May 05 2006
Fitz’s Folly
Sorry for the light posting. Lot’s of work and just nothing interesting in the news. I am wading through the filings and transcripts I have been posting on, but sloooooooowwwwwwllllly.
One thing to note are the comments coming in on the previous posts linking Wilson to an organization tied to Dana Priest at the time of the leak. And in that organizational linkage sat one Mary McCarthy. Interesting points readers are making.
One small thing before I head out for a while. Fitzgerald is trying to stop Team Libby from investigating the ‘true leaker’ in this case – the Unnamed Government Official (UGO). His argument is pathetic. He claims they have looked into all the reporters who knew about Plame:
The bottom line being, if he’s [Libby] trying to find out what reporters knew before July 14th, every reporter that we are aware of, which isn’t many, that knew before July 14 we have disclosed that to him.
Note to Fitz-Magoo: That list did not include one Bob Woodward at one point. In fact it did not include Judith Miller’s June 23 discussion at one point as well. That list does not include the authors of this incredibly well sourced Knight Ridder story from June 12 with upwards of 3 sources INSIDE THE CIA for the material. This one story explodes any claim Fitzgerald can make about knowing who knew about Plame in early June. We know Wilson shopped his story around and we know Kristof probably used Valerie Plame as a source (since his story claims to be from two people present at the debriefing at the Wilson home.
Really, all Team Libby need to do is bring in Landay (writer of the accurate Knight Ridder piece) and ask him is his sources were UGO (State) or Libby (PVP). When he says ‘no’, they were CIA, Libby can show how shoddy and blindered Fitzgerald was.
From the Knight Ridder article:
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“The CIA kept any reference to the former diplomat’s identity out of its March 2002 message to the White House.
The message quoted a CIA “source” as saying he had spoken to people close to the Niger government, former senior officials and people involved in the country’s mining industry, who all rejected the reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. The former ambassador said he believed what they were telling him.
The message contained the names of people to whom the source spoke, said the senior CIA official.
It wasn’t until February 2003 that the CIA obtained the original Iraq-Niger documents on which the uranium story was based, he said.
The documents were forwarded to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency. The next month, IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei told the U.N. Security Council that the documents were forgeries, a determination subsequently confirmed by U.S. officials.”
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So the CIA didn’t obtain Niger documents until February 2003, more than a year after Wilson’s trip. So how did he know the dates and the signatures were wrong.
WINPAC didn’t receive the documents until late January 2003, although CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where Plame worked, had them since they arrived from Rome in October 2002.
It sure would be interesting to find out who the sources for the Knight Ridder story were. However, they fall completely outside the scope of the Fitzgerald investigation, so we’ll never find out.
quote]Bulletin from the Libby Courtroom [Byron York]
Lewis Libby defense lawyer Theodore Wells told a federal judge a short time ago that the Libby defense team has located “five witnesses who will say under oath that Mr. [Joseph] Wilson told them his wife worked for the CIA.â€
Wells said he expects that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will call Wilson himself to the stand to rebut those accusations.
Today’s hearing concerning what evidence Fitzgerald is required to turn over to the Libby defense team turned into an extended discussion of whether jurors will be allowed to assess Joseph Wilson’s credibility vs. that of the administration as it concerns the reasons the U.S. went to war in Iraq. Prosecutor Fitzgerald told the court, “We don’t want to try the war. The courtroom is not a reasonable place to try the war. Judge Reggie Walton seemed to agree, saying, “I’m not going to let this case end up being a judicial examination of the legitimacy of the war.”
In the hearing, prosecutor Fitzgerald suggested that he would offer the Libby defense team some proof that Valerie Plame Wilson’s status at the CIA was classified. But as he had said earlier, Fitzgerald again said, “We will not offer any proof of actual damages” caused by the revelation of Plame’s identity, although Fitzgerald said “the issue of potential damage will come up several times” in the trial.[/quote] http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjI1MDA4YzhhMTlkYjBiMGJkYTRmM2QzMDFhYTBiYmY=
Oh boy, this investigation just gets funnier and funnier by the day.
If I understand what Fitzgerald is saying, it runs something like this.
On the one hand, he claims that the “leak” is irrelevant, that the only issue is perjury, etc. But on the other hand, during his marathon press conference he talked about harm or damage to the whole country resulting from revelation of Plame’s “classified” job status. Now, he acknowledges that he wants to do the same thing at trial! Problem: disclosure of classified information is not per se a crime, otherwise Wilson should be prosecuted for each time he said his wife worked at the CIA. So Fitzgerald wants the judge’s blessing to slyly hint to unsophisticated jurors that a covert (“classified”) officer was somehow “outed” but without presenting evidence that said officer was in fact covert under the IIPA, while at the same time conducting discovery as if the original referral based on the IIPA were irrelevant. I for one find this approach to be deeply dishonest and offensive.
I’m a little surprised at the judge’s forbearance. The defense certainly smelled this rat from the get go. Walton should pull the plug on this farce.
Byron York has reported that today in open Court Libby’s lawyers have said they will produce 5 witnesses who will testify under oath that Joe Wilson told them his wife worked for the CIA.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjI1MDA4YzhhMTlkYjBiMGJkYTRmM2QzMDFhYTBiYmY=
From the link:
In the hearing, prosecutor Fitzgerald suggested that he would offer the Libby defense team some proof that Valerie Plame Wilson’s status at the CIA was classified. But as he had said earlier, Fitzgerald again said, “We will not offer any proof of actual damages” caused by the revelation of Plame’s identity, although Fitzgerald said “the issue of potential damage will come up several times” in the trial.
Sheesh – what a bloody loser!
Oh sorry Clarice, I should have read the comments before I posted.
They have Five witnesses, and I know the pool they could be selected from
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/891
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/889
My starter list:
Gen Paul Vallely
John Gibson
Rand Beers (admitted as much to Boston Globe)
John Landay
Nicholas Kristof
Intrade has a Libby conviction on any one of the five charges at 30%.
This case is over.
I would love it to last long enough to get Joe Wilson and “FatBoy” Tim Russert on the stand.
Let’s see? Judge Reggie Walton thinks that Libby “can’t prove the justification for our war in Iraq?” How does this pass muster?
Libby is allowed to prove that he’s being railroaded. By a political cabal. Where’s justice?
Like Martha Stewart, we’ve got a black judge on the case. Are the blacks aware of blowback? Do they think they can keep sailing on their victimhood?
I’m glad Libby has great lawyers. But the judge is a dog.