Scooter Libby: "I didn't do it"

[Tin Man]

David Addington, who served as Cheney's legal counsel during the CIA leak scandal, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began.

"I just want to tell you, I didn't do it," Addington recalled Libby saying. "I didn't ask what the 'it' was," Addington added.

Recalling their 2003 conversation in Libby's office, Addington testified Tuesday that Libby was curious about how someone could determine whether a CIA employee was working undercover. Addington, a former CIA counsel, said there's no way to know.

Addington said he gave Libby a highlighted copy of the federal law barring disclosure of the identity of covert agents.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013000178.html

Boldcase is for emphasis - this particular testimony seems to suggest the OVP may not have recognized that Plame held undercover status at the time of the July leak. The intentional disclosure of an undercover agent's identity is a crime under the IIPA.

[twilight_sailing]

1. 30 years ago I was arrested for DWI

and they threw me in the drunk tank in Dallas, Texas.

There was nothing much to do there, so I spent my time polling the inmates. We were all innocent. ;)

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. well there ya go.

:spray:

[Crabby Appleton]

3. I know, we was framed.

[TahitiNut]

4. One of the stinkiest red herrings in this whole case is the fabricated 'issue' ...

... of Wilson being 'sent' to Niger by Plame. I don't think I've ever seen a larger mountain made of a smaller molehill.

Let's first make something very, very clear. Cheney is the autocrat's autocrat ... and, when HE asks a QUESTION, HE expects ANSWERS. It's never "I don't know" ... it's "I'll find out." It must be made crystal clear that Cheney has cultivated a very clear LAW during his entire career. That LAW is that his 'questions' are ORDERS to his subordinates. All he wants to see is assholes and elbows working furiously to serve his every query. Korporate Amerika (and the military) is FULL of such people ... you damned well better get the information before asked a second time or your ass is on the street.

That said, there's abundant information regarding Cheney's "visits" to the CIA, doing absolutely everything he could to make damned sure that their intel was scrubbed and cleansed to match the regime's agenda. His demands regarding the Niger Uranium (hoax) story are more than good reason to send someone to Niger and who makes better sense than the man who did it before, in 1999 when the connection between AQ Khan and Niger had to be examined?

Thus, the pretended confusion/outrage/push-back regarding Wilson describing the Niger trip as the result of a demand for information from the OVP is ENTIRELY manufactured. Under no other circumstance would Cheney EVER quibble over someone doing research or investigation claiming that they were doing so due to Cheney's demands. Indeed, such autocrats LOVE to hear that the "lesser people" in their organizations are busting ass to serve their whims!

No way, no how was Plame EVER of 'interest' because she supposedly initiated this trip on her own. The Cheney/Libby/Rove/Bush/WHIG outing of Plame was a carefully orchestrated attack on the entire CPD covert humint program under the Brewster-Jennings cover because it was QUALITY intel that contradicted the frauds and fabrications of this corrupt regime ... in both Iraq and Iran ... and previously regarding AQ Khan.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. Thanks for this analysis.

Cheney is as conniving and ruthless as they come.

[Tin Man]

8. I like your last point

No way, no how was Plame EVER of 'interest' because she supposedly initiated this trip on her own. The Cheney/Libby/Rove/Bush/WHIG outing of Plame was a carefully orchestrated attack on the entire CPD covert humint program under the Brewster-Jennings cover because it was QUALITY intel that contradicted the frauds and fabrications of this corrupt regime ... in both Iraq and Iran ... and previously regarding AQ Khan.

I hadn't thought about it that way - the Plame leak as tool to destroy the CPD. We all know that Cheney, together with his minion Tenet, were running roughshod over the CIA in order to furnish the "faulty intelligence" necessary for justify W's war. However, some elements of the CIA, such as the CPD office, continued to function in earnest. The work of the CPD was likely a grave concern for Cheney, but with Tenet running the show at CIA, the work of CPD could be closeted.

Until Ambassador Wilson started popping-off. Here was somebody with credentials and direct knowledge of BushCo's fraudulent activity, who wasn't afraid to speak out. Cheney had two, very serious problems: (a)Wilson was exposing the falacy of the 16 words, and (b) the CPD appeared to be running amok, beyond the control of Tenet, and with the potential to blow the lid off other administration lies.

The solution was quite clever, and promised to silence TWO birds with one stone. By leaking the Plame-Wilson relationship, Cheney would discredit BOTH Wilson's Niger trip, as well as the office and programs of the CPD. Problems solved.

[TahitiNut]

9. That's how I see it. It would also intimidate others ... quashing them from going public.

Cheney doesn't tolerate dissent ... not in the slightest. You either row with the oar he gives you or you get thrown overboard. There's no other option.

From day one, this regime has been doing "ideological cleansing" of the federal bureaucracy. As a former employee of a federal contractor at DOE, I've had opportunities to hear what went on in the DOE. In mid-2001, I had a good, long talk with a DOE insider. (Remember, these people were only in office a couple of months.) The "cleansing" was extensive, even at that point. Clinton-era people were getting shuffled out right and left and being replaced by right-wing zealots ... and it was in no way limited to political appointees. Scientists. (I was a "Senior Research Scientist" myself in the early-to-mid-90s.) Program offices. It was bloody even then.

[tanyev]

5. I wonder if Scooter is obsessed with popular culture.

"I didn't do it" is a classic Bart Simpson quote, almost always used when Bart did, in fact, do it. Larry Johnson describes how "Hush, hush, on the QT" is from LA Confidential.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=80265


And don't even get me started on his wretched attempt at writing fiction.

[zbdent]

6. Remember the episode (not the exact title, but) "The I-Didn't-Do-It-Kid"?

Where Bart stumbles on the set of the "Krusty the Klown" show, causes all kinds of prop disasters on film, then turns to the camera and spins it "I didn't do it!"?

He becomes an instant celebrity. Visions of him on Match Game 2030 - "The I Didn't Do It Kid" ...

Until the next "instant celebrity" eclipsed him and his fame disappeared ...

[H2O Man]

10. "I am not a crook"

Very convincing, that.