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OT--Charged with lying about a crime that wasn't committed?
"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." |
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