Cheney Notes Add Twist ti CIA Leak Probe

By PETE YOST

Cheney Notes Add Twist to CIA Leak Probe

Sun May 21, 2006 02:51

Cheney Notes Add Twist to CIA Leak Probe
Cheney's Handwritten Notes on Newspaper Column Add New Twist to CIA Leak Investigation
By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=1960040

WASHINGTON - The prosecutor in the CIA leak case said more than six months ago that he was not alleging any criminal acts by Vice President Dick Cheney regarding the leak of agency operative Valerie Plames identity.

Today, the prosecutor is leaving the door open to the possibility that the vice presidents now-indicted former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was acting at his boss' behest when Libby allegedly leaked information about Plame to reporters.

A new court filing presents handwritten notes of Cheney. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is using them to assert that the vice president and Libby, working together, were focusing much attention on Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a Bush administration critic.

Cheneys notes ask whether Plame had sent Wilson on a "junket" to Africa. Subsequently, Plames supposed role in her husbands trip to Africa allegedly was leaked to the media by both Libby and by presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Cheney's notes on the margins of Wilson's opinion column in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, reflect "the contemporaneous reaction of the vice president," Fitzgerald said in the court filing late Friday.

Wilsons column "is relevant to establishing some of the facts that were viewed as important by the defendants immediate superior, including whether Mr. Wilsons wife had `sent him on a junket," the court papers say.

Cheneys notes "support the proposition that publication of the Wilson op-ed acutely focused the attention of the vice president and the defendant his chief of staff on Mr. Wilson, on the assertions made in his article, and on responding to those assertions," according to the file.

In the column, Wilson recounted how he had been sent by the CIA in 2002 to the Niger to assess intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from the African country. His conclusion: It was highly doubtful that such a deal existed.

A year later, the intelligence about an Iraq-Niger uranium deal was still being given credence by the administration as it made the case for invading Iraq.

Scribbled in the days leading up to the leaks of Plame's identity, Cheneys notes refer to the CIA and to Wilsons trip, asking, "Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an Amb. to assess a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

Accused of lying about how he learned of Plames identity and what he told reporters about her, Libby says Plame's CIA identity was a trivial matter. Libby says he was focused instead on Wilson's accusations that the administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

In an effort to undercut Libbys defense, Fitzgerald wants to introduce the evidence that refers to Cheney and to Wilsons wife.

At a news conference last October, on the day he obtained an indictment against Libby, Fitzgerald asked a series of rhetorical questions including, "Why were people taking this information about Valerie Wilson and giving it to reporters?"

Fitzgerald said he does not know the answer because Libby had concealed the truth from investigators. Drawing a baseball analogy putting the prosecutor in the role of baseball umpire, Fitzgerald said, "The umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. Hes trying to figure out what happened and somebody blocked their view. As you sit here now and if youre asking me what his motives were, I cant tell you."

The Oct. 28 indictment charges Libby with five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI.

The language in the indictment provided the first indication that the Libby case might also be a case focusing closely on Cheney.

According to the indictment, Libby acknowledged to investigators that Cheney had told him in June 2003 about Wilsons wife working at the CIA. But Libby, according to the indictment, told the investigators that by the next month, he had forgotten that the vice president had told him about her.

The newly filed court papers disclose substantial new detail about Cheney that was not in the indictment, which did not reveal the fact that Cheney had made handwritten notes about Wilsons wife in the margin of Wilson's column in the Times.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
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A constitutional crisis in the making
OpEdNews - May 11, 2006
... subversions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Two dramatic events now point to a Constitutional crisis in the making.

Pt. I: Seven Days in May: Rumsfeld and the Generals

Regulated Speech

Commissioned military officers do not have the right or the privilege of criticizing their civilian bosses.

That may come as a shock to most Americans under the age of fifty, relatively few of whom have served in the military, and most of whose teachers and professors have refused to teach them any military history, much less military law. But Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) decrees,

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
http://www.webcommentary.com/asp/ShowArticle.asp?id=stixn&date=060520

05/19/06 Coast to Coast with George Noory re: Katherine Albrecht RFID Spy Chips
Audios:
#1. http://www.apfn.net/pogo/A001I060519-coast2coast-RFID1.MP3 (9.79MB)
#2. http://www.apfn.net/pogo/A002I060519-coast2coast-RFID2.MP3 (6.43MB)

"You can run, but you may not be able to hide. Not just from Big Brother, but Big Business, writes Katherine Albrecht in her book Spychips, a detailed analysis of how Radio Frequency Identification technology -- RFID for short -- threatens to erode the last vestiges of our privacy."
Listen: http://www.eyeonbooks.com/EOB/1105/albrecht.wax
RECENT CASPIAN MEDIA:
http://www.spychips.com/media/media_clips.html

POGO... "RADIO YOUR WAY"
http://www.apfn.net/POGO.HTM

There are no signs of a commercial plane crash. — 911 LINKS, Sun May 21 15:05

Condoleeza Rice Warned Willie Brown Not To Fly On 9-11 — 911TruthAction@yahoogroups.com, Sun May 21 15:21