White House reels as Libby gets 30 months

16 Words: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein
recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
-- From Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address

11/28/06 = "The Charles Goyette Show" 1100 AM Phx Az
INTERVIEW: Elizabeth de la Vega, Bringing Bush to Court
AUDIO:
http://www.apfn.net/pogo/A005I061128ee5.MP3

Tomgram: Elizabeth de la Vega, Bringing Bush to Court
http://www.tomdispatch.com/

White House reels as Libby gets 30 months

Frmr Cheney Aide Faces Prison in CIA Leak Scandal
The former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney will find out on Tuesday how long he might spend in jail.
GOOGLE NEWS UPDATES:

The former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney will find out on Tuesday how long he might spend in jail for lying and obstructing a probe related to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war.

Though Lewis "Scooter" Libby faces a maximum of 25 years in prison, legal observers say he might never spend a night behind bars, thanks to a lengthy appeals process and a possible pardon from President George W. Bush.

The prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, has asked U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to impose a sentence of two and a half to three years; the federal probation office has recommended less than two years.

Libby's charges grew out of a high-profile investigation into the leak of a CIA analyst's identity after her husband emerged as an early critic of the invasion of Iraq.

CIA analyst Valerie Plame has testified that the unmasking destroyed her career.

Nobody was charged with blowing her cover, but Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, was found guilty of obstruction of justice, making false statements to the FBI and two counts of perjury. He was found not guilty of one charge of making false statements.

Libby was one of several Bush administration officials who discussed Plame with reporters at a time when her employment status was classified.

Fitzgerald did not charge Libby or anybody else with breaking laws related to the leak, but Libby's dishonesty with investigators made it more difficult to determine if any laws were broken, Fitzgerald argued last week.

Libby's lawyers hope Walton will consider his lengthy government career and only impose probation.

"It cannot be that a person who performed a thousand good acts merits a harsher sentence than someone who has lived for himself alone. Mr. Libby deserves a credit, not a debit, for his service to the nation," Libby's lawyers wrote.

Legal experts say any prison sentence is likely to be suspended as Libby's lawyers appeal his case.

That process could last until nearly the end of Bush's presidential term, at which point Bush would be free of the political pressures that might otherwise prevent him from issuing a pardon.

"I find it very plausible that we're going to see a pardon right in that window after the election and before the president leaves office," said Scott Fredricksen, a former government lawyer.
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ALSO SEE: LEAKGATE...

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/leakgate.htm

Wilson, Plame, Cooper... Don't Forget the Back Story!
* Listen to the MP3 Audio - Segment 3 (9.30 MB) 10/11/05
http://www.apfn.org/audio/2005-10-11-Charles-03.mp3

Title 18 sec 371

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 19 > § 371

§ 371. Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States

If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000371----000-.html

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06/20/06 PBS FRONTLINE: The Dark Side
On 9/11, deep inside a White House bunker, Vice President Dick Cheney was ordering U.S. fighter planes to shoot down any commercial airliner above America. At that moment, CIA Director George Tenet was meeting with his counterterrorism team in Langley, Va. Both leaders acted fast to prepare their country for a new kind of war. But soon a debate would grow over the goals of the war on terror, and the decision to go to war in Iraq.
After 9/11, Vice President Richard Cheney seized the initiative. He pushed to expand executive power, transform America's intelligence agencies and bring the war on terror to Iraq. But first he had to take on George Tenet's CIA for control over intelligence.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/leakgate.htm