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Optimists rule! http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23729The “Cloud” over Dick Cheney Just Got Darker! Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2007-06-18 00:27. Impeachment By William Hughes “It is an extraordinary subversion of the Constitution to send people to die...on the basis of a lie.” - Elizabeth Holtzman (1)
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On June 14, 2007, the trial judge in Libby’s federal criminal case, the Hon. Reggie B. Walton, ordered him to jail immediately to serve out his 2 1/2-year sentence. Libby, showing no remorse, was convicted on perjury, lying and obstruction of justice charges. His attorney filed a motion with the appellate court to stay the lower court’s ruling, pending his appeal of the case. “Scooter” was Cheney’s Chief of Staff: He ran his office. Libby got caught trying to smear former Ambassador Joe Wilson, a critic of the Iraqi War. Wilson had written, in the summer of 2003, that there was no evidence to suggest that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had attempted to secure any uranium from Nigeria. Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA as a covert agent. Libby, a Neocon, leaked her name to the press and then lied about it to the FBI and to the Grand Jury. The schemers put out a story that Wilson’s trip to Africa was a “junket” arranged by his wife. Was Libby acting on Cheney’s behalf? The Special Prosecutor thinks he was and he has said so publicly.
On Feb. 20, 2007, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor, told the jury, in his closing argument, in Libby’s case: “There is a cloud over V.P. Cheney...Libby stole the truth...Don’t you think...the American people are entitled to straight answers...It was ‘they’ who decided to tell reporters Wilson’s wife was working for the CIA...To them, she wasn’t a person, she was argument. What is this case about? Is it about something bigger?” Dan Froomkin, who covered the case for the Washington Post, put it this way after hearing Fitzgerald’s remarks: “It was pretty clear who ‘they’ was: Libby and his boss, Cheney.” (3) The evidence in the case showed that Cheney was the initiator of the plot and Libby was his gofer. The jury felt that Libby was “a fall guy.” It was Cheney who wrote the “talking points” to get Wilson. He made notes on a newspaper article falsely suggesting that Wilson’s wife had sent him on a “junket” to Nigeria. The smear merchant of Wilson/Plame was Cheney! At law, Libby acting in concert with his string puller, Cheney, to lie under oath and to obstruct justice has a name. It is called: A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY!
There are some people on Capitol Hill, who think Libby might flip. He was, indeed, protecting Cheney, not that he needed much encouragement, since he was at the center of the White House cabal that was “fixing” the intelligence to get us into the Iraqi War. The NYT labeled him: “a principal architect of the war.” In fact, it was Libby who helped to push Colin Powell into making that flop of a speech at the UN on Feb. 5, 2003. And, if no presidential pardon comes Libby’s way, will he rat Cheney out? Who knows? Libby also had strong ties to another prime architect of the Iraqi War--Paul Wolfowitz, who was just dumped as CEO of the World Bank. Donald Rumsfeld, another Neocon, just got his walking papers at Defense. It’s hasn’t been a good summer for the Neocons. Libby was also one of the attorneys for fugitive billionaire financier, Marc Rich, a reported Mossad asset. (4) Libby helped to manipulate a presidential pardon for him from “Bubba Bill” Clinton, who made $10 million last year giving speeches! What a surprise! Meanwhile, who is going to help Libby get his pardon? Cheney? Rich? Hillary?
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The charges in the Articles of Impeachment, raised by Rep. Kucinich, if proven, are clearly impeachable offenses under the U.S. Constitution. Keep in mind, that under Article 1, Section 2 (5), of our National Charter, the role of the House in any impeachment inquiry is to “only” act as a Grand Jury. If it finds that there is probable cause, that is reasonable grounds, to believe the truth of the charges against Cheney, in H. Res 333, then it would have a duty under the law to impeach him. The U.S. Senate, then, would sit in judgment on the V.P. and decide his guilt or innocence. See, Art. 1, Sec. 3 (6).
The House Judiciary Committee, headed by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), should let those subpoenas fly. Mr. Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor, should be called as a witness. Others connected to Cheney, like Karl Rove in the White House, and officials in U.S. State Department and at the Pentagon, whose names surfaced in the Libby case, also should be summoned before the Committee. It looks like Mr. Fitzgerald isn’t going to open a criminal inquiry into Cheney’s role in the Wilson/Plame matter. Congress then has a solemn duty, a Constitutional responsibility, to get to the bottom of Cheney’s egregious wrongdoing.
Finally, America was lied into the Iraqi War by a Cheney-dominated clique. One of the liars, Libby, made the mistake of lying under oath. Now, he is going to prison. It is time now for Libby’s Svengali, V.P. Dick Cheney, to be brought to the Bar of Justice. Congress, do your duty! Uphold the Republic! Remember our dead heroes in Iraq, who died for a lie! Investigate and impeach Cheney!
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