Did Ari Fleischer Commit Perjury Today?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/1/29/192549/075

Did Ari Fleischer Commit Perjury Today?
by BooMan
Mon Jan 29th, 2007 at 08:53:02 PM EST

I think I may have found evidence that Ari Fleischer committed perjury today. If Ari Fleischer did not commit perjury today, then former Time Magazine reporter John Dickerson is a big-time liar. First I will introduce the principals, then I will provide the setting and significance of this testimony, and, finally, I will set off the comments of Dickerson against the testimony of Fleischer (and I will do it in pretty color-coded boxes).
Most of you will remember Ari Fleischer as President's Bush's first press secretary. He served as press secretary from the inauguration in January 2001 until July 14th, 2003 (coincidentally, the same day that Robert Novak's column appeared). Fleischer testified today that he had lunch with Scooter Libby on July 7th, 2003 (the day after Joseph Wilson made his appearance on Meet the Press and his editorial appeared in the New York Times). During that lunch, Fleischer testified that Libby told him the name 'Valerie Plame' and that she was responsible for sending her husband to Niger. Later that same day Fleischer boarded Air Force One and headed to Africa with the President, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, and a host of other officials.

Fleischer testified that four days later (July 11th) while in Uganda, he told reporters David Gregory (NBC), Tamara Lippert (Newsweek) and John Dickerson (Time Magazine) that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was responsible for sending him on the trip.

John Dickerson no longer works for Time. Last I knew, he worked for Slate Magazine as their Chief Political Correspondent. On February 7, 2006 he wrote a column for Slate wherein he revealed that a 'senior administration official' had given him a tip: 'go ask the CIA who sent Wilson'. That senior administration official was Ari Fleischer and they had that conversation in Uganda on July 11th, 2003.

You may have aleady noticed a discrepency in the story Dickerson told and the story Fleischer testified to today. Dickerson said that Fleischer gave him a tip to go ask who sent Wilson. Fleischer said he straight-up told Dickerson (and Gregory and Lippert) that Wilson's wife was responsible.

This discrepency has enormous potential consquences. Fleischer claims that he did not understand the information Libby was giving him about Plame was classified even though Libby told him it that it was 'hush-hush and on the Q.T.' If he didn't think it was classified then he wouldn't be worried about off-handedly telling Dickerson about Plame. But, if he didn't give her name away as he claims, for sending Wilson...then he knew the information was classified.

Fleischer has immunity for the leak of Plame's name, but he doesn't have immunity against perjuring but rather, told the reporters to seek out the 'low-level person' in the CIA that was responsible himself in this trial. Therefore, he would be crazy to lie on the stand. And, yet, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he did exactly that when he testified today. Unless, that is, John Dickerson is a big-fat liar.


more at link.......

[whistle]

1. You betcha! And the BushCo operatives will continue to lie to cover up

...and get their way. Throw the book at them!

[Catherine Vincent]

2. If he was smart, he wouldn't lie.

Fitz doesn't like it when he's lied to.:nuke:

[gratuitous]

3. I watched the report on ABC News

And when they got to the part of Fleischer's testimony of "Oh my goodness, did I just blow an agent's cover?" I knew and said right then that Fleischer was lying. I don't know what kind of immunity deal Ari may have worked for himself, but I know that in most immunity deals the prosecuting attorney doesn't suborn perjury.

Perhaps Fleischer perjured himself to compromise his own credibility and get Scooter off the hook?

[TacticalPeek]

4. And Dickerson confirms!!!

from: John Dickerson
My Surreal Day at the Libby Trial
Posted Monday, Jan. 29, 2007, at 7:44 PM ET

I wanted to raise my hand and ask, "Your Honor, may I approach the bench?"

I was at the Scooter Libby trial to cover it, and all of a sudden, I found myself in the middle of the case. In his testimony today, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told the courtroom—which included me—that when I was a White House correspondent for Time magazine, he had told me that Joe Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.

He did?

http://www.slate.com/id/2158157/entry/2158492/


POP-CORN!

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[bleever]

6. Jesus H. Cruise.

And: people who think that using giant checkers qualifies them to play chess will be disappointed.

[Terre]

8. Dickerson credibility

Check out this article from Media Matters 2/10/06 regarding Dickerson's credibility:

Former Time magazine White House correspondent John Dickerson appeared on the February 8 broadcast of Air America Radio's The Al Franken Show, where host Al Franken asked him about a February 7 Media Matters for America item. The February 7 item demonstrated that Dickerson and at least two Time colleagues, White House correspondent Matthew Cooper and Washington bureau chief Michael Duffy, helped to write an October 2003 article that contained statements they knew to be false.

I read Dickerson's article a year ago, and thought he sounded like a petulant child who wanted to sit at the grown-up's table. This recent one sounds almost the same to me.

Call me cynical. OTOH, I'd be just as happy if Ari perjured himself.

I think the only way we're gonna know for sure, is if Gregory or Tamara (what's her name) speaks up and/or testifies.

[yodermon]

5. W O W.

popcorn city people.

Interesting that Ari is perjuring himself in the wrong direction, i.e. he's asserting that he DID do the outing of Valerie to Dickerson, when (according to Dickerson) he did Not.

Is he trying to take the fall now that he has immunity?? (not from perjury though, muahaha).

ho ho, :popcorn:

[mitchum]

7. Lying is second nature to that motherfucker

[Patsy Stone]

9. If he admits more today than he did before, how is that perjury now?

Or, in other words, Ari has immunity for what he did. If he admits to it differently, but still the same substance, isn't he's still immune?

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/29/never-in-his-wildest-dreams (Post #106)

Scarecrow says:

January 29th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

The account by Dickerson is interesting because it reminds us that there were two ways of disclosing Plame’s identity and position and the Administration used both. The most direct was to simply tell reporters that Wilson was sent by his wife, who worked for the CIA in the CFD. But they also pointed more than one reporter in Valerie’s direction, by suggesting to other reporters that they should go check at the CIA to find out who sent Wilson. Ari used both approaches, and it seems logical to suspect that both were calculated strategies — use one on some reporters; use the other, more subtle approach on others; and it’s possible he confused which message type he used on Dickerson (who says it was the second).

But here’s the point. Ari knew that when he pointed reporters in that direction, they would discover that Plame had a role and was married to Wilson. Whoever gave this instruction to Ari, the messenger, probably knew her position in the CPD. so this was the subtle way of exposing her without having their fingerprints on the deed.

It’s not clear to me that there is any legal distinction, and certainly not a moral distinction, between the two types of disclosure. Both had the predictable effect of exposing Plame, to whom all WH officials owed a duty of care in concealing her identity and position.

----

Also at that thread is a lot of background on Dickerson, including the irony that he's condemning nepotism -- since his mother is Nancy Dickerson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Dickerson


OTOH, someone also suggested this was Dickerson's retaliation for not being deemed important enough to be called to the stand. :)

This is just more smoke and mirrors. I'd be very surprised to find Fitz was caught off guard by anything that Ari said, or that Ari would knowingly perjure himself after cutting a deal.

Waaaaay more than my two cents. :)

[Morgana LaFey]

10. K&R

[H2O Man]

11. Mr. Dickerson is a parasite.

He is a tape worm looking to hook into Libby's bowel in order to suck some norishment.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. My take is that

Ari could have been playing it safe by covering everyone
he remembers talking to about Wilson/Plame issue. He may not
even remember if he actually used the name/occupation or not.
I would compare it to spreading gossip - (not in a legal sense -
but in a common, everyday sense)When you have it in the back of
your mind that you spread gossip to many people - but you don't
remember the particulars of each encounter. This possibility
could still jive with Dickerson's recollection

On the other hand, if it was me, and I didn't recall precisely
what I told each person - I would testify as such, wouldn't
you? This possibility would make Dickerson a liar.

A third possibility, which would support Dickerson as well, is
that there was a concerted administration effort to get Ari to beef up his
numbers (of people he told) - to make others look less culpable
(the "everyone did it" defense strategy).