Cheney implied in CIA leak?
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un-Touch'd krew
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Cheney implied in CIA leak?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060210/pl_nm/bush_leak_dc
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney directed his aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby to use classified material to discredit a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq war effort, the National Journal reported on Thursday.
Court papers released last week show that Libby was authorized to disclose classified information to news reporters by "his superiors," in an effort to counteract diplomat Joe Wilson's charge that the Bush administration twisted intelligence on Iraq's nuclear weapons to justify the 2003 invasion.
The National Journal, a U.S. weekly magazine, citing attorneys familiar with the matter, reported that Cheney was among those superiors referred to in a letter from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Libby's lawyers.
A lawyer for Cheney had no immediate comment.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, faces perjury and other charges in the leak of the identity of Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, a move that effectively ended her career at the
CIA.
Libby has pleaded not guilty to five counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice.
Cheney's name has surfaced in other court documents as well. According to an appeals-court decision made public last Friday, "the vice-president informed Libby 'in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion"' that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA one month before her identity was made public.
Both documents cite testimony Libby made to a grand jury.
Lawyers for Libby could not be reached for comment.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, said Cheney's efforts to discredit Wilson could have risked national security.
"The Vice President's vindictiveness in defending the misguided war in Iraq is obvious. If he used classified information to defend it, he should be prepared to take full responsibility," Kennedy said in a statement.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to comment.
"Our policy is we're not going to discuss this while there's an ongoing legal proceeding," McClellan told reporters.
hmmmmm....interesting since Bush said he would fire whoever was responsible. Not all the news is in yet but this is the lead up to an interesting case for sure.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney directed his aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby to use classified material to discredit a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq war effort, the National Journal reported on Thursday.
Court papers released last week show that Libby was authorized to disclose classified information to news reporters by "his superiors," in an effort to counteract diplomat Joe Wilson's charge that the Bush administration twisted intelligence on Iraq's nuclear weapons to justify the 2003 invasion.
The National Journal, a U.S. weekly magazine, citing attorneys familiar with the matter, reported that Cheney was among those superiors referred to in a letter from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Libby's lawyers.
A lawyer for Cheney had no immediate comment.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, faces perjury and other charges in the leak of the identity of Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, a move that effectively ended her career at the
CIA.
Libby has pleaded not guilty to five counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice.
Cheney's name has surfaced in other court documents as well. According to an appeals-court decision made public last Friday, "the vice-president informed Libby 'in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion"' that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA one month before her identity was made public.
Both documents cite testimony Libby made to a grand jury.
Lawyers for Libby could not be reached for comment.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, said Cheney's efforts to discredit Wilson could have risked national security.
"The Vice President's vindictiveness in defending the misguided war in Iraq is obvious. If he used classified information to defend it, he should be prepared to take full responsibility," Kennedy said in a statement.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to comment.
"Our policy is we're not going to discuss this while there's an ongoing legal proceeding," McClellan told reporters.
hmmmmm....interesting since Bush said he would fire whoever was responsible. Not all the news is in yet but this is the lead up to an interesting case for sure.
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I need sleep...
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From: NH
I honestly hope that Cheney did not do this, afterall he did testify before a grand jury and could be implicated in lying. If he did do, as the Journal reports, then he should step down and save the administration any more pain and embarrasment.
The sad part is that someone in the Administration was merely discrediting the lies Joe Wilson was spreading as the truth. Everything Wilson has said has already been discredited by the 9/11 commission.
The sad part is that someone in the Administration was merely discrediting the lies Joe Wilson was spreading as the truth. Everything Wilson has said has already been discredited by the 9/11 commission.
Stuff and things.
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Wilson said that Iraq never tried to buy enriched yellowcake from Niger. Apparently there was an Iraqi delegation sent to Niger in 1999 that proposed some kind of increased commercial relationship, but prime minister Ibrahim Assane Mayaki wasn't about to violate UN trade sanctions, so nothing came of it. What the 9/11 Commission say about it?
Regardless, Cheney was trying to hide the facts about Iraq so he could continue to publicly justify a war that never should have happened. Thanks, Vice President Asshat. I hope you go to jail.
Regardless, Cheney was trying to hide the facts about Iraq so he could continue to publicly justify a war that never should have happened. Thanks, Vice President Asshat. I hope you go to jail.
I need sleep...
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From: NH
Originally Posted by benjamin
Wilson said that Iraq never tried to buy enriched yellowcake from Niger. Apparently there was an Iraqi delegation sent to Niger in 1999 that proposed some kind of increased commercial relationship, but prime minister Ibrahim Assane Mayaki wasn't about to violate UN trade sanctions, so nothing came of it. What the 9/11 Commission say about it?
Regardless, Cheney was trying to hide the facts about Iraq so he could continue to publicly justify a war that never should have happened. Thanks, Vice President Asshat. I hope you go to jail.
Regardless, Cheney was trying to hide the facts about Iraq so he could continue to publicly justify a war that never should have happened. Thanks, Vice President Asshat. I hope you go to jail.
As for the facts about the war I do not think anyone was disingenuous with the reasons to go to war. Was intelligence faulty? Yes. But that does not mean the information was not credible at the time. When your own head of the CIA calls the intelligence a "Slam Dunk" it is hard to write him off, afterall he is your top spy. It is easy to play Monday morning QB when the situation has already been played out. But the situation is still playing and more and more evidence is pointing to Iraq having WMD and moving them to Syria. The former head of the Iraqi Air Force has already come out and said he directed flights from Iraq to Syria to get the stuff out while appearing to be civilian airlines.