Scooter Libby

Will `Tough Guy' Dick Cheney Cop Out as Usual and Take a Pardon?

dlindorff — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:29:33 -0500

By Dave Lindorff

Vice President Dick Cheney has cultivated the image of a serious
tough guy, with his grim, scowling vissage, his dismissive "So?"
comments when things go badly, his unrepentant defense of torture,
including waterboarding, and his brash statements confirming that he
approved the interrogation measures that clearly violated US criminal
statutes and the Geneva Conventions.

But it appears we willl in a few days get to discover whether Cheney
really is a tough guy, or whether he is in truth just the same
corpulent, self-centered hypocrite and gutless coward that he was back
in the 1960s when, despite being a vocal backer of the Vietnam War, he
ducked the draft not once but five times by arranging for student and
marriage deferments, which he later defended by saying he had "other
priorities" than serving his country.

If, as most people expect, Cheney is offered a pardon by outgoing
President George Bush for his role in approving the systematic torture
of US captives in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, for his role in the
outing of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame and the subsequent
coverup of that crime, and for his role in lying about the alleged
threats posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the vice president will be
admitting that he is guilty of those crimes. He will also be taking the
coward's way out, after earlier strutting about and claiming to be in
the right.

It would be vintage Cheney--talking big but hiding from responsibility for his statements and his actions.

If Cheney were for real, he would tell Bush he doesn't want no
stinkin' pardon. He'd say he backed a policy of torture of captives
because they deserved it, because it would save American lives, and
because he had no respect for international law. He would dare the US
government, and other governments around the world that have a policy
of universal jurisdiction, to indict him and put him on trial for his
actions.

But that's not Dick Cheney's way. His way is to duck responsibility and to let lesser people take the heat for him.

We've seen his MO already. This is a guy who would furtively destroy
the career of a dedicated undercover agent, putting not just her, but
all of her in-country contacts in places like Iran at risk for their
lives, and then let a subordinate, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, take the
fall for him. Libby, recall, was convicted of lying about his role in
exposing Plame's identity in a federal trial that included considerable
evidence that it was his boss, Cheney, who was actually behind the
effort. He ended up being convicted and sentenced to prison, though he
was spared being locked up by a presidential clemency order. Cheney
didn't lift a finger to protect Libby, who remains a convicted felon,
unable to return to his practice of law.

If Bush pardons Cheney, and if Cheney accepts that pardon, he will
be admitting that he is a war criminal, willing to let a few
low-ranking soldiers who simply did what he says he wanted them to do
take the heat for him and his criminal actions.

While we're at it, it will also be interesting to see whether Bush,
whose media handlers have also spent the last eight years constucting
an image of him as a swaggering, tough-talkin' Texas cowboy, will grant
himself a broad pardon for his many crimes in office.

My guess is he will do both, confirming that this has been an
administration not of tough guys, but of cowards, hypocrites and
professional buckpassers.

_______________
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His
latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and
now available in paperback). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

digg_url = 'http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/38536';
digg_title = "Will `Tough Guy\' Dick Cheney Cop Out as Usual and Take a Pardon?";
digg_bodytext = "By Dave Lindorff\r\n\r\n\r\nVice President Dick Cheney has cultivated the image of a serious tough guy, with his grim, scowling vissage, his dismissive \"So?\" comments when things go badly, his unrepentant defense of torture, including waterboarding, and his brash statements confirming that he approved the interrogation measures that clearly violated US criminal statutes and the Geneva Conventions.\r\n\r\nBut it appears we willl in a few days get to discover whether Cheney really is a tough guy, or whether he is in truth just the same corpulent, self-centered hypocrite and gutless coward that he was back in the 1960s when, despite being a vocal backer of the Vietnam War, he ducked the draft not once but five times by arranging for student and marriage deferments, which he later defended by saying he had \"other priorities\" than serving his country.\r\n\r";
digg_skin = 'standard';

FBI Believes Cheney Lied About Outing Valerie Plame

Bob Fertik — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:51:44 -0500

Murray Waas has the scoop on an FBI report that suggests the FBI believes Cheney lied to them:

Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a still-highly confidential FBI report, admitted to federal investigators that he rewrote talking points for the press in July 2003 that made it much more likely that the role of then-covert CIA-officer Valerie Plame in sending her husband on a CIA-sponsored mission to Africa would come to light.

Cheney conceded during his interview with federal investigators that in drawing attention to Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s Africa trip reporters might also unmask her role as CIA officer.

Cheney denied to the investigators, however, that he had done anything on purpose that would lead to the outing of Plame as a covert CIA operative. But the investigators came away from their interview with Cheney believing that he had not given them a plausible explanation as to how he could focus attention on Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s trip without her CIA status also possibly publicly exposed. At the time, Plame was a covert CIA officer involved in preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and Cheney’s office played a central role in exposing her and nullifying much of her work.

As always, Marcy Wheeler brilliantly analyzes the significance of Waas' scoop.

Cheney's new talking points raised a question the answer to which was--Cheney believed--"Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson's CIA spook wife." Which, as Cheney apparently admitted to the FBI, might raise the chances that Plame would be outed--as happened like a charm with Matt Cooper and John Dickerson. Dickerson, recall, was instructed to look into who sent Wilson, and Cooper answered that question for Dickerson with help from Rove: Wilson's wife.

Now, Murray points out that Cheney's admission--certainly from the perspective of June 2004, when Cheney was interviewed--would make it more likely that Cheney had a role in outing Plame. Frankly, when you put Judy's testimony together with Libby's notes and Addington's testimony, that case has already been proved, and for much earlier in the week than Murray's discussing (since it proves that, on Cheney's order, Libby was asking Addington about both Plame and Wilson in the preparation to talk to Judy). But, people are thick, so hopefully Murray's reporting--apparently direct from Cheney's FBI interview--will convince some people to actually look at the available evidence.

Marcy promises more tomorrow - a Fitzmas present for all Plamophiles!

Bush: 'Perhaps Somebody in the Administration' Outed CIA Operative Valerie Plame

Chip — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:41:44 -0400

Bush: 'Perhaps Somebody in the Administration' Outed CIA Operative Valerie Plame

ABC News' Jason Ryan, Theresa Cook and Jon Garcia report: President George W. Bush acknowledged publicly for the first time Thursday that "perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name" of then-CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

"I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person," Bush told reporters Thursday during a White House press conference.

When the controversy began four years ago, Bush said he would fire anyone in his administration found to have publicly disclosed the identity of Plame, then a CIA operative, which is a federal crime.

"You know, I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, 'I did it.' Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter?" Bush said.

The President said it has been "a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course, and now we're going to move on."

Bush recently commuted the 30-month prison sentence given to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the Vice President's former chief of staff, in connection with the case. The President defended his controversial decision to commute the sentence Thursday, saying, "The Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision."

Libby was convicted in March of lying to the FBI and a grand jury, as well as obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation. Bush kept the other portions of Libby's sentence, two years probation and a $250,000 fine, intact. Libby paid the fine last week.

###

So now we see how this administration operates: do the crime, obfuscate, litigate, lose, commute sentence, admit crimes, move on...

Move on to impeachment

richardmathews — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:49:16 -0400

MoveOn is finally moving on to talk about the possibility of impeachment proceedings!

Sign their petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/subpoena/

It states:

"Congress must force Vice President Cheney to respond to its subpoenas. If he continues to obstruct justice and disregard the rule of law, Congress has no choice but to begin impeachment proceedings against him."

Richard M. Mathews

Ambassador Joe Wilson Reacts: "Corrupt to the Core...Congress Should Investigate;" Bush: "Tell Truth, Or Be Held Accountable"

Chip — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:15:39 -0400

The career of Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, ended when her cover was blown as retribution for Ambassador Wilson's exposing the falsity of the Niger yellowcake story as a premise for the Iraqi war. Ambassador Wilson spoke tonight with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann about Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence. You can watch it here.

In giving the commutation, Bush said: "... a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable. They say that had Mr. Libby only told the truth, he would have never been indicted in the first place...The Constitution gives the President the power of clemency to be used when he deems it to be warranted. It is my judgment that a commutation of the prison term in Mr. Libby's case is an appropriate exercise of this power."

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

WHEREAS Lewis Libby was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the case United States v. Libby, Crim. No. 05-394 (RBW), for which a sentence of 30 months' imprisonment, 2 years' supervised release, a fine of $250,000, and a special assessment of $400 was imposed on June 22, 2007;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, pursuant to my powers under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, do hereby commute the prison terms imposed by the sentence upon the said Lewis Libby to expire immediately, leaving intact and in effect the two-year term of supervised release, with all its conditions, and all other components of the sentence.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Ambassador Wilson also spoke with Keith Olbermann when Libby, who had been assigned Inmate No. 28301 - 016 by the US Board of Prisons, was convicted of 4 out of 5 of the felonies with which he was charged.

You can check the status of the civil case against Defendants' Cheney, Libby, Rove and Armitage at: http://www.wilsonsupport.org/.

Keith Olbermann, visibly angry, promised a special comment tomorrow, the eve of our national Independence Day, to suggest that Bush and Cheney resign.

Your congressional representatives are in their home districts for the holiday. Let them know your opinion!

Fitzmas in July! Libby First Appeal Rejected

Bob Fertik — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:59:54 -0400

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals just denied Scooter Libby's request to stay out of jail pending appeal.

Appellant has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question

The three judges included David Sentelle, the Jesse Helms judge who picked rightwing hack Ken Starr to replace Robert Fiske in the get-Clinton Whitewater scam.

Here's Christy:

absent some reversal by a higher court (the full panel of the DC Circuit, for example, or the US Supreme Court — which is all that is left for appeal for Scooter’s legal team), Libby is headed to jail. And, frankly, gaining freedom on appeal from the full panel or from the US Supreme Court is an increasingly difficult prospect considering how truly weak the grounds were put forth on Libby’s appeal behalf and how few of these cases are ever accepted for certioriari.

What this says to me is that Libby — or, as I like to call him Inmate 28301-016 — is headed to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect anything.

If Scooter wants his freedom, he's going to have to ~~rat on~~ tell the truth about Dick Cheney's order to out Valerie Plame.

Of course hell will freeze over before anyone ~~rats on~~ tells the truth about Dick Cheney.

Libby IS Bush’s Legacy

Tom Ball — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:25:55 -0400

As record high fuel prices, category 5 hurricanes, and drowning polar bears have helped slap some sense into the reluctant minds of many science-denying troglodytes, so to must the record hubris, category 5 incompetence, and drowning integrity of this administration slap some sense into the reluctant minds of the remaining reality-denying Bush supporters.

Oddly enough, you'd think that pardoning a traitor would be the last straw -- even for these people. You'd be wrong. In fact, acting as savior for the American betrayer known as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby might be the only thing that can salvage Bush's remaining barrel-scum protectorate. That is what they find important. So too must he.

And so, this single act of apologist, vicarious treason will be the defining moment in Bush's presidency -- encompassing within it all the lies, bullying and incomprehensible ineptitude that was the hallmark of this administration. This will be Bush's legacy.

He has no choice... and essentially nothing to lose.

That's the way it is. The chorus of prideless conservatives -- also known as Bush's remaining base -- are relentlessly pressuring Bush to Pardon Libby with nary a moment of time served. Heck, even Paris served a couple days.

They dismiss the irony that "the judge that gave Libby the 2 ½ year sentence was "one of the first appointments that Bush made to the federal bench" and fail to note that Libby's judge was known as a 'Tough Guy'. "That's Why Bush Appointed Him."

The Los Angeles Times notes, "That Walton would put the Bush administration in an uncomfortable position of having to consider a politically charged pardon for Libby is highly ironic."

Yes, being held accountable for your trespasses to humanity is always an 'uncomfortable' activity. And a Bush appointee respecting the rule of law is truly 'ironic'. Still, I can't help but feel that President Bush should be suffering far more discomfort than his widely televised, smirky, smirk-faced smirk suggests he is.

Seems 'discomfort' is something for which Bush and his beloved 29% must have little time. According to the New York Times, "a conservative with close ties to the administration" said, "Letting Scooter go to jail would be a politically irrational symbol to the last chunk of the 29 percent upon which he stands."

Irrational indeed. Bush has pandered to the AEI 29% with untouchable integrity over the last 7 years. Thus the royal screwing administered to the other 71% of us.

Maybe that's because Bush's 29% are an influential bunch -- people like potential future convict Tom Delay. Tom recently noted, "The President should pardon Scooter Libby. I mean, what -- what's he worried about? Is it his ratings? I mean, his approval ratings? ... This -- this is a travesty of justice."

Yes, like the 'travesty of justice' that will no doubt bare its ugly face if Mr. Delay fails to garner a Bush pardon when he's sized for an orange jumpsuit.

And then there are blind loyalists like former Justice Department official Victoria Toensing who offered a spin sure to be embraced by conservative traitor-lovers across the nation, "Patrick Fitzgerald abused his prosecutorial powers when he indicted Scooter Libby for a faulty memory. The only remedy is a presidential pardon."

"Faulty memory"? "Only remedy"? "Abused his prosecutorial powers"?

No matter. It's the 'conservative movement' that matters now. The New York Times opines, "a decision not to pardon Mr. Libby would further alienate members of Mr. Bush's traditional base of support in the conservative movement, a group already angry about his proposed immigration policy, his administration's spending and his approach to Iran."

Tim Russert concurs, "A lot of conservatives are saying to the President, you are antagonizing the base about immigration. This is the way to reach out to your base."

Reach the base, eh? Hmmmm. Who else is trying to reach this magic 29%?

The Libby pardon issue "has thrown a twist into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, forcing candidates to make an awkward choice between loyalty to a party stalwart and reverence for the rule of law."

Ohhhhhh. So that's it. Well, we all know which choice will be made here.

And that, my friends, will establish the legacy for the next generation of the conservative movement.

A Libby Leniency Letter Received From SATAN

thepen — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:50:26 -0400

NATIONAL CHENEY IMPEACHMENT POLL: http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php

The judge contemplating sentencing in the "Scooter" Libby case, after his conviction on five counts of perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice, took the unusual step of ordering the letters pleading for leniency on his behalf to be published. There were letters from Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Don Rumsfeld, and others, in some part perhaps a veritable rogue's gallery of scoundrels who have themselves been forced to resign in disgrace recently.

But conspicuously missing was a letter from the Vice President himself, Dick Cheney.

And then lo and behold, we were leaked a copy of one additional letter that had not been published with the rest, apparently signed by Satan, probably not the same person as the vice president, unless it's a pen name of some kind. We reproduce the text of that letter below at the peril of our mortal souls.

******

Dear Judge Walton,

I submit this letter for your consideration in the sentencing of "Scooter" Libby.

I am currently the overlord of the underworld, and have been since my own fall from grace many eons ago. In all that time I have had the opportunity to encounter many individuals distinguished by their utterly pathological evil. In comparison to some of those, Mr. Libby, who stands convicted of less than a half a dozen counts of perjury and false statements and such, is hardly enough to stoke a major fire about. We like to call them little "white" lies down here, cigarette burn level stuff really.

Mr. Libby has not in my professional opinion been given sufficient credit for his role in the outing of Valerie Plame, in as much as the grand jury failed to indict on the underlying treason of that, so I see no reason for your honor to enhance his sentence because he helped by his actions to shield those even more guilty. I must tell you, I feel just terrible about this whole thing for Mr. Libby and his family. Of course, that's the way I usually feel about everything.

I'm sure you have received many other letters praising Mr. Libby for his government service, but you may not be aware of his very active creative writing career. His novel, "The Apprentice", is one of my personal favorites. It was recently republished by St. Martin's Press, described by them as "an everyday tale of bestiality and paedophilia in 1903 Japan . . . packed with sexual perversion, dwelling on prepubescent girls and their training as prostitutes." I highly recommend it for your honor's own late night reading.

In my own experience I have always found Mr. Libby to be a loyal company man, giving me many years of dedicated service already. In fact, I have reserved a special place for him in my organization in the hereafter. From his aggressive defense of fugitive billionaires, to his founding role in the Project for the New American Century, alumni of which masterminded the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, Mr. Libby has never failed to do my bidding in every possible respect.

As you may anticipate there will be an appeal pending, and it is my respectful hope that "Scooter" will ultimately skate, at least in this life. I'd like to think that we have the appeals courts packed with enough of "our" people so that we may well prevail there. In the meantime, I am asking you to show Mr. Libby the maximum leniency, otherwise it tends to hurt my own recruiting. Instead of prison time I would counsel an official commendation of honor by the court, perhaps even a handsome cash reward as a incentive for others in my minions.

Rest assured that regardless I will take responsibility for all deserving punishment for him for all eternity myself.

Your humble tormentor in chief,

Satan, Esq.

Tell Congress To Support The Kucinich IMPERATIVE For Impeachment

thepen — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:59:24 -0400

Minutes ago the U.S. Senate AGAIN failed to exercise meaningful oversight for the national suicide which is our policy in Iraq. It is by now abundantly clear that the Republican caucus is determined to go down with the Bush presidency, and take our military and our country with them while they do nothing. Instead, a bipartisan cattle stampede of senators approved two "we don't hate the troops" resolutions, nothing but vain puffery, swearing to take "no action" about this or that. We don't in the slightest care about what action Congress is NOT going to take, we want to know is what they ARE going to do to reverse the insanity of current policy.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now3.php

On the occasion of the guilty verdicts against Scooter Libby, Howard Dean was quoted as saying we would have a new president "soon enough." If he is talking about the 2008 election that is NOT soon enough, not even close. Day by day, ever more outrageous scandals and abuses of power spew forth from the White House, as we now learn that they have been so corrupted beyond redemption by their power grabs, that they even used the U.S. attorneys themselves for nakedly partisan witch hunts, to try to influence our elections, and fired all who would not bend under their political dictate.

And what was Bush's response when called on this monumental affront not just to the checks in our government, but also to the independency of our very justice system? "What was mishandled was the explanation of the cases to the Congress," he said. In Bush's mind there are no policy mistakes, let alone policy crimes. In his world there are only SPIN mistakes, when we the people aren't quite stupid enough to buy their criminal hypocrisies. We hear admissions that "mistakes were made," as if mistakes somehow made themselves. But even where there is verbal responsibility taken, there is NEVER actual accountability. The sacrificial fall guys will reluctantly resign, but NEVER is there a price paid by the core perpetrators for their conduct.

The Bush presidency is one of false appearances, phony and disingenuous words of compassion and democracy, while the true underlying agenda is the embezzlement of our national treasury, and even those of other sovereign countries, on behalf of their biggest campaign contributors, who then remorselessly relocate to evade taxes on their ill-gotten profits. The Bush presidency is to create wars out of whole cloth, to demonize not only their critics but entire innocent populations, first Iraq, then Lebanon, now Iran. It is a mission to exacerbate terrorism to the maximum extent possible, while ignoring its actual roots causes and laying off pursuing its ringleaders, at the mortal peril of our true national security. And it is not going to STOP in any respect until the day that Bush is lawfully removed from office.

It was not enough that president Bush should pack our courts with radical ideologue judges, one of whom just this week presumed to overturn two centuries of 2nd amendment case law, to let the NRA rewrite our very Constitution. No, even the choice of cases to bring to court they must warp so that only Democrats could ever be prosecuted for any crime, despite the fact that most of the wrongdoing they were actually finding was by Republicans. How their talking head cronies howled after the Libby verdicts that it was just a political prosecution. Their new rule of law is that it's against the law to prosecute Republicans, no matter what the crime, and that any attempt to do so is by definition a political vendetta. And if the Libby trial exposed anything, it was that Cheney was the king culprit.

And hanging over everything is the preemptively declared threat of a presidential veto of any attempt, no matter how timid, to confront these high crimes. And that is why we have concluded that Dennis Kucinich is speaking the essential truth. We have long known that Bush was planning an illegal war of aggression against Iran. Shame on the leadership of the House for the sudden demise, without even a vote, of the provision in the war supplemental appropriations bill to preclude an attack on Iran without express congressional consent. Let there be a vote so we can know which members of Congress think it's OK for the president to launch horrific and disastrous new wars without even a peep from them.

What Kucinich so clearly understands in his call for impeachment is that all these things are mere symptoms of the foundational problem, the cowardice of members of Congress as they run away from actually restraining the abuse of executive power. What are non-binding resolutions except avoidance of actually challenging the policy issue? What are bills that write into themselves exceptions if the president takes "responsibility" for them? Is the role of Congress to be relegated to courteously writing the president's signing statements for him?

ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now3.php

Bush loves to lecture the American people on the lessons of 9/11. There was only one lesson to be learned from 9/11 . . . that we had the WRONG president.

And in five years since there are still too many who have not learned that critical lesson, which failure is the reason New Orleans was left to sink by a guitar strumming photo-op president, which failure is the reason even the administration drafted Patriot Act has been abused to conduct massive illegal surveillance of innocent American citizens. That failure is the reason torture of those even suspected of being our enemies has become official U.S. policy, in utter defiance of all norms of international law and civilized decency.

That failure is the reason our entire intelligence operation against weapons of mass destruction, the life long specialty of Valerie Plame, was sabotaged and jeopardized to try to gain cheap political advantage. Or was it to keep concealed even more heinous acts of treason. That failure is the reason our military is still pursuing a fool's mission in Iraq, chasing an enemy who is not there in any significant numbers. We face nothing but two more years of such disasters and outrages every minute that George Bush, Dick Cheney and their pod people remain in any office of authority.

So what if Gonzales bites the dust. He is just one more water-carrier. He would already have been long gone had not Bush PERSONALLY intervened to quash investigation into the abuse of administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, when that first came to partial light. We have a president and vice president for whom obstruction of justice is just another burglar tool in their black bag, as they rob the balance of powers in our Constitution. Let the subpoenas now issuing in the U.S. attorney scandal lead to door of the oval office, where the trail surely does directly lead.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now3.php

And let us renew again and again our call for Congress to impeach ALL those who have harmed we the people so grievously, and to prosecute those impeachments at the most mercifully swift speed.

Dr. Dean's Diagnosis on the Libby Verdict

CactusPat — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 05:25:50 -0500

The DNC's callin' it a video note, my security software is blocking the akamai server the DNC's using so I snagged it from someone kind enuff to upload it to YouTube...

(bonus video)

Dr. Dean's reaction to the Libby verdict on MSNBC...