Seymour Hersh, one of journalism's crankier bulldogs, was in an upbeat mood. At least for him. A confidential, well-placed source had told him that U.S. special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's 22-month inquiry into the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, wife of ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson IV, would go further than anyone had heretofore thought.
....
Although Bush is sometimes seen as a political marionette, manipulated by unseen masters, Hersh isn't so sure. He recalls a Saturday Night Live skit from the Reagan years that portrayed the then-president as a doddering fool who, once the cameras were off and the doors closed, calls a National Security council meeting, starts speaking Chinese and gives a detailed assessment of strategic threats.
"So sometimes I wonder," says Hersh. In Toronto, he says, he will talk about responsibility and war crimes and "make the case that gets Bush in the middle of it. There is a case for the President's direct participation. It's not something that happened without his acquiescence. I'd like to think he knows what's going on."
In the meantime (Hersh is waiting to see if Fitzgerald drops more indictment bombs), "he's the sleeper, a true unassailable. The White House calls him Eliot Ness , not with affection, so I've heard."
-----MORE-------
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Seymour Hersh Says Fitzgerald Will 'Save America'
WP
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "may just unravel the whole conspiracy," investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, published Monday. The New Yorker staff writer who broke the Abu Ghraib torture story predicts the prosecutor's case is going to go farther than anyone thought.
Hersh's notion of the conspiracy, says G&M staff writer Michael Posner, "encompasses the notion that the Iraq war was planned and orchestrated long before the administration began to build its case for regime change; and that the case it attempted to build, as laid out by former secretary of state Colin Powell to the United Nations, was essentially a fraud (and known to be a fraud)," he writes.
"In Hersh's eyes, anything that might hasten the departure of its chief architects, the hated neocons, would be welcome," Posner writes.
"We're so out of control," Hersh is quoted as saying about the United States. "We have a colossus out of control. It's the end of the world, brought to you by the neocons."
Fitzgerald, Hersh says, "is going to save America."
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "may just unravel the whole conspiracy," investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, published Monday. The New Yorker staff writer who broke the Abu Ghraib torture story predicts the prosecutor's case is going to go farther than anyone thought.
Hersh's notion of the conspiracy, says G&M staff writer Michael Posner, "encompasses the notion that the Iraq war was planned and orchestrated long before the administration began to build its case for regime change; and that the case it attempted to build, as laid out by former secretary of state Colin Powell to the United Nations, was essentially a fraud (and known to be a fraud)," he writes.
"In Hersh's eyes, anything that might hasten the departure of its chief architects, the hated neocons, would be welcome," Posner writes.
"We're so out of control," Hersh is quoted as saying about the United States. "We have a colossus out of control. It's the end of the world, brought to you by the neocons."
Fitzgerald, Hersh says, "is going to save America."
Bush's Underhand Deal With Wal-Mart
NYT
The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.
The report by the inspector general faulted department officials for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, without obtaining anything in return. The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process.
The report said that in granting Wal-Mart the 15-day notice, the Wage and Hour Division violated its own handbook. It added that agreeing to let Wal-Mart jointly develop news releases about the settlement with the department violated Labor Department policies..........
The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.
The report by the inspector general faulted department officials for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, without obtaining anything in return. The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process.
The report said that in granting Wal-Mart the 15-day notice, the Wage and Hour Division violated its own handbook. It added that agreeing to let Wal-Mart jointly develop news releases about the settlement with the department violated Labor Department policies..........
President Bush's Watergate
Last Friday we witnessed an explosion, an event that, like Watergate, will shape politics and the way we see government in America for years to come. This is a solemn time, and gives us a moment to remember what men can do when they abuse the power given to them by our nation. The first indictment was handed down in the investigation initiated by the CIA, and "Scooter" Libby, the right-hand man of the Vice President, faces five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a profound betrayal of national security -- the outing of a covert CIA agent.
Karl Rove remains under investigation, and as Republican Senator Trent Lott put it this weekend, "If this is going to be ongoing, if he has a problem, I think he's got to step up, and, you know, acknowledge that and deal with it." It's easy to forget that President Bush long ago promised to fire anybody involved, a promise that undermines White House credibility every day Rove continues to work there.
The desperate spin and attacks from the Republicans have already begun, and we must remind America of the facts behind this case, and what makes these indictments so monumentally important. We've put it all into a video; we are asking you to watch it and spread the word by forwarding it to everybody you know:
Watch the Video.
If there is a silver lining of these events, it may be that, in the future, all will know they cannot abuse their power with impunity while they sit in the White House. It is nothing short of tragic to learn that those sitting there now would sacrifice the safety of an American patriot and mother who risked her life to protect her country from the very threats over which this same Administration led us to war.
It is a frantic moment in history, but it is also a moment for reflection. I am even sadder to see the Republicans do not view it that way. They are now carrying out the intentions they announced last weekend: to trivialize the charges against Libby and the importance of honesty and truth in our justice system.
This is unconscionable and it cannot stand - we have put together this video to make sure it doesn't. I think you will find it powerful, so please watch it. But it will only help set the record straight if you spread the word to your fellow citizens - please take that extra step to stop the shameless Republican spin before it gets off the ground.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John Lapp
Executive Director, DCCC
Trial Could Pit Libby's Interests Against Bush's
WP
Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he lied and obstructed justice in the CIA leak probe when he is arraigned Thursday, setting the stage for a possible courtroom fight in which Libby's interests could collide with those of the Bush White House, according to several Republican officials.
Libby, who was charged with five felonies, is putting the finishing touches on a new legal and public relations team. It will argue in court and in public that he is guilty of nothing more than having a foggy memory and a hectic schedule, according to people close to him. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court before Judge Reggie B. Walton....
***
If Libby's case goes to trial, (David) Addington and (John) Hannah are only two of the many White House officials -- including Cheney himself -- who could be forced to testify about how they handled intelligence, dealt with the media and built the argument for the Iraq war, according to people close to the case. Republicans worry that Libby's court fight will force President Bush to deal with the prospect of top officials testifying and embarrassing disclosures of how the White House operates and treats critics.
It is also possible, they note, that Libby will strike a plea agreement and avert a public trial....
***
A source familiar with the discussion between Rove and Fitzgerald said the Tuesday meeting was about a lot more than "just an e-mail from (Adam) Levine."...Rove remains a focus of the CIA leak probe...."Everyone thinks it is over for Karl and they are wrong," a source close to Rove said. The strategist's legal and political advisers "by no means think the part of the investigation concerning Karl is closed."...
Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he lied and obstructed justice in the CIA leak probe when he is arraigned Thursday, setting the stage for a possible courtroom fight in which Libby's interests could collide with those of the Bush White House, according to several Republican officials.
Libby, who was charged with five felonies, is putting the finishing touches on a new legal and public relations team. It will argue in court and in public that he is guilty of nothing more than having a foggy memory and a hectic schedule, according to people close to him. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court before Judge Reggie B. Walton....
***
If Libby's case goes to trial, (David) Addington and (John) Hannah are only two of the many White House officials -- including Cheney himself -- who could be forced to testify about how they handled intelligence, dealt with the media and built the argument for the Iraq war, according to people close to the case. Republicans worry that Libby's court fight will force President Bush to deal with the prospect of top officials testifying and embarrassing disclosures of how the White House operates and treats critics.
It is also possible, they note, that Libby will strike a plea agreement and avert a public trial....
***
A source familiar with the discussion between Rove and Fitzgerald said the Tuesday meeting was about a lot more than "just an e-mail from (Adam) Levine."...Rove remains a focus of the CIA leak probe...."Everyone thinks it is over for Karl and they are wrong," a source close to Rove said. The strategist's legal and political advisers "by no means think the part of the investigation concerning Karl is closed."...
Media Matters Latest, November 01, 2005
Cable news coverage of Alito nomination skewed right
CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News provided imbalanced coverage of the October 31 nomination of federal appeals court judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court -- Republicans, conservatives, and pro-Alito guests dominated the networks' coverage; far outnumbering Democrats, progressives, and Alito critics. Media Matters for America analyzed the cable news networks' October 31 coverage of the nomination from 7 a.m. to noon ET.
Read more...
USA Today editorial on CIA leak case riddled with false, misleading claims
Read more...
Woodward v. Washington Post on CIA assessment of leak damage
Bob Woodward claimed that the CIA has completed a damage assessment related to the outing of agency operative Valerie Plame and found its detrimental effects to be "quite minimal." However, two days later, Woodward's own newspaper reported that the CIA initially found the damage "serious enough to warrant an investigation," and stated that the agency typically waits until the conclusion of criminal investigations to launch formal damage assessments.
Read more...
- Couric echoed conservative rhetoric, suggested Alito "is a strict constructionist" who "will
On the October 31 edition of NBC's Today, co-host Katie Couric baselessly suggested that newly named Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. is "a strict constructionist" who "will interpret the Constitution literally." Couric's comment marked at least the second time that she has parroted rhetoric conservatives use to promote President Bush's judicial nominees. They frequently create a false dichotomy between strict constructionists, whom they purport to embrace, and "judicial activists," whom they characterize as a blight on the judicial system. But while Couric offered no support for her assessment that Alito is a strict constructionist, by one measure -- the likelihood to restrict Congress' ability to enact legislation -- he has been described as a judicial activist.
Read more...
- Conservative media figures repeated false claim that Libby indictment proved no "underlying crime" was committed
Read more...
- O'Reilly on caller defending Media Matters, other "nuts": "We should go to their house. ... I can get their addresses when they call in"
Read more...
- CNN, NPR failed to note contradictory statements from "liberal" Alito supporter
Read more...
- Gelernter misquoted Carter secretary of state in suggesting Democrats are bad for the U.S. military
Read more...
Bob Herbert: Smoke Gets in Our Eyes
The New York Times
Monday 31 October 2005
There's a reason so many top officials of the Bush administration treat the truth as if it were kryptonite.
More than anything else, the simple truth has the potential to destroy the Bush gang.
Scooter Libby was one of the most powerful figures in the administration, Dick Cheney's most highly trusted aide and a champion of the wholesale flim-flammery that led us into the crucible of Iraq. I haven't heard anyone express surprise that he would lie in the service of the administration.
But if the federal indictment returned last week in Washington is to be believed, Mr. Libby lied with the kind of reckless disregard for his own interests that would suggest he had become unhinged. It was as if he'd waved red flags in front of the grand jury and cried, "Come get me!"
You will hardly ever hear of someone who is skilled in the art of government, and a lawyer to boot, telling the kind of transparent lies that Mr. Libby is accused of telling the F.B.I. and a federal grand jury.
The indictment says, for example, that he told the feds he'd had a discussion with N.B.C.'s Tim Russert in which Mr. Russert asserted that "all the reporters" knew that Valerie Wilson, the wife of the former diplomat Joseph Wilson, worked for the C.I.A. In fact, according to the indictment and Mr. Russert, no such discussion occurred.
Mr. Libby himself was spreading the word about Ms. Wilson and, as Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the case, asserted, "he lied about it afterwards, under oath and repeatedly."
Who knows why Mr. Libby did what he did. Misplaced loyalty? An irrepressible need to be punished for his sins? Maybe he's just a dope. Of greater consequence for the republic is the fact that Mr. Libby is no hapless functionary who somehow lost his way. He's a symptom, the hacking cough that should alert us to a dangerous national disease, and that's the Bush administration's culture of deceit.
Scooter Libby was the main man of the most powerful vice president in the history of the United States. The most important aspect of the prosecution of Mr. Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice is the tremendous spotlight it is likely to shine on the way this administration does its business - its relentless, almost pathological, undermining of the truth, and its ruthless treatment of individuals who cling to the old-fashioned notion that the truth matters.
Condoleezza Rice, for example, gave us nightmare fantasies of mushroom clouds and declared on television that aluminum tubes seized en route to Iraq "were only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." Perhaps she forgot that a year earlier her own staff had been advised that experts had serious doubts about that. In any event, she would be promoted to secretary of state.
Gen. Eric Shinseki met a different fate when, as chief of staff of the Army, he dared to speak an uncomfortable truth to a Senate committee: that it would take several hundred thousand soldiers to pacify postwar Iraq. There was no promotion for him. His long and honorable career evaporated.
That's the game plan of this administration, to fool the people as much as possible (not just on the war, but on taxes, Social Security, energy policy and so on) and punish, if not destroy, anyone who tries to counter the madness with the truth.
Most members of the administration are more artful than Scooter Libby when they send out the smoke that is designed to hide the truth on important matters. They dissemble and give themselves wiggle room, like Dick Cheney when he said, truthfully but deceptively on "Meet the Press," that he didn't know Joseph Wilson. The vice president didn't know him personally, but he sure knew what was going on.
The art of Bush-speak is to achieve the effect of a lie without actually getting caught in a lie. That's what administration officials did when they deliberately fostered the impression that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda and thus was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. This is an insidious way of governing, and the opposite of what the United States should be about.
It should tell you something that the administration's resident sleazemeister, Karl Rove, who is up to his ears in this mess but has managed so far to escape indictment, continues to be viewed not as an embarrassment, but as President Bush's most important and absolutely indispensable asset.
Monday 31 October 2005
There's a reason so many top officials of the Bush administration treat the truth as if it were kryptonite.
More than anything else, the simple truth has the potential to destroy the Bush gang.
Scooter Libby was one of the most powerful figures in the administration, Dick Cheney's most highly trusted aide and a champion of the wholesale flim-flammery that led us into the crucible of Iraq. I haven't heard anyone express surprise that he would lie in the service of the administration.
But if the federal indictment returned last week in Washington is to be believed, Mr. Libby lied with the kind of reckless disregard for his own interests that would suggest he had become unhinged. It was as if he'd waved red flags in front of the grand jury and cried, "Come get me!"
You will hardly ever hear of someone who is skilled in the art of government, and a lawyer to boot, telling the kind of transparent lies that Mr. Libby is accused of telling the F.B.I. and a federal grand jury.
The indictment says, for example, that he told the feds he'd had a discussion with N.B.C.'s Tim Russert in which Mr. Russert asserted that "all the reporters" knew that Valerie Wilson, the wife of the former diplomat Joseph Wilson, worked for the C.I.A. In fact, according to the indictment and Mr. Russert, no such discussion occurred.
Mr. Libby himself was spreading the word about Ms. Wilson and, as Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the case, asserted, "he lied about it afterwards, under oath and repeatedly."
Who knows why Mr. Libby did what he did. Misplaced loyalty? An irrepressible need to be punished for his sins? Maybe he's just a dope. Of greater consequence for the republic is the fact that Mr. Libby is no hapless functionary who somehow lost his way. He's a symptom, the hacking cough that should alert us to a dangerous national disease, and that's the Bush administration's culture of deceit.
Scooter Libby was the main man of the most powerful vice president in the history of the United States. The most important aspect of the prosecution of Mr. Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice is the tremendous spotlight it is likely to shine on the way this administration does its business - its relentless, almost pathological, undermining of the truth, and its ruthless treatment of individuals who cling to the old-fashioned notion that the truth matters.
Condoleezza Rice, for example, gave us nightmare fantasies of mushroom clouds and declared on television that aluminum tubes seized en route to Iraq "were only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." Perhaps she forgot that a year earlier her own staff had been advised that experts had serious doubts about that. In any event, she would be promoted to secretary of state.
Gen. Eric Shinseki met a different fate when, as chief of staff of the Army, he dared to speak an uncomfortable truth to a Senate committee: that it would take several hundred thousand soldiers to pacify postwar Iraq. There was no promotion for him. His long and honorable career evaporated.
That's the game plan of this administration, to fool the people as much as possible (not just on the war, but on taxes, Social Security, energy policy and so on) and punish, if not destroy, anyone who tries to counter the madness with the truth.
Most members of the administration are more artful than Scooter Libby when they send out the smoke that is designed to hide the truth on important matters. They dissemble and give themselves wiggle room, like Dick Cheney when he said, truthfully but deceptively on "Meet the Press," that he didn't know Joseph Wilson. The vice president didn't know him personally, but he sure knew what was going on.
The art of Bush-speak is to achieve the effect of a lie without actually getting caught in a lie. That's what administration officials did when they deliberately fostered the impression that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda and thus was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. This is an insidious way of governing, and the opposite of what the United States should be about.
It should tell you something that the administration's resident sleazemeister, Karl Rove, who is up to his ears in this mess but has managed so far to escape indictment, continues to be viewed not as an embarrassment, but as President Bush's most important and absolutely indispensable asset.
Joe Conason: Libby Takes the Fall
Salon.com
But Bush still needs to come clean on the White House's role in abusing classified information for partisan purposes.
While the full implications of the Scooter Libby indictment have yet to emerge - including the question of whether Karl Rove, aka "Official A," ultimately escapes prosecution - special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has convincingly exploded right-wing disinformation about the CIA leak affair.
For many months now, Republican politicians and pundits have floated misleading spin to deflect attention from the fundamental truth: For partisan political reasons, leading figures in the White House and the Bush administration leaked an important national security secret.
The purveyors of GOP spin have proclaimed that Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA identity was no secret at all; that the exposure of her identity merited no investigation whatsoever; that she was responsible for sending her husband Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV to Niger to investigate alleged uranium trading with Iraq; that the special counsel investigation somehow represented the "criminalization of politics"; and that the special counsel himself is overzealous and unprofessional.
Within the first few pages of his indictment, Fitzgerald swiftly dismisses the false notions about Wilson's mission to Niger, his wife's role in that mission and the nature of her work at the CIA. Paragraph 1e notes that the CIA "decided on its own initiative to send Wilson to the country of Niger to investigate allegations regarding Iraqi attempts to acquire uranium yellowcake, a processed form of uranium ore." That statement in the painstakingly worded document clearly attributes responsibility to the agency and not to her. (And as he noted at his press conference, the notion that she played a role in dispatching her husband to Niger - which he pointedly did not endorse - was of no relevance to the charges against Libby.)
Whether Valerie Wilson endorsed or even suggested that her husband could assist in that endeavor mattered not at all to Fitzgerald, who plainly assigns the responsibility for her husband's mission to the agency - and not to her.
The indictment's ensuing paragraphs debunk the lie echoed incessantly by nearly every right-wing megaphone, from Rush Limbaugh down, concerning the secrecy of Valerie Wilson's CIA position. Contrary to claims that "everyone in Washington knew" she worked for the agency, including her friends and neighbors, Fitzgerald declares: "At all relevant times from January 1, 2002, through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community."
Dispassionate as those facts appear on the printed page, the prosecutor sounded grim as he went on to explain their deeper meaning: "The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well known, for her protection [and] for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security ... This is a very serious matter and compromising national security information is a very serious matter. But the need to get to the bottom of what happened and whether national security was compromised by inadvertence, by recklessness, by maliciousness is extremely important."
Fitzgerald's serious demeanor, exceptionally careful remarks and narrowly drawn indictment make all of his critics look foolish. He is obviously no "loose cannon," as the Wall Street Journal editorial page shrieked last summer.
And as for the "criminalization of politics," he noted that from his perspective, the charges brought against Libby have nothing to do with partisan interests. He laughed off such accusations by noting that despite accusations that he is a "Republican hack" or a "Democratic hack," he is registered in neither party and serves no interest except the law.
Yet within the limits of the law and without rhetorical flourish, Fitzgerald's investigation has exposed elements of a White House conspiracy to abuse classified information for partisan purposes.
The complete story is yet to unfold, even as Libby takes the fall, but the Bush White House clearly bears responsibility for the original offense and the subsequent coverup. Neither the vice president nor the president has claimed that Libby misled them about his involvement in the exposure of Valerie Wilson - which suggests that Cheney and Bush have known about Libby's complicity for many months, and did nothing to discipline him.
The same can be said of Rove, to whom the indictment alludes under the rubric of "Official A," the unnamed "senior official in the White House" who spoke with columnist Robert Novak about Valerie Wilson's work for the CIA. The special counsel may not believe that Rove could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of a federal offense, but he clearly believes that Rove participated in this nefarious scheme.
As Fitzgerald explained more than once Friday, the law bars no witness before the grand jury from discussing his or her testimony. So despite all the blather from the press podium and the president himself about the restrictions imposed by an "ongoing investigation," Bush has long been able to determine precisely what part Rove played. He could now fulfill his promise to dismiss any official who exposed a CIA officer, an act that supposedly fills him with revulsion. He need not wait for an indictment that may never come.
In the grim light cast by the indictment of Libby, the president himself should now be required to answer an updated version of the classic Watergate question: What did he know about the national security offense and the apparent coverup perpetrated by his vice president and his chief political advisor? When did he know it? And why, with the facts laid before him, has he still done nothing about this outrage?
But Bush still needs to come clean on the White House's role in abusing classified information for partisan purposes.
While the full implications of the Scooter Libby indictment have yet to emerge - including the question of whether Karl Rove, aka "Official A," ultimately escapes prosecution - special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has convincingly exploded right-wing disinformation about the CIA leak affair.
For many months now, Republican politicians and pundits have floated misleading spin to deflect attention from the fundamental truth: For partisan political reasons, leading figures in the White House and the Bush administration leaked an important national security secret.
The purveyors of GOP spin have proclaimed that Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA identity was no secret at all; that the exposure of her identity merited no investigation whatsoever; that she was responsible for sending her husband Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV to Niger to investigate alleged uranium trading with Iraq; that the special counsel investigation somehow represented the "criminalization of politics"; and that the special counsel himself is overzealous and unprofessional.
Within the first few pages of his indictment, Fitzgerald swiftly dismisses the false notions about Wilson's mission to Niger, his wife's role in that mission and the nature of her work at the CIA. Paragraph 1e notes that the CIA "decided on its own initiative to send Wilson to the country of Niger to investigate allegations regarding Iraqi attempts to acquire uranium yellowcake, a processed form of uranium ore." That statement in the painstakingly worded document clearly attributes responsibility to the agency and not to her. (And as he noted at his press conference, the notion that she played a role in dispatching her husband to Niger - which he pointedly did not endorse - was of no relevance to the charges against Libby.)
Whether Valerie Wilson endorsed or even suggested that her husband could assist in that endeavor mattered not at all to Fitzgerald, who plainly assigns the responsibility for her husband's mission to the agency - and not to her.
The indictment's ensuing paragraphs debunk the lie echoed incessantly by nearly every right-wing megaphone, from Rush Limbaugh down, concerning the secrecy of Valerie Wilson's CIA position. Contrary to claims that "everyone in Washington knew" she worked for the agency, including her friends and neighbors, Fitzgerald declares: "At all relevant times from January 1, 2002, through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community."
Dispassionate as those facts appear on the printed page, the prosecutor sounded grim as he went on to explain their deeper meaning: "The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well known, for her protection [and] for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security ... This is a very serious matter and compromising national security information is a very serious matter. But the need to get to the bottom of what happened and whether national security was compromised by inadvertence, by recklessness, by maliciousness is extremely important."
Fitzgerald's serious demeanor, exceptionally careful remarks and narrowly drawn indictment make all of his critics look foolish. He is obviously no "loose cannon," as the Wall Street Journal editorial page shrieked last summer.
And as for the "criminalization of politics," he noted that from his perspective, the charges brought against Libby have nothing to do with partisan interests. He laughed off such accusations by noting that despite accusations that he is a "Republican hack" or a "Democratic hack," he is registered in neither party and serves no interest except the law.
Yet within the limits of the law and without rhetorical flourish, Fitzgerald's investigation has exposed elements of a White House conspiracy to abuse classified information for partisan purposes.
The complete story is yet to unfold, even as Libby takes the fall, but the Bush White House clearly bears responsibility for the original offense and the subsequent coverup. Neither the vice president nor the president has claimed that Libby misled them about his involvement in the exposure of Valerie Wilson - which suggests that Cheney and Bush have known about Libby's complicity for many months, and did nothing to discipline him.
The same can be said of Rove, to whom the indictment alludes under the rubric of "Official A," the unnamed "senior official in the White House" who spoke with columnist Robert Novak about Valerie Wilson's work for the CIA. The special counsel may not believe that Rove could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of a federal offense, but he clearly believes that Rove participated in this nefarious scheme.
As Fitzgerald explained more than once Friday, the law bars no witness before the grand jury from discussing his or her testimony. So despite all the blather from the press podium and the president himself about the restrictions imposed by an "ongoing investigation," Bush has long been able to determine precisely what part Rove played. He could now fulfill his promise to dismiss any official who exposed a CIA officer, an act that supposedly fills him with revulsion. He need not wait for an indictment that may never come.
In the grim light cast by the indictment of Libby, the president himself should now be required to answer an updated version of the classic Watergate question: What did he know about the national security offense and the apparent coverup perpetrated by his vice president and his chief political advisor? When did he know it? And why, with the facts laid before him, has he still done nothing about this outrage?
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