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the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and in all the lies and deceit that led up to that slaughter (in which the Washington Post was also a key player). Absolutely nothing that this man or this newspaper says should be believed. As a rule of thumb, whatever they say, the opposite is more than likely true. Clearly, Libby is taking the fall for Bush and Cheney (and probably Rumsfeld, whom I suspect is in the middle of it), to try to prevent the top puppet and the masterminds of the junta from getting indicted for treason, and to preserve as much of the Neo-Con program as possible, including looting of the American people for unnecessary military expenditures and use of its young people as cannon fodder.
What has Libby been lying and obstructing justice for, if not to cover up Bush, Cheney and probably Rumsfeld's directive to out a CIA agent and an entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation project? And, while we're on that subject, why DID they out an entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation project, in addition to outing Plame (Wilson's wife)? It seems just a bit counter-productive, if what you're worried about are WMDs around the world. How did outing the Brewster-Jennings/CIA covert WMD network, and putting all of its agents and contacts at risk of getting killed, "punish" Joe Wilson?
There is a lot here that we can't see--BECAUSE Libby is lying and covering up. The possibilities include Cheney/Bush Cartel illicit arms dealings and nuke proliferation, and the highly suspicious death of the British WMD expert David Kelly four days after Plame was outed. (I strongly suspect that the two cases are intimately related, and that the key to both of them was a Bush junta scheme to plant nukes in Iraq, after the invasion, to be "found" by the US military teams that were "hunting" for them--a plan that got foiled. Why was the junta so angry at our counter-proliferation people? Because they were DOING THEIR JOB of counter-proliferation and tripped up the junta's dirty rotten scheme to justify the war after the fact by a phony "discovery" of WMD. And why was David Kelly interrogated at a "safe house" and threatened with the Official Secrets Act, for his rather mild whistleblowing to the BBC? Because he had found out about the WMD-planting plot. And it was not until after he had been found dead (July 18, 2003), and after his office and computers had been searched, that Brewster-Jennings was ADDITIONALLY outed by Novak, in his SECOND outing column, on July 22.*)
In any case--WHATEVER Libby is covering up--we are reduced to "reading entrails" (WaPo/NYT articles, Libby's and the junta's various lying and contradictory statements) in order to figure it out. And Patrick Fitzgerald is in something of the same spot, although he has access to more information and the power to put people behind bars for lying. He has to figure out WHAT they were doing--what the outing was all about--and WHO gave the orders, behind a wall of lies, deceit and "deniability" erected by the most powerful and dangerous people on the face of this earth.
One caveat, re: perusing WaPo and NYT news articles. The purposes of the editors and the reporters may not always be in sync. In fact, I often see headlines and placement (editorial decisions) that bolster the Bush junta's lies contradicted by information in the article, sometimes way down in the lower paragraphs. For instance, this particular article ends with these paragraphs:
"In his April 5 filing, Fitzgerald urged the court to dismiss Libby's demand for information about leaks to reporters by other government officials, on the grounds that what really counts in the case against Libby are the actions taken by him and 'the discrete number of persons with and for whom he worked.' Anything occurring outside those White House offices, Fitzgerald said, is 'a irrelevant distraction from the issues of the case.'
"Although he pointedly said he was not accusing Libby of involvement in a White House conspiracy against Wilson and Plame, Fitzgerald said the evidence he had accumulated demonstrated that 'multiple people' there wanted to repudiate Wilson's criticisms.
"In light of the grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald said, 'it is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to 'punish' Wilson.'"
These paragraphs clearly point to a White House conspiracy that goes at least as high as Dick Cheney. They also indicate that Fitzgerald is not taking the bait of Libby as "fall guy." He "pointedly said" that he is not accusing Libby of the outing crime (not yet anyway), and that this case about Libby's LYING has to do with "the discrete number of persons with and for whom he worked." Libby worked directly for Cheney, and the next person up the chain is Bush. He is LYING for Cheney and Bush, is the underlying thesis of these paragraphs. But you have to read it to the end, to get it. The headline and the opening paragraph seem exculpatory of them. But what the PROSECUTOR is saying is NOT exculpatory. He seems very much onto their game (of Libby as "fall guy").
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*(David Kelly began whistleblowing anonymously to the BBC on the "sexed up" pre-war WMD intel in late May 2003, after the invasion of Iraq. It was a big deal in England, although muffled in the press here. The hunt for the anonymous whistleblower within the government began. Kelly was outed to his bosses (mysteriously) in late June. Libby met with Kelly's old friend and colleague, Judith Miller of the NYT, in June and July--meetings connected to the Plame outing and the NIE disclosures. Their July 8 meeting occurred a day after Tony Blair received the report on the interrogation of Kelly. What Blair was told was that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things" (could say, not HAD said). At this point, Kelly had ten days to live. The Blairites outed his name to the press, and sent him home without protection and apparently without surveillance. Plame was outed by Novak on July 14. Kelly was found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances, on July 18. His office and computers were searched. Brewster-Jennings--headquarters of the CIA counter-proliferation network--was outed by Novak, four days later, on July 22, an act that placed all US/CIA/BJ covert agents and contacts around the world at risk of getting killed.
(Kelly had gone out on his normal afternoon walk near his home, on July 17, and allegedly sat down under a tree, took some painkillers (not enough to kill him), slit one wrist and bled to death all night outdoors in the rain. Before he went for his walk, he sent an email to JUDITH MILLER in which he said he thought the controversy around him would soon blow over--he was looking forward to his daughter's wedding in the fall, and returning to Iraq--but he expressed concern about "the many dark actors playing games." This email was later released by his family, not by Miller. She wrote a news article about his death for the NYT without mentioning her close connections to Kelly. Back up to those meetings between Libby and Miller in June/July: With Wilson whistleblowing in the US, Kelly whistleblowing and being interrogated in the UK, and the Bush junta about to destroy a US counterproliferation project, putting all of its agents/contacts in danger, and with one of the participants in this unfolding drama, David Kelly, being a close colleague of Miller's (they wrote a book together), its seems likely that Libby and Miller were talking about KELLY in their clandestine meetings, not just Plame, Wilson and the NIE. What they may have said about him is anybody's guess. Kelly apparently viewed Miller as a confidante, amidst his troubles with the government over their WMD lies.)
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