posted on October 29, 2005 04:39:52 PM new
Here's the lies Colon so desperately wanted to know about and also the reason that Scooty will get away with treason...read the last paragraph:
Prosecutor, White House at Odds Over Libby
Updated 5:49 PM ET October 29, 2005
By LARRY MARGASAK and PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) - The prosecution's conclusion: Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff zealously pursued information about a critic who said the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to make the case for war. The view of the president and vice president: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is a dedicated public servant who has worked tirelessly on behalf of his country.
Is Libby an influential White House adviser who lied? Or is he a man with a hectic schedule who happens to remember events differently from the reporters and administration figures who will eventually be called to testify against him?
"As lawyers, we recognize that a person's recollection and memory of events will not always match those of other people, particularly when they are asked to testify months after the events occurred," Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, said in a statement.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald drew his detailed portrait of Libby based on a two-year investigation that pulled dozens of witnesses in for questioning, including President Bush and Cheney.
Libby, the indictment against him concludes, received information from Cheney, the State Department and the CIA about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose husband was attacking an administration unable to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Libby then spread the information to reporters and later concocted a story that his information had come from reporters, the indictment says.
The other portrait of Libby, the favorable version, shows a deeply committed conservative who has been a player on the Washington scene since the early days of the Reagan administration.
Libby left the White House for the last time Friday, departing after seeing some of the ideas he and others championed become administration policy.
In 1992, Libby and former Pentagon deputy Paul Wolfowitz wrote a paper favoring the use of pre-emptive force to prevent countries from developing weapons of mass destruction. The paper later won praise from the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, which called it "a blueprint for maintaining U.S. pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival."
Notwithstanding Fitzgerald's insistence Friday that the criminal case is not about Iraq, he probably will seek to cast Libby as an architect of the U.S.-led invasion, said Scott Fredericksen, a former prosecutor who now represents white-collar defendants.
The prosecution will call Libby "a very bright guy at the highest levels of government with motivation to prevent Fitzgerald and the grand jury from learning the true source" of Libby's information about administration critic Joseph Wilson.
After the indictment, Cheney issued words of praise in Washington but made no mention of his departing chief of staff on a trip later in the day to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. Cheney's speech to base personnel was on terrorism, the topic that, along with Iraq, has consumed his and Libby's time and energy.
"This is nothing new for a White House having to counter its critics, particularly when the administration believes the criticism to be false," said Washington lawyer Michael Madigan, a former Republican counsel in the Senate investigation of Clinton-era campaign fund-raising abuses. "The trouble the White House encountered in this case is that some of the information was classified."
If he were representing Libby, lawyer David Schertler said he would present character witnesses to testify about Libby's dedication to public service.
"This guy, every day, deals with some of the most important issues facing the American people," said Schertler, a former federal prosecutor. "You're asking him to recollect conversations, some fairly short, and he's giving his best recollections. Maybe he didn't remember correctly, but he didn't have the intent to deceive the special prosecutor or grand jury."
Fitzgerald's probe initially sought to determine whether anyone in the administration violated the law by knowingly disclosing the identity of a covert CIA employee.
"You didn't have that, so why did you charge him?" Schertler suggested Libby's defense would assert.
Fitzgerald spent 22 months on the investigation at a cost of more than $1 million. In the end, Libby was charged with five felonies alleging obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.
The starting point was Bush's claim in his State of the Union address in January 2003 that Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire uranium from the African nation of Niger as part of an effort to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Bush took the country to war with Iraq in March 2003, saying Saddam's banned weapons program threatened the U.S. When no such weapons turned up, the administration was put on the defensive.
Wilson, a former ambassador, had gone to Niger in 2002 for the CIA to investigate the uranium claim. He found no evidence to back up an allegation of a sales agreement between Iraq and Niger. Wilson's wife, Plame, was the covert CIA officer whose name was leaked in July 2003 as the debate about the war heated up.
The indictment alleges Libby had information from at least seven government officials, including the vice president, about Plame and her CIA status. Libby said he heard it first from reporters. The indictment said Libby spread the information to the media.
Fitzgerald summed up the charges:
"At the end of the day what appears is that Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true. It was false. He was at the beginning of the chain of phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter. And then he lied about it afterward, under oath and repeatedly."
Libby's case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, nominated by Bush in 2001.
I realize that the recognition of truth is difficult for those programmed to accept whatever in order to get where-ever. You may never be able to recognize your leader as a liar in spite of overwhelming evidence. That state of mind, I cannot help....
Other than to put you back in the corner on that stool....remember?
posted on October 30, 2005 06:41:38 AM newIs he really going to get up on a stand and swear that the chief of staff of the VP of the US has such lousy memory skills that he forgot the existance of info that he discussed with half a dozen gov officials before he gave the info to a reporter?
LOL....gee I don't know....but playing the 'I can't remember' game sure worked for the clintons and several in their administration.
You must have missed my posted listed of all in his adminstration who suddenly developed 'memory problems'. lol
But of course, we righties understand it's OH SO DIFFERENT when your party does it. Yeah, right.
"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
posted on October 30, 2005 06:48:56 AM new
Why look who finally showed up with absolutely no defense of her heroe's crooks but the same old tired "BUT CLINTON DID IT"
Sorry, Linda I already posted that so you wouldn't have to but since it's all you can say about the criminal activity oozing out of the White House why don't you post it over and over again
Doesn't change the fact that with the arrests and indictments erupting out of this administration the Repugs are in trouble
AND if you think that diddling an intern rates right up their with treason and money laundering etc., etc., then your morals are definitely skewed(I knew that anyway)
YOUR "reasoning" is that if someone committed a crime it's OK for others to commit crimes...
posted on October 30, 2005 08:09:29 AM new
LOL - Have to laugh at the comments about 'where are the righties'?
rusty is happy to point out the five charges brought against Scooter....but fails to mention NONE of them are what the democratic prosecutor stated he WOULD be charged with. A witch hunt...and imo, the charges won't stick....BECAUSE they're going to be extremely hard to prove.
maggie and another poster is already saying themselves that the charges most likely won't stick. But the reasons they give are inaccurate....they won't stick because they're bogus and because the prosecutor couldn't actually PROVE Scooter did what he was INITALLY accused of.
----
From an op-ed article in the WSJ that I agree with.
Obstruction for What? Libby is charged with lying about a crime that wasn't committed.
Saturday, October 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation took nearly two years, sent a reporter to jail, cost millions of dollars, and preoccupied some of the White House's senior officials. The fruit it has now borne is the five-count indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the Vice President's Chief of Staff--not for leaking the name of Valerie Plame to Robert Novak, which started this entire "scandal," but for contradictions between his testimony and the testimony of two or three reporters about what he told them, when he told them, and what words he used.
Mr. Fitzgerald would not comment yesterday on whether he had evidence for the perjury, obstruction of justice and false statement counts beyond the testimonies of Mr. Libby and three journalists. Instead, he noted that a criminal investigation into a "national security matter" of this sort hinged on "very fine distinctions," and that any attempt to obscure exactly who told what to whom and when was a serious matter.
Let us stipulate that impeding a criminal investigation is indeed a serious matter; no one should feel he can lie to a grand jury or to federal investigators. But there is a question to be asked about the end to which the accused allegedly lied. The indictment itself contains no motive. And Mr. Libby is not alleged to have been the source for Robert Novak's July 14, 2003 column, in which Valerie Plame's employment with the CIA was revealed.
Rather, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby did a little digging, found out who Joe Wilson's wife was, and apparently told Judith Miller of the New York Times, who never wrote it up, and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, who put it into print after Mr. Novak's column had run. What's more, he allegedly did not talk to Tim Russert of NBC about it, although he claimed that he had. Mr. Libby then didn't tell a grand jury and the FBI the truth about what he told those reporters, the indictment claims.
If this is a conspiracy to silence Administration critics, it was more daft than deft. The indictment itself contains no evidence of a conspiracy, and Mr. Libby has not been accused of trying to cover up some high crime or misdemeanor by the Bush Administration. The indictment amounts to an allegation that one official lied about what he knew about an underlying "crime" that wasn't committed.
And we still don't know who did tell Mr. Novak--presumably, it was the soon-to-be-infamous "Official A" from paragraph 21 of the indictment, although we don't know whether Official A was Mr. Novak's primary source or merely a corroborating one.
posted on October 30, 2005 08:27:33 AM new::LOL....gee I don't know....but playing the 'I can't remember' game sure worked for the clintons and several in their administration.
You must have missed my posted listed of all in his adminstration who suddenly developed 'memory problems'. lol ::
My favorite cookie recipe....
1/2 cup anise seeds (you can buy by the lb on ebay for a fraction of the cost in the store)
3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
3 tablespoons molasses
1/3 cup evaporated milk
PREPARATION:
Chop anise seeds finely with a small electric chopper, coffee grinder, or sharp knife. Into a bowl, sift flour and baking soda. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Stir in egg, molasses, milk, and chopped anise seeds; beat well. Blend in flour mixture. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. Shape dough into rolls about 1 1/2-inch in diameter. Refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 375°. Slice dough about 1/4-inch thick. Place on ungreased baking sheets; bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 375°.
Makes about 8 to 10 dozen anise cookies, depending on thickness.
Figured you would enjoy it - I mean it is just as relevent to the topic at hand as your response was but at least it is tasty.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
[ edited by fenix03 on Oct 30, 2005 08:28 AM ]
[ edited by fenix03 on Oct 30, 2005 08:32 AM ]
posted on October 30, 2005 08:31:00 AM new
::But of course, we righties understand it's OH SO DIFFERENT when your party does it. Yeah, right.::
Just to clarify - it is underhanded, sneaky and absolutely deserving on criminal indictment and conviction when done by a democrat but justified, understandable and well, menial when done by a republican?
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on October 30, 2005 08:39:07 AM new
LOL fenix - That cookie recipe of yours doesn't look to interesting....but thanks for the sarcasm anyway.
I'll repeat...."Mr. Libby is not alleged to have been the source for Robert Novak's July 14, 2003 column, in which Valerie Plame's employment with the CIA was revealed.
...which is what all this witch hunt was supposed to be about. Couldn't pin THAT on him, so now they're making other charges that won't fly, imho.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
[ edited by Linda_K on Oct 30, 2005 08:41 AM ]
posted on October 30, 2005 08:48:48 AM new
Oh.. I don't like the taste of anise..yuck phooey.. but I'll try the cookie recipe and just omit the offending little buggers..Thanks Ms.Fenix!
posted on October 30, 2005 08:51:46 AM new
Linda - they have the statements that contridict each other. they have statements from a numbber of government officials that they discussed Plame with Libby and they have Libby's own notes that state that he recieved the infomation from Cheney and then they have Libby's sworn statement to both the FBI and the grnad jury that he first recieved the info from Russert in a conversation that took place AFTER all of the other conversations. What is it about that you think is not going to fly? He lied and there is a string of evidence that clearly disputes the statements that he gave the jury. The only way this "would not fly" is if you believe that Libby was fantasing when he made the notes about the conversation with Cheney and that half a dozen republican government employees/officials got together and came up with a conspiracy to nail him with their testimony.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on October 30, 2005 08:52:58 AM new
BROOKS: WHY ARE DEMS SO OVERHEATED?
Sat Oct 29 2005 17:15:12 ET - The DRUDGE Report.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald did not find evidence to prove that there was a "broad conspiracy to out a covert agent for political gain. He did not find evidence of wide-ranging criminal behavior. He did not even indict the media's ordained villain, Karl Rove," writes David Brooks in Sunday's NY TIMES.
"Leading Democratic politicians filled the air with grand conspiracy theories that would be at home in the John Birch Society."
"Why are these people so compulsively overheated?.. Why do they have to slather on wild, unsupported charges that do little more than make them look unhinged?
MY answer is because they have nothing to offer to the American public....so have to resort to this kind of crap - thinking they're going to win an election on a platform of only bashing this administration - trying again and again to pin something one them. But they haven't been successful yet.
Brooks quotes from an essay written 40 years ago by Richard Hofstadter called "The Paranoid Style in American Politics."
Hofstadter argued that sometimes people who are dispossessed, who feel their country has been taken away from them and their kind, develop an angry, suspicious and conspiratorial frame of mind. It is never enough to believe their opponents have committed honest mistakes or have legitimate purposes; they insist on believing in malicious conspiracies.
"The paranoid spokesman," Hofstadter wrote, "sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms -- he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization." Because his opponents are so evil, the conspiracy monger is never content with anything but their total destruction."
Brooks summarizes: "So some Democrats were not content with Libby's indictment, but had to stretch, distort and exaggerate. The tragic thing is that at the exact moment when the Republican Party is staggering under the weight of its own mistakes, the Democratic Party's loudest voices are in the grip of passions that render them untrustworthy."
Developing..
"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
posted on October 30, 2005 08:55:45 AM new
Mags - if you omit the anise you'll need to put something in there for flavor.
Linda - I think of them as a twist on the ginger snap. Simple, unique flavor that's not too sweet. I glaze them with a quick orange glaze, just powdered sugar and orange juice concentrate for a little kick.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on October 30, 2005 12:04:48 PM new
I didn't know that! Maybe I'm confused about what anise is? Isn't it the little black rice shaped things you find in some cookies..kind of a bitter ka ka taste when you bite into them?
I love licorice, but have never tasted anise flavor in it..huh.. live and learn..
