Letters to the Editor
Elephantman
Published Letters: 1121 Editor's Choice: 15
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You are all so full of --it
[Read the article: The Libby lobby's pardon campaign]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let's presume, arguendo, that Dick Cheney told Libby that he knew that Valerie Plame worked at CIA. That's what you all want, right?
What difference does that make? Would Fitzgerald have charged Cheney with a crime? Cheney's talking to his deputy about that is a crime? Why would anyone think that Fitzgerald would have charged Cheney with a crime, when he couldn't/wouldn't/didn't charge Armitage with a crime for telling the same thing to Robert Novak, who published the information!!!
If I were advising the President and he wanted to know how everybody at Salon felt about a pardon, I'd say to him, "Mr. President, they all hate you. They will hate you if you pardon Libby, and they will still hate you if you don't. So do the right thing by the good people who have helped you wage war on terrorism and have done their level best to keep America safe and secure. Make an affirmative statement that you belive this was a flawed prosecution, and that you regard the matter as an essentially political matter.
The far left blogosphere will call for your impeachment. The far-left-wing nut cases in the House (Conyers, Nadler, McDermott, Kucinich, Markey, etc.) will echo that call. And they can't back it up. They haven't got the votes. Not in the House, not in the Senate."
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Nonsense!
[Read the article: The Libby lobby's pardon campaign]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Easy" ???
"1. Cheney tells Libby to smear Joe Wilson by telling the media his wife, who works for the CIA sent him on a 'junket.' Cheney knows that Plame is a covert operative. Scooter probably knows too."
Wow. Liberals sure are selective about truth-telling to the news media. The New York Times 'outs' a telcom surveillance program run by the NSA--a top-secret program at that--and that counts as heroic investigative journalism. But if Joe Wilson's true agenda and tasking are revealed, well then that is somehow treason. Pretty selective indeed. Anyway, we know that it was not a crime to reveal the identity of Valerie Plame. The proof of that is that Libby, and Rove, and Armitage, and any number of others were never charged with all doing essentially the same thing. So far, no crime.
"2. Scooter goes out and does Cheney's bidding, telling every reporter in earshot about the supposed nepotism."
Right. If I were to assume for you that the Vice President said to Libby, "I want you help make the case in the press that Joe Wilson is a liar, that his OpEd and his attacks on us are wrong, and that his taksing to Niger was a hit piece that was organized within the CIA." Assume all of that. What crime is that? We know darned well that it isn't a violation of any of the statutes for the protection of the identities of secret agents. Because nobody was ever charged with that crime.
3. Scooter gets caught. He lies and says he heard about Plame from Tim Russert.
"Caught"?!? Libby voluteered for an interview with the FBI, without counsel. He appeared voluntarily before the grand jury. The one and only thing that he is charged with is "lying" about where he first heard the name of Valerie Plame, inasmuch as his recollection of conversations with Judy Miller and Tim Russert differed. (Libby's recollection of conversations differed from Matt Cooper too, and the jury didn't buy the allegations that those recollections were perjury.)
You getting the picture?
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Treason?
[Read the article: The Libby lobby's pardon campaign]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No serious thought was ever given to a "treason" prosecution. I don't know which comic books or alternative weekly communist tabloid gave you that idea.
The question was whether the Foreign Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 was broken. Fitzgerald apparently thinks there was no proof that it was. He didn't charge Armitage with a violation, that is clear. Nor Rove. Victoria Toensing, who was a Senate lawyer who was partly responsible for drafting the Act in the first place, says that Valerie Plame was not the kind of agent covered by the act. Libby had nothing whatsoever to do with the Armitage leak, which led directly to the publication of Plame's name. And yet, there was no prosecution of Armitage. That is the crazy part of the Fitzgerald prosecution. We know who publised the name. It was Richard Novak. He cooperated with the investigation. And we know how Novak got the name. He got the name from Armitage, who also cooperated with the investigation. Libby, Rove, and Cheney all cooperated with the investigators, which concluded no prosecution of any violation of the Act. But more importantly, it was clear to Fitzgerald from the start that Armitage was the original source.
So what did Fitzgerald do? He went after the guy who had managed to get the Clinton administration to pardon Marc Rich. (Libby was one of Rich's lawyers.) The Rich pardon ultimately foiled a prosecution that Fitzgerald had worked on. And now, Fitzgerald isn't answering any questions about it.
So how did Libby's two or three conversations with Tim Russert, or Judy Miller, 'obstruct' any investigation of a violation of the Act? "Protection" of Cheney? Nonsense. What the heck, the investigators had the opportunity to talk to Cheney himself about it! What kind of alternative universe are you all living in? Wait, I know -- it's the same kind of all-consuming, Bush-hating universe that Al Qaeda occupies.
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We know what Weikuboy wants
[Read the article: The Libby lobby's pardon campaign]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He said it. An open-ended investigation into "all the lies" that led to Operation Iraqi freedom. And we know what Weikuboy's conclusion is before such an imaginary investigation begins or ends. He wants Bush and Cheney convicted of war crimes. Because he's been mad at Republicans since - when? - 2000? 1997? 1974? 1968?
Surely someone at Salon must know; where did the name of the "MoveOn" organization come from? Were they saying, "It's time to move on!"?
Anyway, this is what the Libby verdict is all about. A lot of frustrated people fighting a proxy war against the Bush Administration over policy.