Risky business - legal maneuvering in Plame leak case - Salon

[TacticalPeek]

Risky business

The legal maneuvering to determine which Bush administration officials leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to Bob Novak, Matthew Cooper and other reporters has just begun.

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By Eric Boehlert


Aug. 13, 2004 | Despite this week's dramatic legal ruling in the criminal investigation into which Bush administration officials leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame, it seems the case, reportedly in its final prosecutorial stages, remains many months away from completion. That's because the first of undoubtedly many court appeals has just begun. Experts suggest the case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court, but whether the high court would consider the case a novel issue and decide to hear it remains in doubt. If the justices do take the case, they could once and for all settle the question of whether journalists enjoy a privilege that excludes them from testifying in criminal cases.

snip

In January, Justice Department investigators asked White House staff members to sign a waiver requesting "that no member of the news media assert any privilege or refuse to answer any questions from federal law enforcement authorities on my behalf or for my benefit." But in February the Washington Post reported, "Most officials declined to sign the form on the advice of their attorneys."

More recently, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff and a key player in the Plame leak investigation, told investigators about off-the-record conversations he had last summer with the Post's Glenn Kessler and NBC's Tim Russert, and formally requested that the conversations be disclosed, thereby freeing both reporters from their bond of confidentiality. Both Russert and Kessler agreed to speak with prosecutors, but neither man was a recipient of the leak last summer. Although they are free to talk, neither has come forward to discuss the conversations with prosecutors.

There is no indication that Libby has given Time magazine's Cooper the same permission to come forward and reveal any confidential conversations the two had about Plame last summer. In the July 17, 2003, Time.com article that has ensnared Cooper in the investigation, Cooper and his coauthors wrote, "Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." Interestingly, Libby in "an exclusive interview" is quoted on the record in that Time.com story, although not specifically about Plame. Whether Libby asked at any point during that interview to go off the record in order to talk about Wilson's wife remains unknown.

more (my bold)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/08/13/plame_leaks

(clink on 'free day pass' link)

[4morewars]

1. Another bushco crime that goes unpunished

You think I'd be used to it by now.

[Tight_rope]

2. Experts suggest the case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court?

Hell No...Those ole farts are useless.

And WTF is this shit..."that no member of the news media assert any privilege or refuse to answer any questions from federal law enforcement authorities on my behalf or for my benefit." But in February the Washington Post reported, "Most officials declined to sign the form on the advice of their attorneys." I say throw their asses in jail if they refused to sign.

[anarchy1999]

5. Great, in front of the "Supremes"!

We all know where that will go. Don't we?

[snippy]

6. "Most officials declined to sign the form . . . . "

Democrats need to hammer the media and the administration about this.

[Tellurian]

11. I wouldn't be surprised if the SC...

is already writing a judgment favoring the criminals.

A special prosecutor is needed to investigate the criminal activities surrounding this administration. Unfortunately, the Republican House Managers have resoundingly squashed two attempts by Fitzgerald to pass a motion for an appointment.

Amazing the protection the press is affording Republicans on this issue alone, when a cover up (in progress) is as plain as the nose on your face.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. kick

[TacticalPeek]

4. Kick morning.

:kick:

[gulfcoastliberal]

7. So much for all those Plame threads in GD

I knew they wouldn't be held accountable for this, just like all their other crimes. Our "justice" system is now a pathetic farce.

[lancdem]

9. I'm not sure they won't be

but it may take awhile. Fitzgerald is a bulldog.

[seemslikeadream]

8. As his investigation expanded into the bowels of the Pentagon

Fitzgerald continues to expand his case against the leakers of Plame's identity. But he may be getting more than he originally bargained for. As his investigation expanded into the bowels of the Pentagon, he was bound to discover that the treachery of the neo-cons was not merely confined to the leaking of the name of a covert CIA officer - disastrous in itself - but coupled with other activities that call into question the loyalties and financial dealings of those who swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution.

With Ashcroft's deputy, James Comey, the person who appointed Fitzgerald, finding himself increasingly frozen out of Ashcroft's inner sanctum deliberations, it is clear that the neo-cons are worried about what Fitzgerald is discovering and how far his investigation will go. Also unusual was the fact that as Fitzgerald's case began to gain steam - with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney both retaining criminal defense attorneys - FBI Director Robert Mueller suddenly transferred the lead FBI agent on the Plame case, John C. Eckenrode, a well-seasoned 29-year veteran of the bureau, to head up the FBI's Philadelphia office. An FBI spokesman in Philadelphia said that such sudden transfers, in the middle of major investigations, sometimes, just "happen."


Make no mistake about it: the violation of the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 by the disclosure of Plame's identity and that of her non-official cover corporate umbrella organization (Brewster, Jennings & Associates) along with its official counterpart, the CIA's Nonproliferation Center - had a disastrous impact on the ability of the United States to track the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction around the world. At least one anonymous star (representing a covert U.S. agent killed while working abroad) placed on the CIA's Wall of Honor during the past year was reportedly a direct result of the disastrous disclosures from Cheney's office. The political vendettas of the neo-cons in exposing Plame's dangerous work and retaliating against Wilson's revelations about Bush's use of bogus intelligence regarding a fanciful Iraqi uranium shopping spree in Niger ensured that America's military-intelligence complex was going to seek a final accounting with the neo-cons. And a final accounting they are getting, in spades.

more
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change_summary.shtml

It is bigger than Plame......

[DeepModem Mom]

10. FWIW, link to thread re. NYT today -- "officials" now deny Khan dbl-agent

(although they use the words "when he was arrested).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x747376


From the article:

The disclosure of Mr. Khan's arrest has stirred controversy in Pakistan and Britain, where officials said that American pressure to apprehend the communications expert had put his confederates on notice that he had been captured and may have compromised efforts to locate additional Qaeda operatives.

In response, the White House official said that it appeared Mr. Khan's name had been first disclosed by officials overseas, not in the United States. In any event, the official said, the arrest of terror suspects, even when unannounced, is often quickly detected by their families and associates. AMERICAN OFFICIALS HAVE DENIED NEWS ACCOUNTS THAT MR. KHAN WAS WORKING AS A MOLE, OR AN INFORMANT FOR PAKISTAN, WHEN HE WAS ARRESTED....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/13/politics/13terror.html

(Khan info is far down in the article.)