Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, left, and his attorney James Hamilton, leave U.S. Federal Court in Washington, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Posted on 02/12/2007 3:20:07 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Three prominent journalists testified Monday that Bush administration officials volunteered leaks about a CIA operative, as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys sought to suggest he was not responsible for exposing her.
The jury in Libby's perjury trial heard a 66-second snippet of one of the deep background interviews given to Washington Post editor Bob Woodward for use in one of his books. They also saw a parade of Pulitzer-prize winning journalists discuss who did and did not leak the information that set off a scandal and ultimately brought Libby to trial.
Woodward, who never wrote about Plame, and columnist Robert Novak, who first identified her in print, testified that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage first told them in the summer of 2003 that the wife of prominent Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, worked at the CIA.
Another Post reporter, Walter Pincus, testified that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer "suddenly swerved off" topic during an interview to tell him of her employment.
This contradicted a point in Fleischer's testimony last week.
A major government witness, Fleischer testified Libby told him about Plame — earlier than Libby has told investigators he thought he first learned about her from NBC reporter Tim Russert.
On cross-examination, Fleischer also testified that he did not recall telling Pincus about Plame. The reporter's testimony Monday was the most direct hit the defense made on the prosecution's evidence that Libby lied to FBI agents and a grand jury about his talks with reporters about Plame and obstructed an investigation into how her name leaked.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is not charged with the actual leak.
The defense did show Libby had numerous opportunities to leak Plame's identity to reporters and did not. But none of Monday's testimony went directly to the precise charges that he lied about his conversations with three other reporters about her.
The day's highlight was the tape of Woodward's June 13, 2003, interview with Armitage about how Bush decided to go to war. Armitage's name was never supposed to be connected publicly to what he said, but the scandal prompted him to release Woodward from his pledge of confidentiality. Armitage has said he revealed the name accidentally off-the-cuff and didn't realize that Plame's employment was classified information.
With Armitage's frequent profanities deleted, the jurors heard him tell Woodward no less than four times where she worked.
Woodward asked about Wilson's 2002 fact-finding mission to Africa for the CIA that the ex-ambassador says helped him debunk prewar intelligence on Iraq.
"Why would they send him?" Woodward asked.
"Because his wife's a (expletive) analyst at the agency," Armitage replied.
"It's still weird," Woodward said.
"It's perfect. That's what she does. She is a WMD analyst," Armitage said.
Later Woodward asked if she was the WMD chief at CIA. Armitage said she wasn't but was in a position there to suggest that her husband had contacts in Africa.
Finally, Armitage said: "His wife is at the agency and is a WMD analyst. How about that (expletive)."
Novak described trying to get an interview with Armitage in 2001 and being told the deputy secretary was "not too busy. He just didn't want to talk to me." Novak said he was rebuffed again after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Then in the last week of June 2003, Armitage's office called to set up an interview. "I had not pressed my request for one in two years," Novak said. Once he asked about the Wilson trip, Armitage said "it was suggested by his wife, Valerie, who is employed in the counterproliferation division at CIA," Novak testified.
Novak testified he got confirmation from White House political adviser Karl Rove, who replied to him: "Oh, you've heard that, too."
Defense attorneys got Woodward, Novak, Pincus, New York Times reporter David Sanger, Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler and Newsweek reporter Evan Thomas all to say they had talked to Libby about Wilson's allegations during the summer of 2003, but Libby had not disclosed Plame's identity or employment to them.
But Sanger, Kessler and Thomas said they didn't ask Libby about Wilson's wife. Woodward and Novak testified they didn't recall asking about her but said Libby didn't talk about her if they did. Pincus said Libby said he didn't know how the trip was arranged but their conversation occurred before June 12, when Libby now recalls he first learned the information from Cheney.
Defense attorneys brought out that Woodward, Pincus, Sanger and Kessler had all shared in Pulitzer Prizes.
"I believe you're the third Pulitzer prize winner to testify this morning," Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald quipped when he began questioning Sanger. He used the moment to bring out that an earlier prosecution witness, Judith Miller, also had shared a Pulitzer Prize while working at the Times.
___
Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.
Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, left, and his attorney James Hamilton, leave U.S. Federal Court in Washington, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Syndicated columnist Robert Novak leaves a federal court house after testifying in the perjury trial of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, former chief of staff to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington February 12, 2007. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES)
Bob Woodward, assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, leaves U.S. Federal Court in Washington, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Game, set, match. It is Fitzgerald's contention that Scooter lied to the Grand Jury to cover up his participation in outting Plame. If Scooter wasn't outting Plame, he had no reason to deliberately lie, so thereofore he did not have a purpose of evasion.
Fitz ought to be shamed into a neverending abyss of pig stye slop just for even bringing this stupid charge up to trial... and the only people who ought to be charged are the Wilson's!
What an asswipe!
I am a leak source too.
And I am Spartacus.
And I am the father of Anna Nicole's baby.
somehow, I don't think that's what wifey had in mind when she said "Get busy!" ;-)
I see Zsa Zsa's hubby, Prince Van Anhalt, is asking for custody too.
Well, the left will still insist that Libby, Rove, and Bush lied.
And guess what :
Fitzgerald’s Disaster: Wilson Outed Plame
******************AN EXCERPT *******************
Posted by AJStrata on February 12th, 2007
Listening to the full Woodward tape of Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaking the news about Plame must be giving Fitzgerald nightmares. CNN has posted the full tape played at the trial and it is astounding. The part that got me was when Armitage said “His wife named him”, and Woodward asks, “Why doesn’t this get out?”. Then Armitage says, on June 13th 2003, basically what Andrea Mitchell would say months later when she was talking off the cuff on CNBC. Armitage laughingly says “Everyone knows”. In the words of Mitchell.
MURRAY And the second question is: Do we have any idea how widely known it was in Washington that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA?
MITCHELL: It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger. So a number of us began to pick up on that. But frankly I wasn’t aware of her actual role at the CIA and the fact that she had a covert role involving weapons of mass destruction, not until Bob Novak wrote it.
But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”. I predicted long ago, and again just prior to the trial, it would come out that Joe and Valerie were both sources for Kristof and others. Armitage is not saying ‘everyone knows’ who Joe Wilson is (though they did). He is saying “everyone knows” who Plamne is because Wilson was calling everybody and spilling the beans on his wife! It is quite clear what Armitage is saying, and what I am betting he will testify too.
I have maintained the reason Fitz could not charge anyone with exposing Plame was because Plame had exposed herself (or Wilson had) to back up Joe’s wild claims about forged evidence. Seems I was right. Clearly Armitage is saying everyone is finding out about Plame because of Joe’s calls.
FitzFong Fever.. The only cure,, Disbarment.
It's just unreal how this is allowed to continue....
In support of your thoughts ...see post #10...
Eating Fitzmas Dinner
unreal is an apt word but considering the times we live in , is it really surprising?
some are so bound up in hatred and driven in a pursuit for power, the truth is held hostage all too often for political gain, no matter the cost and who is forced to pay it.
Our Fitzmas tree.....
My guess is that Joe had been calling reporters to pump up his own importance, before the infamous 16 words. Joe thought that he was a big shot in the Clinton administration, he organized and acted as a tour guide for Clinton's Africa expedition, touting his African connections, then too. (I wonder who recommended him for that trip to Africa). Then, according to Fedora, Wilson worked in the Gore campaign as a national security advisors. These reporters had been getting calls from Wilson for years.
Do you notice what a slant these articles all have against Libby? No one even mentions the gleeful tape of Imus' show where Russert declared that it was like Christmas Eve, getting the news of the indictment, after having stated on the stand that he was not particularly happy.
*************************************************
WASHINGTON (AP) -
0212dv-libby-defense Three prominent journalists testified Monday that Bush administration officials volunteered leaks about a CIA operative, as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys sought to suggest he was not responsible for exposing her.
The jury in Libby's perjury trial heard a 66-second snippet of one of the deep background interviews given to Washington Post editor Bob Woodward for use in one of his books. They also saw a parade of Pulitzer-prize winning journalists discuss who did and did not leak the information that set off a scandal and ultimately brought Libby to trial.
Woodward, who never wrote about Plame, and columnist Robert Novak, who first identified her in print, testified that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage first told them in the summer of 2003 that the wife of prominent Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, worked at the CIA.
Another Post reporter, Walter Pincus, testified that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer "suddenly swerved off" topic during an interview to tell him of her employment.
This contradicted a point in Fleischer's testimony last week.
A major government witness, Fleischer testified Libby told him about Plame - earlier than Libby has told investigators he thought he first learned about her from NBC reporter Tim Russert.
On cross-examination, Fleischer also testified that he did not recall telling Pincus about Plame. The reporter's testimony Monday was the most direct hit the defense made on the prosecution's evidence that Libby lied to FBI agents and a grand jury about his talks with reporters about Plame and obstructed an investigation into how her name leaked.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is not charged with the actual leak.
The defense did show Libby had numerous opportunities to leak Plame's identity to reporters and did not. But none of Monday's testimony went directly to the precise charges that he lied about his conversations with three other reporters about her.
The day's highlight was the tape of Woodward's June 13, 2003, interview with Armitage about how Bush decided to go to war. Armitage's name was never supposed to be connected publicly to what he said. The scandal prompted him to release Woodward from his pledge of confidentiality, which freed Woodward to share the tape with lawyers in the case.
Armitage has said he revealed the name accidentally, off-the-cuff, and didn't realize that Plame's employment was classified information.
With Armitage's frequent profanities deleted, the jurors heard him tell Woodward no less than four times where she worked.
Woodward asked about Wilson's 2002 fact-finding mission to Africa for the CIA that the ex-ambassador says helped him debunk prewar intelligence on Iraq.
"Why would they send him?" Woodward asked.
"Because his wife's a (expletive) analyst at the agency," Armitage replied.
"It's still weird," Woodward said.
"It's perfect. That's what she does. She is a WMD analyst," Armitage said.
Later Woodward asked if she was the WMD chief at CIA. Armitage said she wasn't but was in a position there to suggest that her husband had contacts in Africa.
Finally, Armitage said: "His wife is at the agency and is a WMD analyst. How about that (expletive)."
Novak described trying to get an interview with Armitage in 2001 and being told the deputy secretary was "not too busy. He just didn't want to talk to me." Novak said he was rebuffed again after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Then in the last week of June 2003, Armitage's office called to set up an interview. "I had not pressed my request for one in two years," Novak said. Once he asked about the Wilson trip, Armitage said "it was suggested by his wife, Valerie, who is employed in the counterproliferation division at CIA," Novak testified.
Novak testified he got confirmation from White House political adviser Karl Rove, who replied to him: "Oh, you've heard that, too."
Defense attorneys got Woodward, Novak, Pincus, New York Times reporter David Sanger, Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler and Newsweek reporter Evan Thomas all to say they had talked to Libby about Wilson's allegations during the summer of 2003, but Libby had not disclosed Plame's identity or employment to them.
But Sanger, Kessler and Thomas said they didn't ask Libby about Wilson's wife. Woodward and Novak testified they didn't recall asking about her but said Libby didn't talk about her if they did. Pincus said Libby said he didn't know how the trip was arranged but their conversation occurred before June 12, when Libby now recalls he first learned the information from Cheney.
Defense attorneys brought out that Woodward, Pincus, Sanger and Kessler had all shared in Pulitzer Prizes.
"I believe you're the third Pulitzer prize winner to testify this morning," Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald quipped when he began questioning Sanger. He used the moment to bring out that an earlier prosecution witness, Judith Miller, also had shared a Pulitzer Prize while working at the Times.
---
Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.
--
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