"jps" wrote in message
...
In article et,
says...
Obstruction for What?
Libby is charged with lying about a crime that wasn't committed.
Then why lie?
I don't think the facts will bear out that he lied. His testimony may not
square with the testimony of a few news reporters (Russert, Cooper, etc0
but that doesn't mean that his testimony is false.
Finding out who lied is what the trial is about. Someone obviously isn't
telling the truth...and it very well could be Russert and Cooper. (As a side
note, Bush must be absolutely delighted that someone in his staff is getting
raked over the coals as a result of speaking with the media. Bush hates
leaks, and he can use this Libby incident as an example to warn other admin
officials to shut up)
So your next question is: why not charge Russert and Cooper? Because it's
impractical at this point to charge two people whose stories match rather
than one single entity whose story doesn't match the other two. Did you
read the indictment?
Here are the important excerpts:
According to Libby:
"Russert asked LIBBY if LIBBY knew that Wilson's wife worked for
the CIA, and told LIBBY that all the reporters knew it; and
At the time of this conversation, LIBBY was surprised to hear that
Wilson's wife worked for the CIA;"
According to Russert:
"Russert did not ask LIBBY if LIBBY knew that Wilson's wife
worked for the CIA, nor did he tell LIBBY that all the reporters knew
it"
(so why are we supposed to believe Libby over Russert? This is where
perjury charge came from)
Libby then repeated the same statement to the FBI that he made to the grand
jury:
During a conversation with Tim Russert of NBC News on July 10 or 11, 2003,
Russert asked LIBBY if LIBBY was aware that Wilson's wife worked for the
CIA.
LIBBY responded to Russert that he did not know that, and Russert replied
that all
the reporters knew it. LIBBY was surprised by this statement because, while
speaking with Russert, LIBBY did not recall that he previously had learned
about
Wilson's wife's employment from the Vice President.
(this is where the obstruction of justice charge came from. Notice that it
uses the same Russert/Libby dispute about where the Plame info came
from...and Libby stands by his story)
Two days later, Libby spoke with Cooper. Once again, Libby stated
that reporters were telling the administration that Wilson's wife
worked for the CIA, but LIBBY did not know if this was true. Or if he did,
he states that he didn't confirm the story for Cooper.
Cooper's testimony is :
"LIBBY confirmed for Cooper, without qualification, that
LIBBY had heard that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA"
(So is Libby telling the truth or Cooper?)
Even if Libby and Russert knew about Plame before they each spoke (which
Libby disputes), Libby refused to confirm for Russert that he knew for sure
that Plame was a CIA agent:
" I didn't want him (Russert) to take anything I was saying as in
any way confirming what he said, because at that point in time I did not
recall that
I had ever known, and I thought this is something that he was telling me
that I was
first learning. And so I said, no, I don't know that because I want to be
very careful
not to confirm it for him, so that he didn't take my statement as
confirmation for him.
Mr. Russert said to me, did you know that Ambassador Wilson's wife, or his
wife, works at the CIA? And I said, no, I don't know that. And then he said,
yeah - yes, all the reporters know it. And I said,
again, I don't know that. I just wanted to be clear that I wasn't confirming
anything
for him on this."