Lilburne: 'Libby kicked sand in the eyes of the law'
Posted on Monday, October 31 @ 09:43:24 EST
When people ask how a smart guy like Lewis "Scooter" Libby could be so reckless as to lie to FBI investigators who are investigating a crime and lie to a grand jury, we have to think back to the period in which this all occurred.
When the Cheney-Libby steamroller was rolling over anyone who disputed the intelligence that got us into the Iraq war, the media were all obediently parroting the Bushite lies as if they were gospel; the senate, House and U.S. Supreme Court were all in the hands of obedient and loyal Republicans; the Justice Department was in the safe Republican hands of John Ashcroft.
They, the Bushites, had nothing to worry about. No one had been giving them any backtalk or even a hard time for four years. They were home free on anything they wanted to do.
Suddenly, there was a person of some stature going around Washington asking how Bush could have uttered those now-infamous 16 words in his January 2003 State of the Union speech, when he knew them to be false.
Now, Dick Cheney is not a man to tolerate dissent or, certainly, disagreement. The man asking the questions had to be found and smashed.
It took only a few phone calls to find out not only his name but, also, that his wife worked at the CIA.
How better to guarantee that such impudence would never occur again? "Take out" the man's wife.
I don't care whether Cheney and Libby did or didn't knew she was covert; it does not matter to me. The question is: why did they go after her instead of just trying to demolish Joe Wilson?
The answer is that, for Cheney, that would not be enough. He had to send a message to anyone else who might contemplate disputing anything he, Cheney, said; and that message was "Mess with us and we'll take out your family along with you."
Even the Mafia has a code of honor that stops them from harming the wives and children of Mafia enemies. But, we are dealing here with men of such criminal intent that, for them, taking out their enemy is never enough -- they would have to destroy the man's family too.
The Wilsons are now fearful for Valerie Plame Wilson's life. Presumably, they are concerned that some angry right-wing wacko, eager to take revenge for the Libby indictments, might physically harm one or more of the Wilsons. They may need to hire bodyguards for years to come.
There is one other point that must be made: it was not Valerie Plame's original idea to ask her husband to travel to Niger to check out the Saddam-yellowcake-Niger story; it was the idea of her bosses at the CIA. They wanted to check out a story Cheney had inquired about and wanted someone with credentials to go to Niger to see if the story had any merit. They knew
Ambassador Joseph Wilson had worked in Africa for years as our ambassador and had many good contacts in Niger with both official and non official personnel there -- he could get the CIA the information they sought.
Valerie Plame's bosses asked her to send them a memo outlining the reasons why her husband would be the appropriate person to send; she did as she was asked.
One more time: the idea to ask Joe Wilson to go to Niger did not originate with Valerie Plame.
But, if it had, so what? She was working, in her role at the CIA, on the effort to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue nations. That was her professional concern and responsibility. She knew her husband was the best qualified person to send. So even if she had been the originator of the idea -- which she was not -- so bloomin' what?
Ambassador Wilson was not paid for his time or trouble; the CIA merely reimbursed his expenses. He was in Niger a few days; it was not a vacation -- nor is Niger a vacation destination.
Furthermore, Ambassador Wilson was not the only person reporting back to the United Sates government regarding the Saddam-yellowcake-Niger story.
Two other U.S. officials had also reported back their findings regarding the rumor that Saddam Hussein had sought uranium yellowcake from Niger, and they had found the rumor to be false. Both U.S. Ambassador Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick and Four-Star Marine General Carlton W. Fulford Jr., deputy commander of the US European Command (EUCOM) had made the same finding as Wilson and had reported their conclusions back to the State Dept. and Pentagon. The uranium mines in Niger are controlled by a French-led consortium, and are under the jurisdiction of the United States European Command (EUCOM) -- and, by implication, were under Marine General Carlton Fulford's jurisdiction as well. General Fulford is a United States military officer. Practically all of Africa is under EUCOM's jurisdiction.
So, you see it was not only
Joseph Wilson who was telling government officials back in Washington D.C. that the story was false; our ambassador to Niger and the Marine General in charge of Africa had reported back the same information.
Cheney and Libby were obsessed with protecting the lies they had used to sell the American people on the war and they were not going to tolerate anyone who got in their way of protecting their lies and fabrications.
Joe and Valerie Wilson were just the first to be demolished; anyone else who got in the way of Cheney and Libby could expect the same treatment.
They almost pulled it off too.
For the first few months, Attorney General John Ashcroft was in charge of the investigation into how Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative came to be revealed by columnist Robert Novak. Cheney and Libby and their cohorts at the White House could relax; they were safe.
They thought.
So, when he was questioned by FBI investigators about the leak, Libby felt secure in lying to them. He even felt safe in lying to the grand jury. What could possibly happen, he must have thought; I am in good hands ... these guys are all Republicans appointed to their office by the current President Bush.
The miracle for the American people is that there were still a few honest people working in the Justice Department who thought the law was the law and that no man was above the law, not even someone in this Bush administration.
Al Capone and John Gotti, who sneered at the laws for years, eventually went to jail. Libby may go too. And maybe a few others from this Cheney-Libby cabal.
Yet, some claim that since Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has not charged anyone with breaking the law regarding outing covert CIA operatives, this is somehow all no big deal.
Wrong.
Mr. Fitzgerald did a remarkably good and clear job of debunking that claim. He said that when someone lies to Justice Dept. investigators and to the grand jury, that person is metaphorically kicking sand in the eyes of the umpire so the umpire cannot call the pitch. The umpire cannot see the pitch, so he cannot call it. When a person lies to investigators and the grand jury, he is preventing the prosecutor from seeing the facts he needs to see to determine if laws have been broken.
Therefore, we have the charges against Lewis Libby: that he prevented the prosecutor from drilling down to get at the facts he needs to make a determination.
But "it is not over," in Mr. Fitzgerald's own words; there is still the trial to come. Witnesses will be called and they will be sworn to tell the truth in a court of law presided over by a judge.
The law will prevail and the liars will not.
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