Identity of Novak's 1st (leaker) source under our noses all along!

Scooter Libby, Cheney's Chief-of-Staff, or a staff member directly under him.

Immediately after Wilson's op-ed in the _Times_, Wilson was THOUGHT to have been an investigator sent to Niger on the behalf of the Vice-President. When Novak became interested to know how a Clinton appointee had be entrusted with such a mission (which he is on record saying was the reason for his investigation), who would he have initally called? . . . Scooter.

And BOY, was Scooter ready for him!

They talked about Wilson's editorial, why the State-of-the-Union Speech referred to Nigerian yellow-cake uranium, why Powell didn't mention it during his address to the UN, and how Cheney had never heard of Wilson. Then Scooter explains, telling Novak that Cheney, the previous summer, had asked the CIA to look into the reports of uranium sales to Iraq from Niger and that it was the CIA who had sent Wilson. Then Scooter lets it drop, "Well, did you know Wilson's wife works at the Bureau? Let's see . . . yeah, right Valerie Plame. Word is that she was the one who had him sent to Niger." Novak's ears perk up (all he hears is "nepotism," missing Scooter's real insinuation: that Wilson put his wife up to having him sent because he had an anti-War agenda or because he was anti-administration and wanted to put the breaks on the rising crescendo of war rhetoric that fall). Novak checks spelling ("P-L-A-M-E"), thanks Scooter, hangs up. Checks second source, etc.

It's important to realize the purpose was to discredit Wilson as a maverick-with-an-agenda, getting his wife to send him on a mission the results of which would undercut Bush's bellicose rhetoric or make Bush pull back from his decision to invade Iraq.

Given the climate of the following summer (2003), when everyone was questioning the existence of WMD and the purposes for the war, when someone who had been on an investigation for the admin. actually challenged a claim about WMDs in the State of the Union Message in a NY Times op-ed piece, Scooter's plant was artful and effective, despite Novak's dull-witted interpretation (nepotism). It was clever without crushing anyone (Libby is more circumspect and pragmatic than Rove). The purpose was not primarily to inflict revenge upon Wilson, nor was it necessarily a warning to others who might take similar public stands, but to undercut an opponent who had momentarily risen in their midst. Bloodlessly, swiftly.


Coda: Wistful Thinking

I'm guessing Scooter Libby is spending the day with lawyers and staff, figuring out how to minimize legal and politial damage. Tomorrow he'll resign.

...it was Libby who fought to keep the yellowcake lines IN the state of the union address.

a CIA source.

The call in which he was asked not to use Plame's name.

Got link? Is this real or some sort of hypothetical?

I haven't been on line most of the day.

is public record.

1.) Identified as former admassador sent on mission at behest of VP.

2.) Novak publically states his original intention was to try to understand why this administration would send a former Clinton appointee on such a mission.

WHO would YOU call? VP's office, naturally.

That's the trail. I speculated on how the phone call would have gone.

In other words he made it up - wishful thinking.

An irresponsible tactic.

or . . well, do whatever it is you do.

A couple of years ago (1998) I was on Burden of Proof and had articles written about my work (and Jack Gillis's work) on the talking points that Lewinsky gave to Tripp which were supposedly give to Monica by Clinton or one of the President's men. We fought Starr on these for 8 months. Oliphant, Conoson, Lyons, and others devoted columns to our work. It was logic then, and it's logic now.

Don't know nothing about no channeling.

Argue with the logic, please . . . or, as I said, do whatever it is you do.

the post was just wishful thinking as you said. At the end.

Why not?

But I still can close my eyes and see *Bush and Cheney and Rove and maybe some others in their "in group" with Libby explaining how he was able to fuck Wislon really good - but there may be some blowback - sometime around July 15.

I'd bet *Bush and Cheney knew about it shortly after it happened if not before - and condoned it.

Remember?

He has gone on record as saying he did not request the CIA to investigate the yellow cake matter. Cheney asked a question at his daily intelligence briefing and the CIA took it upon themselves to initiate the investigation.

Wilson and sending him until that Sunday on Meet the Press. Who would Novak have called while it was still floating out there that the VP DID send him? That's the question. (All this in original post, by the way.)

I think you may be right.

Additionally, Rove's "fair game" remark is criminally stupid and proves that he has no business working in the White House.

stemwindingly breathing this all in together. Whether at table, on phones or keyboards. Such architecture needs prototyping and vetting.

And when I say "breathing", I measure my word.

I hope the short straw breaks.

But it would not have been done by this reptile Libby all on his own; there would have been consultation to decide on a course of action, and delegate the fellow to start it rolling. He will have people to turn in, to replace him in Room 101, so to speak. There is always a meeting; always.

Gerald Burns's, now sadly dead for some years.

"There is always a meeting; always." (Lovely, coming as it does to its soundings.)

It is common knowledge to anyone follwing the Niger/Yellowcake canard that it has always been Cheney's baby.

Ergo...it makes sense that they would be the most likely to PAY BACK Wilson.

And the way things are done in politics...the leak would not have been Cheney himself, but an loyal drone.
(Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest!)

Your logic is fine

I've been reading everything I can find about this, and by yesterday evening, there were quite a few fingers pointing to Cheney's office. Josh Marshall ("Talking points memo") is on this angle big time.

It IS logical, it makes LOTS of sense. In fact it makes the MOST sense.

I hope people will be careful about settling on Rove as a chief suspect, I think it may turn out to be a case of misdirection. He may have been a player at some level, but it's looking more and more like the ORIGINATORS came out of the Office of the V.P.

We'd better watch out -- if all the attention stays focused on the White House, they may very well be able to duck out of it. They may very well have plenty of "plausible deniability". Look instead to the Executive Office Building -- Cheney's lair.

sw

Implicit is my hope we aren't misdirected. Exactly. We might have wanted to see the purpose of the leaks as revenge or as a warning to others. It makes a better (nastier) story. But it it takes our eye off of the obvious and the logical, they can (at the least) minimize the political damage and, at most, "slip the noose."

My guess is they're playing "Short Straw" in the Executive Office Building tonight.

I have to admit, I need to take some time to re-read the Gonzales memos and whatever's available in the way of DOJ formal statements -- I've got some major questions here.

Like, is the DOJ investigation centered on the White House staff -- and ONLY on the White House staff? How is this investigation worded? Is Cheney's staff automatically covered, or are they treated as some sort of separate entity?

I may not be wording this well, but I hope you can get the gist. We could find this whole thing stopped cold if the focus is solely on Bush's OWN staff. Is this why they're acting so confident?

sw

I think the administration is aware that shy of resignations, the call for an independant prosecutor will be too loud to ignore.

it won't be anyone whose fall will seriously disrupt the actual power structure of the junta, right?

I ABHOR thinking that this whole thing could end up unfolding in such a way that it ends up leaving the maladminstration virtually unscathed -- but that's the most likely outcome, isn't it... Damn...

sw

He'll be told that the law can't touch him since the bar is too high (one has to KNOW that the CIA is actively protecting the cover of the agent you're outing, the agent had to go overseas on assignment in the past 5 years, etc.) And even IF he has to take a legal fall, someone will take care of his (her?) family, and set him up when he gets out.

(Cue music from Godfather II.)

(But, heck, I'm really an optimist and would love to be persuaded otherwise.)

And, since I'm NOT an optimist, I guess that your being "persuaded otherwise" will have to come from someone else... ;-)

In any case, my sincere thanks to you for a stimulating and thought-provoking exchange.

Peace,
sw

The janitors are looking at me funny. (Univ. is on break and here I am at 6:30 working.)

Thanks for discussion.

Bye.

There are many knives in orbit around this watermelon, and they will all or some spill open at least some of the seeds of this thing for history and controlling legal authorities. Resignation(s) will only change where reporters go to stakeout doors and driveways. DOJ investigation will continue, and depending probably on evidence, will lead to special prosecutors; congressional inquiry(ies) whether sooner or later, too.

Its only a question of timing, a race against November '04, and against those things that influence time. And, perhaps a question of event sequence, as to how many will in the end be convicted.

but my own sense is that an "overeager staffer" will walk the plank, and the neocon juggernaut will go rolling on.

History shows that these people DO get away with ALL the sh*t they pull. Look how many Iran-Contra alums are back in the administration. This scandal is just another speed bump.

I'd much prefer to be wrong, but we're dealing with long- and deeply-entrenched evil here. If the media had REALLY wanted to help bring down the junta, any one of those six reporters to whom the the Plame outing was shopped could have written a story ABOUT how an administration official was shopping this leak around.

The Octopus has LOTS of tentacles...

sw

Transcripts
Weekend of July 12-13, 2003

CHRIS MATTHEWS, host: Today on THE CHRIS MATTHEWS SHOW: truth and consequences of the Iraq war.

Katty Kay this week we learned that President Bush used false information about Iraq's nuclear program in his State of the Union speech. Could this explode?

snip

MATTHEWS: Is this a renegade operation?

Mr. PAGE: ...it's not a renegade. It's very public. Everybody knows about it. A similar thing happened, remember in the closing days of the Cold War under Bush I and they were convinced that the Russians posed this enormous threat. It turned out that they didn't pose. Now we see they're just filtering information. They're filtering out anything that goes against their hypothesis, which is that – that Saddam posed this great danger and I think the really there's nobody specifically to blame because that's the way Washington works.

MATTHEWS: I'm not going to accept that.

Ms. KATTY KAY (Washington Correspondent, British Broadcasting Corporation): OK, they've done this...

MATTHEWS: Now let's go to this. What I know. Joe Wilson, former ambassador in Africa gets this passed by the CIA to go down to Niger and check out the reports that there were some traffic in Uranium with Saddam Hussein. That he was trying to get some Uranium from them. He gets back and reports to the CIA. Nothing doing. It's a dry hole. There's no such traffic. The original request for that information was from the vice-president's office. The vice-president knew this was a dry hole, there was no hard evidence of a trade of Uranium out of Niger to Saddam Hussein. Why did the vice-president, knowing that and his people, Scooter Libby and the rest of the them, why didn't they stop this in the president's speech? Why did they let him say something that's not true?


snip

MATTHEWS: Let me run this by you...

Mr. PAGE: Remember, Dick Cheney wouldn't release the minutes on his energy commission.

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

Mr. PAGE: He sure as heck isn't going to release any information involving national security.

MATTHEWS: Let me run through the possible dramatis personae here. You have the National Security staff, of course, Condoleeza Rice, the chief. You've got Elliott Davis who's in charge of that whole area. Steven Halley very active in this area. You've got Scooter Libbey, the chief of staff for the vice-president. Is anybody going to lose their job over this? Katty Kay?

snip

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/chrismatthews/071303.asp


And now, ex-Agency Larry Johnson says "Executive Office Building", on PBS et al. (sez it, Christ, he screamed it).


And this:

"A similar thing happened, remember in the closing days of the Cold War under Bush I and they were convinced that the Russians posed this enormous threat. It turned out that they didn't pose."

harmonics nicely today with TPM's Clark-PNAC critique (and the boingy press coverage of it).

talkingpointsmemo.com

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=457096

On edit: partial transcript:

BUCHANAN: ... Scooter Libby. Now, is Scooter Libby the name you heard?
JOHNSON: I’m not going to comment on that.
PRESS: Let me ask you this. Today at the White House gaggle they
call it, press secretary Scott McClellan was pushed about have-you know
” have you talked to people, are the White House staff cooperating? And remember the other day he said he talked to Karl Rove, and Karl Rove said I had nothing to do with it. So a reporter said have you talked to Scott-
Scooter Libby the same-in the same fashion, and are you willing to say right now, ready to say right now that Scooter Libby had nothing to do with this? Scott McClellan closed the briefing, didn’t answer the question, and walked away. What does that tell you?
JOHNSON: That’s very telling. I think if I’m the FBI, I start by having a discussion with Mr. Libby.

Wilson in the US embassy in Iraq at the same time Cheney was Secretary of Defense? I'm willing to bet Cheney knew EXACTLY who Wilson was. And I'm also willing to bet that Wilson's "crime" in Cheney's mind was that he'd served on Clinton's "soft on Iraq" NSC.

Richard Bruce Cheney is a petty vindictive bastard, and he should be impeached FIRST.

He should never have been allowed on the ticket as the second Texan in the first place. They knew what they were doing when they made that rule.

Just poorly written. Cheney disavowed on Meet the Press having any knowledge of Wilson's mission. Can someone find the transcript? Weekend of the NYTimes op-ed. That would both prove that the rumors had it that Wislon was sent by Cheney (in Russert's question) and Cheney's disavowal of any knowledge.

(But, again, Novak was on the story already between the time of the op-ed and Meet the Press.)

Thanks for constructive criticism. I'll revise so if I ever use this later . . .

Between Fineman's article:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/974997.asp?0cv=KB10

and the Buchannan interview, all signs point to Libby and possibly Cheney.

I think your analysis does a good job of putting it together.

Dick vs. The CIA--this should be interesting!

some one further down the food chain will probably take the fall.

(Sing to the tune of: "They're Playing Short Straw in the Exucative Building Tonight.)

I would it were not so.

Gotta go. Goodnight.

Your intuitive abilities are impressive. With The Magistrate's clarification of how Libby got his marching orders, this has the ring of truth.

The only point I could quibble with is your interpretation of Libby's motivation. With these people, time and again, we have seen that the crudest, basest interpretation of their actions is always the correct one.

the mark. It's always the one that's least expected, especially when they have the finger pointing in a more obvious direction. (rove)

I saw Libby on Hardball right after this whole thing broke (wearing his "leather") and something smelled foul then. It's just hard to connect the pieces, cause they do such a good con job, but you have done a excellent job of piecing this together. Ever seen the "The Pelican Brief?" I strongly believe that it's NEVER who we think it is...

Excellent thoughts (and writing). Now what? You're talking about some nasty, NASTY players here.

Looking forward to more later!

I went to Google and did a search for the Hardball show with Scooter Libby back in July right after this story broke. Tried to pull up the link and it says the files have expired or been broken. Check it out:

‘Hardball with Chris Matthews’ for July 14
... COMMERCIAL BREAK) MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. ... the chief of staff there, Scooter
Libby, why they ... the stars of the weekend “CHRIS MATTHEWS SHOW.” You ...
www.msnbc.com/news/939140.asp?cp1=1 - 92k - Cached - Similar pages

Thank goodness some other sites kept the interview.

What did Cheney and his top aide Scooter Libby know and when did they know ... Coulter,
Luntz, Gergen, Isaacson & Rockefeller..., Hardball with Chris Matthews. ...
www.mail-archive.com/hardball@lists.msnbc.com/ msg00234.html - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

Uraniumgate
... CHRIS MATTHEWS, HARDBALL, 07.22.03: Well, let’s talk about how deeply this goes ... It’s
been widely reported that Scooter Libby, the chief of staff to the vice ...
www.bushwatch.com/uranium.htm - 73k - Cached - Similar pages

This does indeed keep gettin' better and better!