State Secret: Cheney the Unblushing Liar
« on: 2009-10-31 10:23:06 »
Cheney told FBI agents he had no idea who leaked Valerie Plame's CIA identity
Source: AP News Authors: Pete Yost Dated: 2009-10-30
Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.
An FBI summary of Cheney's interview from 2004 reflects that the vice president had deep concern about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa who said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the probe of who leaked Plame's identity to the news media. At the end of Libby's trial, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that "there is a cloud over the vice president" in the leaking of Plame's identity.
Following Libby's conviction, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence but rejected Cheney's vehement appeals to pardon Libby.
The 28-page FBI interview summary was released Friday to a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to get the material under the Freedom of Information Act.
In the interview, whose participants included Fitzgerald, Cheney told agents that he did not recall having a conversation about either Plame or her husband with Bush.
The vice president said he probably discussed Wilson with Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, but told the FBI he would not have talked to Rove about Wilson's wife.
Cheney's denials that he talked about Plame are among the few things in the lengthy interview with the FBI that Cheney appeared certain about. He repeatedly said he could not recall key events. Among them, he said he did not recall discussing Wilson's wife with Libby before her CIA employment was publicly revealed by conservative columnist Robert Novak in mid-July 2003.
Evidence at Libby's criminal trial showed that Cheney had told Libby about Wilson's wife in mid-June 2003.
According to courtroom testimony, Rove was one of Novak's sources for his column disclosing Plame's CIA identity and Rove and Libby were sources for Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, who also wrote a story identifying Plame.
Cheney said he was not aware of any discussions Libby may have had with Rove about Wilson or Wilson's wife, and Cheney said Libby did not tell him about any such discussions.
The vice president advised the agents that he had no idea what Libby knew on the days before Plame's CIA identity was publicly revealed.
Cheney said he did not recall if he told Libby about Wilson's wife and her employment at the CIA or if Libby revealed to the vice president his independent knowledge about that fact.
In a New York Times opinion piece in July 2003, Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy a uranium "yellowcake," in the African nation of Niger. Bush referred to the yellowcake during his Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union speech to Congress as he was trying to rally support for going to war with Iraq. Yellowcake is a powdered form of uranium that could be used in a nuclear weapon if purified and enriched.
The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports. Wilson brought back denials of any sale and argued such a sale was not likely to happen.
In his FBI interview, Cheney said his initial reaction to the Wilson article was his sense that it was "amateur hour" out at the CIA.
Cheney said The New York Times piece was disturbing. Cheney said he was most disturbed because it was now being made to look as though the vice president had personally sent Wilson on the trip. The vice president said that all he had done was to make a legitimate inquiry of a CIA briefer in February 2002 about Niger and Iraq.
Plame was outed in Novak's column as a CIA employee eight days after Wilson attacked the administration in The New York Times piece.
22 Things Dick Cheney Can't Recall About the Plame Case
Source: Mother Jones Authors: Nick Baumann Dated: 2009-10-30
Notes from former Vice President Dick Cheney's interview with the FBI about the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert CIA identity were finally released on Friday afternoon after a lengthy legal battle. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the Justice Department last year to obtain the interview notes; a judge finally ordered their release on October 1. In the interview, Cheney demonstrated a behavior common among Bush administration officials under investigation: he couldn't remember much of anything. Here's a non-comprehensive list of 22 things Dick Cheney claimed he couldn't recall about the Plame case, in the order they appear in the FBI's notes:
Whether the Wilson trip was discussed during any of the visits he made to the CIA with his Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby.
Any reaction he had to Nicholas Kristof's New York Times' article about the Wilson visit at the time the article was published.
Whether he discussed the Wilson situation with George Tenet at their meeting on June 10, 2003.
Who he spoke to about Joe Wilson's July 6, 2003 editorial (he did remember speaking to someone, but not who it was).
What happened to the Joe Wilson op-ed after he wrote on it suggesting that Valerie Plame Wilson had sent Joe Wilson on a "junket," and put it in his outbox.
Any specific advice he gave his press people in the May-June 2003 timeframe regarding the Wilson trip to Niger.
Whether he discussed the Wilson situation with Eric Edelman, one of his national security advisers.
Whether Cathie Martin, his press secretary, entered his office while both he and Scooter Libby were present and advised both of them that Joe Wilson's wife was employed by the CIA.
Discussing Joe Wilson or Wilson's wife with his former press secretary Mary Matalin, although he said it was possible.
Ever discussing Valerie Plame Wilson with Libby prior to the publication of Novak's column.
Whether Scooter Libby knew about Valerie Plame Wilson on July 12, the day before the publication of the Novak column.
If Libby ever told Cheney he had independent knowledge of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity
Dictating notes to Libby on July 12, 2003 that Cheney said looked and sounded like something he might have dictated to Libby.
Discussing the Novak column or any of its contents with anyone at the time it was published.
Whether he discussed the Wilson trip with Libby as a sort of "boondoggle" or "junket," although he believed it possible that he had such a conversation.
If Libby told him that Libby was not Novak's source.
Libby telling him how he first learned that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative.
Whether he told Libby that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative.
Waving off Libby when Libby offered to tell him everything he knew about the Wilson matter.
Anyone on his staff, including Libby, ever meeting with Judith Miller during the week of July 7, 2003.
Having a conversation with Libby during which Libby said he wanted to share the judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate with Judith Miller.
Whether Libby told him that certain material in the NIE had to be declassified before it could be shared.
For an interview conducted around a year after the events in question, the Vice President seems to have forgotten a lot, including one very crucial detail: whether he told Libby about Valerie Plame Wilson.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
What? No mention whatsoever of the universally acknowleged primary source for Robert Novak's story, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who had most likely simply assumed, possibly after viewing the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame Vanity Fair profile, that Valerie Plame was a public CIA employee rather than a covert operative? Novak also checked with both Karl Rove and CIA spokeman William Harlow (but NOT with Scooter Libby). Remember that the bureaucratic cultures at both the State Department and the CIA at the time were opposed to Dubya's Iraq policy (which might partially explain their acceptance of anti-Bush Valerie Plame's recommendation of her anti-Bush husband Joe Wilson for the Niger mission), even though Dubya's Iraq policy was also Bill Clinton's - the US Congress had passed the Iraqi Regime Change Act in 1998, and President Bill Clinton had signed it into law.
John Kerry for president supporter (and Al Gore for president supporter before that) Joe Wilson told his CIA debriefers that an Iraqi representative had sought to 'expand commercial relations' with Niger, then asserted that there was no attempt by Iraq to buy yellowcake from Niger in a New York Times article. But an Iraqi trade delegation had indeed visited Niger and a member of it had contacted Niger's Prime Minister - and for what? Their two major exports are yellowcake and goats, and Iraq already had plenty of goats. It also turned out to have hundreds of tons of unprocessed yellowcake, which were removed from the Al Qaqaa facility by the US after they toppled Saddam's regime. Dubya's 2002 State of the Union assertion that Iraq had sought yellowcake from Niger was thus perhaps slightly speculative but not demonstrably false (he never claimed that yellowcake had been obtained from them - though they obviously obtained a shitload of it from somewhere).
But people here can feel free to read all about the Plame affair in the Wikipedia entry; I most sincerely doubt that the recently released interview summary will inspire any substantial updates to it:
You're not seriously suggesting that either Cheney or Rove TOLD Armitage to out Plame to Novak, are you? Or that he actually would have DONE such a thing at either of their behests?
Because nobody even remotely approaching sane believes anything like that.
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