This case against Scooter Libby is a joke.
First of all he didn't commit the crime that the special council, Fitzgerald, was to investigate. Richard Armitage did.
Second, Valerie Plame was not a covert CIA agent under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 at the time. As this exchange between Henry Waxman and Victoria Toensing, the author of the act, during a hearing by the House Government Oversight Committee on March 16,2007 shows, Plame was not a covert agent under the act.
WAXMAN: I am stunned, Ms. Toensing, that you would come here with absolute conclusions that she was not a covert agent; the White House did not leak it; no one seemed to know in advance that she was a CIA agent. Do you know those facts for your own firsthand knowledge?
TOENSING: Well, lets just take those one by one. As I said, I was there. I was the chief drafter for chairman --
WAXMAN: I'm not asking for your credentials. I'm asking how you reached those conclusions. Do you --
TOENSING: That's part of my credentials is because I know what the intent of the act was.
WAXMAN: I'm not asking what the intent of the act was.
TOENSING: Well that’s the question.
WAXMAN: Do you know that she was not a covert agent?
TOENSING: She is not a covert agent under the act.
WAXMAN: Okay, so --
TOENSING: You can call anybody anything you want to in the halls of the CIA.
WAXMAN: General Hayden! General Hayden, head of the CIA, told me personally that she was. If I said that she was a covert agent, it wouldn't be an incorrect statement?
TOENSING: Does he want to swear that she was a covert agent under the act?
WAXMAN: I'm trying to say as carefully as I can. He reviewed my statement, and my statement was that she was a covert agent.
TOENSING: Well, he didn't say it was under the act.
WAXMAN: Okay, so you're trying to define it exactly under the act.
TOENSING: That's important.
WAXMAN: No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not giving you -- I'm not yielding my time to you.
Basically, Libby was going to spend time in jail for forgetting some details of a minor conversation about a crime that was not even committed.
President Bush did the right thing to correct this injustice. Next, he should issue a full pardon.
Glad to see you back at it; not enough action from your side of things these days...
ReplyDeleteAs far as the crime, I completely agree that he didn't commit any offense which was originally being investigated; I completely agree.
But, wasn't he convicted of a crime regardless? I mean, you saying that he should be pardoned because he didn't deserve it is no difference than some murderers mom saying he shouldn't get the chair because he doesn't deserve it: it is all beside the point. A conviction is a conviction, and that is how justice is delivered in this country.
Thanks Colby!
ReplyDeleteYes he was convicted of a crime. I think it was wrong. So did the President who commuted his sentence. I'm hoping he issues a pardon soon.
Speaking of pardons, let's not forget Clinton's pardons, Marc Rich and 16 FALN terrorists to name a few.
There is far more indigestion going on with the MSM and Liberals over Libby's situation than the above Clinton pardons.