PLAME CASE-BREAKING -LIBBY NAMES NAMES INCL-HADLEY (Larisa Alesandrovna)

[kpete]

Plame case breaking: Libby names National Security Advisor Hadley; Woodward's source?Libby's new filing: Hadley and Armitage named, press ignores Hadley

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Sunday March 19, 2006

In a late night Friday filing, attorneys for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, named key witnesses in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Included for the first time in formal documents was National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.

In the documents, Libby’s team listed potential witnesses for the defense as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman, current National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow.

Valerie Plame Wilson first became known to the public when her identity was disclosed by conservative columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. The column ran just one week after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had written an op-ed for the New York Times asserting that White House officials twisted pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Some believe that her outing was retaliation for her husband’s public criticism of the war-bent White House.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Libbys_new_filing_0319.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. Hadley - wasn't he just bloviating the other day

about how wonderful things are in Iraq?

More must from the propaganda wimps.

Send Hadley to the clink with the rest of the BushCo traitors to America

[fooj]

3. My sentiments, exactly.

Peace.

[Trajan]

11. Hadley is PNAC/AEI .....

One of Doug Feith's friends at OSP ....

Nothing but a pack of fucking LIES from this bunch ...

[freefall]

81. I don't have TV. Who are those women and why is one holding her ears?

Is that a real picture?

Thanks in advance,

freefall

[canichelouis]

90. Yes, a real screen shot

Some church lady ( forget her name) and Randi Rhodes, I believe.

A real live, "I can't hear you, lalalalalalal" moment.

She didn't like what she was hearing.

[Stephanie]

64. Hadley!

Hah! Dick & George will claim they never met the guy.

[nolabels]

74. Who'd dat?

:rofl:

kick

[ngGale]

76. Yummy stuff, indeed...

:popcorn:

[MADem]

2. Throw another muthaplucka under the bus!!!! n/t

[harpo]

4. I've always considered Hadley a slimebag but geez...

[me b zola]

5. Getting closer to Rice

:)

[babsbunny]

17. Why do I hate Rice So?

But I do!

[madokie]

33. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact she is such a low life snake

Thats what i think anyway

[goforit]

53. With venom dripping from her forked tongue.

[joeunderdog]

67. Hey, careful now. The snakes are getting offended. nt

[aquart]

70. It's her shoes.

[AntiFascist]

93. or perhaps her previous life as an oil executive n/t

[Joanne98]

6. Their witnesses for the defense!

[Garbo 2004]

55. The defense's potential witness list. Doesn't mean that they will call all

of them or that the names on the list are all proponents of Libby or even have info that will serve his interests.

Note: Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame are also on the list. I rather doubt either have anything to offer regarding Libby's lying to the grand jury and investigators, which is what Libby is actually charged with.

Libby's defense so far is based on distraction and throwing up dust to obscure the crimes for which is charged. Potential witness lists are also a part of defense strategy, part of the game. I wouldn't make all too much of it, in itself.

[upi402]

59. Thanks, that's what was bubbling in my thoughts

Thanks for clarifying what I was trying to formulate between the ears.

[Coexist]

7. Great article, Lala!

[sendero]

8. The nice thing about getting a Republican..

... under indictment is that they have no code. They will roll over on anyone and everyone if it will help keep their punk ass out of jail!

[Cleita]

39. True. They would turn on their own mother to save

their sorry ass.

[maddezmom]

9. AP had Hadley on the witness list this am:

~snip~

_Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser. Libby's lawyers said Hadley may offer important testimony about discussions within the administration concerning the need to rebut Wilson's statements about his trip to Africa and its conclusions. In addition, said the defense, Hadley was active in discussions about the need to declassify and disseminate the prewar national intelligence on Iraq and had numerous conversations with Tenet. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has said he plans to focus on Libby's disclosure of certain portions of the NIE to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, disclosures Libby told the grand jury he was authorized to make by his superiors.

more:http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060318/ap/d8ge6c603.html

[lala_rawraw]

49. Check out Wapo, Chicago Trib, and others...

Hadley is missing, but Armitage is mentioned and the context is nuts.

[EFerrari]

10. Wow. Can we get some Rice with that?

:evilgrin:

[Quakerfriend]

13. Yes, I side order of rice with that please!

[bleever]

15. Make it fried Rice, please.

:)

[acmejack]

22. Sure you don't want the CIA house special?

Uzebeki boiled Rice?

[tgnyc]

26. I like my Rice burned.

[Seabiscuit]

60. LOL! The whole bunch is "flied lice"!

[DoYouEverWonder]

28. Make mine fried Rice

with lots of soy sauce. Got to cover up the bad taste.

[radfringe]

78. Rice-O-PHONEY?

...DING DING...

[Cleita]

40. Wanna bet when Rice is exposed that all of a sudden no

one is going to know anything about her. They can't distance themselves as far as they did with Abramoff, but whadda bet that no one knows what she and her staff does; no one talks to her; no one socializes with her. They know nothing about nobody!

[EFerrari]

92. That's their pattern. Condi who? n/t

[Me.]

12. This Is Interesting

and backs up RAw's story that Hadley was a source, what I'd really like to know is exactly who are the "at least seven government officials" the prosecutor has based his indictment on.

[Garbo 2004]

58. No it doesn't. Hadley was a player in the saga. He may well have been

a source, but his presence on the witness list in itself doesn't support that, unless I'm missing something in the motion itself which I've actually looked at.

While the motion throws dust Armitage's and the Dept of State's way in reference to the Vanity Fair claim that Armitage was a source for Woodward, the motion does nothing of the kind in reference to Hadley.

I'd suggest folks read the motion before concluding that the potential witness list in itself proves or supports anything but a defense strategy of distraction, obfuscation and a gambit on Libby's part.

Lots of smoke in that list, IMO. The Wilsons also are on that list. What does that signify?

[Pithy Cherub]

14. Is Libby in the process of cutting a deal?

The Prosecutor can use the "Queen for a Day" strategy that lays out a glimpse of what Libby really has to offset some serious jail time. He would have one opportunity to entice the prosecutor into lessening the charges or reduction in jail time. :wow:

Second, the leak seems to come from the defense lawyers as a preview of the devastation Scooter can wreak on the Bush cabal. There is no overt mention of Cheney yet so are they keeping that arrow in its quiver? Oh, this is just the best modern Shakespeare ever!

lala :yourock:

:popcorn:

[KittyWampus]

31. The Suspense Is Exquisitely Painful. One One Hand, I Want It All To

fall apart and become apparent. One the other hand, it's kind of interesting to speculate and wait.

[sellitman]

16. Notice it's only the "underlings" who are getting the shaft?

The buck stops well short of Dim Son, Cheney, or Rove.

Did ya notice gang?

[Disturbed]

21. Scooter knows that the jury will find him guilty of..

all the charges. His legal team is throwing everything against the wall in hopes that something will stick. Fitz isn't buying their crap. Until Scotter comes clean with Cheney and Rove on the plate Fitz will keep chipping away at the stone wall of lies.

[Me.]

35. Maybe Not

Today on McLaughlin Elinor Clift's prediction was to look for the other shoe to drop, regarding Rove in the Plame case, soon.

[sellitman]

65. I won't be content until they all wind up in The Hague...

answering to a War Crimes tribunal. The monster Milosovich who just perished in jail didn't have too much on these cretins. I wish them the same fate.

[0007]

69. Now you're talking turkey!

I want Rove nailed so bad I can taste it!

[shanti]

75. and don't forget

the big Dick. :evilgrin:

[leveymg]

89. Elinor is a decent reporter. One of the last of the old school.

Hope she knows something we don't - wouldn't put it past her.

[kpete]

18. and this from yesterday is interesting

Libby Attorneys Identify CIA Officials in Plame Leak
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Saturday 18 March 2006

The identity of intelligence officials who are thought to have passed information about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, surfaced in a federal court document filed Friday evening.


..............

What's interesting, however, is that one of the CIA officials named in the indictment as a possible source of information for Libby is Robert Grenier, 51, head of the agency's top counterterrorism office. Grenier was fired last month because he opposed using torture tactics against al-Qaeda suspects at secret detention facilities abroad, intelligence sources and news reports said.

"When al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Grenier was station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan," < the Washington Post reported in February. "Among the agency's most experienced officers in southwest Asia, Grenier helped plan the covert campaign that preceded the U.S. military ouster of al Qaeda and its Taliban allies from Afghanistan."

Former CIA Director George Tenet promoted Grenier in 2002 to head up the Iraq Issues Group, a position created specifically to prepare for the March 2003 Iraq invasion.

"Grenier's predecessor at the Counterterrorism Center, who remains undercover, moved on to become chief of the National Clandestine Service, the successor to the CIA's directorate of operations," the Post report added.

In their court filing Friday, Libby's attorneys wrote that if not Grenier, it's possible that John McLaughlin may be the CIA official who provided Cheney's former chief of staff with information on Plame Wilson.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031906Z.shtml

[stop the bleeding]

32. Bravo kpete on this additional find with CIA Grenier

I knew that some of these 20-30 year career officers that have left the CIA since the Goss takeover would be key to some points in this case and in the Plame investigation in general.

Larisa's and Jason's reporting on this has been ahead of the curve, they have given us a good deal of information.

I just wonder how many more people are helping Fitz/had to strike a deal that we do not know about?

Thanks again kpete on these 2 related articles.

[leveymg]

91. How would CIA people working on Pakistan/UBL issues know about Plame?

This raises an interesting question. Why would Grenier, who had been working in Pakistan for years in the Clandestine Service, or the unnamed former head of CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC), know who Valerie Plame was? This would seem to lend additional credance to speculation that Plame, an NOC counter-proliferation expert, was working on the A.Q. Khan account when she was outed. This makes complete sense for the following reason.

At the time the 9/11 hijackers entered the US, the former Sudan Chief of Station, Cofer Black, was in charge of CTC. Black relates a story about a run-in he had with UBL in Khartoum just before both men left that country for other places that makes it seem more than possible that Black was UBL's case officer in Sudan. Since 1995, CTC and a separate bin Laden unit had focused on al-Qaeda. Last summer, the FBI IG report on 9/11 revealed that Black had been part of chain of command at CTC that ordered the FBI liason to withhold a cable to John O'Neil's FBI National Security Office in NY when CTC observed the Flt. 77 hijackers enter the US on 01/15/00 following their attendance at a Kuala Lumpur planning summit. The CIA had monitored them there planning the 9/11 and USS Cole attacks with Mohamed Atta's roommate and a dozen other al-Qaeda operatives. The reason that order was given to withhold notification to the FBI was because the surveillance of the 9/11 hijackers was just part of a much larger compartmentalized CIA operation that involved illegal warrantless wiretapping inside the US. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0310/S00257.htm

What do the 9/11 hijackers have to do with Pakistan's nuclear program? They were both parts of the same funding network that extended from big banks in Riyadh to Chicago to the Northern Virginia suburbs. There was such a degree of overlap that it made sense to place all related matters under closely-connected working groups at the Agency. Grenier, who worked on counter-terrorism in Pakistan, would thus have had some contact with Plame, who worked on nuclear proliferation operations running through the same country supported by the same funders in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. This was the most politically sensitive operation the CIA was working on, given the role that some prominent Americans had in allowing Pakistan to develop its nuclear arsenal and the two-way exchange of large amounts of money, much of which ended up in GOP and al-Qaeda coffers.

Interesting, how all of these scandals are leading back to the same circles. By the summer of 2001, something truly bizarre was going on within the Agency. The near-obsession that Tenet had with bin Laden, and the smoke seen coming from his hair during the months before the attack, can be explained by his overview of these issues. I suspect that once these counter-terrorism guys start talking about the Plame outing, the American public is going to learn a lot more than they've been told in the mass media about 9/11.

[Patsy Stone]

19. K&R

Thanks for posting. The plot thickens.

[autorank]

20. Larissa---You are hot as a $2 cook stove...Congrats!!! RECOMMENDED

Congratulations once again to .

I've followed the Plame case through Raw and I've always been way ahead on this.

I remember Raw was first on the Hadley connection way back, now this

RawStory & Larissa :yourock:

I am autorank and I fully endorse this message;)

[troubleinwinter]

23. Thanks, Larisa! K&R

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. Eleanor Cliff on the McLaughlin Report said that something was going

to happen soon with the Plame Case. I wonder if this is what she meant?

[Me.]

37. I Should Have Read The Entire Thread

before repeating the Clift comment, which BTW I found very exciting as she's usually on the money.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

43. It was great to hear her say that! Even to keep it in the consciousness.

As to reading the entire thread, sometimes threads are so long that I don't always read each and every post.

[understandinglife]

25. Thank you, Larisa!

Be The Bu$h Opposition - 24/7

[BlueJac]

27. Liars finally will get caught.......

maybe this could lead to the two biggest liars of all.........King Dick and Emperor George!

[DoYouEverWonder]

29. Yes!

Hadley's been on the top of my list for a long time. He's one of the slimiest of this slithering bunch.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. Keeping singing, Libby!

[pinto]

34. Complete witness list from AP release, here:

Sunday March 19, 3:56 AM

CIA Witness List
Potential witnesses in the upcoming criminal trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, as referenced in court papers by Libby's lawyers. The trial is scheduled for January:

_Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state.

_Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary.

_Marc Grossman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs.

_Colin Powell, the former secretary of state.

_Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff.

_George Tenet, the former CIA director.

_Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador.

_Valerie Plame Wilson.

_Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser. Libby's lawyers said Hadley may offer important testimony about discussions within the administration concerning the need to rebut Wilson's statements about his trip to Africa and its conclusions. In addition, said the defense, Hadley was active in discussions about the need to declassify and disseminate the prewar national intelligence on Iraq and had numerous conversations with Tenet. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has said he plans to focus on Libby's disclosure of certain portions of the NIE to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, disclosures Libby told the grand jury he was authorized to make by his superiors.

_A CIA briefer referred to in the indictment, though not by name. The court papers identify the person as "Craig Schmall, Peter Clement or Matt Barrett." The indictment says that on June 14, 2003, Libby expressed displeasure to the briefer that CIA officials were making comments to reporters that were critical of the vice president's office and discussed with the briefer Wilson and Plame in the context of Wilson's trip in 2002 to the African nation of Niger.

_A senior CIA official referred to in the indictment, "who may be either Robert Grenier or John McLaughlin." Grenier at one time was the CIA's top counterterrorism officer. McLaughlin was deputy director of the CIA. The indictment says Libby spoke to the official on June 11, 2003 about the circumstances of Wilson's trip to Africa and was told that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was believed responsible for sending him on the trip.

_Former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow. Libby's court filing says the defense team believes that Harlow is the unidentified government official in the indictment who told Catherine Martin, assistant to the vice president for public affairs, that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and advised Libby of it.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[Garbo 2004]

47. I don't recall that Fitz said "he plans to focus" on NIE info. I recall he

mentioned it in a letter to the defense, but do not recall that he stated he "plans to focus" on it. Supposedly the NIE was why Libby was meeting Miller, but it was at those meetings he bitched about the CIA and mentioned Wilson's wife working at the CIA.

I rather wonder if the characterization in the AP article is coming from Libby's lawyers, if so it's suspect. More smoke IMO.

For example, Plame is on Libby's potential witness list. What can she possibly testify to relevant to whether or not Libby lied to the grand jury about his discussions with Russert and Miller?

[sandnsea]

52. Everybody but Bolton

I find that quite interesting, and until his name is on that list, I won't believe we've gotten to the bottom of it.

[cantstandbush]

36. I really am sorry to hear this about Armitage. I thought he had some

integrity. Damn! I hope he gets upset enough to really spill the beans.

[moondust]

41. Fall guy?

I have doubts that Armitage would willingly engage in a Rove/Cheney conspiracy such as Plamegate. Perhaps he was set up.

[Cleita]

42. Well, maybe it's time for Congress to get them under oath

in a public hearing and force the truth out of them. Of course that might make some of them explode who haven't told the truth in years.

[moondust]

45. The sooner the better. nt

[Pithy Cherub]

50. No. That would wreck Fitzgerald's case a la Iran Contra.

To get the corrupt republican weasels under oath in Iran Contra the republican controlled senate - promised immunity from prosecution. We absolutely want the full measure under the law to handle the CIA leak. Also, by the corrupt republicans not having an investigation, it keeps it in the White House's lap as to whether or when to offer a pardon(s).

[Garbo 2004]

44. Remember it's Libby's witness list. If they're putting Armitage on it due

to a Vanity Fair article that claims Bradlee fingered Armitage as Woodward's source, something Bradlee denies, then it's just more smoke.

Remember, Libby is charged with lying, not blowing Plame's cover. They're throwing a lot of dust in the air that is not germaine to the matter of Libby repeatedly lying to the investigators and grand jury. Likely their witness list also reflects that.

[Catherine Vincent]

46. There it is again.

More dust and sand in the eyes.

[sandnsea]

54. I agree

That's why I think the fact that Bolton's name is not on the list is quite telling.

[UpInArms]

72. Armitage and integrity don't go together well

http://www.irc-online.org/fpif/republicanrule/officials_body.html

Earlier, as Assistant Secretary of Defense, Armitage had been involved in the Iran-Contra scandal of the late 1980s. According to independent counsel Lawrence Walsh, the evidence was short of airtight, but Armitage had been party to the meetings with General Richard Secord and Oliver North--activities Armitage denied.

Armitage headed a study group on Japan under the auspices of the military-sponsored Institute for National Strategic Studies. The group, consisting mostly of military and intelligence personnel, released its report, The United States and Japan: Advancing Toward a Mature Partnership, last October. The report finds much about Japan to criticize, and urges the U.S. to pressure Japan into making vast changes in its economic and military systems, but laments that the Japanese are, "averse to radical change, except in circumstances where no other options exist."

[seemslikeadream]

38. CIA witness list LAS VEGAS SUN March18

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=693055&mesg_id=696445

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-wh/2006/mar/18/031809088.html

Potential witnesses in the upcoming criminal trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, as referenced in court papers by Libby's lawyers. The trial is scheduled for January:

-Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state.

-Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary.

-Marc Grossman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs.

-Colin Powell, the former secretary of state.

-Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff.

-George Tenet, the former CIA director.

-Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador.

-Valerie Plame Wilson.

-Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser. Libby's lawyers said Hadley may offer important testimony about discussions within the administration concerning the need to rebut Wilson's statements about his trip to Africa and its conclusions. In addition, said the defense, Hadley was active in discussions about the need to declassify and disseminate the prewar national intelligence on Iraq and had numerous conversations with Tenet. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has said he plans to focus on Libby's disclosure of certain portions of the NIE to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, disclosures Libby told the grand jury he was authorized to make by his superiors.

-"Craig Schmall, Peter Clement or Matt Barrett."

-either Robert Grenier or John McLaughlin."

-Bill Harlow.

[H2O Man]

82. I fully expect

that Team Libby will file under discovery for all the files that Fitzgerald may or may not have regarding the Lindbergh baby, the Warren Report, EPA standards for measuring lead in rural water wells, as well as any investigation the CIA and/or other intelligence agencies may have taken to assess why John's single "Cold Turkey" never made it very high in the charts.

[Me.]

84. What About The Possibilities of UFOs?

Any far out defense must surely want to pull them in. I bet Scooter couldn't spare a thought for Plame worrying about them.

[H2O Man]

85. You must not

have read Team Libby's March 17th motion. They have placed that ball squarely in the government's court. Either Fitzgerald prove that UFOs transported all Iraqi WMD to Syria, or all charges against Scooter must be dropped, thus allowing him the time to concentrate on stopping the Iranian attack on US ports.

[Me.]

86. Not Surprised

It is a logical sequence of events for Team Libby. Link? This deserves an in dept look and analysis. Did they mention, btw, Rove's strategy? Is he going to leak the name of the planet?

[Festivito]

48. I thought he was too busy to remember such a detail.

Can we trust this tidbit from a guy who purports to forget so much?

Let the jury decide. ;-0

[Independent_Liberal]

51. K&R!

[stevedeshazer]

56. Let's see if I have this straight...

The essence of this story is that the man who is now National Security Adviser for the US government is the same guy who exposed the identity of a key CIA operative who was undercover and unprotected while investigating a matter of...national security.

:crazy:

Isn't that TREASON?

[Garbo 2004]

61. Perhaps, but Hadley's presence on the witness list and references to him

in the motion before the court does nothing to support that contention as far as I can see.

Was Hadley involved or at least aware of the effort to out Plame to discredit Wilson? I'd figure likely so. Was he a source for Woodward? Perhaps. But you won't find those contentions supported in the motion the article cites.

And as Libby and his defense team want people to forget with their obfuscation and sleight of hand, Libby isn't charged with "outing" Plame.

[lala_rawraw]

94. That is a good point, but that is not what the article says either...

What is key is that for someone, Hadley, who no one in the MSM mentions as having any relation to this case appears as a key witness for the defense. That in and of itself should make people question why by and large, the main players in the MSM - WapO, etc., will not touch Hadley, they have written him as having denied that he was Woodward's source. The reality is that no one wants to touch the obvious: the National Security Adviser is implicated in not only this case, but he has been called as a witness for the defense in the AIPAC case. This should be immediate grounds for suspension of clearances, if nothing else.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

57. Back when Fitz nailed Libby and everyone was waiting for many

more indictments, I remember Hadley making the remark that he thought he would be indicted. Anyone else remember this?

[Patsy Stone]

62. Absolutely

I think that the appearance of Armitage in Libby's motion is just to point a finger at a "disloyal" soldier, while obfuscating Hadley's involvement.

[Patsy Stone]

63. On page 8 of the .pdf there's this juicy bit:

"In addition, the events alleged in the indictment occurred during a period of increasing bureaucratic infighting, when certain officials at the CIA, the White House, and the State Department each sought to avoid or assign blame for intelligence failures relating to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction ("WMD") capability. The fingerpointing that went on within the Executive Branch about who was to blame will be a key issue in examining many of the government’s witnesses because it goes to the question of bias. When the full context of the controversy over the sixteen words is presented to a jury, the jury will see that the relevant events were far more complex than the government has suggested in its discovery responses, and that the role of Ms. Wilson was peripheral. If the jury learns this background information, and also understands Mr. Libby’s additional focus on urgent national security matters, the jury will more easily appreciate how Mr. Libby may have forgotten or misremembered the snippets of conversation the government alleges were so memorable."

Yum! :popcorn:

[H2O Man]

66. A couple of things

stand out, including the willingness of Team Libby to claim that fiction is fact. On page 23, I note the first full sentence reads, "This week, Vanity Fair, the Washington Post and the New York Times, as well as other media outlets, reported that Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State, told Bob Woodward of the Washington Post that Ms. Wilson worked for the CIA." That simply is not true. A Vanity Fair writer, who happens to be Judith Miller's close friend, quotes Ben Bradlee as saying it is a "reasonable assumption" that it could be Armitage. Other media outlets reported that, as well as Bradlee's denial. One assumes that Team Libby is fully aware that their statement that the media reported that Armitage was Woodward's source is false.

Sentence two reads, "There has been media speculation that Mr. Woodward's source and Mr. Novak's source are the same person." This is curious, considering that throughout this document, Team Libby expresses concern that media speculation is inaccurate on issues such as a campaign to "get Wilson."

The footnote on this page reads, "Regardless of whether Mr. Armitage is responsible for the leak to Mr. Novak, the defense may call him to testify about other matters ...." Reading the entire document, one gets the feeling that Team Libby wishes to discuss any topic other than what Scooter is charged with.

[upi402]

68. Could they be setting up the claim that the media has

peed in the pool? Or perhaps downstream they may want to make the case.

Anyway H20 Man, do you think we will see justice?

[H2O Man]

79. Yes & yes.

They are using the media to distract. But the most important thing from this document, in my opinion, is that it lends evidence that we are at the "Watergate stage" -- the defense teams are each looking out for their individual client, and willing to sink anyone else's boat. It creates an explosive situation, and we are lucky that Patrick Fitzgerald is in charge. But this is a good thing for our side.

For those who have wondered "how far will Team Libby go?", we have our answer. They are not going to protect anyone else. So the threats being posed are really not limited to the integrity of the trial, or Dick Armitage (who can take care of himself), but more to Ari Fleischer, some of the pawns, Hadley, and those cooperating. Perhaps the most important thing is it indicates Team Libby is aware that there are other targets named Karl and Dick. This is not a good thing for either of them.

[H2O Man]

83. PS: "A house divided ....

.....

[Imagevision]

71. Then Hadley will point his finger at Rove -- Rove to Cheney...

sounds like a game plan!

[Imagevision]

73. Libby trying to take Fitz's eye off the ball? - and Hadley names Cheney

mery-go-round time!

[Garbo 2004]

77. One of the things that may be noted about the motion is that it is both

a fishing expedition and a gambit.

One, the Libby defense is seeking documents related to matters, individuals not particularly relevant to the crimes with which Libby is charged.

Partly as part of the campaign to confuse matters. Libby isn't charged with "outing" Plame or even targeting Wilson for retribution. He is charged with lying to investigators and the grand jury about when and from whom he learned Plame's CIA employment. And he was also an original source for reporters on Plame (Miller) although he claimed he wasn't.

Another aspect may be a bit of cage rattling and "strategery." Libby presumably knows a great deal about all sorts of matters the Administration wouldn't like to come out. The dueling motions between Fitz and Libby aren't only of interest or solely relevant to the immediate case at hand, which is whether or not Libby intentionally lied. There's a a dance going on and the intended audience likely is not only the court or Fitz.

Libby's team sprinkles fairy dust, misdirection and perhaps veiled threats to others, then Fitz just oh by the way, mentions a little bit of aditional info in his responding motion. Such as Fitz's reminder to Libby's lawyers about the NIE classified info Libby says he was authorized to leak. I don't recall that Fitz ever said that he intended to "focus" on the NIE info, although it appears that the Libby team is spinning it that way to the media. Since they're trying to make it serve their purpose.

Fitz still holds a lot of the cards: he knows who told him what about all sorts of things and a lot of that info is not relevant to the charges against Libby. Not surprising that Libby would like to get his hands on some of that info. So far he's the only one twisting in the wind, facing charges. I'd wager there are some folks on that witness list he might not want to take the stand. Although he's likely already aware that some of them may be on Fitz's potential witness list, having provided information that helped make Fitz's case against him.

[H2O Man]

80. Right.

Team Libby repeats several times some weak business about the government mistakenly believing Plame was a significant player in Wilson's trip. Yikes! It was the WHIG that pretended that she played an important role in sending him, and that this discredited Wilson's investigation.

[in_cog_ni_to]

87. Great news, but will this EVER implicate KKKROVE and CHENEY?

I want this to take down the big dogs. We know they were both players in this.

[H2O Man]

88. It should be

a cause of concern for VP Cheney that Team Libby is taking the route it is.

Rove is not anywhere near the "big dog" that Libby is, is regard to the American foreign policy in the Middle East, including Iraq and Plame.