Libbygate: Now Let's Get to the Real Story - Lindorff, commondreams.org

[greyl]

Published on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

Libbygate: Now Let's Get to the Real Story
by Dave Lindorff

So Scooter Libby has taken the fall.

Three and a half years and a long bloody war after he and a gang of war-mongers in the White House and Blair House, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney, set out to undermine and trash the reputation of an Iraq war critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Libby has been found guilty of perjury, lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice by a Washington jury.

Now maybe special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and what passes for journalists in the mainstream media can get down to the real business of finding out just why the entire White House smear operation was unleashed upon a minor state department official and why they went so far as to violate federal law and expose his CIA-operative wife, Valerie Plame, in the process destroying her entire network of contacts for monitoring the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Because that's what this whole Libby story is really about.
the good stuff

[Maccagirl]

1. Thank you, Mr. Lindorff

His points are the alpha and the omega baby.

[ClayZ]

2. Big K and R

[pampango]

3. "a minor state department official"?

Hey, Joe is not going to like that. ;}

Other than that great article about the case.

[greyl]

4. It's been claimed that the forged documents had nothing to do with Wilson's trip, but

I don't think that claim holds up. It's based on an article by Susan Schmidt at washingtonpost.com which later had to be corrected. Am I missing something?

"The former ambassador said that he may have misspoken to the reporter when he said he concluded the documents were forged."

At issue here, an article in The Washington Post in which you were the source, you acknowledge being the source. You spoke of forged documents long before anyone ever knew that they were forged.

WILSON: No, no, that's wrong.

First of all, I was one of several sources.

Secondly, that article appeared in June. And, in fact, on March 7th of that year, Dr. El Baradei had described to the U.N. that these documents were forgeries.

In addition to that, on March 24th, I think, for the March 30th issue of The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh wrote a long article about it, in which he laid out the facts based upon an interview he had with the International Atomic Energy Agency...

BLITZER: So when the committee says that you told them you had misspoken, what did you misspeak?

WILSON: Well, actually, what I misspoke was, when I misspoke to the committee, when I spoke to the staff -- this interview took place 15 months after The Washington Post article appeared. I did not have a chance to review the article. They did not show me the article.
cnn.com transcript

...the tale begins at the end of 2001, when third-rate forged documents turned up in West Africa purporting to show the sale by Niger to Iraq of tons of "yellowcake" uranium. Italy's intelligence service obtained the documents and shared them with British spooks, who passed them on to Washington. Mr. Cheney's office got wind of this and asked the C.I.A. to investigate.
The agency chose a former ambassador to Africa to undertake the mission, and that person flew to Niamey, Niger, in the last week of February 2002.
Kristoff, CNN.com Friday, June 13, 2003

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. Kick and Recommend! nt

[babylonsister]

6. K&R. nt

[Dinger]

7. Wow, Good Stuff Indeed (nt)

[progressoid]

8. Um, excuse me, but Mr. Fitzgerald is packing his bags and heading back to Illinois.

"I do not expect to file any further charges. Basically the investigation was inactive prior to the trial. I would not expect to see any further charges filed," Fitzgerald said.

"We're all going back to our day jobs."

[greyl]

9. Yes, and Al Gore doesn't expect to be a candidate. ;)

Fitz clocking-out doesn't mean there's no continuing story here, does it?

[progressoid]

10. No, but I keep reading that people expect Fitz to keep on fighting.

As the post from Commondreams said, "Now maybe special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and what passes for journalists in the mainstream media can get down to the real business of finding out just why the entire White House..."

The fact is, that ain't gonna happen with Fitzgerald.

[wildbilln864]

11. Kicking .

good post! :hi: