the day."

Understatement of the year.