The failed Reich-wing talking point of no underlying crime

Media Matters for America provides the truth to counter the lie expressed once again by the traitor to America, Robert Novak. Bob tries hard to make people believe that Libby was convicted for lying, perjury and obstruction of justice in a case that had no underlying crime. Novak is merely attempting to escape blame for his own treason in publishing the identity of a covert agent of the CIA. [This is providing aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States - nothing less.]

[The traitor] syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak claimed that although former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the original source for Novak's July 16, 2003, column revealing Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA employment, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald "plowed ahead with an inquiry that produced obstruction of justice and perjury charges against Libby, though there was no underlying crime." He added: "Why did Fitzgerald pursue the investigation when [First misleading point] he knew Armitage was the leaker and [Second point, this time an out and out lie.]had determined there was no evidence of a crime?" But as Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, [First point]while Libby did not leak Plame's identity to Novak, he was reportedly the original source of the information for at least two other reporters during the summer of 2003. And as Fitzgerald clarified in a May 25 memorandum regarding Libby's sentencing: "The investigation was never limited to disclosure of Ms. Wilson's CIA affiliation to Mr. Novak; rather, from the outset the investigation sought to determine who disclosed information about Ms. Wilson to various reporters, including -- but not limited to -- Mr. Novak." Novak's suggestion that, legally, Armitage's leak of Plame's identity was the only disclosure that mattered also ignores that the statutes in question do not specify that the identity of a covert operative has to be published for a crime to have been committed.

Further, contrary to Novak's assertion that Fitzgerald "had determined there was no evidence of a crime," during an October 2005 press conference announcing Libby's indictment, [Second point] Fitzgerald said that Libby's obstruction of justice had prevented the special counsel's office from determining if an underlying crime had been committed.

The term "Obstruction of Justice" means that Libby interfered with the investigation into a crime (the crime - Valerie Plame Wison's identity as a covert agent of the CIA) was clearly leaked to numerous reporters, including Novak, and Libby's lies and perjury prevented Fitzgerald's investigation from determining who directed the leaks and what the circumstances were. Without that information no one could be charged with a crime that was provable in court, even though it is perfectly clear that the crime was committed.

Besides Libby, Novak is a traitor because he set out to damage the U.S. by publishing information that should have been protected. The fact that Valerie Plame's cover organization was forced to shut down, as were her networks of agents, demonstrates that treason was committed. It is unfortunate that an appropriate law cannot be found to prosecute Novak.

Office of Special Counsel investigating politization of Federal Civl Service

The U.S. Attorney purge was just the very tip of the program to totally politicize the federal government, using it to raise money and get Republicans elected everywhere. Once locked up, the machine that Rove was building would have left America as a one-party state in which elections mean nothing more than did the elections in the USSR or in Saddam's Iraq. Think Progress reports on the investigation now being conducted by the Office of Special Counsel into the politicization of the Federal Government.

Politicization of the federal government has been illegal for decades. The 1939 Hatch Act specifically prohibits partisan campaign or electoral activities on federal government property, including federal agencies. But in 2005, Ken Mehlman, formerly one of Bush’s top political advisers, outlined the White House’s strategy of utilizing government resources for partisan gain:

One of the things that can happen in Washington when you work in an agency is that you forget who sent you there. And it’s important to remind people that you’re George Bush people. … If there’s one empire I want built, it’s the George Bush empire. [One Party Country, p. 102]

With that imperial partisanship in mind, the Bush White House has engaged in an unprecedented quest to politicize the federal government, giving briefings and PowerPoint presentations everywhere from the Interior Department to NASA on how to secure Republican victories. Said one Interior Department manager, “We were constantly being reminded about how our decisions could affect electoral results” (One Party Country, p. 103). Bush loyalists in federal agencies have also helped generate millions for favored political candidates.

This was - and is - a coup-de-etate conducted by the American right-wing extremist conservatives, both economic and religious. It is beginning to be exposed, but the exposure is mostly surface so far.

Fitz' sentencing memo establishes Libby's culpibility clearly

"Scooter" Libby's defenders have been wailing and ranting for months that the trial and conviction of Libby was criminalizing politics and that he did nothing wrong. Well, the declassified document that Fitzgerald just released demolishes every single talking point the right-wingers have been spewing. This report has been in several places, but the best is on Mark Kleiman's site The Reality-Based Community. Mark does a masterful job of extracting the key points from Fitz' memo.

Valerie Wilson was an active and covert agent of the CIA during the legally relevant period, as every judge who passed judgement on the case early on had to know from classified information. Libby was orchestrating a cover-up of the illegal release of Wilson's identity and Libby kept Cheney fully informed of his activities. Specifically because of Scooter Libby's lies to the FBI and the the Grand Jury it became impossible to prove, legally, that the individuals who actually revealed Wilson's identity had the requisite state of mind (knowledge and intent) that was required to prove a violation of the law. So Scooter's cover-up successfully prevented prosecution of the specific (treasonous) criminals.

Then Fitz takes on the many accusations that Scooter should never has been tried in the first place, let alone convicted.

7. In summary:

To accept the argument that Mr. Libby’s prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President. To state this claim is to refute it. Peremptorily closing this investigation in the face of the information available at its early stages would have been a dereliction of duty, and would have afforded Mr. Libby and others preferential treatment not accorded to ordinary persons implicated in criminal investigations. [pp. 13-14]

This trial exposes at least three people who without any level of doubt at all have committed treason to the nation. Those people are I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his boss, Richard Cheney, and the innately rotten Karl Rove.

Remember that treason is the only crime that is defined in the U.S. Constitution. It is defined as

Article 3 - The Judicial Branch
Section 3 - Treason

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. Art 3, Section 3, U.S. Constitution.

Those three individuals clearly meet the definition of the crime of treason.

I'd also say that anyone attempting to protect them does likewise. Jonas Goldberg from National Review On-line, anyone? Perhaps there should be a list kept on-line of those who are traitors. It could certainly start with Libby, Rove, Cheney and Goldberg.

---

Here is the Fitzgerald sentencing memo (in .pdf format.)

Bush and Cheney have been bin Laden's greatest supporters.

Josh Marshall points out that bin Laden was trapped at Tora Bora and surrounded. But Bush was so focused on attacking Iraq that there were not enough troops available to capture or kill bin Laden when we had him.

The CIA commander, Gary Berntsen, in charge of CIA operations at Tora Bora wrote his book, Jawbreaker and clearly explained that we had bin Laden, we knew he was there, but let him go free. This is Bush's fault. Whether it was intentional, for political purposes or simply incompetence really doesn't matter much. Any or all of those motivations are possible, but it will never be known which was most important. The motivation doesn't matter. The action makes it Bush's fault.

Josh Marshall refers to the shorter Newsweek article that explains what "Jawbreaker" said.

This failure at Tora Bora was, of course, the failure that Gen. Tommy Franks got his Medal of Freedom for keeping quiet about. George Tenet (CIA Director) got his for not telling that the CIA had carefully and repeatedly told Bush, Cheney and the White House staff that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, did not have WMDs and was no major threat to the U.S.

Franks and Bremer were two of three. At the same presentation, Jerry Bremer, who was the man in charge of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), got his Medal of Freedom for not telling who instructed him to disband the Iraqi Army and conduct the deBaathification of Iraq which worsened the occupation quite rapidly, as well as so many other screw-ups that were conducted by the CPA.

It's hard not to just keep going when describing the myriad failures and even treasons conducted by this administration. But letting bin Laden go free when he was in our grasp is one of the very largest screw-ups or treasons.