Post #244,063
2/9/06 7:12:20 PM
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Scooter's defense" My Boss made me do it!"
Just Heard on NBC's Nightly news (and found a [link|http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11259044/|link here]) that Scooter Libby will state in his defense that his "superiors" encouraged him to leak classified information to reporters to further the "administration's" partisan agenda, including the run-up to the Iraq war. WASHINGTON - I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, will in part base his defense on the claim that Cheney instructed and encouraged Libby to share classified information with reporters, sources familiar with the case tell NBC News.
Libby's attorneys discussed the matter with prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and the judge in the case in a recent conference call, the sources confirmed.
[...]
The case against Libby stems from the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium "yellowcake" in Niger. A year earlier, the CIA had sent Wilson to Africa to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports.
Bush made his case for going to war against Iraq in part on the uranium allegations, claiming that Saddam Hussein was trying to build weapons of mass destruction. Ooooh, this is big! jb4
"Every Repbulican who wants to defend Bush on [the expansion of Presidential powers], should be forced to say, 'I wouldn't hesitate to see President Hillary Rodham Clinton have the same authority'."
&mdash an unidentified letter writer to Newsweek on the expansion of executive powers under the Bush administration
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Post #244,065
2/9/06 8:24:21 PM
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I can see where this is going
Libby is claiming that he was just following orders and that his superiors gave him permission to make those leaks.
Next step has to be to try and get Cheney to testify under oath about the matter. Cheney will invoke "national security" and "state secrets" and claim he can't testify. This will drag through the courts for some time and eventually end up before the Supreme Court.
I'm not sure how the court would rule on Cheney appearing in court to testify on this matter. The courts are generally generous with the government when it comes to state secrets, but in this case it would be a government offical obviouisly trying to avoid prosecution by using those rules.
And in any case, this will cause the case to drag on till after the 2008 elections.
Jay
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Post #244,066
2/9/06 8:35:54 PM
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And to finish your train of thought
After the 2008 election has happened, Bush can just pardon everyone involved in the affair as he goes and they're done with it.
Like what happened with the Iran-Contra affair, killing all possibility of ever tracing it far enough to prosecute the October Surprise. :-(
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #244,136
2/10/06 11:09:02 AM
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Oh, Frack!
I was gonna say something like, "Yabut...you can't a priori pardon someone." Then I remembered Gerry Ford, and the only mistake he ever made during his attenuated Presidency.
:-(
jb4
"Every Repbulican who wants to defend Bush on [the expansion of Presidential powers], should be forced to say, 'I wouldn't hesitate to see President Hillary Rodham Clinton have the same authority'."
&mdash an unidentified letter writer to Newsweek on the expansion of executive powers under the Bush administration
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Post #244,140
2/10/06 11:31:48 AM
2/10/06 11:32:51 AM
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OT: That word is catchy, isn't it?
I've caught myself using 'frack' quite a bit lately. It's replaced 'frick', 'fark', and 'frag' for me...
When somebody asks you to trade your freedoms for security, it isn't your security they're talking about.
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Post #244,143
2/10/06 11:42:36 AM
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Ar, same here.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #244,156
2/10/06 2:11:35 PM
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I use 'shiny', 'gorram' and 'ruttin', myself
Just another browncoat, me.
Tom Sinclair
Mal: Now, I gotta know how close the Alliance is \ufffd exactly how much you told them before Wash scrambled your call. So. I've given Jayne here the job of finding out.
[Jayne pulls out a wicked knife.]
Jayne: He was non-specific as to how.
[Mal turns to speak quietly to Jayne.]
Mal: Now you only gotta scare him.
Jayne: Pain is scary\ufffd
- 'Serenity' (pilot), Firefly
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Post #244,091
2/10/06 1:50:33 AM
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Ah, the Nuremburg defense!
Alex
When fascism comes to America, it'll be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. -- Sinclair Lewis
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Post #244,101
2/10/06 8:24:14 AM
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Yep. Fitting, isn't it?
bcnu,
Mikem
It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell
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Post #244,106
2/10/06 8:54:35 AM
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How is that supposed to help?
The charges against him are all related to his lies, not the actions he was lying about.
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NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice, and certainly without probable cause. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.
-Put it on all your emails
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Post #244,116
2/10/06 9:59:13 AM
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But if Darth Cheney says it's ok, it's legal. Right???
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Post #244,118
2/10/06 10:00:28 AM
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no presiding legal authority
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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