Cheney Says He Can't Discuss CIA Leak Case

[ProSense]

Hunter Dick is now a deer caught in the headlights.

Cheney Says He Can't Discuss CIA Leak Case

13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday he would not discuss whether he had told a top aide to give secret information to reporters to help justify the invasion of Iraq.

"It's nothing I can talk about," Cheney said in an interview with Fox News Channel. "I may well be called as a witness at some point in the case and it's, therefore, inappropriate for me to comment on any facet of the case."

Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, testified to a grand jury that he was authorized to disclose in July 2003 the contents of a classified national intelligence estimate "by his superiors," according to court documents, which did not identify the superiors. Democrats have demanded to know whether Cheney was one of those superiors, noting that there was no higher ranking aide to the vice president than Libby, who reported directly to Cheney.

Cheney said there is an executive order that gives the vice president, along with the president, the authority to declassify information. But he said, "I don't want to get into" whether he has ever done it on his own.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_cia_leak_1

[joemurphy]

1. Of course not. Obedience of the laws of our country is the

hallmark of this administration. We can't get into the Vice-President authorizing Libby to leak classified information. That might constitute a leak.

[emulatorloo]

2. Adding to the mix - Gonzales withholding Cheney office emails from Fitz

<snip>

Gonzales Withholding Plame Emails
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Wednesday 15 February 2006

“Sources close to the investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have revealed this week that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not turned over emails to the special prosecutor's office that may incriminate Vice President Dick Cheney, his aides, and other White House officials who allegedly played an active role in unmasking Plame Wilson's identity to reporters.

Moreover, these sources said that, in early 2004, Cheney was interviewed by federal prosecutors investigating the Plame Wilson leak and testified that neither he nor any of his senior aides were involved in unmasking her undercover CIA status to reporters and that no one in the vice president's office had attempted to discredit her husband, a vocal critic of the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence. Cheney did not testify under oath or under penalty of perjury when he was interviewed by federal prosecutors.

The emails Gonzales is said to be withholding contained references to Valerie Plame Wilson's identity and CIA status and developments related to the inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Moreover, according to sources, the emails contained suggestions by the officials on how the White House should respond to what it believed were increasingly destructive comments Wilson had been making about the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence.

<snip>

way more at:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506J.shtml

DU Thread Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x430634

[Missy Vixen]

4. I seem to remember that

Gonzales had to recuse himself from any involvement in the investigation. Wouldn't withholding incriminating e-mails be seen as obstruction of justice?

Julie

[kenny blankenship]

3. You mean he declined to testify on the grounds that whatever he said would

be used to incriminate him?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. this thread ain't going anywhere

:kick:

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Whose Executive Order?

Did Bush give himself and Darth Birdshot the right to leak classified info?

:wtf:

[librechik]

7. Cheney lies to his own advantage constantly

never forget that

[HuffleClaw]

8. well, EXCEPT a pathetic attempt to cover libby's ass

with that crap about 'declassifying' stuff.

[ProSense]

9. Cheney Mishap Takes Focus Off CIA Leak

Text1:13 AM PST, February 16, 2006 latimes.com : National Politics

Cheney Mishap Takes Focus Off CIA Leak

By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

WASHINGTON -- It's not Dick Cheney's hunting mishap that worries Republicans. It's his other scandal -- the CIA leak case and the threat it poses to the embattled vice president.

Republican activists acknowledge that the accidental shooting of Cheney's friend is the talk of mainstream America and has made the vice president the butt of jokes. But they do not expect political fallout from the shooting or the clumsy way in which it was disclosed.

"It's hard to believe that anybody can make Dick Cheney a sympathetic figure," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. "That's what the media has done."

Republicans say they are pleasantly surprised that the intense media coverage of the hunting accident has shifted attention from the case of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff. Libby is accused of misleading investigators about who leaked the identify of a CIA official.

more...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-cheney-the-other-scandal,1,5767489.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Sympathetic figure? The man had an approval rating in the teens to low 20s.

It's both that worries the GOP. The spin is this article is making me dizzy.

[ProSense]

10. Buckley: KILLER CHENEY

Opinion

KILLER CHENEY

By William F. Buckley Jr.
1 hour, 56 minutes ago

This commentator rations himself to only one prediction every 15 years. Mine now is that there is going to be a devastating backlash in the months and years ahead in the matter of Cheney and the quail shoot.

Some critics of the administration are arguing as if Iraq were a subsidiary concern. What has been brought forth in the plains of Texas is the venal character of the vice president of the United States.

One columnist for The New York Times headlined his column, "Mr. Vice President, It's Time to Go." Resign, "for the sake of the country and" -- one inhales the purity of the writer's motives -- "for the sake of the Bush administration."

Now that gentleman's concern for the well-being of the Bush administration is on the level of his concern for the quail that Mr. Cheney did or did not kill (this is the only detail of the event unexplored by the historians). Why did the critic want Cheney to resign? Because "Mr. Cheney is arrogant, defiant and sometimes blatantly vulgar." Oh? Yes -- the critic arrived with documentation in hand: "He once told Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) to perform a crude act upon himself." You do not say! Well, that's the kind of thing one would expect from somebody who goes about crippling his friends while ostensibly aiming only at quail.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucwb/20060217/cm_ucwb/killercheney

[ProSense]

11. Media pronounce Cheney shooting story "over...despite lingering questions

Fri, Feb 17, 2006 6:20pm EST

Media pronounce Cheney shooting story "over"; declare he "stopped the political damage," despite lingering questions, contradictions

Summary: In recent days, media figures pronounced the story surrounding Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner "over," despite several unanswered questions regarding the incident and contradictory statements offered by Cheney and hunting party host Katharine Armstrong, whom Cheney said he designated to first report the incident.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200602170012

[Disturbed]

12. "Dick Cheney a sympathetic figure,"

The Corp Media has cast him as such? He seemed like the same lying jerk as he has always been in my view.

[ProSense]

13. Cheney's Secret Powers

Cheney's Secret Powers

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, February 17, 2006; 12:24 PM

Toward the end of an interview that was primarily about his accidental shooting of a hunting buddy, Vice President Cheney on Wednesday made a blunt but possibly unjustified assertion about his power to declassify government secrets. Then he clammed up.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/02/17/BL2006021701060.html

[ProSense]

14. More...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2469384&mesg_id=2469384

[ProSense]

15. A Private Shooting

Published on Sunday, February 19, 2006 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

A Private Shooting

by Dennis Roddy

Snip....

The police conduct what in legal jargon is known as "an investigation," then issue something called "a report." If one is an officeholder voted on by the general electorate, it is also reasonable to issue what in government is called "a press release," preferably telling what is in high circles sometimes fancifully known as "the truth."

Here is a sample:

From the Office of the Vice President:

The vice president today inadvertently shot his hunting partner while stalking quail. The individual bagged by Mr. Cheney was rushed to a hospital. He was not in season. The Secret Service immediately notified local police because, even in Texas, you're not supposed to shoot someone.

Instead, Mr. Cheney decided the matter was a private shooting, a theory that, while not codified in law, dovetails with the administration's compulsion to keep secret everything from warrantless wiretaps to mine safety inspection reports.

On the face of it, things seem somewhat straightforward: The vice president missed a quail, hit a friend, felt lousy about it and allowed his hostess -- Katharine Armstrong -- to handle press arrangements. Ms. Armstrong left a message on the voice mail of a local reporter. Word got out a day later. She is also the former head of the Texas agency whose agents were assigned to investigate the shooting.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0219-27.htm

[ProSense]

16. When silence isn't golden

Posted on Mon, Feb. 20, 2006

Cheney's Bad Aim

When silence isn't golden

By Leonard Pitts Jr.


Snip...

Point being, it is not scandal, war, corruption or anything else of national import. Nor does it carry any suggestion of nefarious behavior. Addressed promptly and openly, it's the kind of story that would ordinarily flare up and flare out in a day or two. Does anybody even remember the story about the guy who sustained minor injuries in a bike accident with President Bush last year?

To the degree this has metastasized into something more, it reflects disquiet over the closed nature of this administration and its utter disdain for the right of the people to know.

And Cheney's claim, made in the Fox interview, that somehow this boils down to media pique at having been kept out of the loop, is silly. It seems to have escaped his notice that he is the vice president of the United States. What happens to him and the President is of national interest. How many other bicycle mishaps made national news last year?

You have to ask yourself: If they're this close-mouthed about a hunting accident, what kinds of secrets do they keep on matters that matter? What information should you and I have that we don't? What things should we know that we won't until it's too late?

more...

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/13914495.htm

[daleo]

17. Cheney can't talk about Plame

"You can't talk to a man with a shotgun in his hand".

[ProSense]

18. Cheney to attend Kyl fundraiser in Tucson next month

Cheney to attend Kyl fundraiser in Tucson next month

Feb 22, 2006, 12:22 PM EST

Republican officials are hoping to attract upward of 500 people to a March 23 reception and dinner featuring Vice President Dick Cheney, who will be helping to raise money for Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl's re-election campaign.

Southern Arizona Republicans are enthusiastic about attending the $500-per-person event because they're eager to support conservatives like Cheney and Kyl, said auto dealer Jim Click, who is serving as chairman of the event.

Cheney has had a dark cloud hovering over him because of his hunting accident in Texas earlier this month. It's made the vice president the target of much ribbing but organizers speculate that all the attention might be working to their advantage.

"I've made over 60 calls and I've not gotten one no," said Jim Click. "But you know me, I'm a salesman."

more...

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4536183&nav=menu216_2

[underpants]

19. Didn't he comment on it when he declared that he could declassify things?

I'm just asking.

[AtomicKitten]

20. unless it's a leak to damage his opponent ...

then he has no problem talking about it.

[zulchzulu]

21. At least Cheney had the courage to go back on Fox News...

You know that takes a lot of courage...we should be so grateful.

[wicket]

22. They are coming undone at the seams

n/t