Posted on 05/25/2007 4:23:18 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's unremorseful former top aide should be sentenced to 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for perjury and obstruction of justice in a case linked to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war, the special prosecutor in the case said on Friday.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, was convicted in March on four of five counts in the investigation into who blew the cover of CIA analyst Valerie Plame, whose husband was an outspoken Iraq war critic.
"Mr. Libby, a high-ranking public official and experienced lawyer, lied repeatedly and blatantly about matters at the heart of a criminal investigation concerning the disclosure of a covert intelligence officer's identity," Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wrote in court documents.
"He has expressed no remorse, no acceptance of responsibility, and no recognition that there is anything he should have done differently -- either with respect to his false statements and testimony, or his role in providing reporters with classified information about Ms. Wilson's affiliation with the CIA," Fitzgerald added.
The Libby charges grew out of an investigation into the leak of Plame's identity in 2003 after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of manipulating intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to build its case for war.
Fitzgerald also rejected arguments by Libby's supporters that the case was based on politics.
Fitzgerald asked U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to send Libby to prison for between 30 and 37 months. Sentencing is due on June 5.
'TELL THE TRUTH'
"Mr. Libby's prosecution was based not upon politics but upon his own conduct," Fitzgerald added, "as well as upon a principle fundamental to preserving our judicial system's independence from politics: that any witness, whatever his political affiliation, whatever his views on any policy or national issue, whether he works in the White House or drives a truck to earn a living, must tell the truth when he raises his hand and takes an oath in a judicial proceeding, or gives a statement to federal law enforcement officers."
No charges have been brought against anyone for the actual leaks to journalists about Plame. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert agent.
Critics of President George W. Bush have seized on the Libby conviction as illustrating heavy-handed White House tactics to blunt a war critic, and accused the administration of hypocrisy over its promises of clean government.
The conviction was one of a series of setbacks for Bush's war policies, including flawed intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, failing to anticipate and then contain an insurgency and sectarian violence, detainee abuse, and substandard treatment of some U.S. troops wounded in combat.
Only if he shares a jail cell with Sandy Berger
The whole investigation was BS. Plame was not covert under the act.
Pardon me??
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The press just exposed undercover operations against Iran just in the last two days.
Is anyone going to go after them? Fitz? Anyone?
On the other hand, Fitz investigated Libby knowing that Libby didn’t leak anything to anyone. He already knew who was the source of the leak when he started his “investigation”, the only ones who didn’t know were you and I, because the guilty were told to keep it quiet until he was finished investigating... what, exactly?
The ones who were actually guilty of the leak were not allowed to reveal their guilt publicly until after Fitzgerald got his conviction. Think about that for a moment.
Fitzgerald is guilty of an abuse of office, and should himself be facing charges. It is criminal that this man is allowed to walk free.
And Sandy Berger is walking free.
Yeah, sandy was what came to my mind, too.
The only person who should be
jailed is Fitzgerald. He should
also lose his law license. He is disgusting and incompetent and nothing more than a politcal hack.
Someday our side is going to learn that when you are dragged into a court in this country, you always say, “I don’t recall, I have no memory of that and I was just sloppy.” It’s not rocket science! “Courts, judges and juries” in this country are a joke. A farce. People need to understand that and treat them that way. It works for the DemocRATS. It should work for everyone else.
Translated: Libby is not kissing Fitzmas' ring and isn't wearing a public hairshirt from the Suit Barn.
Fitz is a wannabe metrosexual. He's got enough money and is sufficiently girly nit-pickish to be one.
However, he's from Chicago's Daleyland which makes him too gauche to ever make the grade.
So he's bitter at the world in general and Libby in particular.
Leni
ooo - nice analysis
Jitxgerald is a fool, liar, and a scum of the liberal mindset and should be put out of office forever.
What is the right thing?
A pardon.
Fitz may be many things but incompetent is not one of them.
Mr. President: You could pardon Lewis Libby. It would be the right thing to do. And while you are at it, pardon Ramos and Compean. And as long as you are in the mood, exonerate our brave Haditha Marines incarcerated in Camp Pendleton. Uh, Mr. President?????
And William "cold cash" Jefferson hasn't even been indicted...
Sandy Burger steals and destroys classified documents and lies to cover it up and he gets off scott free. Libby should not be allowed to serve one minute in jail and should be pardoned by the President immediately after sentencing. Are the msm and Dems going to hate him any more than they do now? I think his poll numbers would actually go up as people who had voted for him would be pleasantly surprised that he is actually showing some spine for a change.
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