*** Special to The BRAD BLOG
*** by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns
After sitting in on the Libby trial every other day and posting about it on BRAD BLOG, I had intended not to write further about the matter barring new developments. Unfortunately, the rightwing spin machine has launched a new campaign of misstatements that sound intentional.
So much for respecting authority, upholding the law, and appreciating honest hard work: now that a conscientious jury has rendered a verdict of guilty on four of five counts of perjury and obstructing justice for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the GOP noise machine is vilifying the prosecution and smarmily denying any wrongdoing, any at all, in the CIA leak.
So much for conservatism.
Well, bad sports are bad sports, anywhere on the political spectrum. Still, the brazen willingness of commentators subsidized by Rupert Murdoch or the Bradley Foundation to falsify every significant fact in the Libby matter, usually without having sat even one day in court for the trial, is pretty much typical of their work ethic and intellectual rigor.
Sunday morning’s talk shows were representative. George F. Will and Torie Clarke on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos downplayed the CIA leak matter by saying the whole thing “all arose from one column” (Will), a column not very important at that (Clarke).
The right wing is trying hard to keep this one alive. But trial evidence and testimony have revealed that the attempt to “leak” ““ actually, plant ““ Mrs. Wilson’s name with the media began BEFORE Wilson’s column was published.
Wonder why GOP supporters of George W. Bush find that so uninteresting….
A March 9 syndicated column by PNAC signatory Charles Krauthammer more than represents the talking points:
• Krauthammer says that the prosecution had “No conspiracy, no felony, no crime, not even the claim that she was a covert agent covered by the nondisclosure law.” This last item seems to imply that Valerie Plame was not a covert operative (Krauthammer leaves the implication indirect). But Valerie Plame was covert, and the nondisclosure agreement signed, presumably willingly, by Libby when he took his administration job was one of the trial exhibits. Neither Plame’s covert status nor the nondisclosure agreement could be hammered in court, however ““ because they would have been too prejudicial for the defense to overcome. The prosecution was not allowed to argue Mrs. Wilson’s covert status or to discuss her outing; those issues were ruled out. Meanwhile, the other items in Krauthammer’s list pretty much comprise “obstruction of justice”: successful lies do prevent an investigation from returning indictments on, for example, conspiracy and felony.
• Emphasizing the universal and undeniable fallibility of memory, Krauthammer spends four paragraphs leading up to his formulation that Libby was convicted for “Misstating when he first heard a certain piece of information, namely the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife.” Ironically, the commentator does here what the defendant could not — emphasize the faultiness of his memory. If Libby had taken the witness stand, he could have talked about the faultiness of his memory as much as he wanted. But he did not, and since only the defendant can speak to what is in his own mind, the “memory defense” was attenuated. (The defense team still got plenty of memory/busy man language into the trial; it was by no means kept out entirely, as anyone who actually heard the trial would know.) Furthermore, what is important about “the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife” ““ that would be Valerie Plame Wilson, whose identity was revealed by Robert Novak after Bob Woodward and even Judith Miller hesitated to expose it ““ is that she was 1) a CIA WMD analyst, according to current and former CIA personnel who testified in the trial, and also according to a note from VP Cheney himself; and 2) married to the former ambassador who took a trip to Niger to check out the bogus Niger/uranium/Iraq story. “The identity of Joe Wilson’s wife” is not some bagatelle. Also it would be particularly important to Libby, who according to a trial document was “in charge” of the Niger/uranium topic. (Again, the prosecution was not allowed to emphasize this point.)
• Pursuing the “busy man” defense, Krauthammer says that Libby “was famously multitasking a large number of national security and domestic issues, receiving hundreds of pieces of information every day from dozens of sources. Yet special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald chose to make Libby’s misstatements about the timing of the receipt of one piece of information — Mrs. Wilson’s identity — the great white whale of his multimillion-dollar prosecutorial juggernaut.” The grain of truth here is that undeniably Libby was in over his head. So were Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Rove and all the other underqualified, overpromoted individuals presuming to rearrange the destiny of a nation halfway around the world. Listening to lengthy testimony by Libby ally John Hannah, describing Libby and other personnel trying to determine “governance issues” for Iraq, was like a quick refresher course in the banality of evil: How could these individuals presume to wreck and destroy a nation ““ and a culture strange to them, at that ““ without even admitting what they were doing? (It is a tribute to the protections afforded to defendants in our system, or at least to some defendants, that the word “oil” seldom arose in trial.) However, Libby’s multitasking, as testimony and documents showed, included numerous discussions, queries or lengthy meetings involving Mrs. Wilson; and in fact impelled him to take directions from Cheney, his boss, involving her, and to get in touch with the press about her ““ along with Rove, Armitage, and others.
• Krauthammer’s phrase “the timing of the receipt of one piece of information ““ Mrs. Wilson’s identity” is misleading. Had Krauthammer heard the testimony, he would have heard from several witnesses that Libby received that “one piece of information” about Mrs. Wilson over and over again ““ including from his boss, the Vice President. (Many of us tend to remember something better when we hear it repeated. Remember “WMD”? The “mushroom cloud”? “Al Qaeda”?)
It is probably useless to hope for fairness or forbearance, from the over-subsidized media cadre that has never expressed a decent level of concern over Iraqi lives lost in Iraq or American votes lost in the United States. But you really would think they could refrain from blatantly false assertions about something like the status of a CIA analyst and a covert one at that.
(Ed note: If there’s still any questions about that last point — and apparently there must be, because the wingnut apologists for CIA agent outting keep repeating the falsehood that “she was not covert” over and over again — we’ll refer again to Plame’s former CIA colleague, Larry Johnson on that specific point. As well, Joe Wilson mentioned the fact twice, and even identified her as the most covert type of operative, a NOC (non-official cover) agent, in his post-verdict interview on MSNBC.)
Meanwhile, in all this, even smaller questions like ‘who stole that letterhead stationery from the Niger Embassy in Rome?’ or ‘who forged those documents about a purported Niger-Iraq deal?’ or ‘who told Cheney about Mrs. Wilson in the first place, and why?’ go unanswered. Maybe that’s the main point of this mini-campaign against the verdict — to distract attention from unanswered questions.
Given the proclivities and failures of the corporate mainstream media to counter such bogus information — and in fact, lend it legitimacy by airing it in the first place despite its demonstrable falseness — we suspect the campaign will have much success indeed.
The right wing attitude is the most sociopathic attitude I have ever seen. Anything their people do must be a divine right, doesn’t count that it is dishonest, pure evil. And even proven crooked they defend it !
Mary Matalin on IMUS this morning acting outraged that Libby was found guilty.
Just totally unbelievable !
Ms Burns–keep writing about this. I heared somebody representing the National Review on NPR today with the argument “this never should have been prosecuted–it’s a political matter, not a legal one—Valerie was never covert–” blah-blah-blah.
A lie said loud enough and often enough becomes the truth in the minds of many, and this cannot be allowed to happen.
Libby us not a sacrificial lamb either. Libby is NeoCon who was co-signer with all the NeoCon luminaries for New American Century game plan. And they meant it. The goal was to domainate the 21st Century. He was not taking one for his boss. You could argue he was doing what he believed: undermining the truth, pushing back against a truculent CIA, outing an agent and her cover organization, AND ALSO lying in a Federal investigation. I think think the “poor Scooter” theme is the one that should be shot down big time.
Thank you for this story.
This falls under sad but true. What i strongly object to is the use of the word CONSERVATIVE to describe their actions and policies. This does not fit any definition of the root ” to conserve.” If anything, bushit policies are completely the 180 degree opposite. Any previous political definition used to describe the Republican party is NO LONGER APPLICABLE.
American Fascism defined as “Corporatism” is the appropriate word to describe the Bush administration. Other appropriate words:UN-AMERICAN TORTURERS, IMPERIALISTIC, LYING, GREEDY, MURDEROUS ARRRH ALL USER FRIENDLY TO DESCRIBE THIS ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP OF CRIMINALS.
The corporate mainstream media IS the Rightwing Noise machine!!! You are exactly right, when you interchange Stephanopolous’s show with “Rightwing Noise Machine.” If the CMSM simply gives a forum to these corporate fascist non-conservatives who claim they are conservatives, then the CMSM IS the “Rightwing Noise Machine.”
The truth on this must be repeated and repeated and repeated as often as their lies are.
The destruction of the Brewster-Jennings & Associates cover by the outing of Plame destroyed an ongoing multi-million dollar, multi-nation program to track/stop WMD going to terrorists and “terrorist-supporting states.”
The destruction of B-J harmed American and international interests and made us LESS safe.
The destruction of B-J may have caused the death of U.S. agents and others cooperating with them. (Hopefully, we find this out on Friday at Congressional hearings.)
The destruction of B-J & A was either an inadvertent mistake or an obvious outcome of outing Plame — either way, totally unacceptable from members of the White House, who did it for purely POLITICAL purposes, either without regard for the horrible consequences or without understanding of them, and then covered it up.
This was TREASON.
To put it in pop culture terms (and suitable for a t-shirt), the outing of Plame and ruining of the Brewster-Jennings & Associates project was: “a BJ that actually MATTERS!”
Do not let the truth be drowned out by Rethuglican lies repeated and spun in the right-wing media echo chamber.
The truth of Brewster-Jennings & Associates shows that Rethuglicans do NOT care about protecting America. Rethuglicans do NOT care about stopping the terrorists. And Rethuglicans DO NOT CARE about our troops.
Metaphorically speaking, daddy was drunk and left the keys in the front door and the house was robbed and the car stolen. Daddy Rethuglicans are NOT doing their job — they are binge drinking & running up the credit cards on coke and hookers.
All anybody needs to say about whether Plame was covert or not is ask: “Who asked for the investigation of the outing of a covert agent? It was the CIA, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t they know if their agent was covert, or not?” That is all that it should take. If you can’t get them to understand that, they’re too dumb to live.
#4 BIG DAN:
The corporate mainstream media IS the Rightwing Noise machine as you state but is called the “liberal press” by the Rightwing Noise machine to further bais their message (Noise)! 😉
Halliburton is moving to Dubai. Why? I alledge that they owe Cheney millions and millions for the good work he did for them as VP. In four years we’ll all be suprised to learn that he is now a billionaire$$$$.
Bob, #8, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cheney is already a billionaire, if one included the assets transferred to his family members’ names so he could run for President of Vice. Whatever’s not in that “blind trust” doesn’t get counted toward his assets at all.
I think halliburton is moving off-shore so they can avoid those pesky taxes, while still benefitting from the U.S. taxpayers’ largessse.
Back on topic, tho —
I’ve said it for years that the Republican Party has been over-ridden by moral relativists for whom the end justifies the means. It’s a real shame. And they’ve fooled a lot of people into believing that they are the party of morality. The morality of greed is what they really stand for.
They were all up in arms about Clinton lying uner oath, and yet, when one of their own does it, they can’t tapdance fast enough trying to explain their way out of this one, whining, “but this is different!”
Heh. So much for their reverence on the rule of law. Hypocrites.
Krauthammer, Matlin, William Kristol, et al…would be fringe kook lunatics, if the corporate mainstream media didn’t get taken over by them. That’s exactly what they were BEFORE they took it over. All these people were considered radical fringe lunatics, and they had a plan…to infiltrate/takeover the corporate mainstream media…and THEY DID IT!!!!!!!
Why is Krauthammer, Matlin, William Kristol, Newt Gingrich, etc…why are there views on the tip of everyone’s tongues??? Why are the views of these UNELECTED FRINGE LUNATICS so influential? Because they are always on TV!!! Or Krauthammer’s views get sent to Limbaugh and Hannity for talking points, and then they make their way onto the corporate TV and newspapers. The views of a minority of fringe radical KOOKS are now mainstream…only because they are trumpetted like a blowhorn via the CMSM.
An enormous amount of American people want national health care, but it’s never on the news. Never talked about. But “Libby should be pardonned” or “Plame was covert” is blared all over ANBCBSNNX.
ELECTED officials Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, Ted Kennedy, etc… are not on TV ONE-ONE-HUNDRETH the time of UNELECTED TO ANYTHING: Matlin, William Kristol, Gingrich, AEI “experts”, etc…
ANBCBSNNX: When was the last time you had Bernie Sanders on??? Remember? We elected him Senator of the United States?
Oh, no…we have to hear the latest from WILLIAM KRISTOL!!! Not people we elected!!!
ANBCBSNNX: What’s the latest from Ron Paul??? What are his views on things??? OH, I FORGOT!!! Ron Paul is a REAL conservative, so he’s blacked out of the CMSM!!!
Ed note: If there’s still any questions about that last point — and apparently there must be, because the wingnut apologists for CIA agent outting keep repeating the falsehood that “she was not covert” over and over again…
Patrick Fitzgerald stated in his most recent press conference that it’s a fact that Valerie Wilson’s relationship with the CIA was classified. In other words, no one knew or was supposed to know she worked for the CIA.
Hope that clears it up for everyone.
– Tom
Hey gang, when “you can’t handle the truth” you have to sleep with the lie.
Hear the right wing SNORE???!!!
Big Dan, Ron Paul was on Live Journal this morning on c-span. He declared he’s running for President. He is one hell of a man. He believes in the constitution and thinks the country should be run according to it. You can see it here http://www.c-span.org/ He also has a website http://www.ronpaulexplore.com/h...outRon_fs.html
Direct link to Ron Paul on c-span http://www.c-span.org/videoarch...rchiveDays=100
Laura:
Ron Paul is the most enigmatic man in America. It would be great to see him enter the race!
The slimy George Will better start getting some dirt on Mr. Paul.
Hey George Wills. Those articles you wrote were, just like you said, “just an article”. The one Joe Wilson wrote is just THE article to bring down the White House.
Or as Bush’s daddy used to love to say “watch and learn.”
Laura: But does ANBCBSNNX have Ron Paul on, to extensively cover his views on things? We know William Kristol’s views, because FOR SOME UNKNOW REASON HE’S ALWAYS ON TV!!!!!!!!!
Brewster-Jennings & Associates.
Lack of body armour.
V.A. in shambles.
Medical treatment for vets at Reed.
The myth of the Rethuglicans being the party that supports the military and the soldiers is falling apart.
Without the “daddy mime” the Rethuglicans have NOTHING except tax breaks for the super-rich, trashing the enviornment, and replacing living wage jobs with service jobs and unemployment. Oh, yeah, and an economy fueled by home buying by those with bad credit getting low-front-end, low-interest-with-balloon, loans that are now coming due (whooops, a few years early).
The daddy mime is dead, and with it, soon, the Rethuglican Party.