Real World Event Discussions

Libby trial goes to jury. Any predictions?

POSTED BY: SoupCatcher
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 6, 2007 19:29
VIEWED: 4300
PAGE 3 of 3

FREMDFIRMA

Thursday, February 22, 2007 8:11 AM

Please note that Feith, Scooter and Franklin have all been in trouble before for passing classified info to "the country that shall not be named" previously - which should have resulted in the revokation of any clearances they did have.

Ergo, whoever the hell trusted Scooter with ANY classified info *after* that is criminally negligent, thus whomever gave it to him, unless they can plead ignorance should also be charged.

That whole little collective of goons, formerly of scoop jacksons cadre are untrustyworthy cretins.

While buried in the current crapstorm, Scooter has a history of being a naughty little bastich, so it's unlikely they'd go light on him without the threat of a pardon being issued.

Dig into THAT mess, and you'll know why I hate em so.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

SOUPCATCHER

Thursday, February 22, 2007 8:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Please note that Feith, Scooter and Franklin have all been in trouble before for passing classified info to "the country that shall not be named" previously - which should have resulted in the revokation of any clearances they did have.

Ergo, whoever the hell trusted Scooter with ANY classified info *after* that is criminally negligent, thus whomever gave it to him, unless they can plead ignorance should also be charged.

Yeah, I've never understood the double-standard theory of foreign policy.

I'll slide right by the naming-names part of things and just move on to: it seems like the ONLY thing Cheney learned from Watergate was, "grease the reporters." That, or the AC/DC defense, "I've got big balls," and just say whatever you feel like, understanding that at least twenty percent of the population will reflexively repeat Republican party talking points verbatim.

MEDFORDTIM

Thursday, February 22, 2007 12:30 PM

SoupCatcher wrote: Doesn't really matter, though.

Truer words were never spoken.

The thought that nags at me is that Cheney will never be on any stand. Bush can pardon him pre-emptively. I would expect Cheney to step down first (if charged, of course) freeing the VP slot up for whoever the Repubs want to run for Pres.

Anyway, that's what I think...

MT

AURAPTOR

Thursday, February 22, 2007 1:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
BTW, Rap,

That whole thing about there being no crime, no case and no story is now the big item in right-wingnut newsland. I read it myself in TownHall.

You keep sayin' you're not a talking-pointy-head, but everything that ends up here comes straight from there.

So they agree w/ me on some issues. Big deal. They're using the same clear headed logic that I am using. Should make you feel good that not everyone is a Left wing zealot out there in the media.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

SOUPCATCHER

Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Razza:
So why are they still focused on Libby? If he deliberately mislead the authorities, then let's throw the book at him, but if it was just a misrecollection why are we wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on the wrong guy?

I wanted to focus in on that one point, "if it was just a misrecollection." The memory defense, in other words. One of the side products of the trial was that we had numerous people testify that Libby talked with them about Valerie Wilson - as part of the brief he was building against Joe Wilson. And defense did nothing except to say that Libby didn't remember those conversations. I'll get to the actual numbers in a second. But then we have Libby remembering two conversations (with Russert and Cooper) that both of them say never happened. So it's a selective memory defense.

Sidney Blumenthal has an excellent piece in Salon (you may have to click on an ad for a day pass) about the closing arguments for both sides. Here are some selections from the prosecution on stuff that, for the most part, defense didn't even try to impeach:

Quote:
from http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/02/22/libby_trial/print.h
tml
...
{this is from Zeidenberg's closing arguments}
...
Zeidenberg ran through the narrative of the loyal Libby, doing the bidding of his principal, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was angered at Wilson's public revelations concerning the falsehoods about the justification for the invasion of Iraq, a CIA mission set in motion by Cheney's own inquiries, which particularly enraged him. Cheney tasked Libby to learn about Wilson's wife, the CIA operative, so that Wilson's trip to Niger could be traced to her and not to Cheney's initial request to dig up information about Saddam Hussein's seeking yellowcake uranium for nuclear weapons.

Libby tapped government official after official, Marc Grossman at the State Department and Robert Grenier at the CIA, from whom he demanded information on Plame. The officials each testified at the trial, vividly recalling his unusual questioning; but Libby remembered nothing about them in his grand jury testimony. Nor did Libby remember his conversations about Plame with Cheney's communications aide, Cathie Martin, or his CIA briefer, Craig Schmall, who also remembered the conversations well. Nor did Libby remember his conversations with Judith Miller, the New York Times correspondent, to whom he leaked Plame's name and an exclusive story about the contents of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. President Bush had declassified the NIE at the insistence of Cheney; the only other person aware of the declassification was Libby -- not then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice or her deputy, Stephen Hadley. But Libby did not remember it. Libby did not remember his conversation with White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, which was "hush-hush" and "on the Q.T.," he said, divulging Plame's identity to him. Nor did he remember his conversation with David Addington, Cheney's counsel, Libby's Libby, telling Addington to keep his voice down behind a closed door as Libby asked him about Wilson's spouse sending him on his mission.

But Libby remembered conversations with Tim Russert, the host of NBC's "Meet the Press," and Matthew Cooper, former correspondent for Time magazine. Zeidenberg played tape recordings of Libby's grand jury testimony in which Libby recalls precisely all the words that Russert and Cooper say were never uttered. On the tapes, Libby blames the reporters. "All I had was information coming from reporters ... all I had was reporters telling us that ... I didn't know he had a wife ... I told a couple of reporters what reporters told us."
...

{this is from Fitzgerald's rebuttal to defense's closing arguments}
...
"It's not he said, she said," Fitzgerald declared. On the courtroom screen appeared the eight people with whom Libby had discussed Plame nine times. "It's he said, he said, he said, she said, she said, she said, he said, he said. Is this the greatest coincidenc

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