Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I think Fitzgerald didn't do a very good job investigating this case.<< makes it kind of difficult to do a thourough job if he feels he is being lied to by people he's questioning, doesn't it? Hence, the charges against Scooter. Obstruction means "getting in the way of". In this case, if Scooter was obstructing, he was getting in the way of Fitzgerald getting to the truth. So it makes it kind of a stretch to say Fitzgerald didn't do a good job at this point.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Fitzgerald's first question would have been was Valerie Wilson's identity classified information? If the answer to that was no, he would have gone home to Chicago.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Exactly, Tom. Why that is so difficult a concept to grasp, I just don't understand. It reminds me of that old poem... As I was walking up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd go away. -- Hugh Mearns
Originally Posted By Beaumandy Good point Tom. Fitzgrald could have found out that Plame was not covert in about 20 minutes and called it a day. Why not ask the CIA if she was covert? They would have said no. Why not ask the people who wrote the law about outing CIA agents if Plame qualified?? They wouild have said no. Now Woodward says she wasn't covert. Nice scandal... The only liar STILL is Joe Wilson.
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Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <It's illegal to tell a reporter classified information, even if the reporter asks, Beau.> And yet, Libby was charged with that, even though he supposedly did it. Rove wasn't charged with it, "Official A" wasn't charged with it, and the guy at the CIA that confirmed it to Novak wasn't charged with it.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>"Official A" wasn't charged with it<< Yet. Hence the thread title: Fitzgerald's Not Done. We shall see.
Originally Posted By woody The case against Lewis Libby is damaged. To what extent? You'll have to go to his press conference in which he claimed that Libby was one of the first Administration officials known to leak the name Valerie Plame. This doesn't appear to be true, so Fitzgerald lacks candor. The case needs more transparency. Not about case of concealed evidence from the Woodward relevation. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501829.html" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501829.html</a> "I have not been released to disclose the source's name publicly." "Fitzgerald asked for my impression about the context in which Mrs. Wilson was mentioned. I testified that the reference seemed to me to be casual and offhand, and that it did not appear to me to be either classified or sensitive. I testified that according to my understanding an analyst in the CIA is not normally an undercover position."
Originally Posted By woody More pushback. "Woodward Claim on CIA Leak Disputes Charge" <a href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051116/D8DTS0SOG.html" target="_blank">http://apnews.myway.com/articl e/20051116/D8DTS0SOG.html</a> "WASHINGTON (AP) - Bob Woodward's version of when and where he learned the identity of a CIA operative contradicts a special prosecutor's contention that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was the first to make the disclosure to reporters." "Attorneys for the aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, described Wednesday's statement by the Washington Post's assistant managing editor as helpful for their defense, although Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury and the FBI, not with disclosing the CIA official's name." "Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, was indicted last month on charges that he lied to FBI agents and a grand jury about when he learned Plame's identity and how he subsequently disclosed it to reporters." "Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in announcing the charges, portrayed Libby as the first high-level government official to reveal Plame's identity to reporters in summer 2003." "Legal experts said Wednesday the disclosure that Woodward had a source - who was not Libby - could be used by Libby's lawyers to bolster their claim that Plame's identity was common knowledge among government officials and reporters."
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder Woodward's info is no big deal. Libby's charged with obstruction. It doesn't matter how Fitzgerald portrayed Libby, it's what he knew at the time. As I said somewhere else, if anything, Woodward's information could help Fitzgerald if it could be shown that had Libby not been deceitful with his answers, this "new" revelation would have been discovered. If anything, this possibly could bring more charges against other people and help solidify the indictment already handed down.
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder And if anything, as was mentioned in the beginning, what this does prove for sure is that there are too many people in the Bush Administration who can't keep their big, fat mouths shut, crime or no crime.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh I remember a while ago, reporters were complaining that the Bush administration was "too secretive". Recently, the "Media Blog" on National Review made the comment, "The fact that the entire campaign against the White House is based on a leak, which under normal circumstances reporters love, is just one of the ironies of the CIA leak case. Another is that almost all the reporting on the case itself, especially prior to the announcement of the indictment, was based on leaks."
Originally Posted By TomSawyer >>The case against Lewis Libby is damaged.<< No it isn't. He still obstructed the investigation. It just means that someone else at the White House didn't tell Fitzgerald the truth.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I remember a while ago, reporters were complaining that the Bush administration was "too secretive". > They are, far too secretive. John Dean's book was still the best explanation of this (and that only went up to 2004). That they practice self-serving leaking to the press when it suits them does not contradict this.
Originally Posted By woody "He still obstructed the investigation. It just means that someone else at the White House didn't tell Fitzgerald the truth." That's a contradiction. It means the case against Libby is going going gone. If Libby can't be convicted with perjury, there is no obstruction. Fitzgerald has to go after someone else. That's a separate case. Libby probably doesn't know who was involved. It would be obstruction if he knew, but Bob Woodward's revelation is a revelation of almost atomic proportions. It's gone nuclear.
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder "And you do??? LOL!!!" Having been an investigator for 22 years, and having somewhat of an idea how these things go, yeah. LOL.
