Libby found guilty in CIA leak case

[Osborn F Enready]

Libby found guilty in CIA leak case - Yahoo! News

From Yahoo News, crediting Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was found guilty on Tuesday of lying and obstructing a probe related to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war and could face years in prison. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was acquitted of just one of five counts in the investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA analyst. The Libby verdict came on the 10th day of jury deliberations and was hailed by Democrats as an appropriate rejection of the administration's case for a war that has become widely unpopular with the U.S. public. The guilty verdict was the latest in a series of setbacks growing out of the Bush administration's Iraq war policy -- including flawed intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, failure to commit enough troops to quell sectarian violence, prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib, and an outcry over treatment of U.S. war wounded. Defense attorney Theodore Wells said Libby would seek a new trial, and if denied, would appeal the conviction. The trial stemmed from a probe into the leak of CIA analyst Valerie Plame's identity in 2003 after her husband accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to build its case for war. Libby sat expressionless as the verdict was read in a packed Washington courtroom. His wife wept. Cheney said he was very disappointed. "Scooter served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction through many years of public service," he said in a statement. "I would hope that Mr. Libby and all other officials in the U.S. government would draw the right lesson from this. And the right lesson to learn from this is you don't abuse the public trust engaging in personal vendettas," Wilson told reporters.

Pooooooooor Scooooter......

One, itsy bitsy, tiny fragment of justice falls from the bowels of the justice system...... for now.

[Chaossaber314]

I did not see this coming.

[Boetie]

Cheney said he was very disappointed. "Scooter served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction through many years of public service," he said in a statement.

What a pathetic Boobus Americanus. Cheney didn't even have the balls to step up and take it like a man. Instead he abandoned Libby and left Libby to squirm like a worm.

All we get from Cheney is a calculated remark that's amounts to nothing more than a script. Where's the human?

As for Libby he gets what he deserves for sleeping with a clunkhead like Cheney.

Trust me I wouldn't hang around a horse's ass like Cheney; let alone put my neck on the guillotine for a something that has less of a soul than Howdy Doody.

Cheney is one cold chicken-head and I won't even mention that nose-picker whom calls himself a president.

[Osborn F Enready]

Chaossaber said: I did not see this coming.

Not to infer anything, but I don't think most of the population that watches Fox news as their main news source expected this either, so don't feel alone.

[The Decider]

He'll probably get a lameduck pardon in December 2008.

At least now we can ask the next question--what and who was Libby lying to protect? Too bad the answer to those questions will never see the inside of a courtroom.

[Zeebadee]

Big deal, so Scooter took one for the team. He'll spend a few months at most at some minimum security country club, then be amply rewarded with some high-paying taxpayer funded job. The bush cabal successfully diverted attention from the identity leak and focused it on this nitwit.

How is it that someone can be judged guilty of "lying and obstructing a probe", and yet when the "probe" is finished, no one is charged with a crime? Scooter's just another lackey, paid to take the rap for his boss, just a minor piece of collateral damage, deserving of no respect whatsoever.

[Duke1985]

I think we'll defiantly see a pardon on this one.

I did however find it interesting that the jury came out and said they felt bad for him and were wondering were the other people that need to be charged are.

[Clarence]

One, itsy bitsy, tiny fragment of justice falls from the bowels of the justice system...... for now.

That depends if something more comes from it. As it stands it's definitly illegal to out a secret agent.

[Boetie]

Quote by: Zeebadee Big deal, so Scooter took one for the team.

It's a lot more than that. Junior came onto the scene bragging that his administration will be so clean that if anyone even so much has an appearance of deviating from this cleanliness they will be fired.

When Libby got hit with the various charges Junior changed the bar to anyone that is convicted of a crime.

We have Gonzales replacing good prosectutors with political egg-suckers.

This administration and their cheerleaders whored out the troops to bully others into supporting a waron and these cheerleaders drove around with magnetic support your troops ribbons and all the while Walter Reed Hospital is a shining example of their support.

The lists goes on but the Libby trial is Bush Jr's legacy. Junior's legacy will be that of the first President to have an ass-hole for a V.P and he is stuck with that legacy.

[Osborn F Enready]

As Joe Wilson just said to Larry King.....

"When is the President going to keep his word about ridding his administration of anyone caught up in this scandal?"

[Chaossaber314]

Quote by: Osborn F Enready Not to infer anything, but I don't think most of the population that watches Fox news as their main news source expected this either, so don't feel alone.

I don't watch Fox News. At the very least it sounded like there was an abnormal amount of confidence that this thing was going to go in Libby's favor from all sides.

[jcgadfly]

Well, now that he's been convicted, anyone think he'll be pardoned quickly and quietly before the Bush cabal leaves office?

[RickSp]

I saw two headlines which I think say it all:

Libby Verdict Deals Blow to Bush Administration

Tuesday: 10 GIs, 215 Iraqis Killed; 4 GIs, 406 Iraqis Wounded

On one hand, one of the bastards who lied us into this war is going to jail (if he isn't pardoned first.) On the other, more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians keep dying and those responsible are still in power and may never be held accountable for the death and destruction that they have wrought. So I am happy that Scooter was convicted, but it is only the first small step.

[xyzer]

What a terrible miscarriage of justice! First an investigation is ordered to ferret out a non crime? Leaking the identitiy of a CIA employee who is sitting at a desk in the CIA! Leaking(repeating)non classified government data is not a crime! Revealing(discussing) the identity of a CIA employee not in a covert status is not a crime?

How many years of wasted tax payers dollars results in the trial of only one of the gossipers who mentione Valerie Plames occuptation? What about the others..reporters, government employees? Did they perjure themselves in the process?i.e. were their recollections of gossip more accurate that His?

This monstrous distortion of our justice system continued into a show trial(politiclly motivated) to determine whether a political player in the scenario lied under oath? Lied about what? The identity of a CIA employee..who everybody in town knew was a CIA employee? Does anyone count the cost of such crap? Millions in a stupid investigation..while a real perpetrator Congressman Jefferson (of cold cash fame) still remains un investigated and un indicted?

As the evil political players in this travesty anticipated..die hards like Rick think it shows how the administration is filled with liars! Liars about the war? Liars about everything? Oddly Wilson who started this improbalbe bit of nonsense was the one who lied! His statements about what took place on his tour were shown to be lies!

Another underlying fact is just why did the CIA send an outsider(non CIA)person on a mission to ferret out facts about yellow cake? Would a CIA employee have been restricted in public statements about such a mission? Why would Wilson be used? He came back and used his experience to criticize the administration and even wrote a book about his experience? Is this the way the very secret CIA normally works?

[xyzer]

What a terrible miscarriage of justice! First an investigation is ordered to ferret out a non crime? Leaking the identitiy of a CIA employee who is sitting at a desk in the CIA! Leaking(repeating)non classified government data is not a crime! Revealing(discussing) the identity of a CIA employee not in a covert status is not a crime?

How many years of wasted tax payers dollars results in the trial of only one of the gossipers who mentione Valerie Plames occuptation? What about the others..reporters, government employees? Did they perjure themselves in the process?i.e. were their recollections of gossip more accurate that His?

This monstrous distortion of our justice system continued into a show trial(politiclly motivated) to determine whether a political player in the scenario lied under oath? Lied about what? The identity of a CIA employee..who everybody in town knew was a CIA employee? Does anyone count the cost of such crap? Millions in a stupid investigation..while a real perpetrator Congressman Jefferson (of cold cash fame) still remains uninvestigated and unindicted?

As the evil political players in this travesty anticipated..die hards like Rick think it shows how the administration is filled with liars! Liars about the war? Liars about everything? Oddly Wilson who started this improbalbe bit of nonsense was the one who lied! His statements about what took place on his tour were shown to be lies!

Another underlying fact is just why did the CIA send an outsider(non CIA)person on a mission to ferret out facts about yellow cake? Would a CIA employee have been restricted in public statements about such a mission? Why would Wilson be used? He came back and used his experience to criticize the administration and even wrote a book about his experience? Is this the way the very secret CIA normally works?

[jcgadfly]

Interesting screed, xyzer.

Got proof? I can lay may hands on sources contrary to your claim that you would decry as having a "liberal bias" - but I can lay my hands on them.

Can you say the same or was this just a string of assertions?

[brien]

Now that one scoundrel is convicted, I wonder how long it will take the DOJ to prosecute Sandy Berger for allegedly stealing top secret information from the National Archives? Berger even offered to take a lie detector test and the DOJ won't take him up on it. Why? There certainly is no shortage of political hacks in DC.

Unanswered questions about Sandy Berger

January 10, 2007 Unanswered questions about Sandy Berger Tom Davis (R-VA), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday released a 61-page report that raises new questions about former national security advisor Sandy Berger's sticky fingers -- and the gullibility of the Justice Department. “My staff’s investigation reveals that President Clinton’s former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger compromised national security much more than originally disclosed,” Davis said (in a statement released with the report). “It is now also clear that Mr. Berger was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to compromise national security, apparently for his own convenience. “The compromised law enforcement effort contributes to reduced confidence that the 9/11 Commission received all the documents it requested...The public statements of the former chief of the public integrity section, Noel Hillman, were incomplete and misleading. Because Mr. Berger had access to original documents that he could have taken without detection, we do not know if anything ‘was lost to the public or the process.’

From the Congressional record: Congressional Record: October 6, 2005 (House)
Page H8728-H8729

Madam Speaker, we have a major problem in America. Sandy Berger, our National Security Advisor, stole documents from the National Archives, stole documents and put them in his clothing and took them out because they would incriminate him and President Clinton about what they knew before 9/11. He stole them. He placed them inside of his coat, in his pants, in his shoes, and he took those documents out of the National Archives because he did not want the 9/11 Commission to see what was in there. When he was caught, and finally brought to justice, his security clearance was lifted for 3 years. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer simply told the truth and because Defense intelligence bureaucrats are unhappy about being embarrassed they have removed his security clearance permanently. Is that what America is about, Madam Speaker? Is it about protecting a national security advisor who steals classified documents from the archives of the United States about what happened before 9/11 and gets a 3-year lift of his clearance, and a uniformed military officer who simply tells the truth has his security clearance permanently lifted? Madam Speaker, if we do not right this wrong that will send and is sending a signal to every uniformed officer in America, if you tell the truth and if that truth embarrasses a bureaucrat or a political appointee, you are more expendable than the civilian officer, and [[Page H8729]] that cannot stand. We must do better. Anthony Shaffer deserves justice.

____________________


Weldon: Defense Intelligence Agency Using False Claims to Silence Colonel

Corruption and dishonesty have no loyalty to any political party.

[RickSp]

Quote by: brien Corruption and dishonesty have no loyalty to any political party.

True enough, but as the bumpersticker said, "When Clinton lied, nobody died."

[Boetie]

Quote by: xyzer What a terrible miscarriage of justice! First an investigation is ordered to ferret out a non crime? Leaking the identitiy of a CIA employee who is sitting at a desk in the CIA! Leaking(repeating)non classified government data is not a crime! Revealing(discussing) the identity of a CIA employee not in a covert status is not a crime?

What amazes me is the great length so many go through to defend an adminstration that lied resulting in innocent people dying.

The claim that this investigation was to ferret out a non-crime is false. Take a look at this:

Libby The former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was found guilty on Tuesday of lying and obstructing a probe related to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war

The investigation couldn't get to the crime because Libby obstructed it and threw lies into the face of the inquiry thus frustrating the efforts to find out. In other words Libby fell on his sword for this adminstration just as Tenet fell on his sword for this administration.

One thing I can say for sure this administration is certainly not short on traitors to this country.

Now that one scoundrel is convicted, I wonder how long it will take the DOJ to prosecute Sandy Berger for allegedly stealing top secret information from the National Archives? Berger even offered to take a lie detector test and the DOJ won't take him up on it. Why? There certainly is no shortage of political hacks in DC

The above is another amazing thing. My hometowm republican rag that pretends to be a legitimate newspaper lamented about Berger. What is with this? Libby is found guilty and no one focuses on the real monsters which is Bush Jr, Rove and Cheney who fixed the facts to fix the policy which results in nothing short of mass murder and all you apologist for this most heinous criminal cabal can whine about is some screw loose that shoved a bunch of worthless papers up his butt.

We spent 70 million dollars to go after a BJ where's was the cry of wasted money then?

Libby and the gang are killers, murderers, low lifes, scums and these gutters snipes actually have apologists.

[brien]

"When Clinton lied, nobody died."

So the people who are willing to give Berger a free pass here, are fine upstanding shinning examples of the government's best? I think it was obvious Berger was looting the archives seeking to protect Clinton from any 911 implications for its responsibility. Last time I looked, 3000 people perished on 911 and Berger was seeking to probably cover up and protect his former boss from any responsibility for 911. I think this is the general line of accepted thought here. No matter though, nobody died when Clinton lied. This mantra is chanted by those who wish to deflect intelligent thinking away from Clinton's responsibility for whatever they deem inappropriate and yet probably illegal. Gag's me.