Apr 11 2006
Fitz-Magoo Stumbles Again!
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald-Magoo continues to fumble, bumble, stumble…
The federal prosecutor overseeing the indictment of Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, yesterday corrected an assertion in an earlier court filing that Libby had misrepresented the significance placed by the CIA on allegations that Iraq attempted to buy uranium from Niger.
Last week, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald wrote that, in conversation with former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Libby described the uranium story as a “key judgment” of the CIA’s 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, a term of art indicating there was consensus within the intelligence community on that issue. In fact, the alleged effort to buy uranium was not among the estimate’s key judgments and was listed further back in the 96-page, classified document.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, Fitzgerald wrote yesterday that he wanted to “correct” the sentence that dealt with the issue in a filing he submitted last Wednesday. That sentence said Libby “was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium.”
Instead, the sentence should have conveyed that Libby was to tell Miller some of the key judgments of the NIE “and that the NIE stated that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium.”
Translation: Whatever I (Fitz-Magoo) said was important actually was marginal…
Seems to sum up his entire case to date. Actually, what Fitzgerald is admitting in a backhanded way is that the Niger information from Wilson was of negligable import to the NIE. That’s a lot of crow to swallow since he is making a federal case out of a marginal matter. But then again, everything Fitzgerald is doing is marginal to the nation. It only appears important to a few sadly obsessed folks on the left.
Woopsie Daisy!…
Baloney! He lets this “mistake†brew and fester for a week before he issues a correction? Typical political maneuver by a man who is sinking as fast as the Titanic. He has charged one man over a 2.5 year investigation for PERJURY! That’s it…..
Too bad Linzner didn’t reference and correct her article (co-authored with Gellhorn) in Sunday’s paper on this issue:
Ledeen:
Linzer and Gellman say, referring to the phony documents, that “the evidence Cheney and Libby selected to share with reporters had been disproved months before.” And they add, in a triumphant tone reserved for the announcement of a knockout punch, that “the Bush administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair maintained they had additional, secret evidence they could not disclose. In June, a British parliamentary inquiry concluded otherwise, delivering a scathing critique of Blair’s role in promoting the story.”
But Linzer and Gellman are wrong, indeed so clearly wrong that it takes one’s breath away. The British government did indeed have information about Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium in Africa, and it wasn’t connected to the forgeries. And the definitive British parliamentary inquiry — the Butler Commission Report of July, 2004 — not only did not deliver “a scathing critique,” but totally endorsed the position of British intelligence. http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200604100726.asp
The news on TV says that Libby’s lawyers are going to call Karl Rove and Ari Fliecher to testify that they leaked Plame’s name.
I heard this early on TV so maybe I don’t have it exactly right.
This doesn’t sound like what you are saying.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aWzxmYKN1bpY&refer=us
Libby Says Bush, Cheney Didn’t Authorize CIA Agent’s Name Leak
April 13 (Bloomberg) — A former top administration official said President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized him to discuss with reporters intelligence on Iraq’s weapons program and didn’t authorize leaking a CIA agent’s name.
Former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, in documents filed late last night in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Bush and Cheney only authorized him to disclose once-classified details from a National Intelligence Estimate paper that they believed supported the president’s claims that Iraq was attempting to buy nuclear material in Niger….
Any argument by the government that the case involves only Libby and Cheney’s office “is a fairy tale,” said the 26-page document filed by Libby’s lawyers. “Mr. Libby’s actions were authorized at the highest levels of the executive branch.”
Libby’s attorneys made clear they intend to call as a witness Karl Rove, Bush’s top political adviser, to testify “regarding Mr. Libby’s conversations with Mr. Rove concerning reporters’ inquiries about Ms. Wilson.”…..
Fitzgerald and Libby are disputing how many government records, documents and memoranda Cheney’s former chief of staff is entitled to as he prepares his defense for his perjury trial in January 2007.
Fitzgerald last week cited Libby’s grand jury testimony in asserting that Bush authorized disclosure of classified information on Iraq’s weapons program to rebut war critics. The special counsel didn’t allege that Bush authorized aides to divulge the identity of Plame.
Libby’s lawyers underscored that point in their response last night. “Consistent with his grand jury testimony, Mr. Libby does not contend that he was instructed to make any disclosures concerning Ms. Wilson by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, or anyone else,” they said.