Note: for six years I was one of the original writers of the CIA Identities Law working for its original sponsor, Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
For the judge and jury, it is the Libby trial.
For America and American politics, it is the Dick Cheney trial and the stakes are far higher than reported in the media.
What has emerged in evidence so far, is not surprising, but it is astonishing. Vice-President Cheney was so deeply involved and obsessed with discrediting Joe Wilson that the impact and implications are enormous and underestimated.
The Vice President was choreographer of the attack on Wilson. He acted as though he was the Deputy White House political director and the Deputy White House press secretary. He was organizing meetings, drafting talking points and assigning which staff would talk to which reporter.
This is not what Vice Presidents do. This is more than an attack on his enemy Wilson. Most of us who have had high government positions have faced these situations, and launching a counter-attack could have been done far more discreetly and professionally.
Plus: the naming of the Plame name, at the very least, created harm to national security and was an unpatriotic act. The minute the Vice President, Libby, Rove, knew Valerie worked at the Agency in a Bureau that insiders would know immediately was highly sensitive, without any doubt triggered red lights, immediately.
When we were writing the original law, not one of us, could have ever imagined that identity disclosers would be high officials in the U.S. government. The law was aimed at people very hostile to the U.S., who were acting in a manner that helped the KGB.
It was unthinkable to all of us, that anyone involved in these disclosures, felonious or not, would be high in the U.S. government. Anyone who goes on television and says otherwise is a liar.
Why?
My theory, with substantial evidence to back it up, is that the danger of Joe Wilson was not the damage that Wilson's view did to the Administration policy. It was the danger that Wilson's work would unravel a long term, well planned, highly deceptive campaign that preceded Joe's involvement to deceive the country to drive us to war.
Prediction: major plea bargaining either has begun, or will begin, before the verdict and watch out if Libby sings in a plea deal.
Prediction: the original defense argument that Libby was a fall guy for others, would only anger and inflame the judge and jury. It is no defense to say that others might have committed similar or related crimes and that is the impression this argument created.
Watch this: the sequence of events that could be explosive includes a) the original Cheney deposition to Fitzgerald, then b) testimony on the record of extensive and absurd involvement by the Vice President to the micro-level on the attack against Wilson, leading to c) Cheney's testimony in the trial if it happens.
The prosecutor and jury will compare what Cheney said in the deposition, what facts emerged in the trial, and Cheney's testimony at trial. Do not be surprised if the word pardon appears in the press, though the reaction would be as strong as the Saturday Night Massacre in the Nixon years.
The Surprise: what will shock people will be when the Senate Intelligence Committee releases its report on pre-war intelligence, which was covered up by the Republican Committee before the elections.
Brent Budowsky is a regular columnist on thehill.com. He served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management.
When this story first broke some thing inside me said, "This is it," this is the one case that will break them. This whole affair is so insidious, petty and vapid.
And it's proving out to be true.
Nothing shows the putrid under-belly of this administration better than the Plame/Wilson case. How low these people are is on shining display for all to see ans even the most rabid followers of bush&co. have to be shamed by this one.
If they told libby he could leave the court house tomorrow, a free man, the court of public opinion would still find them quilty.
This leak will sink this ship
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 20 diaries, 1781 comments)
on Friday, February 2, 2007 at 11:30:06 PM
It was a "kill two Birds with one stone" philosphy
Not only was Joe Wilson discrediting the fabrications of the Bush (Cheney) White House (and needed to be "taken down")..but they also outed an agent who knew that Iraq was not proliferating any nuclear or other wmd's..I truly think that Ms. Plame and her intelligence team..under cover as Brewster-Jennings was the real threat to the lies of this administration in invading Irag....(I mean, who wouldn't pay attention to CIA intelligence, besides Bush and Cheney) its odd to me that the media as well as most writers focus on Joe Wilson..when it seems more likely that they were really trying to discredit the CIA operative in non-proliferation expertise, Joe is just the bait and switch
by
Susan Nelsen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 277 comments)
on Saturday, February 3, 2007 at 2:06:02 PM
Surely This is Proof beyond one shadow of any doubt that we have ourselves one corrupt regime lording it over Our White House. Thank You, Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for Taking All the Time you Needed..to Scent the trail out to where it led to. [ I do believe you learned, early on, where the trail would end...but you, being the cautious man you are, did all the crossing 't's' and dotting 'I's you needed before coming to Trial.] NO Pardons. Bush is one of the main 'players' in this fiasco. So. since he should have his hole dug by now, same as Cheney... They both must go together...Along with the rest of their Little henchmen. I doubt you left any one of them a'loop=hole' to climb out of ! When This is a Done Deal Trial and only the sentencing to be done... Please Get the Whole Truth Investigation out to the People concerning the planned and carried out attack of 9/!!. WE have been patient far too long already. It Must come out, and Justice meted out to All who were envolved with this planned 'tragedy on our soil.' No better man to handle this than yourself. You surely do merit a rest after this "Plame Trial', but you, Sir, must not rest until This Truth Is out to the whole world. Only then can we all begin to mend as best we can, and attempt to right the insidious wrongs that have been done to So many. Not until. WE Know Libby is small potatoes compared to the Eventual results he helped instigate upon this Country , and onto the world. Thank you, Prosecutor Fitzgerald ..for your devotion to Truth and Justice. Would you consider being Our President ?[ We have been sorely in need of one for the last ten-twelve years, for Sure !] Thank YOU ! VGF
by
VGFlick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 76 comments)
on Saturday, February 3, 2007 at 2:07:44 PM
3 comments
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