How Libby became Cheney's pawn
The vice president knew the intelligence for the Iraq war was cooked. So he launched his aide to smear the man who took the information public.
By Sidney Blumenthal


…..On Feb. 21, 2002, Wilson left for his mission to Niger, where he found no evidence of Saddam seeking uranium. Before he returned, on March 1, the State Department's Intelligence and Research Bureau (INR) circulated its analysis, "Niger: Sale of Uranium to Iraq Is Unlikely." About a week later, the CIA produced its own report, based on Wilson's and other assessments, but that did not deter Cheney from declaring on three Sunday TV interviews on March 24 that Saddam was indeed trying to make nuclear weapons. Cheney was briefed on the CIA report immediately before or after his portentous remarks on television. (The CIA briefer, Craig Schmall, testified in the Libby trial that Cheney "did ask" for and "received" the report in "early 2002.")

In early September 2002, senior administration officials -- Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, launched an intensive campaign to persuade public opinion of Saddam's nuclear threat. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," said Rice. When the White House speechwriters and NSC staff sought to insert the Niger claim into a speech Bush was to deliver at the United Nations on Sept. 11, the CIA told them it was unproved and the charge was stricken from the text. ….

In his meeting with Judith Miller, according to her testimony on the witness stand, Libby confided that the CIA "was beginning to backpedal from the unequivocal intelligence" it had provided prewar about Saddam's nuclear program. Of course, that was a complete lie. Libby was deliberately misleading the reporter, covering up the CIA's many warnings and reports to the contrary, as he tried to get her to publish falsehoods about Wilson and reveal Plame's identity. Libby appealed to Miller's sense of justice. The CIA, he told her, was engaged in "a perverted war of leaks" against the wholly innocent administration.

In October 2003, neoconservative Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith sent the Senate Intelligence Committee a classified report, "Summary of Body of Intelligence on Iraq-al Qaeda Contacts," a farrago of disinformation that had been the basis of the Libby memo given to Powell. Feith had been in charge of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, a parallel intelligence unit that stovepiped disinformation from Iraqi exiles to the Office of the Vice President and the NSC with a stamp of approval that evaded the normal channels of verifying intelligence. Within weeks, Feith's report was leaked to the neoconservative Weekly Standard and published under the headline: "Case Closed: The U.S. Government's Secret Memo Detailing Cooperation Between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden." On Jan. 9, 2004, Cheney took it upon himself, in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News, to promote the Weekly Standard story as "the best source of information." Cheney's support for the disinformation continued through the 2004 campaign and beyond. ……

http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/0... /


Timing is everything. This is in true in politics as in sports. And it is equally important in the theater of a courtroom drama. A talented attorney will present something of extreme significance to a jury shortly before court recesses for a weekend. Thus, it was no coincidence that FBI investigator Deborah Bond testified that Libby had admitted that he and VP Cheney "may have" discussed exposing Valerie Plame’s identity to journalists. This discussion between Libby and Cheney took place on AF2, a time that Patrick Fitzgerald has focused attention on during Catherine Martin’s earlier testimony.

The testimony in the Libby trial has made clear that the OVP operation against Joseph and Valerie Wilson was part of something much larger. In my opinion, the most important article that documents what that larger issue was is the fantastic essay by Sidney Blumenthal, "How Libby became Cheney’s pawn," from Salon.com.

Blumenthal quotes Richard Clarke as saying that VP Cheney had read the intelligence reports, and was fully aware that the Niger yellow cake business was pure fiction. Cheney knew that Joseph Wilson was telling the American people the truth. And Cheney was determined to suppress that truth.

Next week, the prosecution will present some more evidence that shows that Scooter Libby consciously lied to the FBI investigators, and to the grand jury. It is expected that NBC’s Tim Russert will be the last prosecution witness. And then, we will get to see Team Libby’s defense. A large part of it will focus on how busy Libby was with national defense issues. However, the most anticipated parts of the defense’s case will be when two men take the witness stand: Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney.

At this point, it seems likely that Libby will be convicted on every count he is charged with. It is interesting to speculate on if there is a chance that VP Cheney could face charges. While it is possible, I would strongly urge DUers to consider taking steps that will help with this case in other areas.

The first is to contribute, if possible, to the Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust. The link is:
http://wilsonsupport.org /
Should their case result in payment beyond their investment, the excess will be contributed by the trustees of this group to organizations that protect "whistle blowers."

Also, it is extremely important to write, e-mail, and call your elected representatives, and request that they take actions to investigate and impeach VP Cheney. The Libby trial has provided solid grounds for such investigations.

Finally, it is important to write letters to the editor of as many newspapers as possible. These letters do not need to be long or detailed. They simply need to express disgust with Dick Cheney, and call for Congress to take action.

Thank you.